NB! My current social buttons are different now. But the post itself is an example how you can analyze your set of buttons.

We love social media buttons. It gives us a feeling, that we belong to social media. The more – the closer, right?

Wrong.

There is some certain limit for a number of social media buttons. And each and every blog should consider its own limit. Because.. in the end it is your page load time.

Social Media Buttons vs Markets

Why do we make our blogs look like those annoying markets and super-markets? Or you did not think about that?

Do you remember how annoying are sellers in the markets? “Buy it, buy it, buy it..” Well, blogs with tons of social media buttons look just like that – “Submit it, share, submit, please, share it, share it!”

Give Explanation for Each of Your Button

There is a way to identify your own appropriate number of buttons.

Just try to explain why you have this or that button. Consider social buttons’ efficiency on other blogs and see if there were any benefits for your blog.

If you see, that people only retweet and digg your stories, then leave only these two social media buttons and uninstall all 59 others :) You will improve your page load time and bounce rate – it’s 100% guaranteed.

Explanation for My Social Media Buttons

4 Social Buttons Above the Content:

First of all, I should mention that I have these buttons above the content, because they are the most effective for my blog and they should be on the first place.

1. «Retweet» button – there is no doubt, that this is a must-have button. Plus, since I offer updates via Twitter, I know, that I have a lot of people, who use Twitter;
2. «Share on Facebook» button – Though this button doesn’t work for me, I think it is my fault, because I still did not promote my blog on Facebook enough. But I know for sure, that there are billions of people, who use Facebook. I also can see, that those big Social Media guru sites like Mashable have this button and it works for them. That is why I think it will take some time for my blog to make «Share on Facebook» button effective;
3. «BlogEngage» button – this button works for me, because I know how to hit the front page of BlogEngage. I have done that several dozens of times and having this button on my blog is one of the little secrets for that;
4. «Google Buzz» button – I have installed this button just today, because there was an update of Digg Digg WordPress plugin. They have added it and I have decided to test it. If this will not show any result, I will remove it. Besides, gurus have this Google Buzz button and it seems that it works for them;

7 Social Media Buttons Below the Content

These buttons still don’t work for me. They just don’t bring me any worthy amount of web traffic. But I use them myself sometimes. Plus, SexyBookmarks look great, which adds its value to the general design of my blog. So.. That’s why I have just 7 of them, though the whole number of available SexyBookmarks is 87.

1. «Google Reader» button – Testing this one. Not sure, if someone has used it by now.
2. «Google Bookmarks» button – This one is great even for your own usage. When you type in your tags there, they are then displayed in Google search results right under your submitted item. Not sure if it has any SEO value, but my intuition says – it has;
3. «Digg» button – I used to Digg my stories.. But I’m tired of seeing them above my original stories in Google real-time search results. I leave this button for now, because there are still people, who are addicted with Digg. Plus, I might be wrong about Digg.. that’s why I’m still keeping it and testing its efficiency;
4. «Del.icio.us» button – This button is great. And it works for me. But the number of submissions to Del.icio.us is still too low. Let it be here for now;
5. «StumbleUpon» button – This one also works for me.. just like the previous one. People stumble my stories, but I have not seen any traffic spikes yet, because I don’t have a lot of time to spend on StumbleUpon meeting new stumblers and getting subscribers there;
6. «LinkedIn» button – The only reason for having this button is that I have heard a lot of it. I am planning to promote my LinkedIn account sometime;
7. «Mixx» button – Mixx is dofollow social bookmarking site. And it has a great SEO value for your blog. I’m using this button to submit my best articles. Not sure if someone else is using it;

That’s it! And, to tell the truth, while writing this post I have removed Sphinn and Facebook social buttons from SexyBookmarks, because I have not found any explanation for them.

***

What about you? Can you give explanation for each and every social media button on your blog? If not, why don’t you remove some of them?

***

Video Dessert: «Evolution of Dance»

The fantastic success! 137,5 millions of views on YouTube means something! I especially like what starts on the 3rd minute of the video :) You simply can’t stay indifferent to this guy and his video!

No, no, no… Don’t think, that this is another affiliate program. No.. This is another social bookmarking site, but not “another” at the same time. You can submit anything, that relates to blogging, and be sure – lots of people will see that.

This is strange, but I really would like to share some reasons why I think, that Blog Engage is fantastic for promoting your stuff.

Blog Engage community is rather young

Do you know what does it mean? Remember Digg.com, when it was just beginning? Those, who joined Digg at that stage, are now “Supreme Diggers“, and what they do sees almost everybody. That is, what you need, when you start your blogging or something else, that needs a lot of promotion.

Nice green-blue design

Don’t get me wrong, but I like it. Somehow.. it relaxes and makes you act. Two different things in one. Amazing, isn’t it? :)

Blog Engage community is sociable

I’ve never seen anything like this before. Ok.. my experience isn’t that big, but still.. I feel that, this is one of the best places to get some extra traffic to your website.

Your activity at BlogEngage.com equals your promotion

The more you vote, the more you add friends, the more you comment, the more you get those precious views of your own website. Though this system is almost everywhere, it has tremendous strength within the Blog Engage community. So be active, get more visitors. I’d say, that this is fair. Don’t you think that?

Adsense revenue sharing opportunity

I really hope, that this feature will be developed. Read about it.

By the way, sharing Adsense revenue is very clever promotional way to attract new visitors. You should note that and use some similar method for you.

My own proof as a reason

Don’t laugh. I’m just starting :) You can see from the archives how long I’ve been blogging. Did you have anything like this by the end of your 1st month of your blogging?

So.. from this screenshot you can see, that Blogengage.com is on the 3rd place. I should also tell you, that I’ve joined it a week ago. Not bad, huh? I believe, that it is.

So try it, if you still haven’t.

I’m not going to speak about how cool is Sphinn. I’m not going to persuade you to join it. If you know this website, then you’re, probably, already joined it.

Today I’d like to share some of my experience in promoting your website or blog at Sphinn.com . First of all, these essential tips (rules) will help you to avoid the termination of your account on Sphinn. You’ll be able to improve your promotion there. And.. that’s probably it for this topic.

Rule #1

Follow the Sphinn guidelines. The main tip here is that, when you’ve just signed up, do not submit more than once per twenty-four hours. It’s essential.
My first account was terminated, because of this. Sad.. but true. If you violate this rule, don’t panic. You have the second chance.

Rule #2

Do not submit your stuff. That’s crucial one.
Of course you want it. Just like I did at the very beginning. But that’s not smart. Moreover, there is no future for that method as well.

Rule #3

Submit others’ stuff. But keep the appropriate measure of it. As your first 7 days let you submit only 7 things, think better. You’re about to make your face on Sphinn. There are good moderators, that whether like you, or not. So be attentive.
Here’s my little example. As my first account was terminated (I’ve submitted more than once per day in the very beginning), I’ve registered another one. Then I’ve submitted my post about RSS directories, which is not bad at all. And guess what.. it was discarded by a moderator for the following reason:
“User was killspammed once, discarding this post, looks to be of little value.”
Wake me up! What was that? Did he remember me or what? Anyways, that’s why I recommend you to follow the rules.

Rule #4

Check the presense of your submission on Sphinn using search. If you duplicate someone’s topic, you have a good chance to be banned for spamming :).

Rule #5

Manage your profile. That’s your weapon. Use it on max. Take some time to get all of your links to your other profiles.
Pick the best photo of you or your website/blog.
Use the feature, that will show your RSS feed. I really think, that this is why you shouldn’t submit your own articles or posts at all. Because, if someone cares about your work, then he or she should discover it by himself or herself.

Rule #6

Comment as much as you can. Since this is the most efficient way to make people care. One by one they’ll start wondering who you are. And you’ll get what you’ve been working for. The promotion. The result.

Rule #7

Remember what is Sphinn about.

Sphinn’s niche is Internet Marketing News and Discussion Forums. Its Google pagerank is 6 and Alexa ranking is 5,926 now.
What’s the most important for your promotion is that Sphinn has no “nofollow” attribute on links. What means “nofollow”?

That’s it for this time. Enjoy your sphinning and meet me there as well :) – iWoodpecker on Sphinn.

Really, what do you wait? You have to know, because, as a result, it could be worse and that will upset you. You don’t want that. So let’s look at what you get, when you bookmark your website.

Any visitors?
Exactly. There could be some, but don’t pay attention on them.

Any visual result?
Probably. You’ll be able to find your website with some rare keywords.

PR raise?
Yes. That’s your aiming point. Your results of search queries would be higher with every certain amount of posts/articles.

How long should you bookmark your posts?
There is no certain point or limit. You’ll understand it yourself. You’ll recognize this time, when your visitors would begin to bookmark your posts without your wish.

As everything else, it’s just a part of your weapon in the war against your competitors. If you didn’t add your site to web directories – do it. Don’t forget about commenting on blogs, which also adds some strength to your PR.

Always look for new ways and know what to expect.

The easiest way to get your first (or extra) external links is to submit your pages (links) to social bookmarking websites. But then come several problems. What are the best social bookmarking sites? What’s better: “nofollow” or “dofollow” links? I’ve prepared the answers..

Firstly.. what means “nofollow” and “dofollow”?

1) NoFollow – this means, that Google’s crawlers will not follow and will not index your link. The posted link won’t be counted as an external link.. though it’ll bring you some fresh direct traffic! Cool, huh?

How do they look like?

PS Search engines like Yahoo don’t mind your “nofollow” links. They simply ignore “nofollow” attributes.

2) DoFollow – actually, there is no any “dofollow” meta tag. But that’s how is called a link, when it has no “nofollow” attribute. The good news is that search engine robots will index your “dofollow” links and that will raise your position in search results according to PR of the website, where you’ve submitted your link. Confused about that?
Check out this example.

OK, I hope the above info is clear enough. Now meet my collection of the best social bookmarking sites divided into “no follow” and “do follow” categories.

Updated on the 6th Apr. 2010

Scheme of the list: URL – Google Pagerank – Alexa ranking – note

NoFollow Social Bookmarking Websites:

1. www.reddit.com – 8 – 308 – “dofollow” > what’s hot, top and saved submissions, new and controversial > “nofollow”
2. www.digg.com – 8 – 106
3. www.delicious.org – 8 – 340
4. www.mister-wong.com – 8 – 2,217
5. www.slashdot.org – 7 – 1,245 – author links and all submissions that are not on the front page – “noffolow”
6. www.jumptags.com – 7 – 1,505 – you can also submit your RSS feed
7. www.blinklist.com – 7 – 3,799
8. www.bibsonomy.org – 7 – 5,175 – design is not attractive
9. www.2collab.com – 7 – 44,958 – due to spam attacks registration is closed… already more than 3 months, Alexa is falling;
10. www.diigo.com – 6 – 1,792
11. www.simpy.com – 6 – 9,734 – all of the submissions appear on the front page, though they stay there not too long
12. www.netvouz.com – 6 – 24,101
13. www.bookmarks.com – 6 – 38,365 – not social enough
14. www.faves.com – 5 – 3,639 – friendly looking
15. www.url.org – 5 – 5,374 – spammy
16. www.dropjack.com – 5 – 6,786 – spammy
17. www.clipclip.org – 5 – 17,934
18. www.humsurfer.com – 4 – 1,891 – India, World news, slow page loading;
19. www.getboo.com – 4 – 34,630 – old-looking site
20. – 4 – 58,824 – currently is spammed
21. www.dnhour.com – 4 – 66,592 – domaining
22. www.groxx.com – 4 – 95,709 – different news
23. www.wirefan.com – 3 – 9,714 – jumped from PR 0 to PR 3 on the latest PR update, spammy;
24. www.pr4links.com – 3 – 32,121 – desert-looking

DoFollow Social Bookmarking Websites:

1. buzz.yahoo.com – 8 – 4 – world news
2. www.mixx.com – 8 – 746 – great for social media blogs
3. www.propeller.com – 8 – 1,735 – great, but sometimes too slow, no anchor text in links to your pages
4. www.wikio.com – 8 – 2,198 – you can submit your RSS feed or publish an article, any topics, though tech news rule :)
5. www.slashdot.org – 7 – 1,245 – “dofollow” in posts on the front page;
6. www.folkd.com – 7 – 1,333 – spammy
7. www.metafilter.com – 7 – 2,042 – overlinked pages, world news
8. www.n4g.com – 7 – 2,369 – news for gamers
9. www.current.com – 7 – 3,001 – redirects, cloaking, not sure if it’s “dofollow”
10. news.ycombinator.com – 7 – 3,001 – hacker news
11. www.connotea.org – 7 – 5,364 – convenient, but not social, a simple bookmarker
12. www.dzone.com – 6 – 2,490 – for all kinds of developers
13. www.clipmarks.com – 6 – 3,117 – barely social
14. www.sphinn.com – 6 – 5,918 – SEO, blogging, cruel moderators
15. www.designbump.com – 6 – 10,093 – design, cool one
16. www.tipd.com – 6 – 11,965 – financial topics, barely social, the front page is PR 6, all the rest are PR 4
17. www.kwoff.com – 6 – 15,177 – spammy, problems with the design
18. www.buzzflash.net – 6 – 17,952 – barely social, only the front page is PR 6, all the rest are N/A
19. www.designfloat.com – 5 – 7,404 – design
20. www.mylinkvault.com – 5 – 7,160 – nice
21. www.buddymarks.com – 5 – 7,456 – spammy
22. www.spotback.com – 5 – 8,434 – strange
23. www.kirtsy.com – 5 – 9,233 – only the front page is PR 5, all the rest are N/A
24. blogengage.com – 5 – 12,158 – blogging
25. www.faqpal.com – 5 – 21,048 – blogging
26. scriptandstyle.com – 5 – 24,360 – design, cool
27. fwisp.com – 5 – 31,929 – finance, business
28. www.plugim.com – 5 – 38,412 – seems to be dead
29. www.ngopost.org – 5 – 48,983
30. fleck.com – 5 – 73,111 – small network, for bookmarks
31. www.socialogs.com – 4 – 9,872 – cloaking, not passing link juice
32. www.blurpalicious.com – 4 – 10,081 – spammy
33. www.postonfire.com – 4 – 10,376 – not sure if it’s working
34. www.quadriot.com – 4 – 13,473
35. www.rambhai.com – 4 – 16,678 – India news
36. thewebblend.com – 4 – 19,462 – cool, design
37. www.blogmarks.net – 4 – 20,589
38. www.memfrag.com – 4 – 24,089 – simple bookmarker
39. www.linkatopia.com – 4 – 62,851 – slowly dying
40. www.bloggerden.com – 4 – 70,155 – blogging
41. www.mmosocialnetwork.com – 4 – 70,449 – blogging
42. www.overflowlegal.com – 4 – 104,200
43. www.momshare.net – 4 – 129,119 – barely active, Mom-powered social news and networking
44. www.totalpad.com – 3 – 17,592 – only the front page is PR 6, all the rest are N/A
45. www.stumpedia.com – 3 – 19,210 – submit only URLs, good one
46. www.sturvs.com – 3 – 36,071
47. www.sweepsgoat.com – 3 – 38,261 – spammy, for those who run contests
48. www.xerpi.com – 3 – 41,924 – simple bookmarker
49. www.binarylaw.com – 3 – 241,671 – law and tech submissions, Alexa has greatly decreased
50. pfbuzz.com – 2 – 27,862 – personal finance

Updated on the 6th Apr. 2010

If you’re a real psycho – visit insane list of 700+ social bookmarking sites.