Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

There are plenty of roundup posts about social bookmark plugins for WordPress. However, I have to ask: have you really tried them out before settling on the best, or did you pick the first one you found?

I am a real stickler when it comes to using plugins, especially social bookmark plugins. Why?

For several reasons:

1. Design – It looks good.
2. Convenience – Cuts my time down from hard coding social networking and social bookmarking icons into a layout.
3. It works. There are plugins that I have had to hard code around to get it to look right.

So, here is my list of social bookmarking plugins for WordPress sites.

Sociable

http://blogplay.com/
I use this plugin and regularly include it on all of my clients’ websites. It is easy to implement and includes a lot of selections to display. It also leaves room in case I want to customize my plugin later on without having to alter the plugin files directly.

Digg Digg

http://www.mkyong.com/blog/digg-digg-wordpress-plugin
I use the manual code for Digg Digg in my own websites. However, Digg Digg applies a floating Ajax powered plugin that kind of works like a fixed background- when you scroll down, the social bookmark area travels down. This is something that a lot of people saw first on Mashable.

Share This

http://sharethis.com/
Share This allows users to social bookmark to over 40+ websites.

Sexy Bookmarks

http://www.shareaholic.com/
This little social bookmark has some very cute icons that have a peek-a-boo effect when you hover over.

I Love Social Bookmarking plugin

http://www.milienzo.com/wordpress-plugins/i-love-social-bookmarking/
Provides a little drop down menu . Very simple plugin.

AddtoAny

http://www.addtoany.com/
This social bookmark plugin display a drop down menu that is clean and has many services to choose from. For some, it might be overwhelming. Others… well, they might just select them all.

Because of services like Add to Any and Share This, be aware that they could go down. You might want to avoid that. On the other hand, those services have been around for a while and are quite popular.

Another caution is Digg Digg. This plugin is update often and it is not unusual for the next update to be incomplete – does not display properly. It is a great plugin, but with this one, hold off a week. Typically the developer is pretty good at updating after people point out the bugs.

In using these types of plugins, select the services that are most relevant to your site. Some of the social bookmarking sites are focused on certain niches, so it would be pointless to include every single site.

What social bookmarking plugins do you use for your website?

Yep, you heard it. After #SharingSundays has gone so well, I thought… even though that is happening, what about social bookmarking. For me, I love all the social bookmarking communities out there, Digg above all. However, as much as there are a lot of blogs out there, people really are not sharing the bookmark love as they should.

So, that is why there will be #DiggingThursdays.

This is how #DiggingThursdays will work.

1. Submit your most recent post to Digg. (means you have to have a Digg account)

2. Get the digg link that comes up from your submission:

Go to your Digg profile page. For example, the Digg page for Nile Flores is http://digg.com/blondish

You should see a list of your recent submissions. In the yellow digg box, which should say the number of diggs and underneath “dugg”, it should read. Right click and copy the link. That link should have the digg.com in it.

3. Go to the Facebook fanpage for Nile Flores and submit that link.

4. Please try to click and digg any link there that has been submitted.

The purpose is to exchange your bookmark and help your fellow bloggers. For some, this might be a habit, but for others, social bookmarking has not been much of a focus. Your recognition after reading another’s post is important. It tells others that even if you do not agree, that you do recommend it. Some of the social bookmark sites are also great for link juice too. Digg is one of them.

Those who do participate, like the #SharingSundays, I will post a roundup recap.

Sound great? Will you participate?

Digg has been a wonderful place to social bookmark articles and share with others, but after the Digg version 4 upgrade announced by Kevin Rose on August 25th, there has been an enormous amount of negative responses.

The social bookmarking site now allows more emphasis on followers, rather than the merit of articles. Some users are reporting that the new version will need a new iPhone application. On the Digg Facebook Fan Page, any visitor will immediately see a flood of negative responses.

Is it enough for people to move to Reddit, the social bookmark site for spammers? Yeah, that was harsh… but it is true.

Social bookmark sites have always been one sort of site where your article was king, rather than who followed you. The majority of people commented at your site, but used the remote button to vote or ‘digg’ your article. Digg is merely changing it up and adding the social network side.

Personally, I am not keen on it. I do not have too much time to visit digg and converse with people. I do that at Facebook and Twitter. I already social bookmark articles like crazy every day after the fact I commented. While I do not like the networking aspect because I have no time for it, I do like that if I do get a chance to visit, that I can find my friend’s articles a lot easier.

The design looks nicer of course. As a web designer I cannot deny that. I will still use Digg as I usually do.

What are your thoughts about the Digg version 4 update?

I was talking to a local business owner about social networking and websites. In fact it was my son’s karate instructor who has been in business for many years and has a very good reputation in his field. He has trained with the best too! His name is Lyle Huff and he manages the 5 Rings Mixed Martial Arts dojo in Centralia, Illinois.

We got to talking about businesses who believe that just having a social network handle alone would not cut it. He said and I paraphrase “Whoever thinks that is crazy.”

I laughed because even though it was funny… it was TRUE!

I love to meet new people, especially business owners and this was a true joy to hear from someone who has been doing business for a while, passionate about what they do, and have made an honest reputation.

It is hard and takes work to build a dojo, especially in small towns. In fact, any business can be difficult. However, bringing it online gives a face to the business and the surrounding community. However, having just a Facebook account alone or even a Twitter account will not cut it! A blog is also a tool. You should have a website. You should also connect at forums and communities relevant to your field.

Only using a social network is like “cutting off your nose despite your face.” You have the opportunity to tell people about your business, why not find out how? There are so many people online, including myself that give free advice on how to do this.

Is social media that intimidating to some? It is just another form of marketing.

You do not have to have loads of money to do these things. However, you do need to invest your time and some money. A well rounded presence online will increase your chances of being heard and possibly be the person that others will want to know, even do business with.

Have you heard people talk about it this? Or have you talked to anyone who has a business and has not made that next step?

Social bookmarking has been a great tool for webmasters and bloggers to push their content to the masses. There are sites that obviously weigh in on their power to help attract traffic while others are struggling. Social network sites in a way have contributed to social bookmarking in a way as live streams like Twitter are crawled and documented by Google. However, they are not “social bookmark” sites.

Though you may be apt to join larger communities, it may suit your interest if you find smaller social bookmark communities that have a concentrated interest in your niche. For example, WPVote is specifically gear toward people who talk about anything WordPress related. Top Roundups is focused on articles that have lists (roundup articles.) Blogrity is very new and in beta mode, but hopes to use a wide topic range, but it is a social bookmark site dedicated to bloggers.

Of course, you will want to join Digg, Delicious, Reddit, and many others that are large and have been around for years. However, do not cut yourself short.

The great things are that these social bookmark sites are an asset for bloggers and webmasters because it allows people to find your article in a community setting. You are allowing them to either discuss your article on the social bookmark site or within your site, which both attract traffic. Of course, just bookmarking your links will not make your site succeed alone. If you are a person that is writing to connect with others, you will have to reach out and talk with your readers. In return, this will build a relationship that may keep them coming back to view what you have to say.

Do you use social bookmarking sites? If so, has it helped improve your site? What social bookmark sites do you recommend people using?

As a few know (and for those who do not, now you do know), I intern for the wiki named FanHistory.com. Unfortunately in the past they were banned from Digg because of apparent spamming, and partially past wankage (wank), this is a case based on a past grudge. This was done originally as one of those ‘I am excited to have a site, but not exactly aware of how to properly promote my content.’

However, after some time, I thought that I would contact Digg and ask them to reconsider their stance, since I could not even bookmark some of FanHistory’s blog entries. Although it seemed I received a human response about reconsidering, I am willing to bet that no matter even if FanHistory becomes a very informational resource (which it has become to an extent. Example: There was an article called Trending Topics: 5 Ways Companies Used News Trends for Business Success on Mashable not long ago), that Digg may have been just have looked, replied, and then deleted.

In fact, this is the reply I got (and Digg was great at replying promptly, just so you know):

Does Digg differentiate between spam and spamming?

Spam is very subjective. Many times, the spammer honestly doesn’t think they are spammers, so we generally leave that up to the Digg community to decide with the report/bury feature. We may delete users who blatantly and consistently submit obvious spam. Additionally, comment spam is against our TOS and will result in an account ban or deletion, depending on the severity. Submission spamming is different because it may be quality content but the submitter is “spamming” every story from their blog/site. While we welcome users to submit their own content, overdoing it often incites the users to mark the user as a spammer, the site as a spam site, and otherwise decent content as blogspam. We recommend considering this before you engage in this activity. Remember, if domains are consistently buried and reported as spam, the site may be
banned.

Because unblocking your domain would not be in line with the best interests of the larger Digg community, we cannot reverse this decision. But we’ll take your feedback into consideration.

So basically Digg even says that submitting your own blog content to Digg on your own account can be considered blog spam by them. Now, I can see spamming off topic material that constantly asks people to purchase something is definitely spam. However, good articles… what is the point if you cannot get your own content out there in the community. Also, you cannot like your own posts and submit them?

So I guess I should come to a point about this by now. Be careful about what and how you bookmark your articles on any social bookmark site. When you sign up, read the site’s terms of service. Even if you think it is dumb, it could save you a headache later on. Ignorance may not save you from an being unbanned later down the road because the site rules are available and easily accessible. In fact, these services do not try to hide them because if they did, it could look bad.

Should social bookmarking places like Digg look further into what classifies as blog spam? What do you think?

(Note: This is not an attack on Digg. I like their services, but I think more should be done in the area of classifying spam.)

So, I guess I should make it at least official. Blogrity is a social bookmark site built with the WordPress core. Of course, the site is pretty raw on design, but it is functional, and I am hoping that some of you might try signing up and submit your links to the site. I am just at the point that I need people to try it out, feel free to give some imput, and hopefully through that, I can add more features.

One thing on mind once I get to a comfortable point, I develop and will offer up to my own ‘digg’ type button that you can bring back to your website, or perhaps offer it to the other places like Sociable or that like so bookmarking your links will be easier.

For categories, I am not going to get too detailed on the categories. I would like them to not exactly resemble Digg’s categories where sometimes the article might not fit. I will be open to adding more general categories. I want to thank Webmasterish for some of the help provided along the way to get to this point. In fact, I probably should have mentioned the site before.

Do you think you might try out Blogrity?

I had the most interesting encounter in Reddit recently with a user who accused me of blog spam. Of course, having a slight understanding of what the term was, but not that it was a real term, I decided to do a little research. I know this might sound a bit know-it-all, but I am almost certain other bloggers have run into these type of users who really have no idea what spamming entails, especially in regards to blogging and using social media in the social networking and social bookmarking communities. In fact, not one, but 2 of my articles that were top roundups about WordPress layouts I found that were handy for certain webmasters looking for those type of themes were accused the the same user.

So, here is what I found and how not to blog spam.

According to Wikipedia,

Spam in blogs (also called simply blog spam or comment spam) is a form of spamdexing. It is done by automatically posting random comments or promoting commercial services to blogs, wikis, guestbooks, or other publicly accessible online discussion boards.

In my case, I manually bookmark and share my links, or my visitors graciously do this, so in my case, and since my posts really have not been commercial in nature do not constitute as such. You are within your rights to share your blog or other links in any social network or social bookmarking system. In fact, most of their services highly encourage it, but they also warn about spamming. So it is a use at your risk type of situation. If the article is not yours, you are required to give credit, but you are still able to share those links anywhere.

It is when you post unrelated material to those networks and keep doing so in a manner that may be assumed that you are trying to force people to go to that link. No matter if your articles or the ones you plug are commercial or not, you have to be certain that others will not take offense to such material. For example, in Twitter, there are users that will send you reply messages and try to get you to try their product. After further look into the matter, you will find that the person has contacted many other users with the same or similar message. That is spam. Even if the message is to go to a blog, that is blog spam.

You could also create this when publishing paid to blog articles as well. How? Well, if your sponsored posts have no relevancy to your site’s focus, some of your visitors may feel that you are spamming them. Make sure to choose paid post opportunities that fit as closely to your blog’s niche.

What constitutes as blog spam to you? What other suggestions can you make to avoid the possibility of blog spamming? Have you ever been accused of spamming with your blog?