[if(is_geek)…]

I have recently started submitting links to my site to various other sites such as the CakePHP wiki, the google group for CakePHP and digg. Almost immediately I started seeing a significant increase in the traffic to my site. I use Google Analytics to track these metrics, and I have to admit, I have become addicted. Checking these stats is, to a geek like me, what watching sports must be like to a jock. I submit a tutorial to another site, submit it at different times and watch the effect it has on my traffic. It is really fascinating. It is through this micro-obsession that I have discovered two absolutely killer sites.

The first of these isn’t really a site. Well, it is but that isn’t the important part of it. This morning I noticed that all of a sudden 30% of the traffic I received over the past week was attributed to a site called stumbleupon.com. This happened overnight. Last night going to bed the major contributer to my traffic was groups.google.com at about 21% of total traffic. Then this morning a site I had never heard of rocketed to 30%. I had to check this site out.

What StumbleUpon turned out to be is the homepage for a browser plug-in. Think of it as digg for every single page you browse to. You can register your vote, either thumbs-up or thumbs-down on any page. You can also click the Stumble button in the SU toolbar and be taken to a random page that matches your interests (you choose some categories of interest when initially configuring the toolbar). So far, the choices have been quite accurate. The very first page I stumbled to was killer. It has to be the best music site I have ever visited.

By far I have found the best way to learn of new bands that appeal to me is talking to friends. I mention a band I like, they say they like them too and, hey, have you ever heard these guys? Pandora Internet Radio has harnessed this power in a website. You go there, enter the name of a band you like and an Internet radio station is configured for you full of bands that are similar in nature to the one you already like. The first band I tried was Orson, my current favourite, but alas, they are still only big in Britain and weren’t found in the db. Next I tried Brand New, another favourite of mine. I have been listening to songs for the past half hour inspired by my like of Brand New and I have yet to hear a bad one. This works seriously well. Try it out, you won’t be disappointed!