Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Come Follow Me

For most of us on Blogger, it is a real source of pleasure to view our blog and see the number of followers we have. The Followers gadget is a handy way for readers to tell a blogger that they like his or her blog and want to keep up with the latest posts. Besides having the reader's picture appear as a follower, the blog is automatically added to the reader's reading list (if the reader is also on Blogger) and to the reader's Google Reader. It has benefits for the blogger too. A blogger can click on the picture of any follower, find and follow that person's blog, and form a new friendship.

All this is made possible by a feature known as Google Friend Connect. Here's what mine looks like. You can also see it in the sidebar on the right.



At one time, every new blog created in Blogger automatically included this gadget, so it was easy to attract followers. But times have changed. Google+ has replaced Google Friend Connect, and GFC is slowly being phased out. It often doesn't work properly, and the Google engineers aren't too concerned about fixing the glitches. Still, it's a very handy gadget, and an excellent alternative for those of us who don't want to use Google+. The replacement gadget - Google+ Followers - is only for Google+ accounts, and many of us don't want to make the switch to Google+.


So why don't new bloggers (or old bloggers with new blogs) simply add the gadget themselves?


Good question. The answer is, it's hard to find. In an attempt to force people to use Google+ Followers instead, the clever engineers have made it seem that the old Followers gadget is no longer an option. You may go to your layout, click Add a Gadget, and come up empty-handed. But don't despair. If you promise not to tell Google that you heard it here, I'll let you in on the secret.



When you try to add a gadget, and scroll through all the possible gadgets, you won't see Followers. But if you click on More Gadgets in the upper left, guess what?



You will see another long list of even more available gadgets, and Followers is at the very bottom of the list. Voila! Now all you have to do is select it, and it will be added to your blog layout. Save the layout and you're done!




Now sit back and watch the number of your followers increase each day. It works for both Google+ and regular Google, as well as Yahoo, Twitter, OpenID, Netlog and AIM accounts.

From Hermione's Heart

17 comments:

Roz said...

Thank you Hermione, you're a star!

Hugs
Roz

Susie said...

Oh thank you Hermione. All the new bloggers are asking how to add this and I will bookmark this so that I can send it to them.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Hermione. This is another very helpful hint.

Hug,
joey

Anonymous said...

Thanks Hermione!
I just found this myself and couldn't believe it was a page away!

I recently helped a friend make a blog and I had been going on and on about a followers gadget. Little did I know you had to physically add it now.

This is very helpful!

*Bonnie* said...

Thanks Hermione. I had such a hard time finding this. This is very helpful info for new bloggers.

Kenzie said...

This will be a super helpful tip, thanks for sharing! I don't want to make the switch to google+ and it stinks seeing this feature phased out, so hopefully this will help others find it. :)

Aimless Rambling said...

Thanks so much for looking out for all us. A+++

Anonymous said...

my only problem with followers, is that some of them are spam... so occasionally I block some followers. the key is that if you look at what they follow, they are solely porn sites, not blogs... and these sites are sometimes attack sites.
Another little problem is friend Ronnie of Heart and Soul is being swamped with spam comments, so email follow-ups are a problem
bottoms up
Red

Unknown said...

What a great helpful post. I had the hardest time finding this gadget when I first started. I think it took me about a month to find it. It never dawned on me to write a post on where to find it in case others where also having the same problem.
Kim

Hermione said...

Roz - I do my best:)

Susie - Please do!

Joey - I hope new bloggers will find it useful.

Emi - I'm glad you eventually found it.

*Bonnie* - Good to know. Thanks.

Kenzie - I hope so too.

Sunny - I have your best interests at heart.

Red - I agree with you about email followups. I have to unsubscribe. Ronnie is very popular with spammers:)

Kim - If you find something else after a long search, maybe you could post about it.

Hugs,
Hermione





Red -

ronnie said...

Hermione,

You are so very kind and such a great help to new (and even us old:)) bloggers. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

As you know I'm getting more spam than ever and I wish I could stop them.

Love,
Ronnie
xx

SirQsmlb said...

Thanks for the PSA...as always!!

You are so wonderful!!

hugs,
fiona

Hermione said...

Ronnie - The only thing I can suggest is that you moderate all comments for a few days. That might slow the spammers down.

SirQsmlb - *blushes* Aww, thank you!

Hugs,
Hermione

Enzo said...

Thanks for the detailed tutorial. Although I have it set up on my blog already, I am sure this is really helpful to some newer bloggers.

Scunge said...

I don't like Google plus because that is where my vanilla friends are and I really don't want them (the ones that don't know)finding out I'm kinky from Google!

Lea said...

I don't know why their updates always seem more complicated every time. I've been avoiding using Google+. I don't need another account to keep track of.

Hermione said...

Enzo - I hope it is helpful too. I miss following all the new blogs.

Scunge - that's a very good reason for staying away from it.

Lea - Very true. Every update causes more havoc and confusion.

Hugs,
Hermione