Why StumbleUpon is bad for your Niche Site
Have you wondered why your CTR is so low on your niche sites after you submit it to the social bookmarking sites? If you are submitting to StumbleUpon, let me tell you why I think it is causing problems with your Adsense CTR. I have tried SU a couple of times with my niche sites, and it suddenly dawned on me what was happening.
Let’s take a quick look at what I think is going on, just from personal observation and SU experience.
The problem as I see it, and I have tried this out twice (much to my stupidity or curiosity) seems to be that when you submit your site to StumbleUpon, people click on the “Stumble” button and it takes them to a site. They generally will click away again on the “Stumble” button very quickly leaving you with a high bounce rate.
What does the high bounce rate have to do with my Adsense CTR?
Hey, thanks for asking! When your page is loaded and served to someone, it loads up your Adsense code and it counts as an impression. When you get lots of impressions, and low clicks, that is when your CTR begins to suffer, and thus your low income.
Those damn SU users!
Yep, I have done it. I use SU to browse around at times, and generally I won’t spend a lot of time checking out a site. I take a quick look and usually move on, either pressing the “vote up” or “vote down” thumb on my toolbar. This is what most SU users do. They usually don’t spend to much time really looking at the site, and they sure as hell don’t click ads!
So, the next time you are thinking about submitting your niche site with Adsense to StumbleUpon, maybe you should think twice.
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Technorati Tags: Adsense, blogging, niche marketing, stumbleupon
Why StumbleUpon is bad for your Niche site…
Have you ever submitted a great post to StumbleUpon only to see a huge increase in your site stats? How has that affected your Adsense CTR? Did it kill you or help you out? Did you see an increase in your clicks, or a decrease in your overall CTR?
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You certainly don’t want anything but search traffic to a niche blog that’s monetized with Adsense. Bringing in low converting traffic via SU, Digg, EntreCard or whatever is a good way to get smart priced.
However, if you’re monetized around an affiliate offer instead, a well targeted SU campaign may not be a bad idea.
Frank C’s last blog post..Secret Guide to Social Blogging Success – Part V
You’re right Frank. But, I am also running affiliate ads for targeted products that would relate to my niche site, but in over 1,000 page views, I have only sold 1 item. Not sure what is going on with that, but SU and the others do bring a large volume of traffic to this site, but within a day or two it is gone and I’m left with nothing.
Good, my comment showed up. I was worried for a minute.
I’ve not really cracked that affiliate marketing nut myself. I’ve tried both running them on mini-sites, niche blogs and landing pages. I got conversions on landing pages but the Adword cost was too high to make it profitable. For the other sites, including OpTempo, the CTR has been good, generally around 10-20%, but the conversion rate has been quite low. I’d make the assumption that if the traffic can be increased while keeping the CTR roughly the same that the conversion would improve.
Frank C’s last blog post..Secret Guide to Social Blogging Success – Part VI
I love StumbleUpon! I notice it’s just like any other social media site where the better my title the more traffic I get.
I personally think it’s great when I get more comments on my posts because my stumbleupon traffic was way up for a day and if my ads get clicked once in a while – that’s awesome.
The fact people are actually reading my posts is what’s ultimately more important to me.
Don’t think twice before submitting to StumbleUpon – just do it!
Sweet Rock Media’s last blog post..What is Wikia Search?
Sweet Rock,
I like SU also, but for the right sites. If you are running adsense and don’t get a lot of CTR for your niche site, SU might actually do more harm than good. By niche site, I am talking about the type of site that you aren’t so much worried if people read your posts. You are wanting them to click your ads or affiliate ads.
I guess you could call my site a niche site, but it’s designed to be popular even with return visitors or stumble traffic. “ooo, Simpsons ringtones” everyone loves the Simpsons…
Masked Man’s last blog post..Funny Video – The Simpsons’ The Raven
Great point for your site, by the way, it is all jumbled up on Firefox. I’m using a 1024×768 resolution.
or you could look at it this way. The only way an SU user is going to explore / stay on your site is if its DAMN good or has exactly what they’re looking for.
You can’t complain if you’re getting a lot of bounces. Just make it worth while for the savvy SU surfer. If you’re trying to get them to click on your banners good luck.
sorry, don’t mean to sound harsh. but i work in advertising myself. and i bend over backwards to avoid it.
Jon, thanks for stopping by. I’m not so much complaining about the bounce rate, but just warning people that if they are promoting a niche site, be prepared for a possible high volume from SU that could affect their adsense pricing. It has happened to me, and the content was great (too great) and my bounce rate was around 25%.
The problem is with such a high volume, and no clicks on adsense ads like a “normal” day for a niche site, it can get you smart priced in a hurry.
Great discussion here! I agree that SU does bring in a mass amount of sub par traffic in terms of AdSense CTR. I also agree that the *best* CTR traffic comes primarily from natural search hits, as such visitors are far more likely to click on those familiar search engine links.
I suppose the primary issue – as some have already pointed out – is what type of traffic do you want in the first place? There is definitely an advantage to running a StumbleUpon campaign to drive up the overall hits on a brand new site thereby creating a greater search engine stream down the road.
All in all, my assessment is that, while a useful approach, any SU or similar campaign is only *one* approach for getting great traffic.
-Jason
Jason Clegg’s last blog post..Are There Categorical Imperatives?
Jason, great points to consider. If you are wanting to build a long term site, such as a personal or professional site/blog, then SU is probably a good deal.
However, and I stand by my findings on this, if you have a niche site trying to get an increase in the SERP’s, then SU probably isn’t a good choice, especially if you already have your Adsense ads on it. Now, you could take your Adsense ads off if it, and then run your SU campaigns, and once things die down, put them back on.
It’s just a bad idea to run adsense on a niche site that you have submitted to SU, especially due to smart pricing and the low CTR.
Thanks for stopping by!
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