Young Entrepreneur Blog

StumbleUpon has had a whopping 4 million downloads, and to celebrate we have a world exclusive interview with the top 30 users of Stumbleupon.comToday we are speaking with Stumbleupon top user: Nooz

How long have you been an active user of StumbleUpon?
Since May 01 2006, so about a year and a half.

What makes you use StumbleUpon more than the other social sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us etc…?
It just better really, it makes my whole browsing session a completely shareable, interactive, community experience.

If you could make one positive change to the current Stumbeupon platform, what would it be?
An automatic sticky post at the top of my blog. It just makes sense really instead of the manual method most are using now. In fact I’m surprised this hasn’t been phased in yet.

What don’t you like about the current StumbleUpon platform?
If I was to really start picking I suppose it would be the customisation of the blog itself, I want more without having to worry about CSS or styling and the like.

What are the main factors you look for in content that you feel is worth stumbling?
Firstly it must be interesting to me, if it’s funny then that’s a bonus. Also if I think other people will benefit from reading/watching/laughing about it too.

Is there anything that puts you off stumbling an article?
Nope . If I wanna stumble it, I will. If I don’t, I won’t. Simple.

What sort of topics interest you the most?
Well a quick glance at my biggest tags shows I’m mostly interested in 9/11, bizarre, conspiracies, corruption, humour, politics and videos. And no, I don’t wear a tinfoil hat

What advice would you give to a brand new user of Stumbleupon?
Try stumbling through a particular search term to see the real power of SU, mix it up once in a while too by stumbling specific categories. The thumbs up button is there to be used, but don’t just use it for any old page. One click on your blog and I can see your last ten thumbs, if nothing grabs me out of that lot then I just move on. Anyting interesting warrants further browsing throught your blog and a possible review.

Do you ever get thanked by the site owners after you stumble their content?
Nope.

Has anyone ever tried to bribe you into stumbling their content?
Nope but I get a lot of spam messages trying to get me to visit sites that way. I never do though. There’s a lesson here.

Do you own a website? And if so, what have been your biggest StumbleUpon successes from your site?
Yes, I have a fledgling blog at conspiracymemes.com I got tired running a huge site before so this just keeps me ticking over for now.

What are your thoughts on stumbling your own content?
Only if it’s new content and not c&p’d from some other blog/website. That’s just plagiarism.

What are your thoughts on Linkbait and people creating content with the sole aim of getting traffic from sites like Stumbleupon?
Not a great fan of this, if they want me to click on their ads, it won’t work. FF & Adblock folks, it’s quite effective, try it.

Are you influenced by factors like authority of the website, design of the website etc? And if so, what sort of things do you specifically look for?
I like good design more than anything, and interesting content, regardless of who the content is produced by. I am not a great lover of the mainstream so the perceived authority of a site has very little influence on me really.

Why do you feel you are in the top 30 most powerful users of StumbeUpon?
I stumble quite a bit really, recently passing over 4000, I comment on a lot of stuff so this adds to my blog as well. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure!!

What advice would you give to anyone who wanted to get into the top 30?
Stumble well and often!

Thanks for your time, is there anything else you would like to add?
Long live SU!!

Grab the Full 14 Interview Box set Now!

Completely FREE to Your Inbox

Click the image below for your FREE interviews