Q:Â What is Stumble?
A: Stumble is a type of search engine, called a recommendation engine. It uses a combination of machine-generated and human-generated review systems to suggest web pages that an individual user would like. By recording sites and pages that you like or don’t like, you tell Stumble about your preferences. Stumble uses that information to pull up new sites/pages especially chosen for you.
Q:Â Why does a blogger want their posts “Stumbled” or “Liked”?
A: If your posts are frequently reported as a “liked page”, Stumble will be more likely to suggest your page and site to new readers. It’s a way to expose your blog to new readers that you otherwise may not have connected with. Stumble Upon has 14.4 million members! Yes, 14.4 MILLION! You want them to know you and recommend you.
Q:Â How do I “stumble” or “like” a post?
A:Â The first step is to register at Stumble Upon and download their toolbar. (added example of Google Toolbar instructions below)Â Once you do that, you will see a toolbar like this on your browser page.
To “like” a page, you click on this thumbs up sign. 
After you “like” a page it will change to a green thumb. 
It’s a good idea to make sure that you are on the main url of the page. For example, the url of my blog is just http://kellysluckyyou.com – that’s the url of the whole blog, not an individual post.
The url of this post for example is http://kellysluckyyou.com/2011/02/tutorial-how-and-why-to-use-stumble-upon
Sometimes, after you leave a comment on a blog, you will have a different url in the browser window. It’s a good idea to make sure you have a post url, when you stumble a site.
Q:Â I don’t see any message, how do I tell if I successfully “liked” a page on Stumble Upon?
A: The thumbs up icon on your Stumble Upon toolbar will turn green (see above). Anytime you go to that page, you will see a green thumbs up. In fact, don’t click it again or you will undo your “like”.
You can also click on the Info icon. 
That will show you everyone who has stumbled or liked that post. This is an example of what you might see when you click on the Info icon.
This page has been stumbled or liked by five people. If you don’t see your own stumble user id there, then you have not stumbled that post. Go back and click that thumbs up, watch it turn green, click on info and your id should show up. If it doesn’t email me and I’ll help you figure out what’s going on!
Q:Â I click on the Stumble! icon 
– doesn’t that “stumble” a post?
A: No! As counter-intuitive as it sounds, when people say “stumble” a post, they mean “like” it. When you click on the Stumble! Icon, you are telling Stumble to find you another page that looks like this one, and it will use it’s search engine to take you somewhere else.Â
So when you want to “stumble” a post,
click the thumbs-up I Like It icon 
NOT the Stumble Icon.
Q:Â What if I use the Google Toolbar instead of the Stumble Upon Toolbar?
A. On the Google toolbar, click “Share” and “Stumble Upon”
then “I Like It”! Â Â Â Â Â Â 
Thank you. This is helpful. I’ve tried joining the Stumble hop, but I can’t figure out how to stumble a SPECIFIC post listed in the hop. Can you help me with that?
Sure Cara! Click on the post link, which will take you to that post. Once you’re there, click on the “thumbs-up” icon, watch it turn green and you’ve done it.
Then make sure to leave a comment on the post telling the blogger that you’ve liked it on Stumble (stumbled). Leave a link to the post on your own blog that you would like them to stumble-back for you.
Once you get in a rhythm, it’s fast and easy to do. Plus you get to read the-best-of-the-best posts along the way.
OK, I will try that. It seems so simple. Maybe I couldn’t figure it out because I expected it to be harder than that!
OK, I stumbled this post. YAY me! I was able to do that because I saw the SU icon. But, what if there hadn’t been one?
For example, I went to your Stumble Tumble hop and picked a link. I clicked the link, which took me to the blogger’s post. She had a large SU icon in her left sidebar. I clicked that. It took me to SU, where I was able to follow her, but NOT stumble her specific post. I went back to her post to look in, above, beside, under (LOL) it, for a SU “like” icon and didn’t see one. So HOW do I stumble THAT post?
TIA for your help! I really want to participate in the hop, but I could not figure this out last time I linked. :o(
Yippeee, Cara! You did it!!
If you want to stumble a post that doesn’t have an icon, the easiest way is to use the toolbar. Have you downloaded the toolbar yet? If not, go to stumbleupon.com and follow their directions. Once you have the toolbar, read the directions up above in the post about clicking on the thumbs up.
Let me know if it works!
This is an awesome post (and I’ve Stumbled it!). I love the Tuesday Stumble Hop but it is really frustrating to have several comments saying that my post was stumbled and then either seeing far fewer than that many people on the ‘info’ page or even worse is clicking ‘info’ and having Stumbled Upon say they don’t even have the page listed.
I think this is a very well written tutorial. Thanks for including the graphics. I think it helps people a lot to see exactly how it works.
Love it- thanks for explaining it so clearly!
On another note- what plugin are you using for Digg? I have been trying to find a good one that will work for my site.
Thanks, Stacie!
The buttons at the bottom of the post for Digg, Tweet, Stumble and Facebook are generated by a Plug In called Share Post by Linksku. It’s been working well for me. My theme is Atahualpa.
Thanks for explaining this!
Thank you for posting this! It came at the right time. Yesterday I kept thinking I was “stumbling” posts and earning entries and I wasn’t. It is remedied now, thanks to you.
Hi. I have the tool bar. Clicked the thumb for this post.
Q: If we leave a link for a post we want stumbled back, can this be a review or giveaway link? (b/c that is all I have basically)
Thanks. Here is a giveaway just in case it can be stumbled. Ok, I’m off to read the rest of the links on Simply Stacie about this.
Laurie
http://www.grandmasezso.com/p/grandmas-guess-who-blu-ray-giveaways.html
Great tutorial. So many people don’t “get” StumbleUpon!
Thanks for the steps/tips. It does seem a bit weird in the beginning.
This is a great guide. I love Stumble and use it as my online bookmark service!
Great information, thanks for the post. I need to use Stumble Upon more.
Easy explanation for SU. I use it all the time, not just for blogs, but to find interesting things on the web.
Thanks for the tutorial. Now I need to get to using it. Maybe I’ll get in on the next hop.
Looks like I’ve been doing it wrong… who knew? Thanks for the detailed tutorial! You rock.
I’ve been stumbled a few times and the numbers are amazing! I wish it happened more frequently. I need to do it more often for other bloggers. Kinda feeling guilty about that now.
Great tutorial.
Thank you so much for this post! I thought I had it figured out, I didn’t, really glad I read it. I stumbled it! Thank you again!
Angel
Chasing Serenity
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