How to enable Google+ comments on your Blogger Blog

Google have announced that Google+ comments are now available to use on all blogger blogs. What this means is that is you have a blog and you use Blogger - you can bring all your Google+ comments to your blog. This will not only add the power of Google+ to your blog in addition to this, all discussions on Google + that are happening around you blog will also appear. So all public discussions on your Blog and on Google+ will be available for visitors to your site to view. These comments can also be threaded just like all other commenting systems. Facebook comments have been popular on various websites and blogs till now. This has been very popular among many website and blog owners, as it adds the power of Facebook to you blog.

With Google+ comments you can now bring the entire power of Google+ to your blog. IN addition to your comments and threads, discussions about your blog happening on Google+ will also be available. This is if it is public - all privacy rights are observed. Google+ is fast becoming very popular among bloggers as it has the power to drive a lot of traffic. So if you want the power of Google+ to work for you. You can now enable Google+ comments on your blogger blog in just a few easy steps. The choice is totally up to you.

How to enable Google+ comments on your Blogger blog.
1. Log in to Blogger.
2. Click on Google+ on your dashboard
3. Now select use Google+ comments
4. You're done

Visitors can also choose to comment publicly or comment privately with their circles. Let us know what you think about this new addition in the comments section below.

Source: Google blog official. Read more of our Blogging tips here.

what is WordPress and how does it work

WordPress is a blogging platform that allows you to create and maintain a blog for free. We are not going to go into the technical aspects of WordPress so much but stick to how to use WordPress to setup your blog. If you have questions like where to blog, how to blog or how do I create a free blog online. WordPress is the No 1. destination on the web for people to create and maintain their blogs for free. WordPress is a CMS (Content management System) which means it can be used to run a full-fledged website. So if you want to run a blog or a website you can use WordPress as a platform. WordPress is based and built on PHP and MySQL - PHP is the code used to build it and all the database is maintained and stored using MySQL. Now that we have got that out of the way, let's proceed to some of the other benefits and uses of WordPress.

Wordpress Uses
Can be used to setup and run your free blog online
Can be used as a platform to build and run your complete website online
Very good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - this is what you need to be good with to ensure people find you on search engines like Google. This will drive traffic to your blog or website.

Why Wordpress?
WordPress has become the most popular destination on the internet when it comes to people wondering which blogging platform is best for their blog. There are many reasons as to why WordPress is chosen. As of march 2012 WordPress has been used by over 72 million websites and blogs around the world. 48% of the top 100 blogs in the world use WordPress as their CMS or blogging platform. On an average day WordPress sites and blogs generate over 500,000 posts. There are 19,000+ plugins that are freely available to use on your blog or site. Plugins make everything easy for a first-timer or a newbie blogger. So if you don't have the experience or expertise. Simple download and install a plugin that is available for free.

How to get started with WordPress
If you have decided that you would like to blog and become a blogger, WordPress is free to use and just a click away. Signup now for a free blog and you're good to go. There are two things to remember here. There are free blogs and self-hosted blogs. Free WordPress blogs come with the username.wordpress.com. You do have the option to use a custom URL like yourname.com. Self hosted blogs on the other hand give you total freedom to do what you like, you can also run advertisements on your self-hosted blogs. So if blogging for you is going to be a serious decision for you and you want to run the blog to make money online. A self hosted WordPress blog is your answer. For this you will need to use hosting companies such as HostGator or DreamHost, buy some space and install WordPress on your platform for total freedom. If you are new to this and just want to get started and see how it all works go for the free version.

Can I make money Blogging
The answer is yes, there is a lot of money to be made but and there is always the 'but'. A lot of hard work is required, some bloggers stated making money only after 2 or 3 years. The early days of the get rich quick by blogging days are over and now it requires a lot of hard word and dedication.That is not to say that money cannot be made -- that would be wrong. There are many bloggers claiming that 2013 is the year of the writer and with good reason too. With the way Tech and Social Media is exploding, companies are always looking for writers because good content is the key and a good writer can keep his audience engaged and listening. Online Marketing and all the associated budget is tied in with good writers. A good writer brings in the audience and keeps them engaged which in turn brings in the money

So these are the options we have simply laid out for you, if you want to know where to blog and how to blog. The simplest way is to get started -- play around for a bit and you will get the hang of it, as it is really easy and simple. So if you decide to start writing and becoming a blogger we wish you all the best. Please find the WordPress link below to get started. You can also follow our blogging tips here.

WordPress

 

PostRunner: Guest Blogging Service for Authors and Publishers

So let's say you have a blog and you're open to allowing other people to write and contribute -- allowing guest blogging. Maybe you're an author and want to actually write an article for another blog. You might want to do this because once you write for another blog you get exposure and new readers. Since the blog post you contributed will have a link to your social profiles and your own blog or site. It is therefore a win-win for both parties involved. The blog accepting your guest post get new and fresh content and the contributor get exposure and credit -- as a person who is good at their niche.

Getting the two together can be quiet a task. The contributor needs to find sites that might accept this contribution. Blog and site owners needs to actually find people with quality as guest writers and contributors. If you are someone who writes then you know how tedious it is to make a list of all the blog that are similar to your area of expertise and then contact all the bloggers who run the blog and extend your interest and interest to contribute a blog post. This is something that is both time-consuming and tedious.

Enter PostRunner -- a web app that gets the job done for both publishes and Authors. Publishes get exposure to Authors who will read your blog and decide if they want to write and publishers can get quality authors to write for their blogs without the hassle of searching.

How does PostRunner work?
It is a WordPress plugin, once you install the plugin you would then need to configure your listing and you're all set. You can see all your guest blogging posts in once place and then decide which ones to actually post on your blog. It's a once-stop-shop to handle all your quest blogging needs. So give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments section below.

PostRunner - Check it out here.

Blogger Custom URL not working without WWW [Solution]

This is going to be a little techie, away form our usual social media. The reason for this post is becasue those of us who use Blogger with a custom URL are facing a problem. Whenever someone types Sociolatte.com without the www in front of it. It does not direct to www.sociolatte.com. This means that when someone types out web address with out the www in front of it. A 404 error is show and therefore a blank page. Apparently this is a problem which the Google team are having and it has not been working from Sept 19 or maybe even a few days before that. Something like this is quiet stressful and many of you, must be just typing domain names in your browsers without the www. Therefore if there is no redirect, means we loose a lot of visitors, which is not something any blog will want.

So there has been a temporary free solution offered by the Blog ExtremeTechblog. If youa re facing a problem like this you can definitely use it. We can confirm that it works -- bloggers name is Roomi and it is a fantastic solution. 
Extemetechblog - Naked domain redirection not working on Blogger.

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Sociolatte

How to add Google Authorship to your blog post by switching your blogger profile with your Google+ profile [Shortcut]

You know how these days you see search results on Google with a photo of the author besdie the post. This is good because it increases your CTRs (Click Through Rate). Poeple might tend to click on a post with a photo of the author as it brings with it a feeling of trust and being authentic. This is also know a canonical and gives the author the ability to claim original posts they have written. There are many ways to do this but this post will deal with a shortcut. The shortcut has to do with simple changing your Blogger profile with your Google+ profile and letting Google do the rest for you. You can do this on any blog you write and if you have a Google+ profile this can be done with one quick step. If you are wanting to just test and try it out you can always switch back to your Blogger profile at any time within 30 days of making the switch


What happens when you switch to your Google+ profile
You blogger profile is changed and your display name is now your authentic Google+ profile name and info. When someone clicks on your name on your Blog it will direct to your Google+ profile. People can then read and learn more about your on your G+ profile. Comments you might have made before the switch will still display you Blogger profile info.


How to switch my blogs to my Google+ profile
1. Click on this link read through all the info and decide if you want to change to your Google+ profile. 


How long does it take
It only takes a few days before your photo starts appearing besdie your blog posts on the internet. Specifically on Google search results. There is nothing else to be done and no code to be added. Just change your profile and Goole will automatically take care of everything else for you. 


How  to switch back to your Blogger profile
Please follow this link to switch back.  This needs to be done within 30 days from the time you started the process. 
Read More: Google support

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Sociolatte

Facebook for WordPress plugin now available

Facebook has a new plugin for WordPress. It seems Facebook engineers are not leaving any stone unturned and since WordPress powers 16.6 percent of the web it makes sense that Facebook has just made it a lot easier, for WordPress bloggers to integrate a complete solution plugin for WordPress. This new social integration feature available for WordPress have already made Blogger's blogspot users to ask why something like this has not been released for Blogger. The new social plugin allows for easy integration of social publishing and mentions. There is no coding required and works on mobile and also supports internationalization.available


Facebook for WordPress plugin: How it works for Social Publishing
Once you install the plugin you can then cross-post content published to your WordPress blog to your Facebook Timeline and all the Facebook pages that you manage. In addition you can also mention all the pages as friends on Facebook, which allows for further and deeper distribution of your content.


WordPress Widgets that are available:
1. Activity Feed - Shows readers their friends' activity on your site or blog
2. Recommendations Bar - suggest content to users and allow them to post it to their Timeline as they read.
3. Customizable buttons for like subscribe and send
4. Comments Box - let users use this Facebook comments box to add comments on your site or blog. it also comes with automatic support for SEO


Starting today WordPress users get easy integration with the Facebook for WordPress plugin. So if you are  a users with a full-time WordPress blog or site or a newbie starting of, this will be easy to install and run. 
Source: Facebook Blog - you can also download the plugin here or learn how to install it here. 

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Sociolatte

Google Correlate: Helps in better SEO and keyword research data

Now this is another good product from Google and will be especially helpful for people who are into SEO, research or marketing. With Google Correlate you can find out information on products, seasons, trends and a host of other correlated subjects. So once you enter a search term you can find keyword data and search patters that you might not have though existed before. This really helps SEO experts find new keywords that they can use to optimize their content. So if you are a website owner or a blog owner this is one tool you might want to look into regularly. It will show you how search terms that are important to you are related to other terms and how these patters might emerge and do the same patters change with seasons. 


Google Correlate is a part of Google Trends and helps in analyzing data chronologically. It is different from Google Trends and insights for search in that it gives you a historical picture of the data that you want to analyze.All the web search data that is being used by Google Correlate is Google date starting from January 2003 to present. One fine feature of the product is it's ability to show best matching keywords based on search volume and how related keywords might have changed over time. So if you are a student and need help with products or searches that might relate to your topic, correlate can help you. If you are a blogger or website owner use this product to help you come up with better website and keyword optimization. Give you content a broader perspective and gain a newer audience.
Google Correlate

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Sociolatte

How to add Search Description and Meta Tags to your Blogger blog and posts for better SEO

Now this is something that every person using Blogger would need to do. A little bit about the history and use of description for posts. This is something that was not available to people using Blogger or blogspot blogs as some people like to call them. This is one of the main reasons why WordPress was a preferred blogging platform. Many an online blogger would tell you that a description for your posts does wonders. One would also wonder why it took Google so long to implement it. 

What is Search Description

If you are a blogger and you know a little bit about SEO you would know then when someone searches for a search term on search engines like Google. The title of your post shows up and below that is the search description. You can from the image below of Google's description see how it is laid out in results. The site title appears and below that is the search description. 

Google's Search Description

Do users see the search description when they land on the page or blog

Uses and visitors to your site do not see the search description on the actual page. This description is only for search engines to find and understand the content of your page. It users the information found in the description to show visitors what the page is all about. So once your page or post is found on a search engine, visitors see the description and decide whether to click and visit the page. Same things holds true for your Blog description. If you blog's index page or main page shows up on Google. Visitors get to see in a short snippet what the entire blog is about. So if your Blog is about Social Media then without a description containing the words Social Media, your website or blog will not show up on the search engines. 

Is search description good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Every person who uses WordPress would say yes. This is one feature that they claim ensures their blogs rank better that Blob hosted on Blogger. Since search engines use the page description as a window to the post and blog and are very SEO friendly. Ensures according to many bloggers online better rankings with Google, Yahoo and Bing.

How to add a Search Description to your blog posts on Blogger

1. Login to Blogger

2. Use the New Interface if you are not already using it

3. Click on the pencil icon to create a new post

4. Click on Search Description found on the right hand side

5. Enter a sentence that best describes your post 

6. Click done to finish

How to add a Meta tags search description to your blog

1. Login to blogger

2. use the new blogger interface

3. Click on more options

4. Click on settings

5. Click on search preferences

6. Beside Meta Tags description click on edit

7. You have 150 characters to use and create a short description

8. Click on Save Changes

9. You're done

You blog will now appear with a Search Description on search engines along with Meta Tags. Meta Tags are a good way for website and blog owners to provide information to Google on what their websites or blogs are all about. You can check out the Google webmaster help section to learn more about Meta Tags. While all of this might be important it is equally important to remember that all of this is no substitute for good quality content. No matter what SEO practices you follow if content is not good and does not enhance visitor experience then all else will fail. 

  

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Sociolatte

Tips for Bloggers: How to check your writing and readability level before publishing

You have probably come here because you have tried your hand at writing and blogging and really wanting a fast method to help you check your writing before you publish your blog posts. Yes, every blogging platform has a spell check and lets you know when your spelled something wrong. This web app however goes a little beyond that and in addition to pointing out spelling mistakes will also give you grammar suggestions and style suggestions. If you are a blogger and cannot wait to get your posts out. You already are aware that there are spelling errors or typos that somehow creep in. In fact among bloggers it is excepted that there will be some typos. This app will help you avoid those typos and even suggest better sentence construction.

PolishMyWriting does exactly what it says, it helps you construct better sentences tells you when something is in the wrong 'voice'. Maybe your tense is wrong or you sentence could actually do with a little bit of clarity.  it does one more thing automatically, it makes you stop, check your writing and then publish. This is a perennial problem among bloggers. Getting things done fast and publishing without checking for typos. So use this app and please let us know your feedback in the comments section below.

PolishMyWriting

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Sociolatte