I must admit that I have been rather reluctant to publish this article.  This is not due to the fact that I despise blogging but merely the fact that I was unable to attain a set goal…

Over a week ago, I took it upon myself to try and measure the StumbleUpon (SU) effect.  Of course, such a feat is useless without public support.

Prior to conceiving the idea, I had been researching similar effects caused by the likes of Digg and Slashdot.  Due to the lack of information of the potential benefits of being ’stumbled upon’, I decided to try measure the effect myself.

Unfortunately, I was unable to gather the much need public support that was required.  While the article did receive a few hundred hits (approximately 348 in the first 24 hours), it failed to gain notable attention.

Reasons for Failure

Why exactly was my attempt a complete failure? Simply…

1. The biggest mistake made on my behalf was the fact that I submitted the article to an unpopular category - the “StumbleUpon” category.  Articles published within the confines of the ‘Internet’ or ‘Blogs’ directory receive the most attention.
2. Some people thought that my underlying motive was to promote BlogaPro.  I’m not going to lie; I jump at every opportunity to promote my blog, but in this case, I was hoping to conduct a test in the name of research.
3. People are not interested in the benefits of SU - at least not the majority of them.  They use SU because of the social benefits the community offers and the ability to discover ‘undiscovered’ sites/pages.