[This Post was Originally Published on: Jan 18, 2015] You guys might be noticed a few days ago I was using Shareaholic as the social sharing plugin for this blog but now you can see that I’ve uninstalled it. Do you know why? Of course there is a reason, I mean the solid reason! But not the what you’re thinking about.
I know you would be thinking that I uninstalled the Shareaholic WordPress plugin because it became my site slow! But, it’s not true. I always consider the website loading speed at high priority though, there was not the matter of speed! So, what? Just cool guys, let me explain the matter I faced.
Here’s Why I Uninstalled Shareaholic WordPress Plugin
Actually, before a few days I was greatly concerned about the social sharing plugin and it became very difficult for me to select the best one because most of the social sharing plugins reduce the site speed. So, finally I found the Shareaholic WordPress plugin and really surprised to see that it’s absolutely free. I also mentioned this plugin in the list of must have WordPress plugins I considered in 2014.
But, the problem was that Shareaholic is not only a social sharing plugin, but it’s also the content amplification software that allows users to show affiliate links and related content to monetize their content. As I installed this plugin and created a Shareaholic account, I didn’t know more about it and what I see after a few days by signing into my Shareaholic account that the Affiliate Links are by default turned on for my website by Shareaholic and it was hijacking my outbound links.
I suddenly turned it off but even after turning it off I saw that any property of Viglink (affiliate program that turns links into affiliate links) was still loading on my web pages. I was really scared of it and deleted my Shareaholic account and uninstalled the plugin permanently from my WordPress admin panel.
So, after only uninstalling the Shareaholic plugin, I could get rid of this problem. However I will always miss the awesome style of Shareaholic plugin to present the social share buttons. 🙁
Moreover, I also wanna tell you that why I was scared of this affiliate linking even it was for monetizing the content? This is because my main source of income is Adsense and the Adsense may hate such type of Affiliate Programs that turn all links into affiliate links and so I uninstalled the plugin.
So, Now Which Sharing Plugin I Use for This Blog?
As I always looked up for the lightweight social sharing plugin for my blog and found the same. I’m now using Floating Social Bar plugin for this blog that is created by Syed Balkhi from WPBeginner. As I’m a fan of Syed Balkhi for their work on WPBeginner, I found this plugin very helpful (as expected by him) and the what I was looking for.
Update: Now I’m using a premium plugin for social sharing. This is too old article that’s why at the time of writing this post I was using Floating Social Bar plugin as mentioned above.
So, friends I wrote up this article to aware the new bloggers who didn’t know about this option of Shareaholic plugin. So, be careful while using this plugin because it may harm your Adsense account. I suggest you to use Floating Social Bar plugin as it is lightweight and works like a charm.
Further Reading:
I am also having the same problem but still after uninstalling the plugin I am scared because some of its options still running in background. I think.
As per I know and experimented after uninstalling the plugin the problem will be solved out.
If you think that plugin’s options are still left, you should read this article to remove uninstalled plugin’s remaining options: https://allusefulinfo.com/?p=11321
Let me know if you’ve any other questions.
Thanks for your insights. I also have shareholic. I will check out the floating social bar plugin. Its not as pretty though but I guess better to be safe than pretty right?
Of course right..!
I never thought about that..I will also check it.