GarageSpin

How to Add the Google +1 Button to WordPress With the Digg Digg Plugin

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I was delighted today to learn that my favorite social sharing WordPress plugin, Digg Digg, recently added the Google +1 Button to the long list of buttons it already supports.  It took me about 20 seconds to turn on.  Eazy fo’ sheezy.

Not only does Digg Digg enable a huge variety of share buttons, including Google +1, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc, it’s also incredibly customizable, letting you pick the type, size, pages, and placement of buttons throughout your site.  Perfect for lazy-but-anal folks like me.

So how do you add the Google +1 button to WordPress? Here’s what I did, though there are plenty of customizable options in Digg Digg, as well as plenty of other plugins that attempt to offer similar functionality:

  1. In your WordPress dashboard, under “Plugins”, click on “Add New”.
  2. Do a search for “Digg Digg”.  Download and install the plugin.
  3. Click on “Enable Normal Display”.
  4. Select “Horizontal” to display the Google share button (and other share buttons) horizontally.  (Selecting “vertical” will stack them, which can add a lot of white space under your posts.)
  5. Select the page types you want the share the button in.  (Might as well select all of ’em.)
  6. In the next question, include “All”, exclude nothing.  (I’m not quite sure what that does, and I don’t particularly care.)
  7. Check the box that let’s Digg Digg modify your post excerpt.  (Recommended.)
  8. Now the fun part.  “Turn on” the Google share button (and others you’d like to use) by selecting an “integration type” for it.  (I chose “before_content” for the Facebook, Twitter, and Google +1 buttons.)
  9. Pick a button size for each.  (I went with “compact” for each, and “compact 20px” for the Google button.)
  10. Leave everything else, and click on “Save Changes”.

That’s it.  You’re now part of the hip “early adopter” crowd that’s using Google +1.  (Well, actually, you’re a little late.  Google +1 is already on more widespread that Twitter’s Tweet button.)  You can get pretty fancy with Digg Digg, and play with it’s “floating” functionality, or dive under the hood for deep customization.  Enjoy.

Nimbit's Instant Band Site WordPress Plugin

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band site plugin for wordpressWell, any band that still doesn’t have a website shouldn’t have too much more of an excuse to delay.  Nimbit (which apparently stands for “New Ideas for Music Business and Internet Technology”…phew, quite a mouthful)  just created a FREE WordPress plugin called Instant Band Site that offers pretty much all of the most important functionality a band might need.  A few of the features include:

  • Storefront for downloads and merchandise
  • Photo album page
  • Email list sign-up functionality
  • Music player
  • A bunch of other pages, plugins, widgets ‘n’ goodies…

Some of the drag-n-drop content modules don’t look as aesthetic as the could be.  If you use too many in the sidebar, for example, it gets packed with quite a lot of text (which is even apparent in the “Developer’s Walkthrough” video).  But otherwise, the key content pages/modules are solid.  The Storefront Page looks especially good, and I’m actually considering using it  for GarageSpin at a later date, when I have more finished music available.

Bands still need to 1) have a webhost (which costs something), and 2) install WordPress (which is free).  “Pro” (non-free) versions of the plugin do even more.  Definitely worth considering if you’re amping up your site to sell directly to fans, especially if you’re looking to spend more time on music, and less on blog-tweaking.  Kudos to Nimbit for a solid offering.

You can check out more info on the free plugin here: Nimbit’s Instant Band Site plugin.