Savor the Success

I've probably learned everything I know about StumbleUpon in much the same way I've learned about Twitter--by falling on my face. To prevent you from scraping your knees up, too, I thought I'd offer up all of my hard earned tips here.

StumbleUpon is one of many social bookmarking sites. To get started, you need to use either Firefox or Internet Explorer. Don't even think about trying to use SU with Safari. It just won't work.

To get started, you go to this page http://www.stumbleupon.com/ and sign up. Then you download the SU tool bar. You'll know you did it right when you see a little button on your toolbar that says, "stumble!", among many other buttons.

Some pointers:

1) To STUMBLE a site, you do not do what seems to make the most sense: hit the "stumble!" button. No, hitting the stumble button will randomly bring up websites that SU thinks you might like to see. It may be hard to believe, but some people sit in front of their computers and hit this Stumble button all day long, as random sites come up over and over. That's how SU works.

To STUMBLE a site, though, you want to click on "I like it" also known as "the thumb's up button."

2) If the site has never been stumbled, a little box will open asking you to write a review. Fill in all the fields.If it has already been submitted, you can just hit "I like it" and be on your way, but if you really like a site, click on the button that sort of looks like a cloud. This will allow you to write a review. To do so, look for your picture and the word "review." Click on review and write, "The best internet site I have ever stumbled upon," or something to that effect. Adding a review to your THUMB's Up improves the sites ranking in stumble upon.

3) Add friends. Just when you thought you had more friends than you could ever keep track of on Facebook, I'm here to tell you that there are more friends to be had on SU. I have about 39 at the moment. You can find friends by clicking on the "friends" tab in your toolbar. Look in the right hand column. There you will be able to write in an SU nickname. For instance, if you type in "alisabow," my page will come up. Then you click on "add to friends." Once I notice your request (something that might take an entire year in my case), I'll confirm our friendship.

4) Once you have friends, things are really fun on SU. You can subscribe to each other's stumbles. You can Instant Message each other (using the toolbar button that looks like a piece of paper with a curvy arrow). Both allow you to get other people to stumble your stumbles.

And that's about all I know about StumbleUpon short of this: Don't stumble your own stuff too often. Stumble Upon tries to prevent peope from gaming the system. If you submit your site a lot, it will catch it and drive down your stumble response--or prevent you from having a response at all.

Alisa loves friends. Be friends with her on StumbleUpon or follow her on Twitter. Read her blog about the ups and downs of marriage www.projecthappilyeverafter.com. You won't regret it.