How to add share buttons to Blogger blogs

Happy Monday!  Yeah yeah it's back to the ol' grind but I am here to help those on Blogger blogs put sharing buttons up.  I visited a blog the other day that had no sharing buttons whatsoever and it was quite frustrating because I wanted to share the post.  Doing it manually took too much time so I chose to go on to another project.  The blogger missed out because I could have sent their blog post to over 4,659 Twitter followers and 3,812 followers on Facebook and that's just the count today.  And...that's just two social networks, there are loads more - Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn just to name a few.  Can you imagine the reach from that kind of exposure?

So I had to say something.  Now I love this blogger so I won't mention names but I wanted to help.  I just happened to ask him where his sharing buttons were and this is his reply (it's darling, isn't it?):

" I hate to admit it but I have no idea of what you are referring to.  I have the feeling that I need to have these buttons that you speak of but I am a lost puppy.  Please help I need all the wisdom that you can provide and then I will put these buttons on my blog."

Woot!  Instead of getting irritated at me, he wanted to learn!

Since I had just put up a blog at Blogger for a paranormal romance book we'll be releasing soon, I hadn't gotten around to putting up sharing buttons so I thought I'd write down the instructions instead of telling him to go to a certain site and it'll walk you through it.

So here it is for Blogger:

1.  I use ShareThis.com.  I know there might be others but I have had success with this for years and it's super easy.

2.  Once you're on the ShareThis website, you will be given options to choose which blogging platform you use.  I chose Blogger and clicked it.

3.  Next up I need to pick a style.  I think they gave you a few examples and I just clicked on the one I liked the best.

4.  Next up is customize - small or large icons, for me I chose large because it was different and I liked it.  Then you choose the services you want.  There are 3 boxes.  The one to the left I wanted all of them so I left that alone.  The box to the top right gives you more and I chose Google+, Identi.ca and StumbleUpon but you can choose which ones you like the best.  The last box "Other Social Plugins" I really didn't need or want any so I hit FINISH.

5.  Next up is a Code and Instructions box - I chose Direct Post.

6. Hit GO.

7.  Once you hit go, you end up on a Blogger page that says "Add Page Element."  All you have to do here is choose the blog you want your icons to show up on.  I have more than one blog but I wanted these to go up on this new blog so I hit that.

8.  Then, hit "Add Widget."

9.  That will take you to your "Layout" page.  I see the widget has landed in one of my sidebars but you just ignore it.  It's not going to show up in my sidebar but instead when I hit "view blog," there they are sitting pretty underneath all my blog posts.

10.  Voila, you're done.

It couldn't be easier.