As with any linkbait, I was watching the referal logs like a hawk. I submitted the page to Digg, and it did manage to get popular — but then was promptly buried before getting more than a hundred diggs or so. I also seeded Stumbleupon with the page. It was the best thing I could have ever done.
I know we’ve said it before, but we’re continually amazed at Stumbleupon’s ability to drive traffic. If you have good, linkable content, it will send you a few visitors. But if you create truly great content, it will strike a cord with a lot of people and send you lots of traffic. How much? Well, here is a chart of the top 10 referrers to the Mythbusters page since last Friday.
13,000+ visitors from Stumbleupon. Word. That’s more than every other referrer except Gorillamask (next 2 bars). It’s 11,000 more than Netscape (6th bar). Goes to show you how much power is placed in good content.
I’d start taking into account an item’s “Stumbleability” when you’re thinking up linkbait. Will the landing page grab visitors’ attention right away? Will it be clear and concise on what it is and what the user’s call to action is? Is it awesome? The Mythbusters page was all of those things, and was rewarded with lots of love from Stumbleupon.
