Margaret Duarte

Visionary Fiction

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A Beginner’s Introduction to the AddToAny Widget Button

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So, what’s an AddToAny widget button?

I’m sure you’ve seen one before. 

And it’s usually found at the bottom of a post or website.

This is a free way to boost traffic back to your site by making it easier for visitors to share your content.  All they have to do is click the widget and viola!

Your reader is transferred to a page called Share and Bookmark, which includes links to:  E-mail, Facebook, Blogger Post, Google Reader, Gmail, MySpace, Hotmail, and Twitter, to name just a few.

Save the Share Button and Subscribe page to your Favorites, and whenever you want to add the AddToAny widget button to a post, you can get the button code, save it (Ctrl C) and paste it to the bottom of your post (Ctrl V).

Then check Preview to test your button.

It’s suggested that you specify the page URL before you download your button code.  Mainly as an extra safeguard in case people have JavaScript and/or HTTP referrers disabled in their browsers.  You can read more about this in FAQ. Blooper Tip:  Since I’m still such a newbie, I skip this extra safeguard and have so far gotten along fine.

If you plan to place this “AddToAny” Widget under every post in Blogger, CLICK HERE for instructions.

Blooper Tip:  Once you have published your post with an AddToAny button, don’t try to chance or edit your post in any way or the AddToAny button becomes obsolete and your readers will not be able to use it.

An easy way to add a share button to the bottom of your Blogger blog is to go to Dashboard Design, then Blog Posts Edit, then Configure Blog Posts and check Show Share Buttons.  This button doesn’t give your readers as many share options, but it’s easy and probably adequate for the beginning blogger.

It took me hours to figure this AddToAny widget stuff out for my Blogger blog.  Hope this saves you some time.

As always, thanks for stopping by,

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About Margaret Duarte

Former middle school teacher, Margaret Duarte, lives on a California dairy farm with a herd of “happy cows,” a constant reminder that the greenest pastures lie closest to home. Margaret earned her creative writing certificate through UC Davis Extension and has since published four novels in her “Enter the Between” visionary fiction series: Between Will and Surrender, Between Darkness and Dawn, Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, and Between Now and Forever. Her poem and story credits include SPC Tule Review; The California Writers Club Literary Review; finalist in the 2017 SLO Nightwriters Golden Quill Writing Contest; First Place winner for fiction in 2016, Second Place winner for fiction in 2018, Honorable Mention for fiction in 2019, and Gold winner for fiction in 2020 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PUBLISHERS AND AUTHORS Book Awards Competition; 2019 California Author Project winner for adult fiction.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. The Frantic Mother. says

    LOL. I have been at this awhile so I got it down a bit better then you I am guessing. If you need any help or have questions I'm your girl!

  5. Darcia Helle says

    I love the share widgets! But, honestly, did you ever think words like 'widget' and 'Tweet' would be part of our daily language? Sometimes I feel like I've dropped in from another planet!

  7. Lee Lopez says

    I love all your advice…It's so informative…As times goes on I learn more and more about blogging and who to build it, and transfers, widgets, what have you..I know more now then I ever thought I wanted to know about computers at all…

  9. Hank Brown says

    This sounds cool, margaret. But being a compulsive self-editor, I don't know how much good it would do me. This is probably a dumb question, but how do I get a simple "email me" button? I looked all through Blogger's widgetts and never found one.

    BTW, I'm following you as of now. My blog is http://twofistedblogger.blogspot.com.

    Hank

  10. Margaret Duarte says

    Hi Hank. I know what you mean about self-edits. No matter I careful I am, I always seem to find mistakes in my post after it's published. I used to go back and change the little stuff, but every so often (not always), I'd get into trouble with the AddToAny button. You can try it and see what happens. The Blogger share button, however, works regardless of changes (maybe because it's not put in the post itself, but below it in the "posted by" section). As far as a simple "email me" button, I haven't seen one. I give my email a separate page and a "contact" tab, as you see above. But there is a way to add an "automatic" message at the end of each post in Blogger where you could put your email message. I can't think of how to do it just yet (somewhere in settings is my guess), so I'll have to get back to you on that one. I didn't see you as a "Follower" on my blog. Do you go by a different name? I'll check your blog out soon. Thanks for stopping by.