April 28, 2007

Reddit and Digg Buttons For The New Blogger

You may ask, what does this post have to do with being an Atheist Jew? The answer is nothing. I just wanted to share a few blogging ideas to my readers.
If you look at the top right hand corner of this post, you will see a Digg Button. If you are using the new blogger (or blogger beta format) and you want this button, click "template", then "edit html," check the "expand widget box," and follow these instructions:

Find this code in your template:

<p><data:post.body/></p>

and replace with this code:

<p>
<!-- DIGG -->
<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
digg_url = '<data:post.url/>';
</script>
<script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</div>
<data:post.body/>
</p>

H/T
Ajaxcold

Now, if you want the Reddit, Digg, and Del.icio.us buttons you see at the bottom of all my posts:
Enter Dashboard, select "Template" or "Layout" and "Edit HTML". Select checkbox "Expand Widget Templates". Follow these instructions:

Find the following code in your template:

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'/>

And replace it with the following code and save:

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'>
<a expr:href='"http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&amp;url=" + data:post.url + "&amp;title=" + data:post.title'>
<img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1785/2897/1600/digg.gif" /> digg</a>
<a expr:href='"http://reddit.com/submit?url=" + data:post.url + "&amp;title=" + data:post.title'>
<img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1785/2897/1600/reddit.png" /> reddit</a>
<a expr:href='"http://del.icio.us/post?url=" + data:post.url + "&amp;title=" + data:post.title'>
<img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1785/2897/1600/delicious.gif" /> del.icio.us</a>
</p>

H/T
Taw's Blog

Note: If you have something in the "p class....line-3'" part of your template, then do what I did, and make a new "line-4" which I pasted right after the "/p" for line-3.

Now you may ask, why bother? Well, you want your blog to be read by as many people as possible, don't you? I do. If you have an appealing enough title for your post, and then you submit your story to Reddit or Digg, you will be amazed at how many new hits your blog gets.

CoComment

Another useful free blog tool I use is coComment.
CoComment allows you to automatically follow any posts in the blogosphere that you commented on. I have an add-on for it from Mozilla, but I'm not sure if it is needed or not, because I'm really just winging it. I'm not sure how coComment works with other browsers.

Who says atheists, don't help out their fellow man (bloggers)?


Finally, I don't usually participate in internet related "things to do" that are emailed to me, but I couldn't resist this one:

Seven year old Shane Bernier is a brave cancer patient at CHEO and he is asking people to send him a card for his birthday on May 30th. Shane wants to set a world record for the most number of cards received!

I bought the card yesterday and I will mail it on Monday. Here is a link to get Shane's address: http://shanebernier.ca/

Of course, being the skeptic that I am, I had to check out if his story was true or not. Snopes says it is real. If Snopes says it is real, then it must be true.

20 comments:

  1. Of course, being the skeptic that I am, I had to check out if his story was true or not.

    Haha, I had the same reaction.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Who says atheists, don't help out their fellow man (bloggers)?"

    This is just another pernicious lie disseminated by those who worship at the Altar of Ath. Atheists (as they are known) have no morality, as the latter can only be given by God Almighty. Hence the estimated 9.5 billion murders that have been committed by the Godless.

    Your kindness is a mere ruse, an attempt to lure the Righteous from the straight and narrow and into the arms of Ath.

    Repent and yee might be saved (unless thou art a Jooooooo).

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was wondering about those digg buttons etc. I have the new blogger, but I am not sure if I have a template which is compatible with the widgets. I will need to check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gert, Athe is one hot tamale.

    Beep, it should work, but don't blame me if you screw it up:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi beaj,

    Thanks for leaving a comment in my post Another way of adding graphic to your Header. I have tested the hack you mentioned and reported it here: Testing adding Digg vote button into every post together with instruction to make it easy. However, I see that you have already implemented the hack in your blog. You may want to refer your blog readers to that post as it shows how to easily find the relevant tag in the template.

    Peter
    Dummies Guide to Google Blogger
    "online book" in progress

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have been playing around with converting the old template but hate the idea of having to put all the old/new crap back in.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Peter, I was asking how to post the instructions for the hack, I already knew the hack worked.
    Blogger converts the html code when I try to post it.

    Jack, it took a few hours to make sure I transported everything.
    The key is to make a copy of your old template on Word.

    Most of the sidebar can easy copy and pasted into the new blogger, once you know what you are doing.

    A couple of manual things are needed to do, like re installing technorati and feedburner.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi beaj,

    I have responded to your second comment in my post Another way of adding a graphic to your blog Header.

    Peter
    Dummies Guide to Google Blogger
    "online book" in progress

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Beaj,

    One more thing I forgot to add. Click the Digg vote button opens a page in the Digg site in the same window, taking visitors away from your site. Some may not like that and will have to weight the pros and cons of having the benefit of having the button against losing their visitors to an external site. I did two test to see if I can get the button to open in a new window. In both case, the edit was accepted, but clicking on the button still cause the new page to open in the same window. I have added an update to the post Testing adding a Digg vote button on every post

    Peter
    Dummies Guide to Google Blogger
    "online book" in progress

    ReplyDelete
  10. I stopped using Cocomment a while back (it just stopped working).
    I use Windows Live Writer as my post S/W, expanding posts hack (via Beautiful Beta), & the recent comments hack.
    Thanks for the Reddit/Digg ideas. Pretty cool.
    Feedburner's turned into an ass-pain, though: I can't log back in, it won't email me a lost password (says it does, but it doesn't), & refuses to accept my passphrase.
    NTM the amount of RSS readers goes up & down regularly.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am going to try it Beaj, but if I screw-up, it will be because of the jooooos.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I can get the icons for delicious etc to show at the end of the posy, but they are not active, so I must be doing doing wrong. oh well, I will either have to change to a new template, or just post my articles to netscape and digg myself. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Beep, I think you need to set up accounts to any place that you want to get exposure from.

    ReplyDelete
  14. beaj:

    I have accounts there, so I dunno.

    I am working with a template which does not allow some of the newer blogger features though. I am loath to change to a new template as it requires me to trash a lot of the stuff I have on my old one.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Beep, save your old template on word perfect. I'm pretty sure you will be able to figure out how to put everything back in the new one eventually.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Beaj

    That's certainly an idea. I dunno. So much to change. I will think about it. I like the idea of having the buttons, but the process might be a little too time-consuming for my liking.

    When I get bored enough with my old template, then might be the time to do it. What gets trashed in the process, won't matter so much.

    The buttons are a good idea to generate traffic though and let's face it, we all write blogs to have them read.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hey thanks for the tip. I added the buttons and submitted some posts to digg et al. and my stats went through the roof!

    The code from your post didn't work for me, so I tried it from one of the links you posted and blam... worked a charm.

    Thanks again. Much appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I wonder why it didn't work for you. It worked for others. Anyway, I'm glad I could help.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks, You save my like...

    :-)

    ReplyDelete