How To Add This AddThis Button

I felt compelled to write this post.  Despite many great blogs both ActiveRain and non-ActiveRain on this topic, I had a really hard time finding a straightforward how-to on how to install a social bookmarking AddThis button or ShareThis button.  Most articles focused on the fact that it's a great idea to do this and without a doubt it is, but very few went into how to actually do it, and those that did were not specific for the html-challenged population like myself.

Social networking buttons are easy- facebook, linkedin, etc.  Just create the button with a link to your profile.  But connecting to Digg, Stumbleupon and the various other viral networking sites was a mystery to me until yesterday.

Connecting to these sites can be a big boost to your blog traffic.  Most work on the same basic premise.  Readers can "stumble" or "digg" your blog post, also called a social bookmark, basically giving it an endorsement where they can write a review and give the post a rating. 

With enough hits, your blog post will begin to appear on popular lists within those sites, driving more traffic, and more diggs, etc.  This is referred to as "viral" traffic growth.  As more people become come to your blog post, the amount of diggs increases at a faster and faster pace as more people bookmark it.  This can also lead to others posting links to your content or referencing your blog which will increase your Google ranking for both that post and your blog in general.

So then how do you do it? 

The best way is to add a multi-functional button such as the button offered by AddThis.  That way, you don't have to create links to each of the bookmarking sites individually.

So here is a step-by-step on how to do this.  This is how I am installing the button onto this blog post.

1.  Go to www.AddThis.com and get the html code.

2.  Finish your blog and save as draft.

3.  Re-Open Your Blog and go to html tab - Don't be intimidated!

4.  Paste your code at the very end of the html.

5. Delete the "AddThis Button BEGIN" and "Button END" text.

6.  Add your tags and categories and save your blog as public.

You're done!  It's that simple.

The share button below will appear on your website and will link automatically to your specific blog post if someone likes it enough to bookmark it.

Like this post?  Bookmark it!