As writers, Inspiration is key to both our lives and our careers – and yet, Inspiration can be incredibly elusive. It is often sidetracked by fear of rejection, self doubt over a work in progress, and the need to get in touch with a reader on a personal level. Often, its absence can be so terrifying, a writer will unwittingly stonewall themselves into doing anything except writing. At such times, the question no longer becomes “Will I ever get inspired?” but “Will I ever get inspired again?” This is where Stumbleupon comes in handy.
Image via Wikipedia
Stumbleupon is one of the most valuable research tools a writer can have at their disposal. It is a free social networking site that not only gets a writer past “Writer’s Block,” but it also helps build a networking platform, thus increasing the writer’s brand and profitability. Try the following five steps and see if you don’t find yourself inspired, no matter what your career:
1) Begin by downloading the Stumbleupon Toolbar: When you add this toolbar to your Internet browser, you will immediately see several useful buttons. The most important of these are the Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down buttons. By keeping them on your toolbar, you will quickly and easily be able to share your work with hundreds of people in an instant.
2) Create an account and fill out a profile: One of the reasons Stumbleupon is unique is that you don’t have to see what all your friends like. You can see only what you want to see based on the topics you pre-choose, or you can see what your friends like by browsing their individual profiles. Either way, logon to activate all the buttons on your toolbar for faster, simpler browsing.
3) Next, Configure your Thumbs Up and Down Buttons: By clicking “Tools” on your Stumbleupon Toolbar, you can configure your Thumbs Up and Down buttons to move to the next page whenever you rate something. By choosing this option, you will move from page to page quickly and easily while each approved page is saved to your profile. This means you no longer need to remember where you saw something and you can keep surfing instead.
4) Start Getting Inspired by Stumbling: Now that you’re setup, start hitting that Stumble button whenever you feel blocked. By doing so, you will see some of the most amazing blogs, articles, pictures and videos on the internet, and all of them will be related to your topics of choice in some way or another. Approve the pages you like to save them; Give a Thumbs Down to any pages you hate. Then, keep stumbling until Inspiration strikes, then shut down your browser and write.
5) Lastly, Submit Your Own Work to build your platform: Whenever you create an article or blog, simply click the thumbs up button to submit that article to Stumbleupon. It will ask you to briefly categorize your submission, add useful tags, post a review if desired, then it’s added to your list. Instantly, that article is sent to a couple hundred people – both your friends and complete strangers. Every time someone else gives it a thumbs up, it will be sent to another couple hundred people. It’s a great way to catch new readers with every article or blog you post. Plus, you will find other features that allow you to send that page to your friends through Stumbleupon or email, all buttons displayed on the toolbar.
Finally, one brief note of warning: If you only submit and approve your own articles and blogs, you will get blocked from this website. The goal of Stumbleupon is not just to promote yourself or your work, but to share unique and interesting information with other members. If used properly, Stumbleupon will be one of the best tools you ever use.
Tue, Jul 14, 2009, by ET Barton
Social Bookmarking