How to Use Stumbleupon Exchange

None of this will make sense to anyone who is not familiar with the Internet site known as "StumbleUpon". So to begin I think I should introduce you to StumbleUpon.
StumbleUpon is a wonderful little addition used by surfers, bloggers, and well over six million people. These people use it to find new websites, for entertainment, or share those they have found, or made.

The key to getting your website seen by other users is to have it "Rated" with a "Thumbs up". Of course you can give your site a Thumbs Up, yourself, but the more upwardly pointing thumbs, the better. More positive thumbs, means more people will see your site. Sites given positive ratings are also more likely to be seen by the fans of the person who rated the site.

Users of StumbleUpon can attract and invite fans to view everything they give positive ratings to, but sometimes this is not enough to catapult a site into becoming hugely popular. It takes a series of Thumbs Up, and ideally a few Reviews too. Reviews are generally one line comments.

So what happens is people want to get more guaranteed Thumbs Up, and they turn to systems like "StumbleUpon Exhchange".

You sign up, and they give you a base number of "Points" to start you off. This allows you to submit some of your links. The base number changes according to promotions, but is generally 5 points. It takes 3 points to submit a site. So, unless you join during a promotion that is what you will get.

Now things may get a bit tricky.

As soon as somebody stumbles your site, you lose a point. As such when you have zero points, nobody from Suexchange, as it is called, can stumble your site. However the person who stumbled your site, does not get their point right away. You have to sign in and award it to them, which is done easily. You get a message, click on it, and it asks you to verify the stumble. Click the green link they send to see what the person is claiming. At which time you can check to see if they really did stumble the site as claimed, and if so, you click the green "+ Point" Button, and not only do they get a point, but you also get your point back.
Now, in turn you can get more points by claiming stumbles too. There is a long long list of sites available for stumbling. As you do not know which users are still active its best to pick from the most recent submissions, this being any in the top five pages.

When you claim a stumble, click the title of a page you are interested in. This opens up a "Claim" page, now click the title again, and the site will open in a new window, you can stumble it and then also write a message on the "Claim" page. The message can be simple, like "Stumbled" or you can write something more if you wish. It's that easy, the submitter will give you the point when they are on-line.

Another tactic which I find works well is to stumble the links of people who are on-line, because you know they are active. There is a "Users On Line" green button and you can click the "User Profile" to see their links. You can also message people, but it is considered bad manners to say "I Stumbled yours, now Stumble mine". You can suggest it, or offer it, but some people may not want the content of your link reflected in their SU blog, so do not expect it.

There is a Chat room as well, but I find it of limited use, maybe because I have dial up, I am not sure. I do not always find people on line, but myself if I sign in, I stay signed in for a while, and suggest you do the same. It is a good idea to check your messages regularly so you can award points to other users right away, and catch any messages.
You can submit any link, it does not have to be your own. However respect for the community is expected. In other words, don't submit something that is not appropriate for all ages, or is illegal. There is no limit to how many sites you can claim stumbles on in a day. Only the number of points you have limits the number of submissions you can make. So stumble more and you get more points.

The biggest flaw I have found, other than the awkward chat room, is that if a user claims a stumble and did not stumble the site, you have lost a point and must click "+ Point" to get it back, or contact admin, but I have also heard that sometimes people stumble sites and for some reason it is "invisible" you have to check their SU Profile to see if they really did stumble or not. You can always just assume they did and give the point. Another flaw is you might stumble something and never be awarded the point, if that person has become inactive. Still this is no big concern as it didn't cost you anything to stumble their site, and having more sites on your blog is a great way to get more fans.

You can find StumbleUpon Exhchange here.

You can get extra points by inviting friends to join, but to be fair I did not include my profile here for that purpose. If you sign up, I do not get any points.