AddThis button for individual posts on a WordPress.com bLog
After a lot of faffing about, I’ve finally decided on the best way to integrate social bookmarking with my bLog: AddThis. The AddThis php applet is able to forward the reader from the current site (and carry the address of the page with it) to any of the popular social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg, etc. For example, pasting this code:
<a title=”Bookmark and Share” href=”http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=krisrowland” target=”_blank”><img style=”border:0″ src=”http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/lg-share-en.gif” alt=”Bookmark and Share” width=”125″ height=”16″ /></a>
into my post (in HTML mode) will produce a button like:
All the reader has to ensure is that the HTML address shown in the address bar of the browser is the address they wish to bookmark/add (see UPDATE below for a reasonably easy way around this). For example, if reading a bLog post via the bLog’s main page and trying to use the applet, the root HTML address of the bLog itself will be forwarded, not the post address. In this case, the post itself should be loaded (by clicking the title, say) and then the AddThis button should be clicked.
Your own button can be customised from the AddThis button maker site.
I’ve added an AddThis button to the widget bar to the right. To share a particular post, load the individual post first (click on the title), then click the AddThis button.
UPDATE: I just found an easier way to customise the AddThis button for individual posts such that clicking the button in the post from anywhere in the bLog will forward the post’s permalink. The technique still essentially requires manual editing of the button’s HTML, but by using Netty Gritty’s bookmarklet technique, the manual editing is made much more simple and streamlined.
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Cool. I’d suggest you implement the button to open on hover vs click. You’ll get a lot more shares.
I know. I run products for Clearspring/AddThis
Thanks Joel. Interesting trick. I’ll give it a go.
Upon looking into it, it’s clear that WordPress.com bLogs simply can’t support the Java and/or php code snippets given by AddThis.com for mouse-over behaviour. I’ve updated the post to link to other sites discussing similar things. It’s a real shame, too, because it’s definitely more functional (as you point out)
thanks, i’d been looking all over to find out how to put this on the blog… I even wasted 15 bucks on the css upgrade for no reason…lol
No probs. I still think the CSS upgrade is worth it, though. Even small changes can make a big difference to the feel of a bLog. Glad you found the post useful
Dear krisrowland,
Thanks for the mention of my work. As for the hover option suggested by Joel Pulliam, it is absolutely impossible for wordpressdotcom. The hover option requires javascript, something wp doesn’t allow its users to use.
So Javascript support is the issue >_< I guess it’s a sacrifice we’ll have to make if WordPress.com are to continue hosting secure bLogs… Oh well. Thanks Netty