I get a lot of traffic from stumbleupon, I'm sure there's no problem - after all their users choose which site to include, so it's little if anything to do with the webmasters of the sites they review. One thing - the CTR is quite low for my site from visitors via stumbleupon.
Just drop them an email and ask them, they have said you are welcome to do that if you want to double check on the quality source of traffic. And yep, AdSense really isn't fond of some traffic sources, such as "pay $19.99 for a gazillion visitors."
Google is not fond of traffic exchanges either vicioussummer I got a warning email about it once I have not used traffic exchanges since. That you it the avatar if it is god damn you certainly arnt to hard on the eye. cheers
my biggest concern with stumbleupon ( incidentally they sent me loads of traffic then tried asking me for a subscription) does it redirect through the same IP range?
You'd be surprised at some of the places people get traffic from (traffic exchanges, spyware, popups) then wonder why Google has a problem with it
It's probably not very targeted traffic; however, I certainly don't have a problem with it (it may lead to return visitors who actually like your site, who then tell a friend with similar interests--untargeted traffic has suddenly turned into targeted traffic)
of course they care - thats why they have rules about inflating impressions etc, especially with the CPM advertisers in mind. Using things like trafficswarm is a definite no-no and heaven forbid anyone vaught using the "google ads click" systems.
WHoo.. De'ja-Vu ! Stumbleupon is NOT a traffic exchange. It's a socialnetworking-tagging-thingy kinda like Del'icious. I posted the same question about what G thinks about it yesterday, and the conseus seems to be that it's ok..
There's two types of StumbleUpon traffic. I'm not sure a lot of users even realise it, but a small percentage of the sites they view are advertisers. So you can buy SU traffic, if you want. Neither the regular SU traffic nor the advertising is any kind of traffic exchange, so I can't see Google having a problem with it. The only thing is, it might lead to quite a low CTR.
I dunno Obelia.. i haven't actually taken the time to check my stats, but the potential is there for decent CTR.. because of how the Stumblers 'review' the page, other Stumblers know exactly what the page is about before they visit it.. so, assuming you have good ad-targeting, there is the potential for decent/excellent CTR.. Of course, since i have not yet taken the time to seriously look at my stats, i might just be typing out the back of my neck..
In June I got 1,102 visitors from stumbleupon, with no conversions. Although, that is slightly different from what you guys are talking about (adsense CTR vs. sales), it gives a general idea. Sale or not, I'll take the traffic, they could always come back!
Your joking - I have never heard StumbleUpon doing this and I have been a user for years. What do you mean they "tried asking" for a subscription?
Which is another reason Google is losing site of the big picture... Here is another way that a competitor can influence the relationship between you and Google. All I gotta do is get a huge account at TrafficSwarm and direct it at all my competitor's AdSense ridden pages. Rather than TOSing everything, Google needs to act like the Techno-weenies that they claim they are and FILTER this stuff using their Google-Voodoo.
I got a burst of traffic from StumbleUpon.com. When I noticed it in my stat program I clicked on the referring url and ended up on a StumbleUpon landingpage that explained I had been bookmarked by a member. It then goes on to explain... "Now that your page is in StumbleUpon, you can accelerate distribution of your site by delivering it directly to receptive websurfers. We'll drive traffic to your page and you'll get immediate feedback for just a few cents per visitor. Click below to create a campaign and see what StumbleUpon can do for your site... " Basically they will increase the probability that one of their members will land on your page and they want 5 cents a hit. I don't mind the social hits that result from people liking my page, but I think that if they are also charging for hits it undermines their entire premise.