Post Toaster is the "site count leader" over Ekstreme Socializer (28) , OnlyWire (22), SocialPoster (61) and SocialMarker (28). However, as an automation tool it suffers from the same ills and an unusual UI choice actually drops it back in the pack.

First, let's see what Santa left in our stocking:

• Good UI
• Categorization of postable sites
• Clear monetization
• Ability to shuffle post characteristics

 But there is a lot of coal to be found:

• Inappropriate sites for posting
• Lack of full-site support
• No TOS or privacy policy
  
• Most problematic workflow support

Good UI

Once again, a good designer manages to get a LOT onto one page. Without making it seem crowded. Nice job!

Categorization of Postable Sites

The site adds a nice twist to pligg vs. bookmark split by indicating which ones support no/follow. Which is good because it gets content posters thinking about traffic vs. links.

It may not be clear to people that a lot of the "dofollow" links happen deep into the site so you'd have to find some way to point google/yahoo/etc into that page. Or pay attention to your tag so that the robots can spider into your page that way.

As you might imagine, the author had to include some tier-2 posting sites to make the list so large, so good on 'em! With the included categorization you can ignore them if you like - though you shouldn't!

Inappropriate Sites Setup for Posting

Perhaps in the sites-you-can-post-to arms race the temptation gets too great, but once again, we see sites like Facebook and Twitter listed as posting options. I have trouble seeing where one would want to post the same information to delicio and twitter. It may not be a violation of the TOS, but it's certainly going to get negative reactions almost 100% of the time - so why support it? Especially since he has a....

Clear Monetization Policy

SquareOak owns Post Toaster and they sell SEO/SEM/Webbie services. Finally, an obvious monetization scheme for one of these services. And, as a consumer, I can be sure that there is some impetus for maintenance.

Phew.

So it's even more puzzling to me that the SquareOak guys would include sites (twitter, Facebook) where using a tool like this will always cause agitation.

No TOS or Privacy Policy

This is really surprising as SquareOak are a real business with real clients. I'm not going to go back into what lack of TOS means, it's kind of obvious that this is a real barrier to continual use.

Shuffle of Characteristics

Post Toaster has a wonderful feature where you can shuffle four titles and four post summaries as you post from place to place. Cool.

One thing you might consider: if you are rotating four titles and four summaries around a constant URL then it won't take anyone looking very long to figure out what you're doing. And the best way to look sneaky is to get caught doing something that looks sneaky.

Lack of Full Site Support

It may be that SocialMarker and others have raised the bar a bit with iFrames and buttons, but I found myself getting aggravated by small problems (lack of tag support for delicio, etc) during the posting process. I think this area needs some good attention if they expect good uptake in a crowded market.

In all fairness, the problem with trying to direct-URL post without being logged in is sometimes in the social site, not Post Toaster. But, as a consumer, it doesn't really matter why my diggo post went awry and took four minutes instead of 30 seconds, it only matters that it happened.

Problematic Workflow

While some sites do iFrames and others just run you over to the site, Post Toaster trys another method: a browser page full of links you can click to run through your posting routine. This solves the iFrame/TOS and referrer issues that other services have, so I was interested by this approach.

While I appreciate people taking a different look at a problem, it is harder on the users when the 'new' solution just doesn't work. And this really doesn't work for me. I actually had more trouble keeping track of where I was and what I did.

Maybe they can play with this and give you a page you could mail to a colleague for posting, or a CSV dump of the page for personal tracking, etc, etc. It's a neat idea and I'd like to see it worked on .

Overall Grade: B-

I liked the idea of categorizing sites as having no/follow and trying a new way of letting the user run the workflow. I also appreciated the clear monetization. I gave the usual ding for workflow, lack of TOS/Privacy Policy and inappropriate sites in the post list.

But this site gets the highest grade of its competitors for breaking some new ground around the actual work process. However, they'll have to catch up to the other free services offering rudimentary login/register features if they want to stay at the top of my mindmap.