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Ask HN: Anyone have experiences with StumbleUpon's Paid Discovery?

5 points by JonLim ↗ HN
I am helping a friend out with his website and I'm looking into new ways of generating traffic for his digital e-commerce website.

I sank a couple dollars into StumbleUpon's Paid Discovery service, enough for at least a hundred visits, so I could take a look at what happens on StumbleUpon (organic stumbles vs paid stumbles) and how they convert on the website itself.

The results weren't great: 127 paid stumbles, 2 organic stumbles.

Perhaps it's just the context (selling Wordpress themes) that doesn't resonate with the StumbleUpon crowd, but I would love to hear about your experiences with StumbleUpon Paid Discovery, positive or negative!

Hopefully we can use this as a repository for other people curious about the subject. :)

5 comments

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dholowiski
Yes, I have used it a few times on a small scale ($20 a few times). The traffic comes in waves - they'll send a bunch of traffic and then it drops off for a few minutes and then comes again. Make sure your site can handle 20-30 simultaneous visitors.

The quality of the visitor (in my opinion) is poor. Although you may have filtered it down to a group that you think is interested, remember that this is someone who is clicking a button to see a random page. It's highly likely that they're going to see your page and click the random button again.

If you're just looking for traffic, it's a great, cheap way to get some. If you're trying to sell something, I'd recommend something more targeted and traditional, like a facebook ad.

One thing I did notice: In the weeks and months following a paid campaign I would occasionally see an 'organic campaign' - a sudden rush of organic SU traffic, several times larger than the paid campaign, for no good reason.

JonLim
Thanks!

I've come to the same conclusions (regarding the quality of visitor) for the very same reasons. Very much just a cheap way to get traffic, but not the best quality at all.

Did the 'organic campaign' result in higher quality visitors at all, or just the same kind of people as before?

dholowiski
The organic was the same quality as the paid traffic. But my site isn't selling anything so even the quality of organic traffic I get from Google isn't very good.
JonLim
Gotcha. Thanks again!
ohashi
I think it has to stick with the audience. Making a broad assumption, but SU users are bored and looking for something to entertain them. Generally, an ecommerce store isn't entertaining (although there could be exceptions if it were targeted properly). If you have stickier content (pictures/video/games) I think it works a lot better. I've had a lot of organic traffic from it and it's good to that type of content. I've also paid for similar demographics in the past, if you match it right, you get awesome returns (even builds links as they share it with friends). If you're not matching it right, it will be a waste of money but a valuable lesson.