How to get a Google+1 button on your blog

The Google+1 button is an important addition to your website and blog. The Google+1 button is like the Facebook “Like” button, except it gets into Google searches. And Google reaches millions. “Asked which search engine they use most often, 83% of search users say Google.  The next most cited search engine is Yahoo, mentioned by just 6% of search users.”  (Pew Internet Research)

Here’s how you can get that important little Google+1 button:

Blogger: Go to “Design” in Blogger and click on “Layout” and then click on the “Edit” in the left hand corner of the “Blog Posts” rectangle. Another menu pops up. Scroll down and you’ll see a box you can check next to “Show Share Buttons.” Click and save. Now every blog post will carry the share buttons including the Google+1 button.

Wordpress or website: There is a code for the Google+1 button you can pick up from the Google Developers site. Choose the size and language and then copy the code it gives you. You can then paste it your HTML code box or in the footer. There are also plug-ins for Wordpress to do this for you. It’s suggested you add one to every page of your blog or website.

Joanne Elliott of Social Sprite Media Services brings this column to NWCU every week. If you're a creative seeking advice on spreading the good news about your work, we're here to help!

John Anstie ~ @poetjanstie

John Anstie
Poet, Blogger, Photographer

John Anstie is a Poet, Blogger and Photographer having a treasure chest filled with a lifetime’s pictures; a developing interest in dramatised ‘moving’ pictures with a multi-media approach to creative art, including, of course, poetry. He also sings tenor in a mixed voice choir. He originally graduated with a Masters in Metallurgy and became a Chartered Engineer.

As a teenager in the sixties, there were small signs of creative intent: an unschooled love of the piano, followed by the ubiquitous guitar and his tendency to write the occasional song or poem. Played Rugby Union for over twenty years; an insane game that he claims kept him sane!

He spent thirty-five years in a creative desert, pursuing a career and raising a family. Working in Metallurgy for only ten years, he soon realised he was a reluctant metallurgist and so pursued a more commercial destiny. The ‘desert’ was not, however, without its benefits; a good wife and three healthy children were what sustained him then and, directly or indirectly, continue to provide one of the core inspirations for his writing now. It was, eventually, refreshed with rain in 2009 by the birth of his first grandchild, which moved him to write a poem. This opened a door and he hasn’t stopped writing since.

John’s writing is inspired by strong family, close community, and a desire to see an end to political injustice and extreme economic inequality; it is also concerned about the shallowness of life for large sections of an affluent generation and about a reluctance or inability for them to spare much meaningful thought for the human condition, in a world that is rapidly filling up with an increasingly stressed people and declining resources.

He has not yet published a collection… but watch this space!

‘My Poetry Library’ 

‘Forty Two’ : (a blog on ‘Life, The Universe & Everything’) : 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Poetjanstie

Twitter:  @poetjanstie

Kaleigh Somers ~ @kaleighsomers

Kaleigh Somers
blogger, writer

 Kaleigh fell in love with blogging in the midst of mid-college crises and never looked back. In June 2010, she began tap tap tapping away at the computer to tell stories of shy girls going down dangerous paths and boys shaping a place for themselves in this big, critical world. It didn’t take long for her to discover that her story matched that of so many girls wondering how to handle being pulled in six different directions by boys and friends, schoolwork and stressful expectations.

Since then, her heart has been carved out for the lonely and the introverted, the less-than-normal and little-bit-crazy. For her, there is nothing better than cramming writing together with helping like-minded souls grow up strong and sure of themselves. HUGstronger, a content-based blog community for college students struggling with personal and professional issues, was born out of that need to reach a hand out and offer a virtual hug.

She was never a hugger, but if Twitter taught her anything, it’s that strangers surprise her with kindness. Every. Single. Day. She hopes to convert this kindness into an army of individuals who combat the stresses and struggles of being an undergrad. And she’s blogging about it on Rewriting Life. Find her on Twitter @kaleighsomers or email kaleigh@hugstronger.com.

Links: HUGstronger - http://www.hugstronger.com

Rewriting Life - http://www.rewritinglife.net

Twitter: @kaleighsomers and @hugstronger

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kaleigherinsomers

Fan pages: http://www.facebook.com/rewritinglife and http://www.facebook.com/hugstronger