The “Share This Article” Upgrade

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We’ve consolidated the most common article activities for your readers into one easy-to-find box!

When’s the last time you scrolled to the bottom of one of your articles on EzineArticles.com to see what your reader sees? If it’s been awhile, go do it now … we’ll wait …

Did you notice anything new? Like perhaps that little “Share This Article” box that looks suspiciously like the one pictured to the right? That particular upgrade was quietly placed on our site a few weeks ago in order to test it out and get some feedback. We wanted to make sure it was doing its job properly before we called attention to it.

Well, we’ve tested it out and received a lot of feedback – and here’s the conclusion: The little box gets to stay. Readers and authors alike enjoy the convenience of readers being able to do all their article-reading activities in one compact, easy-to-find place.

The “Share This Article” box is divided into 3 areas:

1. Social Media Links – These are the 6 square icons in the upper-left corner of the box. Clicking on one of these will allow the reader to quickly share their appreciation for your article on their favorite social media site(s), including Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Delicious, FriendFeed and Digg.
    
2. Ratings – This allows your readers to rate your article on a scale of 1-5 stars with a single click. This is powerful information for you because it tells you what’s hot with your readers … and what’s not. Obviously, you want to be writing more of the hot stuff!
    
3. Everything Else – This is the catch-all area on the right side of the box. It contains 7 different links that allow your readers to do the following:
    
   • Add A Comment – This allows readers to tell you what they think of your article. If you’re not listening, you’re missing out on some valuable insight!
      
   • Send To Friends – Remember the days before social media when people used to email things they found interesting to each other? Believe it or not, those people are still out there … and we’re ready for them!
      
   • Print This Article – Clicking on this will create a nice, clean, printable version of your article. It even fires up the reader’s printer interface so they don’t have to!
      
   • Add To Favorites – What’s better than having someone read your article once? Having them read it multiple times! We make it easy for them to find their way back by creating a custom bookmark in their browser.
      
   • Suggest A Topic – When your readers begin regarding you as the expert in your niche, they can click here to offer you suggestions for your future articles.
      
   • EzinePublisher – One of the primary reasons for EzineArticles’ existence is that we make it easy for ezine and print magazine publishers to find articles related to their editorial topic. Clicking on this link quickly gives them all the tools and information they need to determine if your article is the right one for the job.
      
   • Report Article – Despite our best efforts, sometimes bad articles slip through the cracks and go live on our site. This link is just another way to weed out those undesirables. It allows readers to notify us if they feel the article contains duplicate content or is in violation of our Editorial Guidelines or the Author’s Terms of Service.

When’s the last time you really put yourself in your reader’s shoes and saw your articles through their eyes? Take a few moments now to step out of your Expert Author role and become the reader. You may be surprised at what you discover when you listen to your own objective internal feedback.

Speaking of feedback, please leave a comment below and tell us what you think of this not-so-recent upgrade. Did we miss anything?

Posted by Marc, Product Marketing Manager on April 14, 2010 at 11:55 am | 8,663 views