Blog Tip Thursday: Sexy Bookmark Plugin

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Running a WordPress website makes it easy for website owners to do what they do best, provide valuable information to their readers about their specific topic.

Creating this specialized content can be time consuming and you hope it’s worthy of a share from your readers. Enter Sexy Bookmark, although this plugin is compatible with other Content Management platforms, I will be focusing on WordPress for this post.

The Sexy Bookmark plugin is super easy to install on your wordpress site via the backend. Simply download it directly to your computer through http://www.shareaholic.com/media/downloads/sexybookmarks-4.0.6.7.zip, no need to open this file, simply upload it to your WordPress site.

Log into your WordPress site and navigate over to the “plugins” section, click on “add new”. Once there, select the “upload” link right below the heading “Install Plugins”.

A small window will show up prompting you upload your plugin. You will select the sexy bookmarks .zip file you just downloaded on your computer. When selected, hit the “install now” button you see there. If everything goes well, you will see a “Success” message.

If you’re running wordpress 3.3, you’ll see a Shareaholic link on the left side of your screen where the navigation is. You see it? click on it. In that section, you’ll be taken to where all the magic happens. Here is where you select the different networks you want to enable others to share to. There are quite a few displayed so take your time and really think about where your audience comes from and where they tend to hang out so you can make it easier for them to share.

The “Additional Buttons” & “Functionality Settings” sections are where you’ll customize how you want things to show on your website. Do you want a Facebook Like button above your post, below your post or in both places? How about displaying the amount of times your information has been shared? This is the place to do it.

The “Twitter Options” mini area shares your post automatically to Twitter by using the URL Shortener of your choice. I use bit.ly. To get your unique API Key at bit.ly, go to your name on the top right and select settings. You’ll find it there.

Plugin Aesthetics is where you select if you want your bookmarks to be animated by sliding up and down, and choosing what sharing action to display.

I leave the Compatibility Setting alone. I find it already comes preset alright.

The Menu Placement is where on your website you want Sexy Bookmarks to be placed, on posts, pages, above or below content, etc.

Have fun with it! After all, it’s sexy!

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