This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
What if there was a magic button on the posts you write that could garner them massive amounts of hits? What if this same button was on other people’s posts as well and that by just spending a few seconds pressing it you could help Bitmob grow and in the process get your stories more attention?
Well, that button exists! Its called the ‘Share’ button and you can see it right at the bottom of this post between the ‘Report’ and ‘Like’ buttons!
What, you are feeling lazy and don’t want to exert the effort of spinning the wheel of your mouse to scroll down? Fine, lazybones! Here is a really bad picture. Did I mention that you are one lazy S.O.B.? Good. Just making sure.
So, now that you know what the ‘Share’ button looks like and have seen just how poor my iPhone takes pictures up-close in the light, I can tell you how this button works its magic.
You see, as you scroll over this magical mystery button a list of options pulls up. Yes, I have provided a piss-poor picture here are well, but really… I promise its not that hard to do this on your own.
So, now you are probably saying- “Frank. I’m overwhelmed. That seems like a whole slew of options. Sure, I recognize the Facebook and Twitter symbols, but the rest of that junk confuses and slightly scares me.” Well, do not fear! I will kindly walk you through all of these ‘confusing’ options. Seriously though… Are you sure you're not all from Broward County, Florida?
Yes, you just read a joke about the election all the way back in 2000. Yes, I am a loser. Moving on.
Let’s take these one-by-one.
Your first option is to post a link to the story on Facebook. This is a great way to promote stories to your friends lurking around on this social network. All you have to do is hit the icon and- poof. As long as you are already signed in you just hit the ‘Share’ button to put a link to the post you want to share onto your profile.
Easy!
Next up is Digg. If the story has already been posted then all you have to do is hit the icon, let the post load and then hit the ‘Digg’ button to say “Hey, I like this post and think other people will too”. If it has not already been posted on Digg then, as long as you have an account, it will go ahead and start the process of putting the story you want to share up. It takes a bit longer to do this than if the story isn't already there, but its still very well worth the time spent doing so.
Digging a story allows for a much larger pool of potential hits than Facebook, so it is one of the icons I most recommend taking the time to hit.
Your third option is to post the story onto Twitter. Like posting a link on Facebook, hitting this icon will paste the URL onto the dialog box. All you have to do is hit the ‘Tweet’ button to post the link. You can even take a few seconds to add some cool commentary like “This is teh best post evar!”… As long as you haven’t already blown-out Twitters vice-like grip on how many letters you can use in one tweet.
Buzzing a story on Yahoo is your next option. Its kind of broken at this point since hitting this icon doesn't currently paste the URL of the story you want to buzz onto the applicable box. So, fire up those copy and paste skills. After the URL has been copied and pasted you hit the ‘Preview’ button, choose a category (in this case most stories from Bitmob will be Entertainment), type in the code and then finally hit ‘Submit’.
If it has already been submitted then just hit the 'Buzz' button to cast your vote.
Reddit…ing is next. This is another of the options I highly recommend taking the time to hit. If the story has not yet been submitted then you will need to take a few seconds to do so. Make sure you check the title since Reddit likes to use the URL as a title. Sometimes these differ from the final title a writer chose. For instance, this post was originally called “What Ever You Do Don’t Hit This Link!”.
Just kidding.
So, now that the bad jokes are over with for the moment…Let’s get back to business.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, Reddit.
You check the title, then get approved as a human being. Seriously! The last time I checked the evil robot overlords had not yet arrived to beam me to their ship and anoint me supreme leader of all mankind. Once that happens this process will make a lot more since. Of course by then you will all be my slaves and… CRAP! Forget, what you just read. You are not supposed to know of 'The Evil Plan that Shall Not Be Named But Is Called 'Plan B' Because 'Plan A' Already Failed'.
Anway, you hit ‘Submit’ and this painless process is over. Trust me, reading this post is much more painful than posting on Reddit.
If a post has already been put onto Reddit.com then you just hit the up arrow to the left of the stories title. After you do this, hit ‘Save’. This will count as an "up" vote for this post, and will help the link be seen by more people surfing reddit.
The last, and probably most confusing, ass-backwards, frustrating and possibly most rewarding way to share a story is by using N4G. The N4G guys are bastards and their readers can be total pricks who just want to fight about which system is better, BUT they also are very likely to hit the link to your story, comment and generally get you hits.
Sure, it does help if your story is titled something like “Xbots Cry Because Of Final Fantasy 13 NPD Numbarz”, BUT your story first has to be posted and approved by N4G moderators to been seen by the drooling, lobotomized hoards who cruise the main pages.
To get to the point of posting you must first take a quiz. Its pretty easy, but if you want to be lazy you can look up the answers online.
Now you can post stories
To become a moderator you have to have a certain number of posts approved. This lets you approve the stories you want to. This can be a laborious process and as far as I can tell there is absolutely no rhyme or reason behind what stories get approved and what do not BUT once Bitmob has enough readers who are also N4G mods we will have a better chance of the stories here ending up on the main site.
I am pretty sure you can vote on a story as long as you are a member of the site. At least that part is easy. Still, getting anywhere of power on N4G is an absolute mind-numbing disaster.
I can tell you from experience that having a story hit big there can lead to major hits on your posts. My throw-away piece on the 360 and PS3 analog sticks got over 2500 hits because the N4G mongoloids decided to rip it a new one.
So, this was my way too-long and probably not easy to read post on the ’Share’ button. I know it is a lot to process, but I guarantee you will feel a sense of self-pleasure the first time one of your posts blows up for spending a few brief moments on these sites.
I know, I know… I said self-pleasure.
God, you guys are immature!