Exclusive First Look: SU.PR – Stumble Upon’s New Traffic Builder 152 Comments

Written by Tim Ferriss Topics: Marketing

I’m so excited about SU.PR, it’s hard to contain.

For the last few weeks, the brilliant team at StumbleUpon and I have collaborated on the creation of a new product designed to do one thing: get you more traffic in less time.

It might just become the hub of your social media empire…

Prior to SU.PR (pronounced “super”), I had to use ping.fm for updating Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn at the same time, bit.ly for basic analytics like click-through, scattered tools for viewing retweets, and nothing allowed me to schedule tweets well.

It was all a serious pain in the ass.

SU.PR fixes all of this and adds much more. In one place, I can now:

- Submit my content to StumbleUpon’s 7.9 million users with each post
- Have my best content showcased in a right-hand sidebar for each page I link to (here’s an example)
- Get suggestions for optimal posting times: get more traffic per post
- Schedule as many tweets or posts as I want, for any time
- See my click-throughs in real-time
- See retweets for each post, including the biggest influencers (ranking coming soon)
- Post to Twitter and Facebook at the same time, with more platforms in the pipeline
- Use my own short URL (i.e. www.fourhourblog.com/ab123) instead of someone else’s branding

The result of it all? More traffic. StumbleUpon has jumped to almost 10% of my total traffic per week, delivering as many as 24,000 unique visitors to a single post in less than 24 hours. In short, SU.PR totally kicks ass. It saves me headache, gets me better results through smarter analytics, and drives significant monetizable traffic.

I’ve provided several screenshots below the text of this post to whet your appetite.

It won’t steal your Google juice either. Use one line of javascript or install a simple WordPress plugin (both available later this week) and you’re set to SEO. From George at StumbleUpon, in more technical terms:

Publishers have the option to create Su.pr URLs that will deliver visitors directly to their site via a 301 redirect, preserving their search rank. Simply upload a configuration file in the website’s root directory and it will turn on the option for all the Su.pr URLs for that domain. Unlike other web toolbars, the StumbleUpon toolbar can be hosted on your own site with a single line of Javascript. The toolbar will be shown to your visitors when they click on a Su.pr link. The toolbar promotes your best content in the sidebar and encourages your visitors to thumb-up your page and get more traffic.

Publishers can also build their brand by creating short URLs in their own domain with Su.pr. Your own custom short URLs (i.e. yourblog.com/asd) build your brand each time they are posted and retweeted. Once you enable the option, anyone who creates a short URL to your content with Su.pr will automatically generate a custom short URL. Simply add a rewrite rule and the same configuration file in your website’s root directory will do the work. We plan to have a beta version of the service available for all PHP based websites next week and more platforms to follow shortly.

Since I offered product specs to meet my wants, I’m loving SU.PR, and I’d like to offer a sneak peek to 50 readers. First come, first served: just use the code “suprtim” (I didn’t select the name!) at http://su.pr to get a free beta account, and take the next generation of social media tools for a spin.

[Update: the 50 went fast, but rumor has it that StumbleUpon might release more pre-public beta codes here]

For those of you who don’t make it in now, don’t worry. It’s worth the wait of a few weeks, and this is just the tip of the iceberg

The SU.PR dashboard – click here to enlarge

My most popular content promoted alongside each link – click here to enlarge

Indicating ideal posting time – click here to enlarge

Intelligent stats on each post – click here to enlarge

Scheduling posts in advance – click here to enlarge

Posted on June 9th, 2009

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152 Comments

Kevin — June 9th, 2009, 7:49 am

Great stuff. I have one piece of advice though. Download Jing at jingproject.com. It would make this video a lot easier to view.
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Brian Burridge — June 9th, 2009, 7:51 am

Awesome. I’ve been waiting for an invite code. Thanks Tim. Will try it out now.
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Luis Merino — June 9th, 2009, 7:58 am

This-is-awesome! I’m in half of the video and I had to write this comment so… checking out more : )
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Ryan Graves — June 9th, 2009, 7:58 am

I’ve been pretty sold on bit.ly because of the superior analytics that it provides over other services.

However, I think you’ve made the case to switch…I’ll be testing.

Thanks Tim.

Cheers,
Ryan
Reply
DavidCrandall — June 9th, 2009, 8:00 am

Just got my account. Can’t wait to start using it.
Reply
Sean Oliver — June 9th, 2009, 8:01 am

Thanks for the link and insight Tim. I had been doing the ping.fm dance for a bit as well.
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Esoos Bobnar — June 9th, 2009, 8:06 am

Nice work, Tim (and SU). I am impressed. Thanks for the beta account, too, I’m getting traffic already.
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Tokyomas — June 9th, 2009, 8:08 am

great function, the look is a little blocky though,,,,
Reply
Matt — June 9th, 2009, 8:08 am

+1 for Jing… It rocks my socks off.

Cool stuff Tim. Thanks for sharing it with us. Looks like a very streamlined process.
Reply
CoachDom — June 9th, 2009, 8:09 am

Thank you Tim for this tools.

As far as this is a beta, look in your replies on twitter i pointed out a little bug in shortening process.

Take care
Reply
- Tim Ferriss — June 9th, 2009, 10:15 am
  
  @CoachDom,
  
  Coolio — I’ll check out your reply.
  
  Thx!
  
  Tim
  Reply
Mike — June 9th, 2009, 8:10 am

Thanks for the code for a beta account. I’ve been interested in one ever since I noticed you using the service. I’ve been thinking “If it passes the Tim Ferriss test, it must kick ass”
Reply
Josh — June 9th, 2009, 8:12 am

Great post! This will help me greatly.
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Colin Wright — June 9th, 2009, 8:18 am

Looks like a great new option for getting your sites out there (though the code is already expired, so I guess I’ll have to wait a few weeks before I know for sure

StumbleUpon already brings in a significant amount of traffic to my sites, so I’m anxious to see how this augments that.
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Ola — June 9th, 2009, 8:49 am

Just yesterday I was wondering how to set up this bar on the right that I’ve seen in your links on Twitter. It’s really cool.

I missed the invite. Shame:(

Can’t wait to try it out.
Reply
Sherryayn — June 9th, 2009, 9:04 am

Thanks for all of your great work. This is an amazing tool. I can’t wait to get started!
Reply
Jet Set Life — June 9th, 2009, 9:05 am

Dude- Once again you amaze me. This is an amazing tool with so many applications. This will make a very welcome addition to my muse traffic.

Thanks,
Rob
Reply
Anon — June 9th, 2009, 9:16 am

I just got the Feedburner email and checked out the site to find out the invites have already been used.

How about giving out more invites..

Service looks cool

Thanks,
Mike
Reply
Justin Razmus — June 9th, 2009, 9:17 am

Great post. This has so many great features. I am always looking for new ways to publisize my real estate blog. Nearly all of my business leads come from the Internet, so every new tool helps. Thanks!
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Andrew — June 9th, 2009, 9:17 am

Collaboration is key… just imagine what can be accomplished with Open Source, Google is adopting this in their new strategy with Google Wave. I applaud you for your work with SU.PR. It does kick-ass and hope to use it.
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Levi McCallum — June 9th, 2009, 9:18 am

Tim, check out http://peashootapp.com. It does everything you’re talking about and more.
Reply
Paul — June 9th, 2009, 9:23 am

Nice work Tim!
Reply
- Tim Ferriss — June 9th, 2009, 10:11 am
  
  @Paul,
  
  Thanks for the kind words, but StumbleUpon did all the hard work
  
  Tim
  Reply
Josh — June 9th, 2009, 9:28 am

I jumped on your free trial as soon as I got your post in my inbox, but I was tooo sloooooww…….

Looks great. Let us know when it’s open to the public.

Thanks Tim,

Josh
Reply
BillyWarhol — June 9th, 2009, 9:32 am

I will certainly give it a Twhirl! For some reason I tried ping.fm a coupla weeks back + it’s not posting my Cellphone pix to Twitter + Facebook but hopefully SU.PR DU.PR PU.PR SCOO.PR will do da Trick!

Cheers!! ) Peace*
Reply
Calliope — June 9th, 2009, 9:37 am

Hi Tim,
Thanks so much for this tip! And thanks for your AWESOME presentation at the Media Bistro Circus last week which actually inspired me to start my own blog! I invite you to check it out if you ever have any time in your super-busy day!
Reply
Travis Hill — June 9th, 2009, 9:38 am

Didn’t make the cut for the first 50, but no problem… looking forward to trying this service as it seem to cover all of the ways to implement social media without going to a lot of different services.
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Rick Friesen — June 9th, 2009, 9:39 am

Ooohhh… shiny! Can’t WAIT for this to go live! Great concept and specs, Tim!

A question though: Does anyone else feel that “scheduling” tweets seems to kinda take the human element out of social media? To say it another way: Isn’t the point of social media making computers and communication etc more human. Seems like “scheduling” just makes it robotic again…

Maybe it’s just me…
Reply
Brandon Harshe — June 9th, 2009, 9:43 am

This looks absolutely amazing. Seriously, the ping.fm thing is okay, but it does get old sometimes. Not to mention getting your posts out to millions of people right away. I’m looking forward to it.
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Ryan Graves — June 9th, 2009, 9:49 am

Miss the invite some how, must have gone quick. Any chance I can grab one more? Anyone? Buller?
Reply
StumbleUpon Launches SU.PR, What May Be the Most Super URL-Shortener Yet — June 9th, 2009, 10:07 am

[...] Ferriss has more about how he’s using SU.PR to suit his needs. The service allows users to submit to Twitter and Facebook simultaneously and [...]
VTAMethodman — June 9th, 2009, 10:13 am

Sounds like a great tool, I especially like the suggested posting times as I’ve been trying to work that out on my own little excel sheet with little success.

My one issue is that I’d love this system to be bridgeable across the other social media platforms like digg, reddit, etc. Right now Reddit is where I get the most social bookmarking traffic and I’d love to implement these tools there as well. Anybody have any idea if a program like that exists, or can su.pr bridge across multiple bookmarking platforms?
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Roman Hardgrave — June 9th, 2009, 10:13 am

I can’t wait to get my hands on this tool. I’ve been following the Su.pr twitter account hoping for an invite. And damn if all your traffic didn’t eat up those 50 accounts before I could get in there.

If you need another beta tester I’m ready!
Reply
Hoq — June 9th, 2009, 10:24 am

I wonder if you’d be so excited to market to me and spam my Stumbles if you knew that (A) I use a strict AdBlock Plus filter and don’t see any of your affiliate ads or that (B) I automatically thumbs-down any sponsored stumbles?
Reply
Noah — June 9th, 2009, 10:35 am

Lookin good Tim.
I missed the invite stage as well.

Will look for one soon.
Reply
James — June 9th, 2009, 10:52 am

The tool is great. I’m just very curious to see how you are going to handle that on your mini retirements abroad… I’m sure this are exactly the tools that Thoreau thought about while writing Walden.
Reply
- Tim Ferriss — June 9th, 2009, 4:41 pm
  
  @James,
  
  I’ll just ignore the web totally or primarily when I’m on a mini-retirement
  
  Best,
  
  Tim
  Reply
Frank J — June 9th, 2009, 11:26 am

I missed the beta invites, but I look forward to this!
Reply
cmadler — June 9th, 2009, 11:31 am

I’ve noticed the SU.PR links in your tweets, but something goes bad when I’ve tried to follow them — I just get a StumbleUpon log-in page.
Reply
Maria — June 9th, 2009, 11:56 am

I missed it! I am available as a tester
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Jan — June 9th, 2009, 11:56 am

I’m hoping that if you have a StumbleUpon account, you get the option to not get that overlay when hitting the page.
Also, if you’re going to do screencasts from your Mac once in a while, consider Telestream’s Screencast. It’s a lot easier to see what’s on the screen if it’s filmed directly on your computer, and it’ll even capture your webcam while you’re explaining.
Reply
PPC4 — June 9th, 2009, 11:58 am

Love it…Just love it. Nice.
Reply
Eric Friedman — June 9th, 2009, 12:01 pm

I would love to get an invite and try out the service
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Anne Good — June 9th, 2009, 12:07 pm

Bummer that I messed the early beta trial.

Over the couple weeks I’ve been checking the SU site to figure out how you were able to get that cool toolbar in your tweets. Should have known that it would only be a matter of time before you shared with all.

Cheers!
Reply
Misanthropy Today — June 9th, 2009, 12:46 pm

hey tim

i’d throw myself down a flight of stairs for an invite code. Ryan Graves just phoned me and said that he doesn’t need one after all so if you grabbed one for him please just forward it along to me.

Your Pal,

Andy
Reply
Aurelia Masterson — June 9th, 2009, 12:48 pm

Wow, this is a really great product, if you didn’t already realize this haha. It has awesome potential and the name is pretty clever. I was actually looking for a FREE product that did this all weekend, and lo and behold it exists, but it’s out for the public yet.

Somebody above wondered if it took the human out of Social Media–I don’t see it that way. I think that social media is more of a medium/means (hence the name) and not an end. The end is more human, like, say, this blog, whereas twitter is pretty dehumanized but will direct traffic to blogs. It shouldn’t be taken so seriously; Christmas dinners aren’t fading away any time soon.
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Aaron — June 9th, 2009, 12:58 pm

Would love to see su.pr on rails. Look forward to it.
Reply
Walter Trauth — June 9th, 2009, 12:58 pm

Wow! Sounds like a great tool. I missed the first 50, but I will wait on Twitter, etc. Thanks.
Reply
zach even - esh — June 9th, 2009, 1:00 pm

thanks Tim, looks awesome, i signed up & will await their invite!

Shaweeeeeeeetness baby!

Peace bruddah,

–z–
Reply
MIchael — June 9th, 2009, 1:01 pm

Please post more invites!
Reply
Richard Brian Penn — June 9th, 2009, 1:16 pm

Uggghhh…this is what happens when I don’t look at your blog first thing in the morning I get left out. Following them now on Twitter though.
Reply
Coop — June 9th, 2009, 1:26 pm

Got in, great.
Abracos,
Coop
Reply
sonic — June 9th, 2009, 1:32 pm

great….thanks alot
Reply
Su.pr Is The Greatest StumbleUpon Add-On Service Ever — June 9th, 2009, 1:39 pm

[...] For more information, check out Ferriss’ blog post about the service on FourHourWorkWeek.com. [...]
Luis Merino — June 9th, 2009, 2:00 pm

Hey Tim, I among another bunch couldn’t get the code access in time. When are you giving away more? I’m interested in testing this tool for an upcoming web proyect asap.

Thanks for the work both you and the SU team, keep it up!
Reply
Carl Nelson — June 9th, 2009, 2:04 pm

This looks great as a service. I also deal with that struggle for analytics + scheduling.

The addition of using your own shorturl is also excellent.

I look forward to this coming out although I missed the 50 first slots probably by quite a lot.

Thanks for helping build an excellent tool.
Reply
David Turnbull — June 9th, 2009, 2:50 pm

Was wondering why you suddenly switched your URL shortening to su.pr (…not sure why I noticed that).

Anyways, I’m following stumbleupon on Twitter now so hopefully I can get an invite code soon for the service. Looks absolutely brilliant.
Reply
Su.pr might become the hub of your social media empire, according to Tim Ferriss « amber.rae — June 9th, 2009, 2:59 pm

[...] across SU.PR today when browing the blog of Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, a provocative book about living a luxury life now. I highly [...]
Andy Brown — June 9th, 2009, 3:31 pm

Hi Tim,

I got your book, quote you often and try to read every blog… so please don’t take this the wrong way ..but I have concerns with su.pr

When I retweet a link I do it because I want to be 100% authentic in wanting to share the information on the page. I feel with su.pr this is some what lost.

I believe people in my niche will feel – OK thank you for retweeting, but didn’t you really do it to provide links to your own site.

Obviously I haven’t used su.pr and can only base my thinking on your video and your tweets but at the moment I an uneasy with using it.

Also I feel scheduling tweets is too automatic, social media is about human interaction via manual means.

Cheers

Andy
Reply
- Tim Ferriss — June 9th, 2009, 4:37 pm
  
  @Andy and All,
  
  Thanks for the comments! Let me answer one of the most common questions and concerns (Q/C):
  
  Q/C: “I feel scheduling tweets is too automatic, social media is about human interaction via manual means.”
  
  I agree that social media can be real-time, but it doesn’t have to be. First and foremost, I want to add value to lives in social media, and this could be in the form of a joke, a fun status update, or a link. I find things I want to share all the time, and having multiple tabs open, or saving bookmarks to return to, is an inconvenience, so I seldom tweet out 80% of the cool stuff I find. It would be the worst form of self-interruption possible. If the value I add — a link, suggestion, or resource, for example — isn’t time-dependent, scheduling allows me to get more high-quality stuff to my followers. People use social media for different reasons and want different things from it. Most of my readers want how-to from me, not just real-time updates, so I focus on the former.
  
  Some people do non-stop real-time updates, others just push their RSS feeds for promotion, and combine things as I do above. Since all social media rules are subjective, you need to pick rules that allow you to improve your quality of life and those around you in a way that is congruent with your priorities.
  
  Hope that helps and good luck!
  
  Tim
  Reply
Josh — June 9th, 2009, 3:47 pm

This looks like a great tool.. unfortunately, looks like I missed out on the invite code. Can’t wait to get my hands on this.

Thanks for the heads up Tim
Reply
Sam Smith — June 9th, 2009, 3:59 pm

Too slow. Dangit. Now I’m dying for an invite code.
Reply
Jacob — June 9th, 2009, 4:02 pm

Pure awesome, I was just about to set up ping.fm but after seeing this I’m sold! Any idea when the next round of invites are going out? Any chance of getting one?

Thanks for sharing, this really looks amazing.
Reply
Curtis — June 9th, 2009, 4:50 pm

Super cool. I can’t wait to give that a try!
Reply
TizTheOne — June 9th, 2009, 6:19 pm

Once again, you’ve got your finger on the pulse! Checked out the video – looking forward to the tool!
Reply
David Stillwagon — June 9th, 2009, 6:25 pm

it sounds like a great way to increase traffic!
Reply
AMB — June 9th, 2009, 6:48 pm

WOW! Very cool! The more we can condense technology, the less stress my daily work life will have! I had no heard about this – thanks for bringing another great idea to the table!
Reply
Clayton Gray — June 9th, 2009, 6:49 pm

That looks like exactly what I’ve been waiting for! Sick! I can’t wait to give it a go. I really need to get my website back and going so I can promote via Su.pr!
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Ben — June 9th, 2009, 7:51 pm

Great post!
The Ferriss Nation needs a little more help with “muse’s.” Driving traffic is fantastic but with no where to drive it we are putting the cart before the horse. Still enjoy each post.

Ben
Reply
Marcie — June 9th, 2009, 8:06 pm

Love the one-stop-shop aspect in this crazy social media world

Also trying to catch an invite on twitter, can’t DM @gmc if he is not following me, tried to @ message him…can you send me an invite? <3

Great stuff!!
Reply
shh — June 9th, 2009, 8:44 pm

Hahaha, the way you say ‘super’ is super kawaii.
Reply
Bryan — June 9th, 2009, 8:51 pm

Thanks Tim! Can’t wait to try it out.
Reply
Roman Zenner — June 9th, 2009, 9:43 pm

This looks really promising indeed. Everything that will make conversation over the web easier or bundle different services … well I’m in!
Reply
Evan — June 9th, 2009, 10:08 pm

Love your work Tim, You are my newest hero. You really must not get much sleep finding all of this new gear to play with.

Are you a sailor? I think you would enjoy streamlining some sailing skills on one of our Trimarans during one of your 2 week mini retirements….? Come by and have a look next time you’re in Saigon?

=P

Take care
Reply
Jan-Hendrik — June 9th, 2009, 11:07 pm

Where can I find access to the online bonus chapters of the 4 hour workweek book?
In the book it says on the website, but I cannot find them anywhere on the website!
thanks
Reply
- Tim Ferriss — June 10th, 2009, 1:21 pm
  
  @Jan,
  
  Just click on forum and you’ll see how to get access.
  
  Best of luck,
  
  Tim
  Reply
Ching Ya — June 10th, 2009, 12:50 am

Don’t mind to have more choices, as long SU.PR could be a better game player. Have been a fan for bit.ly all these times, will Su.pr be persuasive enough? I guess we could only wait and see. Anticipating.

@wchingya
social media/blogging
Reply
Peter — June 10th, 2009, 12:54 am

Hi Tim, I just read your post and rushed to use your invitation code. I WAS TOO LATE! Any other invitation code left ?
Reply
Alex Farran — June 10th, 2009, 1:52 am

Can you turn the toolbar off? I like to send and receive links to the actual website rather than a frame that I have to break out of. I don’t mind going through URL shortening service just as long as the destination is correct.
Reply
Brad Parler — June 10th, 2009, 5:20 am

This looks so awesome – wish that I was faster on the draw, looking forward to using this soon, presently I’m using Bit.ly – TweetLater & Seesmic Desktop to manage four accounts.

Didn’t hear you mention multiple account support – hope that’s in there too.

^~~^
Reply
Paul Higgins — June 10th, 2009, 5:23 am

Looks great. Have also signed up to follow on Twitter for invite codes
Reply
John Fotheringham — June 10th, 2009, 8:12 am

This looks exactly like the social media management solution that I was looking for. And your timing couldn’t be better; the Facebook/Twitter tipping point appears to have just happened.

The only issue I noticed so far is that sometimes pages don’t open properly using mobile Safari on my iPod.
Reply
BMB — June 10th, 2009, 8:13 am

Hooray for combined interfaces! This is awesome. SU.PR seems very intelligent and can’t wait to get in, test it, and review the traffic data. Love the smart features involved in this system, like the best time to post data.
Reply
Hey dude — June 10th, 2009, 2:40 pm

What is ur opinion of Google Wave? Tried it?
Reply
Good Force — June 10th, 2009, 5:45 pm

Thank you Tim.

You are the best ! Love the Book, love the blog.

su.pr is SUPER !
This changed my blog. Finally I have some traffic.

Obrigado !

All the best.

TGF
Reply
Pete — June 10th, 2009, 10:04 pm

I went through ALL the codes I could find online because “suprtim” wasn’t working. so i decided to go through them again haha and “suprtim” went to a signup page. i put in my info and it said i already had an account?? i can only assume if you have a stumbleupon account you have a su.pr? because that’s what it seems. or the code just let me login with my stumbleupon email? lol i don’t know, but i’m in
Reply
Daniel Wired — June 11th, 2009, 1:19 am

I am playing with it right now, trying to figure it all out

This is actually pretty damn crazy
Reply
Tim Ferriss's first look at SU.PR | User SU.PR, Get more Traffic | SEOSUMO.COM | The Art of Digital Dominance — June 11th, 2009, 7:21 am

[...] up to be…monitoring the effectiveness of social media campaigns is about to be a no brainer!Tim’s synopsis of the new tool hits the nail on the head as far as i’m concerned…so i won’t try [...]
Jonathan Robinson — June 11th, 2009, 10:42 am

Looking forward to this coming out of beta so I can give it a trial run. Seeing click-throughs and RT’s adds a lot of measurable stats to start managing! And, we can start outsourcing social media content with the scheduling bit…
Reply
Eric Vogel — June 11th, 2009, 7:08 pm

Great overview of SU.PR Tim! Can’t wait to use it. Is there a way to get an invite code?

Thanks,
Reply
Powered by Tofu — June 11th, 2009, 7:41 pm

Cool, this will replace bit.ly for me! The only problem I ran into was that if you use the “drag & drop” button when you’re at a URL with a “?” in it. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqg3Sw3s9Wg it cuts off the link, and sends to Twitter as http://www.youtube.com/watch Am I missing something here?
Reply
Chris Mountford — June 12th, 2009, 1:44 am

Wow Super Tim,

That certainly looks dope. However, I think your video woud have been cleaner and more effective as a proper screencast. Use Screenflow.

Keep up the inspirational work.
Reply
tammy — June 12th, 2009, 8:21 am

Having trouble getting the code….
Reply
Len Hardison — June 12th, 2009, 9:10 am

What were you doing with Pandora? I didn’t see the connection.
Reply
rob will do what tim did — June 12th, 2009, 1:36 pm

heads up guys….i just meandered over the website…took a complete guess cause i thought i saw on this blog last night that the beta code “suprbeta” would work…and well it did. i’m in…seems like a nice tool to start using…i’m still a few stages behind with niche creation and a stable set of automated principles in front of me before i try to go viral on anything i’m promoting/selling. keep work yall.
Reply
Boris — June 12th, 2009, 3:55 pm

Might be old news, but stumbleupon is giving out more accounts today. Follow @stumbleupon for the updates. Today’s invite code is “suprbeta”… if it’s still available.

Cheers,
Boris (@livetruly)
Reply
4 Of The Coolest Emerging Web 3.0 Technologies You’re Gonna Want | Code My Own Road — June 16th, 2009, 9:10 am

[...] for a preview account for this, while we’re all waiting around for this to launch you can check out this cool SU.PR preview video at Tim Ferriss’ 4HWW [...]
Sherryayn — June 16th, 2009, 2:38 pm

Is the WP plugin available yet for the site url?

Not sure I can manage the other way to install with my lack of coding knowledge.

Please anyone let me know of the link to the WP plugin if you have it!
Reply
Orlando P — June 17th, 2009, 8:03 pm

I Got myself the su.pr Im going to test it out, thanks for the heads up Tim.
Reply
Tasneem — June 17th, 2009, 8:41 pm

Perfect, this is just what I need. It will save me so much time.
Reply
Pedro Martinez — June 18th, 2009, 7:14 am

Thanks Tim!

I love the layout. This, in combination with Google Analytics could be a very powerful tool. I’ve only tried to use SU a few times only so far. With every post, I’ve noticed 16 clicks within 5 seconds. Do you think those are Twitter or Facebook programmed bots for whatever reason (SPAM, RSS, etc.)? I wonder if this only happens with my accounts.

Cheers,
-Pedro
Reply
webd — June 18th, 2009, 11:59 am

It looks great except that it framejacks the original website which is a bad thing. That is the same mistake Digg made with the Diggbar.
Reply
LPT » The Tale of An Early Adopter — June 20th, 2009, 8:13 am

[...] never heard of than those that you have. StumbleUpon still stumbles along and may see new life with Su.pr; but, there’s not an ounce of time spent in Pownce. I don’t lurk in Plurk anymore, [...]
Abbie Huxley — June 21st, 2009, 2:41 pm

I really like su.pr. All the stats are great. The only issue I’m having is that my toolbar DOESN’T promote my most popular content underneath where it says “popular links from abbiehuxley”. I only recognize one of the links as something that I’ve actually looked at. I don’t know how the rest of them were chosen to be on the toolbar.

When I see the toolbar present on Tim’s posts they are in fact links to his most popular content.

Anybody else have this issue…?
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Alexandra Levit — June 23rd, 2009, 5:54 pm

Wow, Tim, you sure have been busy. This looks like an incredibly meaty consulting project and final product. My traffic needs help so I’ll be signing up ASAP. Thanks for the heads up.

Best,

Alexandra Levit

PS – when are you going to China?
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Michael Murdock — June 25th, 2009, 10:35 pm

Very slick. Got in, created an account. Too cool. Thanks for sharing & creating. Let me know what you need next.

DocMurdock
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Rick T. — June 28th, 2009, 4:02 pm

Sounds like a great program. Can’t wait for the new release and trying it out to increase my site traffic. Thanks Tim!
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Paul Higgins — June 28th, 2009, 7:53 pm

Signed up for this and it worked for a while but now it does not seem to be updating or getting any information including not updating Twitter followers, etc

Paul
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airpoint — July 1st, 2009, 5:45 am

hi there
cool stuff – just got signed up

I was wandering if it is possible to turn of the toolbar for other websites as well? I’m shortening many many other websites – not only mine

cheers
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alex hingle — July 1st, 2009, 1:35 pm

I love the way that su.pr works! Can’t wait for more networks to be added…
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Michael Aulia — July 3rd, 2009, 3:40 pm

I thought we aren’t allowed to submit our own post to StumbleUpon? Unless their policy has changed…
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james — July 3rd, 2009, 11:19 pm

I work for a non profit and we’ve recently been testing twitter to connect with members, like minded orgs and individuals interested in our cause.

Our follower list isn’t very big yet – like 200 – but we’ve been testing su.pr in conjunction with online copies of our email blasts, and we’ve been getting about 15% click through which is comparable to our read rate.

Plus there are more opportunities for re-tweeting, adding new followers, and getting new visitors which we don’t with email lists (those people already know us and subscribe)

It’s perfect because its all about systematizing and creating efficiency when promoting yourself online.

social media can be great, but it can be such a time drain – plus it can be a pain to track, but su.pr really kills multiple birds with one stone
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Chris Baskind — July 6th, 2009, 2:20 pm

I’ve been experimenting with su.pr for two weeks now. It’s a great tool, and has streamlined some of the social media work I do directly related to publishing. StumbleUpon has long been my favorite traffic generator — not to mention a fun place to discover content — and this really ramps up my affection.
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Scott — July 9th, 2009, 10:23 am

Brilliant!
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jippy — July 13th, 2009, 6:11 pm

that’s great but is the traffic of any value?

all the traffic i’ve ever gotten from stumbleupon was extremely poor. they don’t do anything, they are just flipping through pages.
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Olga Kostrova — July 14th, 2009, 2:27 pm

Automation at its best. Or worst…
Thank you for sharing Tim.

I kept hearing about your book and kept being skeptical about it. (Forgive me, sinful, father). Now I am reading your blog by an accident and feel like a caveman Last one on the party. Ah, what a shame!
I might as well read your book… Even thou my work days consists of 0,00 hours by your definition.

And this dating automation thing… It’s not that bad idea after all. I think I need to promote my Indian development team to my Personal Dating Appointment Setting Dudes, otherwise I just gave up on the whole damn thing all together – there is no way to manage it. LOL

Pk… as per this Super-duper tool… I’ve just tried it and am already fond of it… The only question I have – does it allow to manage few accounts simultaneously and have a comprehensive dashboard – all in one?

And here is an application for my question:
Let’s say a marketer targets few vertical user categorizes with his/her messages and has profiles PublishingForDummies, PublishingForMommies, PublishingForChickens (you know the drill). So, if one uses this approach, does the tool allow to compile the overall account accordingly?

Cheers.
Olga from Volga LOL
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Olga Kostrova — July 15th, 2009, 10:03 am

Ok, so there are couple challenges I am facing with the tool:

1) Facebook users mentioned that when they click on the shortened links all they see is Stumbleupon’s banner. I tried and seems to be able to the pages to which posts were suffering top. But p.2 might confirm that there is something is not right.
2) I don’t see opened pages neither in Google analytical nor in Statcounter. Not just referrers are missing, but particular pages don’t demonstrate clicks at all while my bstats show hundred clicks.

What am I missing here? Can anybody enlighten me, unenlightened being?
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Dave Van de Walle — July 17th, 2009, 11:13 am

Thought I’d weigh in a month or so after Tim’s initial post to tell y’all just how much this su.pr tool rocks.

Note that this is now replacing BOTH ping.fm and TweetLater in my arsenal.

I think this is ideal for the small biz: we’re not a large shop by any stretch, and we want to track every little effort to find out if 10 minutes here on this social media exercise beats 20 minutes there on that one. It’s also phenom for repurposing content.

Cheers, and thanks for sharing!

Dave
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alshellah — July 21st, 2009, 4:36 pm

Tim
Very nice thank you to clarify.
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Billy Broas — July 23rd, 2009, 6:53 am

Tim, I’ve been using su.pr for about a month now and am very impressed. I especially like the ability to schedule posts for Twitter and Facebook. However I have a few questions:

1. Can you submit content to Stumble Upon through su.pr? I notice when I post a link in su.pr it does not add it to “Discoveries” in my traditional SU account. Do you submit in SU and then just broadcast the link with su.pr? I’d like to hear your methodology here.

2. The “Traffic Sources” stats are inaccurate. When my links are clicked on Facebook, it records a click for “direct traffic”. Direct traffic always has the vast majority of clicks but I’m sure these are coming from facebook.

3. I’ve had issues with the times it says I receive clicks. I’ll post content and immediately receive clicks that su.pr says occurred 3 hours beforehand. The timezones settings are correct so it isn’t that.

Overall I love it and it is my sole url shortener now. Thanks to you and the SU team!
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- Tim Ferriss — July 29th, 2009, 8:41 pm
  
  Hi Billy,
  
  I’ll pass this on to StumbleUpon!
  
  Thanks for the feedback
  
  Tim
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  - Tim Ferriss — July 30th, 2009, 11:34 am
    
    Hey Billy,
    
    Here you go, from StumbleUpon:
    
    1. He’s not a pre-approved publisher so it’s not automatic. He has to click thumb-up in order to submit to SU.
    
    2. The stats are not in real-time. It shows as direct for the first 24 hours of the click (note: the click and not the URL creation), then at midnight our log parser analyzes it and then updates the record. We like to move to a real-time system but it’s still in the works.
    
    3. I am not sure how this is happening. I will need a couple example URL in order to diagnostic the problem.
    Reply
Jared Litle — August 12th, 2009, 11:37 pm

Wow, this is pretty cool. Will have to give this a try. Looks like a big time saver.
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- Juridiska Dokument — December 13th, 2011, 3:02 am
  
  Great info! Thanks Tim!
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Mark S — August 17th, 2009, 2:04 pm

Tim,

I’ve been using this service now for about four weeks and have been very happy with it. I had nothing to compare it to but it met my criteria of letting me go to one place to both tweet and update facebook, and let me know what promotion messages were most effective. I’ve loved the free traffic I’ve picked up with a 5:1 stumbleupon ratio vs. the clicks I self generated. Awesome

What has been less awesome is that my posts have been disappearing off of su.pr. I have put about 35 messages out altogether and my screen only displays four. This is not an error of selecting a view of “most popular, last 30 days, week, day” or whatever, I have toggled all of the views, logged out and back in, refreshed, you name it.

I’ve left feedback in the ‘User Box’ tool but am getting no response. Could you either provide me with an e-mail address / phone number for su.pr, or could you forward my note, and let them know my user ID is ‘animationcels’ ? It would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Mark
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- Tim Ferriss — August 18th, 2009, 12:14 pm
  
  Hi Mark,
  
  I’ll send this to the SUPR guys.
  
  Best,
  
  Tim
  Reply
Mark S — August 19th, 2009, 1:50 pm

Hi Tim,

My su.pr issue seems to be resolved and I can now see all of my historical posts again which is great. If this is a result of you sending the info to the su.pr guys then thanks a lot for helping it along. If not, then no need to follow up with them if you haven’t already. See, I’m using the tips from your book on if – then statements in my messages. Saves me lots of time at work.

Mark
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Matt — August 28th, 2009, 8:48 am

Hi Tim -

I’ve been using SU.PR for both the benefit of interesting click tracking, sortable results, and on my own personal domain through the WordPress host on domain plugin.

Now I’m looking to potentially use it for a corporation with users that aren’t quite as technical. There are some concerns about su.pr hijacking and adding the frame to the top of every page, along with the obvious SEO ones, and while I understand that’s something that’s a huge potential benefit for reblogging links, I’d be using a userbase that’s a little bit less techie.

Is there any way to turn this frame off on su.pr native? We’re also looking at the white-label use on our domain solution, which has a way to turn this off, but if we can’t get that done, I’d like to still consider native su.pr as well without the frame. Because otherwise, we may need to stick with bit.ly here. Thanks!
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- Tim Ferriss — August 28th, 2009, 2:50 pm
  
  Hi Matt,
  
  This is also something I’d like to be able to do. I’ll forward your comment over.
  
  Thanks!
  
  Tim
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Per — August 30th, 2009, 1:08 pm

Hmmm, I am a little bit late here. Are the any pre-public beta codes left?
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Matt — August 31st, 2009, 7:50 am

Thanks Tim -

I’ve added it to the suggestion forum as well:

http://stumbleupon.uservoice.com/pages/17634-suggestions/suggestions/303023-add-an-option-for-turning-off-su-top-and-right-frames-for-standard-su-pr-links?ref=title
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[see comment rules] — October 2nd, 2009, 12:48 pm

I have been using SU.PR heavily for two days, but it appears su.pr doesn’t pass referrer traffic to your site, so you can’t see su.pr visits on Analytics and whatnot when using su.pr wordpress plugin or promoting a link to your site directly on su.pr website to shorten URL.

Is there a way to get su.pr to pass the referrer to your site so that you can see the traffic on your site, instead of it looking like it doesn’t help at all from an Analytics point of view?
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Dave — October 13th, 2009, 4:58 pm

Hi Tim

I’m fairly new to wordpress but am I right in thinking if I don’t have my own dedicated webhost for my wordpress blog and still use [a wordpress.com domain] then I can’t use su.pr to promote my site?

Because everytime I put in my wordpress website domain the text is deleted and nothing happens. However if I try it with a standard website such as stumbleupon.com then it tracks it fine.

Thanks

Dave
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Gail — October 15th, 2009, 12:05 pm

Thumbing up and adding excellent reviews on the StumbleUpon site is very effective and so is using su.pr; however, the two really need to be merged. The only way to get maximum benefit right now is to do both.

Although I can use TwitterFeed to feed my review RSS stream to Twitter that doesn’t get my activities using the SU toolbar into my su.pr. If I use su.pr to share content that doesn’t get that activity into my SU microblog.

StumbleUpon already is the most powerful of Social Networks and they could be far more visible than Twitter and Facebook IF they would only take what they’re already doing and create what we all really need.

I wrote a blog post explaining how SU almost did it right and could create their own Golden Goose as big as AdWords. I hope you don’t mind that I linked it to this comment so you could read it.

I am currently working on a post about how combining and expanding the functions of su.pr and the SU toolbar would make StumbleUpon the Social Network of choice hands down. There is currently nothing that does what they have almost done.

Would you consider reviewing my ideas and possibly passing them on to StumbleUpon. Once you read the post I’ve linked you’ll know why.
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mark treas — November 6th, 2009, 10:38 am

So this is kind of geek to freak for social connecting sites. I like it!
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Mike — December 29th, 2009, 10:11 pm

So if you’re a pre-approved publisher, everything becomes automatic from there?
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Eric — January 27th, 2010, 7:02 am

Hi Tim,

I’ve been trying to incorporate the su.pr-short URL’s w/ my domain, but I can’t seem to get the bhtaccess file to work. I don’t understand how Rewrite rules work and I seem to be having a conflict with the new code required for su.pr (step 2 in the instructions) and the existing rules I have in my .htaccess
I understand this is still beta, but does stumble, or anyone else, have any support for solving rewrite rules issues in the .htaccess file. I come up with 0 on google.
Thanks
Eric
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Mitch Conway — February 6th, 2010, 10:47 am

Hey Tim,

su.pr would be even better if there was an option to post to a Facebook fan page… any chance you can mention that to the folks over at Stumbleupon?

Thx
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Diana Freedman — February 7th, 2010, 1:13 pm

Hi Tim! Thanks for the great article. I recently posted an article on my own blog about why bit.ly is a superior URL shortener, but now I’ll have to give su.pr a try.

I see that you mentioned that su.pr would be coming out with a WordPress plugin. I see the link for the “WordPress Plugin” on my su.pr page, but when I click this link (http://www.stumbleupon.com/developers/Supr:WordPress_Plugin/), all that comes up is:

“Supr:WordPress Plugin
This Article Does Not Exist Yet.

You are unable to add articles to the wiki. Sorry!”

Do you know what’s going on here? Does the WordPress plugin exist, or did StumbleUpon remove this plugin because it wasn’t gaining traction?

Thanks!
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Julie Hood — February 8th, 2010, 3:01 pm

Hi Tim,

I’m very impressed with Su.pr and glad you have had some say in how it’s developed…. any chance you ask them to add support for Facebook fan pages and LinkedIn status? I have been trying to use Hootsuite/hootlet and it just isn’t as good at tracking and time watching as Su.pr. (I did add to their Feedback/Get satisfaction list).

Thanks much!
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??? — August 9th, 2010, 4:57 am

Hi Tim,

I’m very impressed with Su.pr and glad you have had some say in how it’s developed…. any chance you ask them to add support for Facebook fan pages and LinkedIn status? I have been trying to use Hootsuite/hootlet and it just isn’t as good at tracking and time watching as Su.pr. (I did add to their Feedback/Get satisfaction list).

Thanks much!
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- Tim Ferriss — August 10th, 2010, 12:57 am
  
  Support for fan pages should be good to go! Just check “settings.” Enjoy!
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Seth — September 24th, 2010, 11:09 am

Tim, thanks for tips on using su.pr. Is there a way to integrate ping.fm with the service? Since su.pr only distributes to a couple social networking sites, I like to be able to import my blog content into su.pr, which then distributes it to ping.fm since they distribute to multiple other social media sites. Or, if su.pr did the same thing and distributed to more than just facebook, twitter, and linkedin.
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??? ????? — September 26th, 2010, 12:44 pm

You are unable to add articles to the wiki. Sorry!”

Do you know what’s going on here? Does the WordPress plugin exist, or did StumbleUpon remove this plugin because it wasn’t gaining traction?

Thanks!
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Paul Davis — October 15th, 2010, 8:58 am

Thanks Tim, another great tool to drive traffic. Great article
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Kyle — April 25th, 2011, 2:02 am

Hey Tim,

I just wanted to say that I got your book 4HWW way back when it was first published around 2007, and I also picked up the audio version not along after, which I actually fall asleep to at night sometimes. I used to own StumbleUpon.com, and still own StumbleOn.com. Garrett would likely remember me from when they wanted to buy it from me way back when, maybe 10 years or so ago now. I know that you are an investor in them, and they have done well with their product. I just thought it funny how small the world really is that I used to own it, then I really got into your work, and then you invested and mentored the guys and gals over there. I’ve got tons of great stuff I’m working on myself here in Seattle (Inkblot.com, CustomerBlog.com, CommunityBlog.com, and, of course, StumbleOn, just to name a few).

Don’t worry, I’m not planning on pulling a Paul Ceglia (though if the allegations are true, he does deserve his share of Facebook) and filing a lawsuit against StumbleUpon or anything after years gone by. Besides, I think we’d legally be latched to one another at this point. No bad blood, just some fun ribbing here and there.

Anyhow, Just saying hello and thanks for the great tips and advice that you tip to us all!

Kyle
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- Tim Ferriss — May 2nd, 2011, 11:12 am
  
  Thanks for the comment, Kyle! Man, it really is a small world, and it just seems to get smaller by the day.
  
  Kia kaha and all the best,
  
  Tim
  Reply
lkj]n — May 30th, 2011, 1:25 am

Thanks Tim, another great tool to drive traffic. Great article
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Methothelioma — June 24th, 2011, 10:51 am

Nice work, Tim
I’ve been interested in it since I see you using the service.

thank you
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Stephen Frick — October 25th, 2011, 2:45 pm

Very Cool tool, Thanks for the great info!
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Cody — June 5th, 2012, 8:44 am

What a great and useful tool. Great article Tim!
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Matt — April 6th, 2013, 11:50 am

Tim,

First off, huge fan. I am consistently using tricks I’ve found through your books. Dumb question. Do you still find su.pr as useful as when it first came out? I use WordPress and it looks like it now does a lot of this for you if you connect the accounts. Is the main advantage the link to Stumbleupon and hopefully the corresponding traffic? You’re looking at a guy who took shop instead typing in school, so I like simplicity. Thanks!
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