This 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!

Over the past couple weeks we have been rolling out a new sharing menu API for AddToAny.  Our primary goal was to make AddToAny self-contained while maintaining perfect backwards compatibility with our old API.

What’s new?

Essentially, the new API is just a new syntax for customizing AddToAny, though we have exposed a few new customizations and techniques that you’re welcome to try out.

What’s changed?

Aside from the optional new syntax, most of the changes are under the hood.  Instead of configuring AddToAny using global variables, which in theory could collide with other global variables, you can now configure AddToAny under one self-contained object, a2a_config.  Additionally, the single object method offers a slight speed gain in modern browsers, and occasionally a noticeable difference in older A-Grade browsers on JavaScript-heavy pages.  Speaking of which, AddToAny’s intensive support for all A-Grade browsers (and more) continues with our long held believe that sharing should be quick and easy for as many devices and user-agents as possible, both old and cutting edge.

Transitioning to the new API

While transitioning to the new API is optional at this point, there are some important aspects to note.

• All transitioned properties take the same name as their legacy global counterparts
• Future properties will not have a supported global equivalent
• Be careful with syntax and handling of the a2a_config object
• Definitely check out the thorough examples and documentation, and list of available properties

If you have any questions or run into any problems at all, feel free to get in touch with us directly.  Happy early Valentine’s Day!

We have begun rolling out a significant update to AddToAny’s Google Analytics integration for sharing stats.  The update brings easier access to AddToAny sharing analytics and makes social media and bookmarking reports much more powerful and elegant!

See the new AddToAny sharing analytics guide!

Keeping a watchful eye on Google’s analytics offerings, a few months ago we were extra-happy to see Google Analytics officially announce event tracking for everyone.  The ubiquity of Google Analytics event tracking has allowed us to update AddToAny’s Google Analytics integration to track each share as an event and to appropriately bucket all events into actions & labels within a single category.  With this enhancement, AddToAny brings you more useful and intuitive sharing stats within the analytics dashboard you already use.

With AddToAny’s G.A. integration, you could traditionally access detailed reports on:

• Top shared content
  • Which pages are visitors sharing and saving the most?
  • How many shares or saves for each page?
• Top destinations (including e-mail and browser bookmarking)
  • Which services are visitors sharing or saving to?
  • How many shares or saves for each service?

With the new G.A. integration, the above reports are easier to access and you can additionally:

• Drill down by content
  • Which services are used the most for a certain page?
  • How many shares or saves per service for a certain page?
• Drill down by service
  • Which pages are the most shared or saved to a certain service?
  • How many shares or saves per page for a certain service?

For those wondering, the new method indeed replaces the old access method.  So instead of filtering reports by addtoany.com, you can access your social bookmarking stats in two clicks or less from your Google Analytics dashboard.

With no further ado, check out the updated AddToAny Google Analytics guide, and go check out your stats!