Guest Post: 5 Tips to get more out of your AddToAny Button!
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010This is a guest post by Mike Glozman of CheapStingyBargains.com, a site for coupons, deals, bargains, and freebies.
We recently implemented AddToAny for our deal and coupon site CheapStingyBargains.com. We went over many sharing application options, and we felt that AddToAny was the easiest and best solution for our site. Below are some quick tips that will help you implement AddToAny on your site, and get more out of some of its capabilities.
Tip #1: Place AddToAny in a prominent position
If you want people to share your stuff, you have to make sure they can see the button! We chose to use AddToAny for every deal and coupon on our site and place it in the deal navigation bar where visitors are sure to see it.

Tip #2: Choose a good size button
It’s easy for webmasters and other web savvy folks to think that people will understand small buttons that use a simple plus sign, or even an “f” for Facebook, but we’ve found we see the best results when things are clear and easy to understand. Even though AddToAny has options for the minimalist, we preferred going with a larger button with “+ Share / Save” that clearly conveys to the visitor what its functionality is. If you have more room, there are even bigger, more informational options.

Tip #3: Prioritize popular services that appeal to your users
One of the features I really love about AddToAny is the ability to prioritize the services that will work best with your site. When it comes to sharing deals, Twitter and Facebook have proved to be the most popular for our site. With AddToAny, I was able to limit the initial drop down menu choice to our most popular services. The code to do this was simple:
<script type="text/javascript">a2a_num_services = 4;</script>
(Make sure you add this code before the main AddToAny JavaScript if you are customizing it manually. Editor’s note: Also be sure to read about AddToAny’s new API!)
Tip #4: Consolidate sharing services
Before AddToAny we had an email sharing link, a “Tweet this deal” and a “Subscribe to Comments” function. With AddToAny I was able to consolidate three links into one button. Again, this consolidation helps meet our overall goal, to increase use by offering simplicity to our visitors.
Tip #5: Promote important pages by placing an AddToAny button
At CheapStingyBargains, we consider ourselves experts when it comes to finding computer coupons and deals, so we added the AddToAny button so visitors can share our most popular deals like Dell Coupons and HP Coupons. Consider putting the button on your most popular pages as well.
I hope you found these tips helpful, but remember: never stop testing. Try AddToAny in new locations, try different colors, etc. Find out how your visitors share, and optimize for each way. I would love to hear some of your tips!


