Adding social network ranking buttons is now even easier with Blogspot and Boostpost!

If you have a Blogspot blog, adding Boostpost services is now even easier. From your dashboard, you can now choose the Layout tab, then click on any of the links which read "Add a Gadget". A new window will appear and if you search for "boostpost" you will be presented with a new Gadget to use.



Once you click on the "plus" icon, you will be taken to the settings screen where you can specify a title and the services to use for your widget. By default, there are several services listed. These are examples of the services you can choose to include in your widget. Of course, you can choose any of the services in Boostpost by simply typing in the name of the service in the textbox beside "Choose Services" and then clicking on the "Add" button. (Hint: in most cases, the service name is the same as the domain name without the "http://www." or ".com"...and converted to UPPER CASE).

If you click "Save" in the "Configure Gadget" window, the gadget will be added to your blog. You can drag the gadget to different areas of your blog until you find the location that suits you best.

One thing you may notice is that by default, the widget will have the word "Boostpost" written above it. You can change this by clicking on the "Edit" link within the layout window.
When the "Configure Gadget" window opens, remove the text from the Title textbox. This will leave the textbox blank, but that's OK because the goal is to have the gadget integrate seamlessly into your blog. Save the gadget and view the results in your blog. You should now see the social network ranking buttons in your blog with no other indicator like a title or anything. As well, the background color or image should match with the background of the buttons.

If you have any difficulties, please either comment on this blog posting, or visit the Boostpost Contact Page for more support.

Rewarding your active readers may be the most vital part of your blog posts

What kind of reader presses the Digg button to vote for your blog posting? Are they special? Have you ever put yourself in their shoes? What is their incentive to be the first to break your story to a site like Digg?

Think about it. Have you ever found out about a big event and told a friend only to find out they already knew about it? Most likely, you were let down. There is something in our basic human composition that thrives on being the first one to break the story. Careers, tv shows, even entire industries are based solely on that principle: break the story, you win.

So how much of a disappointment must it be for an avid follower of your blog to read a new post and discover that someone else has already submitted it to Digg? Who else can they break the story to?

Digg is a terrific site and certainly has a great deal of reach. But if you put Digg into the context of the internet as a whole, the audience of Digg is actually pretty small. So to have a reader who thrives on breaking the story leave your blog because there was no option other than Digg through which to break the story is an opportunity missed.

Boostpost helps change all that. Using the Boostpost button or widget, readers of your blog can see if your post has been exposed on any one of over 50 social networks. True, an avid reader may not be able to be the first to break the story to Digg. But what about BlogEngage? Propeller? Or Blottix? Now, seeing those networks have not been exposed to your post, avid readers can break the story to new audiences. It may sound cliche, but it truly is a win, win, win. Your avid readers win, because they can break the story even if major players like Digg already have your post. You win, because your link is added to a new site (which is actually better for your SEO than a second vote in Digg), and new social networks will be exposed to your work. And the new social network also wins, because new audiences will help build their reach. That in turn will help boost your post even more.

Boostpost helps change the options for your most important audience members: active readers. Give them the opportunity to break the story and you may be surprised at the results.

Technical problems

So I was speaking with the owner of BlogEngage and it turned out that there was a pretty nasty bug in the implementation of the Boostpost button. We were getting an "access denied" error, so I needed to make a change to perform a safer (from a browser point of view) implementation. The result is that now there should be few (or zero?) defects regarding the button.

If that is untrue, please comment!!!

First Post

Boostpost is a service which allows bloggers and website owners to add a button to their posts which allows readers quick and easy access to social network buttons like those found on Digg.com, Reddit.com, and Yahoo’s Buzz. There are 50+ services available, and webmasters can choose which services to include for their readers. The presentation of the social network buttons is uniform, and the emphasis here is ease of use.

The site takes the concept of bookmarking and keys in on a specific niche: social networks. Services such as “AddThis”, “AddToAny”, or “ShareThis” offer a 1 stop shopping approach to all services, whereas Boostpost is focused only on sites similar to Digg. This caters to a more specific need for both the webmaster and the reader.

Readers may also add a bookmarklet which allows them to take any URL and find out how it ranks among the 50+ services in Boostpost. This “at a glance” access means avid readers can actively promote the posts they favor via one central control panel, or “boostpage”.

Webmasters can also take advantage of revenue sharing via their Adsense Client ID. When adding the Boostpost button or widget to their site, if readers click on the “Boost” icon, they will be taken to the site’s “boostpage”. Advertising shown on this page will produce revenue shared between the originating site and Boostpost.