SexyBookmarks – Sharing is Sexy Plugin
As it is written in the title of this paragraph, wp sexybookmarks plugin is the most popular social media wordpress plugin that I often see, used by many bloggers in their blogs.
Actually last year, I have created floating social media buttons video tutorial where you can add those social buttons yourself in the post page only.
If you also notice, I have it in almost every pages in this blog, such as, home page, about page, and sitemap page.
I have once installed wp sexybookmarks plugin in this blog, and it did look great, so no wonder, it is loved by wordpress users.
Anyhow, in my second theme, which was not this theme, (related: reasons to use Thesis theme) I failed on displaying wp sexy bookmark.
So I actually got it installed, and configured, but it did not display in the post page like I wanted it. It was only black like I have never installed it.
If this is also happening to you, I suggest you to change your theme, mine was fixed that way. I change the theme, and it worked and displayed perfectly.
SexyBookmarks Plugin – Why I don’t use it
Sexybookmarks is without doubt a top social plugin and very useful one as helping you to submit or bookmark your post or article to social bookmarking sites in a very fast way. (related: dofollow bookmarking sites).
However, I personally do not use this SexyBookmarks plugin as I want to increase my loading speed, this is why, I avoid using too much images, especially small images.
Plus the JavaScript will add my external JavaScript link which in this blog (see screenshots below), is already slowed down by many javascripts, especially, from Google adsense. (Related: AdSense slows blog’s loading)
In the other side, I really love the look of SexyBookmarks plugin as it is cool and have so many social media website options, be it with the icons and its functionality.
At first I did not know what kind of a plugin which displays, “sharing is sexy” and soon I knew it was a really great and useful plugin, SexyBookmarks .
SexyBookmarks Plugin Video Review – Video Tutorial How I would install and configure it
Although I don’t use this plugin, but because of huge amount of bloggers who use this popular SexyBookmarks plugin, I created this video some months ago.
Yes, I have created some videos that I wanted to post, but because of posting video really needs a while, I just can post once in a while.
Video Tutorial:
Basically, installing SexyBookmarks plugin is very simple, like when you install wp plugin, but there are some points which I have to highlight:
1. Configure Custom Tweet Template.
Take a look at the screenshot below, to modify that tweeting template, I would change @shareaholic with your Twitter username accordingly.
2. General Functionality Options.
These are the options which I think the most important of any other options in sexybookmarks configuration page.
a. Add Nofollow to the links – Yes
I choose yes, and “Yes” is also ticked by default as we should not pass link juice to those social media websites. If we put dofollow link, imagine we have those icons in every post pages, and count how many external links we would have.
b. Open Links in New Window – Yes
This is also enabled by default, and I also would not change this option because opening those social websites in a new window of your readers browser will definitely help reducing bounce rate in your website.
When they are landed in a new window for social media websites, your readers will still be able to view and stay on a page in your blog.
c. Show Shareaholic Promo – Up to you
In fact, because you can use Shareaholic without cost, it would be nice if you give credit to the plugin developer, but it is optional.
Showing this promo can also be helpful for your readers, because if they like the plugin you use, they would wonder, “what kind of plugin is this” and it already shows the promo, they will know immediately without asking or contacting you.
If you would want to hide “Get Shareaholic for firefox” wording under the SexyBookmarks icons, you would tick “No” in this option.
3. Menu Placement – Menu location (in relation to content) option.
This is also important to mention, I would choose “Below Content” and select, “Post Only” in the drop down menu, under “Posts, Pages, or the whole shebang” wording.
My reason is, I would like to keep everything simple, and want my readers to bookmark posts and not pages or home page.
Don’t forget to click “Save Changes” button after you are done adjusting your modifications..
But again, this is a personal preference, and I already mentioned earlier, that’s how I would configure wp SexyBookmarks plugin, share your configurations? 🙂
i agree plugins really arent needed specially these sopcial plugins suck up the load time.i manually insert the codes and then add some css….;-)