[Moogs]

Quick question for you blog-skillz-havin people. Many blogs these days display with each post something like this:



My question to youz guyz: if I want to "syndicate, proliferate, and edumacate" people on my blog posts... a) does this really help my cause, and b) do I need to have accounts with all the bookmarking sites in order for it to work (i.e. Digg account, Redit account, etc etc). OR is it all automated in the sense that it only matters if the people clicking on the buttons have the accounts?

Secondarily does anyone know the name of the widget that uses "pop-up" badges that sort of "peer out from underneath" the page until you mouse-over, then they pop up so you can click them?

[Found out the widget in question is Sexy Bookmarks... seems pretty straightforward to setup. AFAICT I only need a Twitter account, and then for all the others either no account or the person clicking needs the account. However I am such a noob with this stuff I don't want to read "Social Bookmarking; you did it wrong." six months from now when there's no traffic increase and I'm wondering why.]

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Moogs My question to youz guyz: if I want to "syndicate, proliferate, and edumacate" people on my blog posts... a) does this really help my cause

If the cause is to look like a social media douchebag, absolutely. It's a question of moderation, and that particular screenshot just looks… annoying to me. Something subtle like ShareThis, on the other hand? Sure.

Originally Posted by Moogs , and b) do I need to have accounts with all the bookmarking sites in order for it to work (i.e. Digg account, Redit account, etc etc). OR is it all automated in the sense that it only matters if the people clicking on the buttons have the accounts?

The latter. Those buttons make the clicker, not the author, post to those sites.

Originally Posted by Moogs Secondarily does anyone know the name of the widget that uses "pop-up" badges that sort of "peer out from underneath" the page until you mouse-over, then they pop up so you can click them?

I think you mean SexyBookmarks.

Originally Posted by Moogs [Found out the widget in question is Sexy Bookmarks... seems pretty straightforward to setup. AFAICT I only need a Twitter account, and then for all the others either no account or the person clicking needs the account. However I am such a noob with this stuff I don't want to read "Social Bookmarking; you did it wrong." six months from now when there's no traffic increase and I'm wondering why.]

Don't see why you would need an account.

[Moogs]

Thanks Chucker. Very good that I don't have to dick around with these bookmarking sites, etc. My head almost exploded when I first started using WP and was looking at all these commenting options (ping-backs, track-backs, spam concerns etc). In the end I just decided "screw it; if I have to spend half my life watching comments and moderating and being a good social networker, I'll never get a damn thing done." So, no comments on my blog. Sucks on one level but on another; it's a necessary sacrifice. How does anyone have time to keep track of all this stuff?

There are like 57.5 social bookmarking sites apparently. I thought there were about 8.

I definitely do NOT want to be Mr. Social Media Douchebag in training. I do not use Facebook for example and don't plan to as people use use it to drive traffic from one of their sites to another drives me nuts. Total ADD phenomenon IMO, built for kids... and many adults are forced into using it to connect with said kids. I just don't have the time or patience.

I simply want to use the three or four best bookmarking options to help promote my stuff in a non-in-your-face way. Make it easy for people to share specific posts or pages. Does 4 or 5 sexy bookmarks qualify as visually un-douchey? (And no, I will not use the "Sharing is Sexy" background image.)

[chucker]

Originally Posted by Moogs There are like 57.5 social bookmarking sites apparently. I thought there were about 8.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. I mean, I'm all for healthy competition, but this just doesn't work on a large scale.

Originally Posted by Moogs Does 4 or 5 sexy bookmarks qualify as visually un-douchey? (And no, I will not use the "Sharing is Sexy" background image.)

I think it's mostly about intent. You seem to have the right interests at heart — not to "drive traffic to your site", but to simply make your voice heard. Good for ya.

[Moogs]

Yah I'm definitely not a page rank whore or anything like that. Just a case of wanting the right people out there to know I exist / my products exist. Trying to use Twitter, my domain / main site, and vimeo to get some good content out there and be in contact with the larger world without being a "I'll follow you if you follow me" type. I love those people whose Twitter accounts basically have nothing unique or interesting posted, and they have 3000 followers and are following 2988.

Like you can't figure out what that's all about as a viewer. Gee I wonder. I detest marketing gurus because they cause so many of these people to just go out there and blab away / follow away without any thought to who they're following or what they're posting. Basically ruins the effectiveness of the medium.

And as long as I'm ranting about marketers and social media, Seth Godin needs a boot to the head (even if he can give a funny speech). Go read the reviews on Amazon for that guy's 12 books, skipping the 5 Star, 2 liner reviews (he gives away tons of reviewers copies for the price of "an Amazon review"), and 1 star reviews. You'll find the people who are being honest were all excited about the book, and then discovered (shocker) that there's no concrete advice in the book and/or it's just a respun collection of tips from another book he wrote 2 years earlier. "Be a true artist, be indispensible... be a linchpin..." I think Seth Godin is the master of saying nothing and getting people to believe he's the smartest guy on earth. His books are big on "sounds great" and woefully short on "ok how do I do that as a _____ professional?"

[Brad]

I know I'm probably an outlier, but I actually have an extension enabled to turn that share/follow/retweet/digg/etc. crap off.

Shellfish
http://open-bits.com/shellfish/

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by Brad I know I'm probably an outlier, but I actually have an extension enabled to turn that share/follow/retweet/digg/etc. crap off. Shellfish http://open-bits.com/shellfish/

/Installed

And there was much rejoicing.

[Moogs]

Actually, if I were a hypocritical bastard, I'd install that too!

I totally get why you would do that. There are so many sites that have a row of 15 icons plastered top and bottom of the page that in certain cases it ends up cluttering. In my case I really have a bare-bones layout and no ads, etc so hopefully it doesn't turn people off.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by Brad I know I'm probably an outlier, but I actually have an extension enabled to turn that share/follow/retweet/digg/etc. crap off. Shellfish http://open-bits.com/shellfish/

Great "share this" Brad! I've just installed it.

[drewprops]

I recently had a blog post that 'went viral' in the local nerd community.

Google Analytics shows that it's had 4,617 visitors so far.

Facebook was responsible for over HALF of that traffic.

The Facebook traffic was recorded in many manners, certainly some of it from the Add This plugin. I don't like having lots of javascript calls from the little Add This pop-up underneath each article because it really does affect page load, but you have to decide if you want to share stuff.

People who do this for a living ought to have good metrics to use to weigh the pros and cons.

The rest of us wing it


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[turtle]

I think being choosy about who many options you give is more important. The example at the opening of this thread is just horrible and what annoys me more than any other. It's why I love NoScript in Firefox.

[drewprops]

Thanks to Brad (I believe) I'm now familiar with Safari's developer tools and have been watching load times on my sites to see how fast the caching system I have works. It sometimes sits there for a loooong time which naturally freaks me out and makes me wonder if it's something to do with scripting problems associated with those plugins.


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[Moogs]

Hard to find concrete information on which to use and which are redundant but going to go with Twitter, StumbleUpon, BuzzUp, and Del.icio.us for now. Sounds like DIGG and REDDIT have lost some of their popularity and/or are now redundant with some other popular sites.

Any of you guys have preferences AFA what you use (either as a web master or reader of sites)?

[Brad]

Reddit has actually jumped in traffic/popularity/hits/whatever over the past couple months, apparently much at Digg's expense thanks to Digg's recent user-unfriendly site redesign.

[drewprops]

Originally Posted by Brad Reddit has actually jumped in traffic/popularity/hits/whatever over the past couple months, apparently much at Digg's expense thanks to Digg's recent user-unfriendly site redesign.

That's what they're saying. I failed at generating a serious discussion over in General Discussion last week when I posted a discussion about how some well trafficked sites (like DIGG) have recently shot themselves in the foot with poorly considered redesigns. The good thing about making a site less attractive is that it breaks its hold on users who may be addicted to visiting the site, allowing them to escape to other pursuits!


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[Moogs]

Yah I did read about the unpopular re-design. Hrm. Maybe I'll go with Reddit for a while, then Digg and see what kind of love each site generates. It's all Polynesian to me anyway.

[drewprops]

I'm now considering simply going with Facebook connect.

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by Brad I know I'm probably an outlier, but I actually have an extension enabled to turn that share/follow/retweet/digg/etc. crap off. Shellfish http://open-bits.com/shellfish/

Less automatic, but more fun...

The Kick Ass bookmarklet which allows you to play Asteroids with page elements (and your own Pew! Pew! noises).

[Moogs]

Originally Posted by Curiousuburb Less automatic, but more fun... The Kick Ass bookmarklet which allows you to play Asteroids with page elements (and your own Pew! Pew! noises).

That is genius. Imagine the fun you could have at the expense of people who don't understand the web (at all) and just had Quicken build them a site or something.
"OK, you wanna be like that? Check THIS out... I'm going to trounce your web site, bitch!"

"OMG WTF ARE YOU DOING!??!? Edna call the lawyer!"

[drewprops]

I just added a plugin that puts the Facebook LIKE button at the beginning of the article....will be interested to see what happens with that in place.



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