When you first started blogging or running your own website, you probably read a lot of advice on how to get traffic. You read about SEO techniques, you tried some of them but where not going anywhere fast enough. Then everyone was talking about social networks and if you spam as much as them as often as (now that’s a lot of as-es) you can with your articles, you’re bound to get some good traffic – sooner or later, right? WRONG!
Those are the kind of things that destroy social networks and communities in general. Alright, maybe the word “destroy” is a bit too harsh, but it makes me mad when I think of it. Today I am going to talk about traffic spikes and how to get them. I will try and teach you some of my methods and I hope you will benefit from my words.
My first traffic spike, ever!
It happened 5 days before Christmas 2009. and I was very excited about it. I woke up one morning and noticed the bandwidth usage on my server has gone from the average 10-50 MB per day to a few GB. First I thought I’ve been hit with some kind of virus, like the Black Plague or something. After checking my AwStats and Google Analyitics (like 5-6 times) I realized that I’ve been spiked! Thankfully, the server didn’t overload, lag out or anything like that.
It is important that I stress the satisfaction of this because you can draw motivation from my excitement. I know I did the same thing when I read about people freaking out about their traffic spikes on YouTube videos or single posts – posts that hit the front page of Digg or Reddit.
The “bad” news
I guess you can call it bad news because the traffic spike didn’t exactly happen on this blog but on another blog that I am admin of. Some of you might already know it as a Knowledge Reactor project, it’s called Cosmo’s Reviews and it is all about fresh news and new computer game reviews from the industry. Cosmo is the mastermind behind the content but things like blog infrastructure, marketing and promotions are my responsibility.
Which social network website was responsible?
It was StumbleUpon! There are a lot of people that think SU is useless because it is just so random. What I think is that there is a lot greater chance that someone will randomly stumble and thumb-up your article on SU than vote it up on Reddit or Digg unless directly linked. StumbleUpon is a great service you should definitely be using, especially if you are a newie blogger. With StumbleUpon, you would want to use their URL shortener called Su.pr which will display a SU bar on tool top of your article, making it easy to vote it up.
Important note: There is a rule on StumbleUpon where a user is not supposed to submit his own articles, only articles of others. I’m not sure how often they check that and ban people because of it but play it safe – find a StumbleBuddy!
What did I do?
Cosmo wrote the article and I submitted it to StumbleUpon. The interesting thing is, the article was submitted over a month before it spiked and received very little popularity until then. There is absolutely nothing special I did, just clicked the submit button and the content did the rest.
Contrary to what some people think, spamming social networks with your own content submissions is not the way to go. What is more important is, friendships, connections and communities. When you connect with people, they will help you out and Tweet your new blog post, submit your article to Reddit or Digg, submit it to StumbleUpon. When you have friends who care, you are free to spend less time on marketing and more time on writing amazing content!
Time for some tables and graphs
Another thing that might motivate you to write good content and do it the right way, like I’d like to believe I am doing is showing you some raw success stats – so here we go:
Google Analytics stats for Cosmo's Reviews from 13th Dec to 30 Dec
On this image you can see that before the spike, the average visitors per day was around 10 since the blog was only about a 2 months old and a new article hasn’t been posted for a week. On the 19th it started to spike up to 1,280 visitors and then up to 2,960 visitors on the 20th. After that huge peak it started to descend although what I found very interesting is that the number didn’t go back to an average of 10 but kept steady at 100 to 150 visits per day. Sometimes it even went up to 250, mostly when a new post was published.
Before I thought that spikes where pretty much useless because a lot of people that come to your site on a spike-day just “bounce” off it – don’t spend more than 10 seconds on your blog or website. I’ve always learned that a less related traffic is always better than more random traffic. Be as it may, some of the people stayed interested and started returning to the blog which was great.
Let’s see the traffic sources table next:
Google Analytics traffic sources table for Cosmo's Reviews
An absolutely huuuuge amount of visits from StumbleUpon – this screenshot was taken today. From looking at this table, I can safetly say that the spike was not just a spike but turned into a constant funnel of new traffic. The traffic spike from SU was only about 4,000 visits and it was 20 days ago. So I got more traffic from StumbleUpon for the next 20 after the spike than for the last 2 months of the blogs existence. I consider that as huge and I am happy about it even if I’m just the handy-man behind the scenes 
The post that went viral on StumbleUpon currently has about 7,500 views from SU alone and it’s rising every day, still bringing in readers.
StumbleUpon Twitter hashtags
Next to the obvious #SU and #StumbleUpon Twitter has tags, there is also one I’d like to mention, promote and encourage my readers and their friends to use. The tag is called #USIS which stands for “You Stumble I Stumble”.
What does that hashtag actually mean? Well, when you tweet your new blog post title and link alongside this tag, other people using and monitoring it will see your tweet even if they are not following you. After they see it, they will click on your link (maybe) and submit your article to StumbleUpon. It is basically a small twitter hash-community of people who Stumble each others content since self-Stumbling can get you “banned”.
I am not the one that original thought it up, I’ve read it on a blog but I forgot which one (turns out it was http://www.sitesketch101.com/ ) - seems like a great idea and I’ve been using for about 2 months now. It has gone a bit inactive recently and that’s why I’m pointing you to it.
If you are still new to Twitter hashtags and don’t see the point in using them, or just don’t know how – check out my older post about Twitter hashtags!
Conclusion
Every topic that you write on your blog and which gets submitted to StumbleUpon has a good chance to go viral so be patient, write quality, don’t spam and you’ll strike your home run. I hope this article has helped point people to the right direction when it comes to promoting yourself on social networks. If you where doing the exact same thing as me for a longer period and you’ve not gotten any results so far, I hope this article has motivated you to work harder and be patient.
Hope you all have a nice week and don’t forget to share this post with your friends (and khm Stumble it khm 
). Also, feel free to be my friend (aka subscriber) on StumbleUpon HERE.
Alison Moore Smith (2)
Dennis Edell (2)
Karl Foxley (2)
Agent Deepak (1)
SU did the same thing to me for two days. The funny thing is that it took a few weeks after I submitted the article. I had forgotten I even submitted it.
@McKnightikus
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Yes that’s exactly how it worked for Cosmo’s Reviews. I guess you never know when one of your submissions might get picked up and go viral.
@coopchad
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I’m curious – Do you guys spend time Stumbling? Meaning, do you spend time hitting that Stumble button and bouncing from site to site?
I’m wondering if SU is more likely to throw traffic your way if you spend time doing that.
Chad @ Tech201´s last blog ..Your Hard Drive Is Going To Crash
@McKnightikus
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I haven’t done that very much. Mostly just stumbling other peoples articles.
@techfreaks
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I have been getting such spikes but not this high. My spikes range from 1000 unique visitors to 1700 unique visitors per day. I have never crossed that. And, for me too, every spike is a result of Stumble Upon promotion.
Rohit Sane´s last blog ..5 features of Ubuntu Linux which I miss in Windows
@McKnightikus
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I think it depends on the niche. Not every niche is so popular. Are you talking about your TechFreakStuff blog or some other project?
@Ileane
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Gordon,
I’ve never visited Cosmo’s Reviews but I must see this post, I don’t want to be left out. lol
This is a great story and I wish you guys continued success. I haven’t used the su.pr shortener in awhile because the links don’t count as visits on my blog stats. It’s good to test things to see what works best for your niche. I’m really happy for you guys.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Ileane´s last blog ..So You Want To Start Blogging
@McKnightikus
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I Tweeted you the link to the post, I hope you saw it. What kind of problems do you have with su.pr not showing on stats – I mean, what kind of stats, Google Analytics or something else?
@Ileane
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Gordon, Su.pr hits don’t show up on my WordPress.com blog. That’s because if you click them if you take a look at the address bar you’ll see that you are really linking to the SU site, not the actual post. So I’m back to using ow.ly. Here lately I haven’t had time to look at any other stats besides WordPress.com.
Ileane´s last blog ..Say Goodbye to Family, Friends and A Good Night’s Sleep!
@Ileane
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Gordon, I forgot to mention, thanks for telling me what #USIS stands for. Hashtags are great, but if you don’t know what they mean…well you know I don’t like being left out!
Ileane´s last blog ..So You Want To Start Blogging
@McKnightikus
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You’re welcome and I just realized that Chad wrote a comment a few slots under that USIS was original thought up by SiteSketch101 – which is a great blog but I don’t know the exact link to them. But yes, props go to SiteSketch!
Congrats on your spike, it’s a great feeling! One thing tho, and I don’t mean to be negative here, but is StumbleUpon traffic really worth it?
I read a study a while back which basically said how useless visitors from Social Bookmarking sites such as SU are. They don’t click ads, they don’t comment, they don’t buy… I think the general gist of the article was that, the vast vast majority of SU visitors just take up bandwidth and make your stats look pretty.
@McKnightikus
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Thank you and you have a very very good point. I’ve been going over blog statistics and thinking about just that. From the Romanian gaming forum (forum.level.ro) I have 115 visitors with an average time spent on site of 2:50 minutes and from StumbleUpon some 6000 visitors with an average time spent on site of 0:35 seconds.
We can debate over that for hours but I still think – I mean – I wouldn’t throw away those 6000 visitors even if non of them clicked.
At least you are getting some exposure and people know you exist. If only 1 person out of 100 shares, tweets or facebooks your post that he stumbled upon, you get great results.
Thanks for sharing!
@BuildThatListCo
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Congratulations on the spike! Looking at your stats image the boost seems to have added consistent traffic.
Tom | Build That List´s last blog ..Squeeze Page Tips For Better Conversion
@McKnightikus
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Thanks and yes, you have noticed correctly! Even if the average time spent on site from SU was low, we got a steady increase in traffic – like I said in the post, from an average of 15 per day to an average of somewhere around 100 at the moment. So it was worth the effort in my opinion.
@gregee
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Congrats on a very huge spike and hopefully some people subscribed and stayed around. Greg Ellison
Greg Ellison´s last blog ..How to setup corporate email on HTC Droid Eris
@McKnightikus
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I’m afraid not many subscribed but I blame that on the poorly noticeable subscription box. But I’m satisfied for the results nevertheless. Thanks for stopping by!
LOL I had the exact same experience with SU a while back; I called my host in a total panic when I went down!
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..I’m Unsubscribing From Your Blog…..Again
@McKnightikus
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You had such a big traffic spike that your blog went down?
Yep bandwidth overload…not a homepage you want to pop in on. lol
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..I’m Unsubscribing From Your Blog…..Again
@McKnightikus
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I’m lucky that my web hosting company gives me unlimited bandwidth so I don’t have to worry about things like that. Both the Cosmo’s Reviews and Knowledge Reactor along with this blog are hosted on the same server. How did you manage to solve the issue? I doubt you waited for the month to end so your bandwidth can reset …
Oh hell no. lol.
I have unlimited also, but it’s not ALL there at once…when you first set up your account, you “set” a certain amount, right? I did, and when that’s used up, I have to call in and have them boost it up or log in and do it myself.
It only takes a minute assuming I remember my password. lol
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..I’m Unsubscribing From Your Blog…..Again
@coopchad
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Hey Gordon – Congrats on your spike! That is huge.
I think the #USIS thing came from SiteSketch101.
Good read. Stumbled.
@McKnightikus
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Thanks for stopping by and reminding me about SiteSketch101. It has been a long time since I read about the #USIS tag. We need more people to start using it
@coopchad
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We definitely need more people to start using it. It seems there are even a few people who use it for their own posts, but don’t stumble others.
Thanks for talking about it here and explaining how it works.
Chad @ Tech201´s last blog ..3 New Years Resolutions You And Your Computer Will Be Thankful For
@McKnightikus
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Yea I guess there are always a few selfish party-breakers everywhere you turn but it really isn’t a problem for me to stumble an article – of course I don’t stumble low quality articles not even if you put 5 #USIS tags on them
@AgentDeepak
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I have never been so fortunate with Stumble Upon. Gordon you should stumble some of my posts too. Maybe I will get some traffic.
Thanks for sharing your experience. There are other ways to get traffic spikes too.
@McKnightikus
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You are right when you say that there are other ways to get traffic spikes, absolutely! I just wanted to share the only one I have had success with so far and that’s SU.
I will take 30 minutes and find a few posts on your blog that I consider my favorite and stumble them for you. Good luck and thanks for the comment!
@AgentDeepak
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Thanks Gordon. I look forward to reading more from your blog.
Agent Deepak´s last blog ..Blog with a Sex Appeal
@AlisonMSmith
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Interesting. I have an SU link from SexyBookmarks, but have not really spent much time working SU. (OK, I did register, but that’s it.) Just too many things, too little time. Maybe I’ll add SU to my list of things to look at.
Alison Moore Smith´s last blog ..Traffic Tutorial: Add Your Blog to Kindle
@McKnightikus
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You should, no social networking website has given me results that come even close to these of SU. I will make a post or two about all the social networking sites I use, some of them are not exactly mainstream but you guys will like them. Let me know if you have any results Alison, and thanks for stopping by!
@insidethewebb
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This is a really cool article man. I’ve had similar success as you with StumbleUpon, gotten a hell of a lot of traffic from them and even had a spike of about 4k visitors to my site once! Social networking is really a great way to get your site noticed, but for long-term traffic gotta be relying on SEO and a good brand people can remember
@McKnightikus
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It’s great that you have results and that you write them in your comment. It will further encourage people to not give up when it comes to social networks and social bookmarking sites especially. I’ve done very good SEO (been studying it for 4 months) and I’m not getting any noticeable search engine traffic going my way. An article gets indexed here and there in the top 10 or 20 for a certain topic but nothing noticeable. My blog is fairly new and I think it’s much easier to get SEO traffic from website that have pages and pages of static content online for months and years.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Interesting, I never really thought stumble upon was that great. I have a new 3.5 week old site (see name for link) that I am getting traffic for. It would be fantastic to get a spike like your’s and after go to a steady 100 – 150 from being stuck at 10 or so!
Thanks for the article!
Michelle´s last blog ..Jan 13, Importance of Time Management: Advantages of Learning Effective Skills
@McKnightikus
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You have a great niche Michelle! Your site will get a lot of traffic, I’m 100% sure. You just have to snoop around the net and read about all the tactics. It would be too much to write any good advice here in the comments but first 3 suggestions I would give you is to start using Twitter, register at Gravatar.com with an image of yourself like I have for example and to blog once a week on your site so you have something to promote.
It always nice to have a static site with a lot of content, like a book transformed into a website, but it’s hard to promote the same static links on Twitter over and over so if you use your blog to write fresh stuff weekly, you can use Twitter to promote and make friends. When you start using Twitter, let me know so I can follow you and help you promote. Some of my blog posts from the archives can help you get some ideas and I will write more about promotion soon.
If you have any questions or specific subjects you would like me to write about, let me know via the contact link at the top menu on this blog. Thank you for stopping by and commenting!