Do you stumble your own pages? I admit that I did few times when I signed up with StumbleUpOn. After reading their terms, I realized that is not a good idea. I have not stumbled on my own page since. What I also realized is that your StumbleUpOn account may be banned by stumble the pages under the same domains too many times. You heard it right. You are so kind to your friend. So you decide to do your friend a favor and stumble (the first one to discover) all your friend’s pages under the same domain. The domain may be banned by StumbleUpOn eventually. In other words, no one can ever discover the page on the domain again. Your account may also be banned shortly. So how do you become a good stumbler without hurting your own effort and your friends site?
So what is the consequence?
Let’s say that you are a great stumbler and you have pretty good score. So you discover a new page. You thumb up and write a decent review about the page. Suddenly, you are bring in the attention to the pages. All your friends on StumbleUpOn start receiving the page when they stumbling. They like the page, so they thumbs up and write a review. So more and more stumblers gave the thumb up. Now. The page is getting tremendous traffic that it was not getting ever before.
You did the same thing to other pages under the same site. It consequently brings in more traffic in the very short time frame. You are happy and your friend are happy. So you two have a great night sleep.
Few days later, your friend receive a letter from Google AdSense team claiming that your friend’s site was creating click fraud. Boom! Your fiends AdSense account is banned. Your friend is trying to explain the situation to Google AdSense with no luck. No response. So your friends un-paid check is sitting in Google’s bank account.
What was happening? Your kindness is sending too much traffic to your friend’s site. The story here might be too scary, but it is pretty close to the reality.
Now few more days later, you tried to discover a new page of your friends. You can’t. The StumbleUpOn toolbar just open a new blank window that has one “Cancel Rating” button. You know you are no longer to discover the pages on that site. If you continue do the same thing over and over again, you will find your account banned some days.
I am not trying to scare you. It just doesn’t make sense to send huge traffic without knowing the consequence.
Extra reading about the consequence: Stumbleupon can get your AdSense Account Banned for Invalid Impressions Fraud
What is your thought? Do you discover a lot of pages on the same domain name, which is not even your domain?
About Terence Chang
hmm, this is interesting. I couldn’t have imagined that thing at all! Anyway, this will certainly enlighten many stumblers.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
ReviewSaurus:
That was exactly what happened to my blog 4 years ago. I am no longer Google AdSense enabled.
I am starting over again and play safe this time. 
Sounds pretty scary, most stumblers never realize that their domains could be banned as well. Thanks for the heads up.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
Thilak:
I have not seen StumbleUpOn banned a domain, but I do see they banned a member on stumbling a page under that same domain. In other words, the member is no longer able to discover any page under that domain.
That’s one of the indication of “Self stumbling.” I guess.
hmm…so may be stumbling our own pages will create problem. I’d stumbled my own pages in starting but then after reading the terms and condition…I stopped doing it.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
Exactly … I did few at beginning. The terms also says that you can’t have multiple accounts from the same individual. I bet there are many out there have more than one account.
Thanx for the advise, really useful. Maybe i must delete some of my own site immediately in there hehe
I just got banned by Digg before, and hope no more banned from others
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
ForumeR:
You don’t have to delete. Just leave it alone. Wow…I have never a digg fan. You must felt awful.
useful information and advice terence! hadn’t looked at it like this before…
self-stumblers beware!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
I have not involved with Stumble exchange for a while. Trying to slow down and build a good relationship with other stumblers.
Wow, thanks for the heads up Terence. It’s interesting to know that SU and AdSense can be related.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
Aldian:
Yes. That is why I always insist to do stumble the right way. Be a good stumbler first. With good quality content, people will come!
Hmm… I feel like I’m watching the 9 o’clock news about preventing identity theft. I stumble my own stuff all the time, along with tons of other pages and my account hasn’t been banned.
I might just have to stop though, because I’ve been banned by a couple social bookmarking sites in the past. StumbleUpon is too valuable for any of my sites to be banned from. It wouldn’t be devastating, but it would surely suck.
Thanks for the Tips…even i stumble my own!!! will stop them!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
Yeah.. Now we all know what not to do.
Thank you for stopping by.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
Hi Jason:
Thank you for stopping by. StumbleUpOn is the blogger’s best friend. I have not been banned by any social network, so I want to make sure I will never get banned.
Good luck on your stumbling.
Thanks for sharing your views Terence. I never thought people would manipulate StumbleUpon that way. Good thing u raised up the point abt stumbling friend’s blogs – instead of trying to send them some traffic, one might create trouble. Now I know.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
Mommibee:
I think most of the blog will be fine. Google have a special ways to identify where you traffic come from. So the bottom line is don’t try to cheat.
ahh i had no clue about that!! i knew u cant stumble ur own things!! but i didnt know u would get banned for stumbling a friend regularly!! wow!! im gonna be much more careful with it! thanks for the info!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@confessing7girl:
I have no clue until few days a go. I have been getting good traffic in the past month. I don’t worry too much, since I have slow down on stumbling. I don’t want my friend get banned.
yeahh im gonna be much more careful… i hv no problem about friends getting banned but yea i dont wanna get banned!! hehe
and ill be much more careful in the SU project!!
i kid!! i kid!!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@confessing7girl:
Is that your confession?
Don’t worry. I won’t get your site banned.
hehe
ahh we could hv a discussion here about google and bans … im even afraid to even think about my blog cause i might get banned from google!! 
i can be generating too many telepathic page impressions!!
Another great post by the one and only Terence Chang!
I got the new ad banner up today Terence, and a friend did a redesign of my header… What do you think? I value your opinion!
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
Bryan:
Thanks! Will check out your page now.
Yeah Terence, content is king
Terence Chang: In the first paragraph of your post, you’ve mentioned that the domain could eventually be banned.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
Thilak:
I have made the changes to the sentence. The domain will be banned by StumbleUpOn. So no one will be able to discover any page on that domain. Your domain is still valid to the public.
I hope this explain better. Sorry for any misconception.
Hey thanks for this information. I didn’t realize you couldn’t stumble your own pages. I don’t like doing it anyway because then I get a whole lot of visits which distort my stats.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
Jenny:
Yeah. I did that when I first signup StumbleUpOn. The more I use, the more I like. However, I am using it wisely. I don’t mind to create traffic to other sites, but I also don’t want to hurt their site too.
Thats useful information mate. My Adsense account was disabled few months back and trust me for no fault of mine, it was clearly a case of sabotage, appealed twice but of no avail. I think that was unfair on part of google, anyway all I can say now is google suxx. I stumbled my own posts a few times, coz I thought it was ok, not gonna do it again. Good post mate.
Take care and cheers.
Stumbleupon is a great source for traffic, but one thing I’ve noticed is the traffic is not of any quality.
What I mean is, the visitors do not stay for more than 5 secs
. They only might, if you have something very interesting.
~Gautam
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Robin:
My AdSense has long gone few years ago. I was getting too much traffic and too many clicks from the same people, who want me to be rich. I did not ask for it, but I could not approve that to Google. Sometimes, your friend can kill your dream to be rich.
@Wishlost:
You have made a really good point. Some of my visitor won’t stay more than 10 seconds. I realized that some of them just trying to increase their thumb up or just not interested in my content. Putting your page in the correct category is important. We can’t really expect your viewer to categorize your page to the correct category. I had one Alexa related post, which was under the “Transportation” category. I have only got few visitors on that page. It just sucks!
Thank you both for stopping by!
Thanks Terence, Do you want to be rich? I don’t wanna be rich, I don’t see my life any better if I had 2 million dollars today. I used to pray for those 2 million, later gave up thinking maybe GOD didn’t have that cash. Be happy with what you have mate. I am grateful for what I have. Look around and you will see so many less fortunate.
Take care and GOD bless.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
Robin: Thank you for reminding me. I used to think the same way as you did. I pray and pray and it never came. So now I act and act. I don’t believe I will much happier with much more money, but I will definitely happier to help others with money power.
I have read many success story about true rich people. They all gives. What interested me is this.
“When you are little rich, your money belongs to your families, relatives. When you are richer, your money belongs to your employees, coworker and friends. When you are very very rich, your money belongs to the world”
It’s all about appreciation. I believe that I can be rich only if I enrich my mind first. Without the faith, nothing will happen.
I am grateful what I have as you do. I will be even grateful if I can give out.
I’ve noticed that I’ve had 126 hits this month from “http://www.stumbleupon.com/refer.php” but don’t fully understand what this means. Is this traffic or what?
Oh, I’ve also added you to my friends on stumbleupon and digg.
Terence, I’ve read a couple of your Stumble Upon posts now and I can see that I’ll have to get into it soon. Your take on stumbling your own content is interesting – I’ve seen lots of sites talk about Stumble Upon, but not have mentioned that it might be against the Terms and Conditions. Good to see the other side of this mentioned.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Stephen:
It will take time to become a good stumbler and get good traffic from StumbleUpOn. I have spent a lot of time in the past to get traffic from StumbleUpOn and boost my Alexa traffic. Many sites want you to sign up and join traffic exchange. At the end, many will get your site banned. So you don’t get much traffic at all.
Use wisely is the key. Content is the king.
I have heard of domains being permanently banned by Digg but not by Stumbleupon. I think being banned by Stumble is probably worse than being banned by Digg. Digg sends bad traffic and is heavily biased in favor of tech and tabloid related articles
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Raymond:
It’s not common to be banned by StumbleUpOn unless you are obviously doing something wrong. I have never gotten huge traffic from digg. Both Digg and stumbleUpOn give your temporary traffic. A good quality traffic came from your content. That is what I am always working hard on.
I was trying to find the widget to show who stumbles you but found this post instead.
I made the same mistake of having 2 SU thinking it was logical to have a separate account for each blog. When I discovered it was against the terms and conditions of SU, I wrote to them. They didn’t respond to me. But I wrote again to say that I would like to terminate one account. I learned to delete that account and have a peace of mind.
I never knew that stumbling someone regularly is not a good idea. I’m glad I found this post.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Jesie:
Thank you for visiting. I am glad that you found my post useful. StumbleUpOn can really bring some temporary traffic. Good luck to your stumbleUpOn adventure.
Hey Terence
These big corporate giants like Google and a few others never want an even playing field for the little guy. Once you start making waves with out paying they find ways to punish you.
Something similar happened on Diggs the Diggs moderators were burying stories til the Diggs community took action.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Glen:
I have never like Dig. Google is now getting a little annoying even I am using some of their wonderful services. I believe Google is sensing some pressure by other new comers in the search engine and advertisement business. So they try to dominate the market.
well, i am not getting a lot of traffic from stumbleupon anyway and i still have very few friends.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@acnecaregal:
Well. It takes time and effort to build up your social network power. Using stumbleUpOn is like investing on stock. It requires your attention and hard works.
I have been using SU for quite some time and have no ban yet.
For new sites, I try to build up some traffic naturally before stumbling, as I don’t want a load of stumbles right off the bat.
Twitter: TerenceChang
says:
@Chris M:
If you don’t abuse stubmleUpOn, you will not be banned. StumbleUpOn only give you short term traffic. No one will not discover your page unless you provide some useful information. Thank you for stopping by.
They limit the amount of submissions from one user for a certain domain, but you may go back and delete those submissions and add more after a short waiting period. worked for me anyways.