Avid blogger Skellie has written an impressive post on How to Write Posts that Set Stumble Upon on Fire for Problogger.com, explaining the significance of this social bookmarking tool and providing strategies for optimizing your blog accordingly. As she can attest, Stumble Upon is an essential source of referrals, sending loads of traffic from regular users captivated by resourceful, catchy and valuable blog posts.

Skellie is quick to point out some of the nuances that make Stumble Upon unique amid the likes of Digg and Reddit, and offers practical strategies of drawing in positive stumbles and new, loyal readers. Here is a summary of her findings, with a few tips of our own:

1) Stay in your niche and get submitted to Stumble’s specific categories. Getting the attention of Stumble Upon users involves an understanding of the tool’s fundamental qualities that make it so accessible. While Digg, as Skellie notes, is geared towards broad appeal, Stumble Upon is generally more appropriate for targeting a niche market, drawing in the traffic you want. Writing with your niche and Stumble Upon’s categories in mind, you can better the chances of your article being submitted.

So if you are writing within a specific area, no matter how small a niche it is, you should follow Skellie’s advice – keep your target audience in mind and don’t take the shotgun approach. Now that you are writing within your niche, it’s time to tailor your posts according to Stumble Upon’s preference for streamlined content…

2) Context, clarity and concision. These three words will help you edit your content in a way that will make it attractive to Stumble Upon users. Skellie says the most unlikely candidates to be stumbled are articles that are:

• too personal
• too long
• too short
• lacking in examples
• outdated
• difficult to understand
• out of context

Stumble Upon users will be attracted to content that has a clearly communicated purpose – they want articles that can be easily shared without any apprehensions about how complex or personal they are. If your post takes a long time to get to the point, the less likely it will be voted on. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t write about complex or personal issues, but you should touch on these issues in a way that your Stumble readers can relate to. Clearly articulated introductory paragraphs, subheadings and of course a strong, viral title are crucial when wording the intension of your posts, setting the stage for Stumble Upon’s energized user base.

3) Visuals, lists and advice. Skellie believes Stumble-worthy content has well-crafted presentation and unique advice. Detail and examples (photos, graphs, links etc) that are laid out well will bolster the authoritative quality of your writing and will immediately indicate how much thought and effort has gone into your posts. Lists and `how to’ guides generally do well on pretty much all social bookmarking sites. Skellie notes that advice posts on topics yet to be extensively covered will catch on quickly. If your blog appears to be a valuable resource, featuring practical points that your readers can implement easily, it will be actively voted on and shared with those who could use your help!

4) Attention grabbing headlines and layouts. Tying into the point on clarity, your article has to call out to be Stumbled - which means that your titles need to capture users’ curiosities and interests by offering a clear idea of what your blog is promising – without giving too much away. One way of immediately grabbing interest is to promise an answer or explanation in your title.

For example, a catchy title could read: “8 Reasons why (insert politician here) will loose the 2008 election”. It clearly states what the article is promising to its readers; it shows how much is involved in the post (8 distinct points) and leaves something up for explanation, begging for users to dive into its full content.

The layout out of your post will also determine how accessible it is for Stumble Upon. Clear and striking images at the top of your post is one way of drawing your reader into your content and a distinct opening paragraph or abstract will provide your readers with an outline of your work, explaining why they should invest time in reading it.

5) Become an active Stumble Upon user, integrate it into your blog and use it to befriend others. Stumbling on interesting sites on a regular basis is a surefire way of developing contacts through Stumble Upon - and will eventually draw your newfound friends towards your own blog. Be sure, as Skellie notes, to thank those who Stumble your work and even return the favor if they have blogs. Also make your own blog more Stumble-friendly by having a Stumble button at the bottom of your posts (next to your other bookmarking icons), writing posts about Stumble Upon as a reminder to new social bookmarking users and linking to your Stumble Upon profile on your blog.

So that ties up Skellie’s strategies in a nutshell. All of these points are vital considerations you should keep in mind when crafting viral content that is both catchy and valuable to the social bookmarking community. Remembering to keep your articles Stumble-friendly, without betraying your niche and loyal fan base, will spark the curiosity of countless new readers or strengthen the loyalty of existing ones.