StumbleUpon is arguably the ultimate social media network. It is easy to use: jumping from page to interesting page takes just a click of a button. It is diverse: unlike Digg and Reddit, StumbleUpon isn’t dominated by a few niche interest groups or a limited demographic. It is incredibly friendly: there is very little trash-talk on SU as compared to other social media sites. However, StumbleUpon does have one major shortcoming: it is somewhat difficult to move from the status of ‘casual Stumbler’ to ‘StumbleUpon expert’ because SU has hidden complexity beyond the Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down and Stumble buttons we know and love.
A number of people have compiled lists over time emphasizing different aspects of StumbleUpon for different kinds of users. These are, fortunately or unfortunately, quite diverse. Instead of compiling a list oriented toward a single type of Stumbler or subset of Stumblers I took the liberty of compiling these lists into a metalist. Finding these took longer than I expected. In the process I found some links I learned from, some I skipped over, but instead of subjectively selecting my own favorites I will simply describe the links and leave the rest up to you. Without further ado, here are 5 of the top StumbleUpon resource lists. Enjoy!
The Definitive StumbleUpon Resource List is a pretty good place to start off. It is conveniently organized by category for various kinds of Stumblers with different interests. The list starts with Stumbling Basics and Veteran Stumblers, then moves on to discuss ways to drive traffic via StumbleUpon, become a power Stumbler, advertising on StumbleUpon and closes with a list of additional tools to enhance one’s Stumbling experience.
These 34 StumbleUpon Posts that Aren’t Crap for the most part do live up to the title. Better yet, they are also well organized: starting with introductory and beginner StumbleUpon links through blogging with StumbleUpon in mind and finally some humorous Stumble-related posts that aren’t really about using SU, simply poking fun at aspects of StumbleUpon and so on.
The Top 5 Resources for Stumblers Outside StumbleUpon has a good scope within the context of being a short list of links. These links include a blog about how to use StumbleUpon, another one dedicated to interesting things found on StumbleUpon and sites for finding useful addons for SU as well as alternative ways to search SU. In short: this is a brief but powerful list of StumbleUpon resources.
StumbleUpon Tools to Stumble Around the Web is, as it suggests, a tightly focused list that is dedicated to tools that enhance one’s experiencing using StumbleUpon. Some of these are for people who own blogs or websites and want to integrate SU voting more directly into their sites, and othersare oriented toward the Stumbler and allow new, different and/or faster ways to use StumbleUpon.
The so-called Ultimate StumbleUpon Resource List is perhaps somewhat misleadingly labeled. While the list does contain a variety of resources most of these are oriented toward people who want to become influential on StumbleUpon and/or send lots of traffic to their own sites for fun or for profit. I would not recommend most of the links provided here for the casual Stumbler or the Stumbler looking to find more interesting things and network for the sake of friendship and other personal reasons.
Note on the above strikethrough: a reader kindly pointed out that some of the resources on that list are quite black-hat. As such I plan to find a fifth list with the strikethrough as a replacement until that happens – I have no interest in referring people to poor sources. Any suggestions or recommendations?
Now, if you are here and you are a Stumbler, I’m not going to insult your intelligence and experience by asking you to Stumble this page. That’s the beauty of StumbleUpon – we can all choose to vote up, vote down or simply Stumble (Up)on. I hope you enjoyed this list of lists and that you found at least one resource worth your while!
