Anyone who has spent any amount of time on the internet will quickly come to the realization that it is full of spam, people wanting to sell you something, and just downright bad information. In all that junk though, there are gold nuggets of information that can help you become better or solve a problem you have. In order for you to separate the best resources from the bad ones, you would have to get waist deep into that stuff to sort it out. Or you could just rely on lists.
The problem with relying on lists
Lists are one of the most popular ways in order to get information, because it is provided in an easy to read format and has already been sorted through by someone we hope can be trusted with the task. The biggest benefits are that it saves you time and it is easy to refer to. No wonder people love them so much, I like them too.
The drawback is that the list might be missing a few gold nuggets that are harder to find and less people know about. In any area of life, having the upper hand in knowledge will give you a distinct advantage over your competitors. No one person can gather the absolute best of the best of what the web has to offer on a subject, it is just too big of a task for one person. So how do you gather the best web design resources?
How to use the power of social media to find stuff
There are no end to the amount of articles that promise teaching you how to get on the front pages of digg, designfloat, stumbleupon, and so on. But what is the real purpose of social media? It is to help you sort good information from bad information. Ideally, the best information will be on the popular pages and the bad ones are buried, sunked, or thumbs downed. For the most part, this works out fine, but I will show you how to get the best use out of social media in narrowing down your results.
The first step is to narrow down the amount of social media networks you pay attention to. For web design, I recommend designfloat and stumbleupon. I find that I get all the information I really need from these two sites. You can add digg and declicious if you want, but I find that it is way too hard to keep up with multiple social media networks. That and you don’t get the most out of it when you spread your energy too much.
Getting the most out of Stumbleupon
What is stumbleupon? Stumbleupon serves you a website based on the things you are interested in every time you hit the stumble button. When a website is served to you, you have the option of voting it up or down or hitting the stumble button again.
I think stumbleupon is probably one of the best ways to find great web design resources. The thumbs up and thumbs down system is really great at making sure only good information stays in the system. You won’t get the most from stumbleupon from just hitting the stumble button and sifting through the websites that stumbleupon gives you. It is a great way to kill boredom though.
5 Tips to get the most out of Stumbleupon
1. The best way to use stumbleupon is to follow stumbleupon users who have shown a great ability of sifting through information and finding the best stuff out there. By becoming their fan, you will get updates when they find new stuff and you also have the ability to stumble through their favorites in order to find great resources. Gather a few people in the areas that interest you and you will have the best information delivered to your door.
2. You can even grab RSS feeds of what a user thumbs up or reviews.
I recommend just subscribing to the reviews, because it is usually more important since they took the time out to write a review about it. The RSS feeds are located on the bottom right on a stumbler’s profile page.
3. Another great way of using stumbleupon is using the feature of stumbling pages based on a search term rather than categories.
I find that this really makes the pages I stumble return what I want instead of just a random page that is loosely related to the category I am stumbling in. It is located in the toolbar under the All button.
4. Take it a step further and subscribe to specific tags that interest you rather than just subscribing to a general area like “Web Development.” You can subscribe to “Blog Design” or “CSS Gallery” or some other tag to get more specific results.
You can find the subscribe option by going to a tag’s page and clicking on the shiny green button on the top right.
5. Build a stumbleupon network of friends to make it easier to find resources. The first thing you can do towards this is by adding me. This is my stumbleupon page.
Extra resources for mastering stumbleupon
1. A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon. Great guide for those who want to use stumbleupon to get traffic by doshdosh.
2. Stumbleupon Add-ons. Great list of add ons that are available to add extra features to stumbleupon.
3. Unofficial Stumbleupon FAQ. A great FAQ for any questions you might have about stumbleupon.
Subscribe today by RSS for free and get more tips on finding great resources. If you don’t know about rss feeds or you want to use the email subscription option, read this page on subscribing to Blog Design Blog.
39 comments
I just stopped by your blog and thought I would say hello. I like your site design. Looking forward to reading more down the road.
Robert Michel
I have always been impressed by the usefulness of stumbleupon. And i live to find more and write more about it. A few weeks ago i cracked their algorithm (sort of)
stumbleupon is great! I <3 SU!
I have a lot of categories selected for StumbleUpon so that I usually get about an even work to play ratio. Meaning about half the time I get web design, css, javascript/jquery, c++, and stuff like that and the other half of the time I get random math pages, riddles, comics, games, game reviews, and the like.
That’s just because I’m lazy and I don’t want to stumble one area I just want to click that stumble button when I’m bored or looking for inspiration. It’s that “instant gratification” thing.
I never find what I’m looking for on StumbleUpon because I don’t try to look for stuff on there, if I want to find something specific I use google.
However, I sometimes look at random javascript and css tricks to get inspiration for what I’m trying to figure out and wind up finding another page with something cool to try, like a useful jQuery plugin.
Overall, I’d say StumbleUpon has been my best resource for learning knew tricks, technologies, and keeping up with the [internet] times.
@Alfred: Nice, if you ever feel like disclosing a few hints as to what makes a stumbleupon page popular. I’m all ears.
@Cide: Yes, stumbleupon is great.
@SubOne: Thanks for telling us about your experience with Stumbleupon. I pretty much agree with everything you have to say. Not only is it great to find resources, but it is also a great way to find interesting stuff to read for fun.
Voted for you at:
http://www.newsdots.com/tutorials/how-to-find-the-best-resources-using-stumbleupon-creating-a-blog-web-design-blog/
I actually found stumbleupon while browsing someones favorites on delicious. In a way its kind of ironic but every since then I’ve been hooked. Taken a step further, I not only use stumbleupon to discover new sites of interest but I use it more heavily to directly send (using the nifty “send to” button relevant pages of interest to my friends and colleagues. Most of them catch on to the process and in short order they are sending me things that are relevant to my interest as well. It soon becomes the equivalent of internet voice mail. Stumbling is more exiting when you can see that magic little red number next to the word “stumble”on the tool bar. That is what trully makes it a social experience.
Thanks again for the tips.
Thanks for these valuable tips!
I’d heard about it, and it never sounded like my thing. But I signed up a little while ago and loved just clicking stumble. Never really voted or gave reviews. But I’ve recently started to use SU properly and I’m loving it, its easily the best out of all of the social bookmarking sites. Nice article.
I agree that Stumbleupon is a great resource for webdesign related things. Probably because it very popular among webmasters. For other niches I don’t find it’s so good, to much spam.
Great information. I use StumbleUpon as a way to spark my own creative juices. And I also use it for general amusement. I never fail to find something fun when I spend some time Stumbling around!
You.Are.A.Rockstar. Love this blog, love your advice and appreciate you talking about design in terms that a non-design person can grasp. This blog and your writing rocks.
Love the comments on this page so just had to leave one!
Although not happy about being number 13. Maybe you could make it skip to 14?
I hate it when people use SU to find content for their blogs and then add their page to SU… Makes you have to see the same shit posted on 5 blogs (usually without proper references) 3 times per day. Really a tragedy. I thumb down blog posts like that, and navigate to the main page of the blog and thumb the site down. If I find the user on SU I thumb him down too.
Bad stumbling behaviour.
I like Stumbleupon is a great resource for webdesign. Thanks for these tips.
I use Stumbleupon much. It is very popular among web designers.
Thanks for these valuable
Thanks for these valuable。It is very popular among web designers.
Thank you for this post and the useful tips! Stumble Upon is a great book marketing tool. I have not personally used it to surf site.
Great content!
James
http://twitter.com/AskJamesHolmes
I have used StumbleUpon for some time and am always amazed what it puts me onto. Love “stumbling” around the web…
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Very Nice Information !!!!!
Now i am aware of the stumble upon after go through it !!!!
Thanks for that !!!!!
I participate in stumbleupon site as it is a such popular one among the people, Thanks for sharing your valuable inputs
Thanks for giving useful tips about stumbleupon
tesekkurler..
better than bookmarking,and searching on your own, I’ll give it a try- sounds like I’ve only been getting half of what Stumbleupon can do…
Great Blog very useful to all webdesigners, I suggest all designer to share this blog
Nice resources, Thanks
nice tips for using stumbleupon.. thanks
Thanks for these tips.
Taken a step further, I not only use stumbleupon to discover new sites of interest but I use it more heavily to directly send
We really thank you for your wonderful article. You have created your page, I believe really helped us a lot…..
Hi i am new for stumble upon and after reading your article i think these valuable tips will really help me out
stumbleupon really is a good helper when you need some good site. it give me many advice too.
it seems me a very good approach! I understood a lot of things which I’m sure will serve me in the future!
You have created your page, I believe really helped us a lot…..
Nice, It is useful to us! go ahead!
What is stumbleupon? Stumbleupon serves you a website based on the things you are interested in every time you hit the stumble button. When a website is served to you, you have the option of voting it up or down or hitting the stumble button again.
I think stumbleupon is probably one of the best ways to find great web design resources. The thumbs up and thumbs down system is really great at making sure only good information stays in the system. You won’t get the most from stumbleupon from just hitting the stumble button and sifting through the websites that stumbleupon gives you. It is a great way to kill boredom though.
That would really help to us to choose a better resource for blogging.
Sean
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