Wild Apricot Blog : AddThis for Simple Social Bookmarking


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AddThis for Simple Social Bookmarking

One of the best things you can do for your readers (and for your blog) is to make it as easy as possible for people to share your content with interested others.

You may have noticed the Bookmark button on each post pages of the Wild Apricot Blog?

It's a simple but effective widget from AddThis.com that does just what it says. It allows your readers to quickly and easily bookmark your page on their choice of more than 35 popular social bookmarking and web 2.0 sites — from Digg and Slashdot to Technorati and Twitter.

The tool is available as cut-and-paste HTML code, or as a widget for easy installation on Typepad, Wordpress, and Blogger blogs. For those readers who follow your blog in a feedreader, there is even an AddThis widget for your RSS feeds.

In a way, a bookmarking button on a blog is almost an icon for the essence of social networking — the reader decides what information to bookmark and share with others, and the tools of technology just make that sharing easier to do.

Published Thursday, January 31, 2008 10:45 AM by Rebecca

Filed under: Web 2.0, Blogging, Widgets, Social networking

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Comments

	Sergei said: Sorry, I am trying to figure out how I can use AddThis.com with the WA blog? Do I need to post HTML generated by AddThis to every blog post? Is there a master template available? Perhaps you can give a step by step guide on how this works with WA? Many thanks! January 31, 2008 2:28 PM
	Rebecca said: Hi Sergei. Thanks for the question. Yes, if you wanted to, you could add the AddThis code to each post individually, but if you later changed your mind about it, that could be a real nuisance to reverse! The quickest and easiest way to add a social bookmarking button to your pages is to paste the code into a recurring page element -- such as the footer -- so that it will appear on each page on your site, yet you only have to add the code in one location. You'll find the 'page footer' and other page elements listed under 'Visual look and feel' in your Admin section. January 31, 2008 3:14 PM
	Sergei said: ok, great, thank you Rebecca for clarifying! February 1, 2008 10:19 AM
	Rebecca said: You're welcome, Sergei - always glad to be able to help! February 1, 2008 1:40 PM
	Wild Apricot Blog said: We've talked before about the many benefits of social bookmarking (Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, and February 19, 2008 11:53 AM
	Arpan said: There's another service named Siphs (http://www.siphs.com) similar to AddThis that has extra bells and whistles bloggers might find interesting. 1. The widget lets you get RSS feeds for your most shared and recently shared posts. Bloggers can let their readers subscribe to these RSS feeds, and if they have a FeedBurner account, insert some Google Ads. 2. Branding! The widget is 100% brandable to mimic the blogger's logo and design. This branding comes through in the emails that are sent from the widget (basically a branded tell-a-friend email) 3. Has real-time statistics to show how/where/how frequently content is being shared. There are a few other benefits. The basic service is free and is definitely worth checking out. February 22, 2008 1:53 AM
	Rebecca said: Arpan, thanks for sharing the Siphs link. Nice to see that the forwarding statistics are a part of your free version: it's a uncommon feature and could be very useful for tracking response to campaigns. February 23, 2008 9:42 AM
	Val said: Have a look at http://www.entopica.com/, a new social bookmarking web site Entopica is an online system that allows you to easily access, categorize, share and store your bookmarks online. It is free to join and registration is both quick and easy. Discover a whole new world of social bookmarking. It is user friendly and easy to use. March 8, 2008 12:56 AM
	Samantha said: I switched to http://www.addtoany.com for social bookmarking and subscribe buttons for my blog feeds. They really mean add to ANY with probably 100 bookmarking sites and feed readers. Very recommended. April 23, 2008 1:47 PM
	Rebecca said: Samantha, thanks very much for sharing this resource. As Val notes, above, there's a "whole new world" social bookmarking sites out there. I do believe it's become essential to give your readers an easy way to bookmark your pages at the more popular sites, at the very least -- and it stands to reason that there could be quite an advantage in extending the options to many more. I do hope you'll let us know how AddToAny.com works out for you, when you've had a chance to measure the results! April 24, 2008 3:06 PM
	Val said: Take a look at http://www.entopica.com/, a new social bookmarking website. It is an online system that allows you to easily access, categorize, share and store your bookmarks online. Entopica offers a free registration and it is both quick and easy. Register now and discover a whole new world of social bookmarking May 19, 2008 8:08 PM
	Josh Kaufman said: http://www.sharethis.com offers a similar service (for comparison purposed) October 10, 2008 12:54 PM