We’ve all done it: sat there at the computer screen and thought ‘What website can I look at?’. Most of us will have the same few websites that we visit every time we log onto the internet and we don’t often move outside our comfort zone to find something new. We’ll visit the same websites because we:

• Like them
• Trust their content as being reliable/truthful/honest etc…
• Like and trust the contributors

New StumbleUpon Logo

I was the same, then a few months ago I heard someone talking about ‘Stumble‘. I’d never heard of this website before so decided to have a look at it – and am amazed that I’d not heard about it before.

Essentially Stumble! is a database of website addresses, blog posts, youtube videos etc… each assigned their own category by whoever recommended the link. You join up (free) and select which areas you are interested in and if you are using Firefox download the Stumble! plug-in which sit’s in your address bar.

Next time you want to find something new to read about, just hit the Stumble! button and a new webpage will be displayed on screen based upon the interests you selected. You can select from a wide range of topics, so there should be something to keep you interested.  Your choices can be modified as often as you want, or just select ‘all interests’.

I’ve found Stumble! to be very useful as I’ve learned a lot from the various web pages that it has brought up for me, not every page is fantastic, but the majority are very useful. I love the below video that has come up a few times:

Everything is possible by Tixald

If you own a smartphone there is also a Stumble! App that you can download, very useful if you are on the train, bus or a dinner break.

If you use Stumble! what do you think about it? If not, start Stumbling now

Earlier last year I took part in Nikki Pilkington’s ’30 Day Blog’ challenge and loved it. I was sent an email each day for 30 days aimed at getting my blog moving and increasing traffic to it – it worked.

To kick of the new year I came across the Ultimate Blog Challenge by accident and thought that it would be fun to give it a go. Over the next 31 days in January I’ll be aiming to write a blog once a day either from something I have thought of or a topic suggested in the daily email that comes through (I’m late with the first post as I didn’t receive it until after 11pm).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dLF2XgL3oVE

The blogs will be a mixture of business and personal (who want’s to read about bookkeeping all the time!) with the aim of increasing the readership of the blog and also helping me to become a better and more interesting blogger.

I hope that you enjoy the forthcoming posts, look out for the tweets with the #blogboost hashtag to see when I have posted them. Of course, if there is something that you would like me to blog about, please get in touch via Twitter or by leaving a comment.

If you’re not taking part in the challenge and would like to become a better blogger, give it a go. If you are taking part in it what are you hoping to achieve from it?