I just took out the last line of code that that has the visible addthis link with that ugly box overlay.

It was easy, & now all I have left is the little squares that do not expand out into the addthis link.

As well as the idea that if ass this takes away one link by linking to their site, how many more links to they give a webpage owner by making sure that more people are adding an sharing thus linking to original content. It seems like a one step back gets you ten steps forward situation.

This sounds like a case for reputation management.Where are the reviews?Yelp Google PlacesIf the bad reviews are on yelp then I would talk to your client about getting more good reviews.Have him talk to his clients and get those good Yelp reviews flowing.If they are on a site like rippoff report, then bumping that site down will help.If he has lots of places that have complaints then a hard look at WHY people are giving him bad reviews...I know of an online zine that was just a horrid spammer & guess what, those complaints stayed at the top as well as all the forum posts about his spammy ways & insulting emails ....Your client needs to know what sites covert traffic and clients.If he actually GETS clients & income from twitter then yes get that twitter acoutn to the top.If not, then having low ROI sites cluttering the top serps won't help much.

Here is enough reading to make your head spin...

share this VS add this

http://www.seomoz.org/q/sharethis-vs-addthis

Integrating personal communication with sharing to increase the shares.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-increase-the-odds-of-your-content-going-viral-whiteboard-friday

Add this using conacial links.

http://www.seomoz.org/q/i-just-discovered-something-about-addthis-shares-twitter-and-rel-canonical

EGOL & others talking about add this.

http://www.seomoz.org/q/addthis-widget-tracking-success

I have been doing research on this very same thing in the past few weeks.

I'm more then likely going to go with Add This.

Note;

I JUST discovered this:

I work with photos...

http://www.addthis.com/labs/photo-sharing

I'm going to scream & dance now...

Google no longer has a sandbox, Google also no longer has a quarterly "dance"

Currently a new site can be submitted and indexed in just a few hours.

You can submit direct using Google webmaster tools, and for extra juice I would get links to the site from another well trafficked site.

SERPS  show up instantly if a site is crawled fast enough, I have seen forums get indexed in five minutes from a first posting.

From the CCsite:

• Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

• Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

• No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

It seems to me that the CC is designed to share NOT to try and sell, your blog is selling your business.

Many blogs have sales links right on them.

Several other factors are also in play:

1. Many people are savvy enough to spot "stock" images, is using images that are seem over and over again what you want your company to be known for?

2. If your company is based on any sort of creativity, clients will know that your just reusing old images as apposed to creating new fresh creative ones.