Sharing Buttons – Hugh's Views & News

Are you looking for more visitors to your blog?

One of the best ways to promote your blog for free is by sharing your blog posts on social media.

Social media has helped bring my blog thousands of visitors, with Twitter bringing the most.

Banner for the blog post 'Are You Making The Most Of The Powerful Sharing Buttons On Your Blog?' — Sharing Buttons: One Of The Most Powerful Tools Available To A Blogger.

WordPress offers sharing buttons so visitors can share your posts on social media.

These buttons are the best-placed option to encourage visitors to share your content on social media.

Where can sharing buttons be found on WordPress?

It depends on the WordPress theme you use, but most show sharing buttons at the end of blog posts which are the best-placed place for them. I have these sharing buttons on all my blog posts and pages.

Image of sharing buttons on a WordPress blog. — Sharing buttons are influential in bringing traffic to your blog.

What sharing buttons are available on WordPress?

All of the above. Some of them are already available on your blog posts when you create your WordPress blog.

How do I add more sharing buttons to my blog posts?

I’m using WordPress’s ‘default’ view in the images and instructions for this demonstration.

Just under the sharing buttons, click on ‘Customize buttons.’ You can reach them via your blog’s dashboard if you cannot do this. Go to Tools – Marketing, and click on the Sharing buttons tab.

Image showing where to edit the sharing buttons on your WordPress blog. — Where to edit sharing buttons on your WordPress blog.

Click on Edit Sharing Buttons.

Image highlighting the 'Edit sharing buttons' button on WordPress. — Click the ‘Edit sharing buttons’ button.

Click on any of the sharing buttons to add or remove them. Ghosted-out sharing buttons are inactive and not displayed on your blog.

Image showing Edit visible sharing buttons on a WordPress blog. — Ghosted-out sharing buttons are not active on your blog.

Click the Reorder button to move the sharing buttons to the order you want them to display on your blog and pages.

Click the Save button at the bottom of the page to save any changes you have made.

Click the Close button to close the Edit visible buttons window.

The Edit More button allows you to place sharing buttons behind the More sharing button. I’ve put the Email and Print sharing buttons behind the More button.

The Edit label text button lets users put their preferred text above the sharing buttons. Click on the button to open the text box. Mine reads, ‘ Please feel free to share this post.’

Image highlighting where to add text to encourage people to share your blog posts. — Add your own text to encourage visitors to share your blog posts.

Button styles – why you should not use the icon-only option.

WordPress offers users several styles for sharing buttons.

I recommend you use an option that offers text. Readers who use speech software on their devices will then know which social media platform each button is for.

Reminder

Remember that visitors can still share your blog posts on any social media platform, even if you don’t have a specific sharing button for it on your blog. However, if you want to discourage readers from sharing your posts on social media, you can remove the sharing buttons from your blog.

Let’s wrap it up

Sharing buttons are a powerful tool for sharing your posts for free and bringing traffic to your blog.
Sharing buttons can be edited on your blog. Choose which ones you want to appear on your blog posts and pages.
Ghosted-out sharing buttons mean that they are inactive on your blog.
Make sure you choose a sharing button style that contains text, as this helps visitors who use speech software identify the sharing buttons on your blog.
You can discourage visitors from sharing your posts by removing your blog’s sharing buttons. However, your posts can still be shared on social media.

If you have questions about sharing buttons or want to share which ones you have on your blog, please leave them in the comments section.

Layout, content, settings, and format might differ on self-hosted blogs.

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How often do you click on the reblog sharing button?

Are you somebody who reblogs every day or, like me, no longer uses the reblog button?

Banner for the blog post 'Is Reblogging Dead? Why I Have Removed The Reblog Button From My Blog — Are you still reblogging?

When I first started blogging in 2014, I was amazed by how many bloggers used the reblog button. Fast forward to today, and I see little use for it.

It’s one of the reasons why I removed the reblog button from my blog. Not only have I seen a sharp decline in the reblogging of my posts, but I’ve seen the same in the reblogging of the posts of other bloggers.

Looking Back

I remember the first time one of my blog posts got reblogged. It was one of the highlights of my blogging journey. Funnily, it marked the beginning of my believing I’d become a successful blogger.

For years, my blog posts got reblogged almost weekly. It helped put me and my blog in front of new readers and did wonders for the number of followers my blog gained.

When Followers Are Not Followers

Of course, not all followers are followers.

I soon learned that people followed my blog but never returned to it.

I knew that some unfollowed my blog as soon as I followed them back.

I couldn’t figure out why anyone would unfollow my blog as soon as I followed them, but a couple of years into my blogging journey, I discovered that some bloggers are more interested in numbers than content. They don’t hang around in the blogging world for long.

What’s The Most Significant Risk In Reblogging?

When I first heard of bloggers receiving fines for reblogging material that included copyrighted material, my love of reblogging began to dwindle. Seriously? Are bloggers fined for reblogging? Yes, it’s true, and that may be one of many reasons why many bloggers no longer use the reblog button.

When author and blogger Deborah Jay wrote a guest post for me, she shared her story of how a simple reblog ended up with her being threatened with legal action and a fine. Click here to read the post.

But it’s not only Deborah who has faced legal action and a fine for reblogging another blogger’s blog post. Several bloggers have been fined for reblogging blog posts that included copyrighted photos or images.

Don’t think it can’t happen to you. It can happen to anyone who shares copyrighted material on their blog.

Removed The Reblog Button From Your Blog? Your Posts Can Still Be Reblogged!

Did you know that just because I have removed the reblog button from my blog posts doesn’t mean nobody can no longer reblog them?

One of the few flaws of WordPress that annoys me is that readers can still reblog any of my posts from the WordPress Reader. That doesn’t make sense to me when I’ve removed the reblog button from my blog.

Fortunately, it hasn’t happened to any of my blog posts since I removed the reblog button.

However, I am still delighted when somebody shares my blog posts via a ‘pingback‘ the ‘Press This‘ marketing (not sharing) button or on social media.

Feel free to share this post via one of those methods.

How Do I Remove The Reblog Button From My Blog?

If you decide you would rather not offer the option to reblog your posts, you can disable the button by navigating to My Sites → Tools → Marketing. Then click on the Sharing Buttons tab. Disable ‘Show reblog button’ under Reblog & Like, and the Reblog button will no longer appear on your blog posts.