How To Boost Your StumbleUpon Friends List

Ok, over the past week I have been trying to make friends on StumbleUpon as fast as I can. Doing this, I learned some techniques that give results much quicker than normal. I would also like to mention that I do not view myself as an expert in the StumbleUpon community, however I have been experimenting with it for quite sometime. Here is a list of ways to build your community.

1. One technique would be to join the blogcatalog stumble group. This group is full of other people like yourself trying to build their account profiles. There are threads upon threads of other stumblers trying to make friends by posting their profile pages in these threads. All you need to do is add them as your friend, and most of them will return the favor.

2. You can also go to digitalpoint forums. If you don't have an account in this forum, I suggest your get one now, as the information that gets passed around freely there is invaluable.

   What you do there is you can make a thread in the freebies section saying that you will stumble any pages other readers post in your tread as long as they add you as a friend. This is arguably one of the best and fastest ways to build up a new StumbleUpon account friends list. One set-back that may occur using this method though is that you stumble some pretty ridiculous sites. Sites that you would not normally stumble.

   Now when you start stumbling these sites, all the friends that you already have would see these stumbles. I have not had this happen, but I have heard of stumblers losing a lot of the "quality stumblers" in their friends list because of this. Since I have not had this happen yet I can not really say whats right and what wrong, but look at it this way. No matter how you get your friends, once you have built up 200 friends, then you can be a bit more critical when stumbling and build your profile power once your reached your friend limit.

3. My third recommendation that I feel works well would be to add as many top stumblers as you can find. Don't stop there though. If you stop here, those stumblers will just look at your profile, laugh, and then exit. In order to get those guys and ladies to add you back on their friends list, send them a nice message. In the message, make sure you include things like how they can benefit from having you on their friend list. Try not to beg, as the StumbleUpon community doesn't really respond kindly to beggars, and other people who are trying to get something for nothing.

4. Another technique that seems to work well is to review someones StumbleUpon profile page. Please be sure it is a positive review! Then just send them a message letting them know that you reviewed their profile, and added them as a friend. That is all your really need to add. Most stumblers will reply to this kindness and then return the favor. You will run into a few that will not respond. Don't worry about it, and just go onto the next one. Remember, we are trying to build our community fast, so don't pity the loses!

5. My fifth and final method would be to spend a little extra time with the active stumblers. Say there is a stumblers with 1000 fans, and 200 friends. First of all, don't even bother with this one because he/she couldn't add you if they wanted to as they have reached their friends limit, but pay extra attention to the members who have over 100 friends. Getting these guys on your friends list is important.

   They are important because lets say you have 1 friend who also has 1 friend. You stumble something, and your 1 friend sees it, and then flows down to his 1 friend. Now lets say you have 1 friend who has 200 friends. Your stumble shows to that 1 friend, but also to his or hers 200 friends! So try a little harder to friend the active stumblers.

Well, that is all the tips and how-tos I have learned so far while building my community. I hoped you enjoyed reading this and if you have any other methods you use to get friends, feel free to comment and let the other readers including myself in on the secret.

Douglas Brown
Boost Your StumbleUpon Friends List