I am running a bit of an experiment, trying to increase the general level of traffic and providing you my readers with an interesting experiment to run on your own time. For any of you who have grown jaded with Digg as a mode of gaining exposure for articles that you feel have merit, might I suggest using Stumble Upon instead?

Stumble Upon

Traffic

I have sung this sites praises quite a few times in the past, but for the sake of this experiment I will tell you this much: Stumble Upon is a Firefox Plugin (which you can get here) and social bookmarking site that allows you to “channel surf” the web. You install the plugin, fill out a short preference sheet and hit “Stumble”. Next thing you know you are being presented with an interesting site.

Lets say that I liked websites on programming, I tick that box in preferences, hit the button and the next several sites that come up will have something to do with programming. Honestly, I do not think I have a more entertaining plugin in my stable.

Traffic

Another fantastic feature of this service is that it drives large amounts of traffic your way (should someone stumble your article) and because of the way its set up, much of this traffic will be honestly interested in what you are writing.

The Experiment

I want you, my fair readers, to submit your three favorite articles (in comments). I am going to spend the rest of the day stumbling them. In the Web 2.0 roundup, I’m going to give you three articles that I hope you’ll take the time to stumble yourselves. Please assure that these articles are within the confines of good taste, I know my regular readers know this but my trigger finger is pretty itchy when it comes to spam.

If you would like, post a similar meme on your blog and link me to it. Tomorrow, come back and tell me if you saw a significant increase in your traffic statistic as a result. I am going to ask that if you put articles into the list that you also do people the favor of stumbling their stories as well, it takes all of 10 seconds once the plugin is installed and it’s a great community building exercise.

Web 2.0 Roundup

Here are my three favorite articles in recent history, submit yours whenever you get the chance.

Increase Productivity Using Your Calender

Advertising 3.0

How To Become An A-List Blogger

I plan on continuing this experiment as long as there is continued interest, so feel free to submit your favorite articles. If nothing else, I love to read the work of others and I’ll likely leave a comment or two or add you to my RSS.