How to integrate a Facebook and Google+ Comment Box in Blogger to increase Blog Traffic - Managing your Google+, Facebook and Blogger Profiles

I’ve been playing around with my personal blogs of late to try to see if I can finds ways to boost traffic. I am currently writing for three (3) blogs:

1.      My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica which is about Telecommunications, Broadcasting Alternative Energy and Cloud Computing

2.      Geezam blog, the award winning Blog owned and operated by Kelroy Brown for who I write articles as an Associate Editor

3.      My new startup blog Jamaican Downloads, the first of its kind geared towards commercializing Cloud Drive downloading i.e. actually making money from things Jamaicans like to download when the Sun goes down

Trust me, I’ve learned a lot about blogging, scripting and web traffic ever since I started Blogging and posting my knowledge about my field. I began blogging and dabbling with websites as was recommended by my SDA (Seventh Day Adventist) girlfriend Audia Granston, when she was still alive, as she found it a tad annoying that I had so many ideas and suggestions and still had no website to showcase them.

So my writing and pursuit of my dream to become a Commercial Writer, in every sense of the Word, is now underway all thanks to Audia Michelle Granston! May the God Anubis keep her Company in the Afterlife as Audia, the Cosmetologists, gives him a manicure and pedicure and tell he all the business of the people of Earth!

 Traffic increase for a Reason – monetization of my blog traffic

The last blog has been a culminating of all I’ve learned over time about optimization of Blog traffic as it’s cranking well, averaging roughly US$1 per day. Thus as I’m seeking to increase and expand my reached and before year end and hit 3000 unique visit per day as a daily standard on ALL my blogs, twice the 1500 unique visits per day based on my analytics.

The reason is clear. If I can hit that level of traffic, I can eventually commercialize my blogs by adding advertisement. But this time not from Google Adsense but from local advertisers, who’d be interested if I could achieve higher traffic numbers, as it means I can guarantee a certain number of eyeballs equivalent to television viewership. I would then send them a sponsorship letter with details of my web traffic and target audience and hope to get a contract from them to place paid advertising on my blog.

So far I’ve managed to reach this far by writing great compelling content with lots of pictures and videos courtesy of YouTube and more recently videos in my Google Cloud Drive. I also note the analytics and write articles based on trends from my older articles, thus helping to magnify traffic already on my blog. I have long ago optimized traffic on my blog by following the recommendations of my own article on the subject entitled “How to integrate a Facebook Fan Box or a Google+ Plus Box in Blogger to increase Blog Traffic - The power of a Dedicated Social Media Profile Page”.

I’m still in the process of fully optimizing my blog to boost traffic when the other day I hit upon the idea of using Google+ to boost my traffic. I’ve managed to do this simply by joining a Social Network, Google+, and setting posts on Public, thereby increasing readership to my blog from yet another social Network. I’ll soon be posting my Geezam blog articles there as well to increase readership.

In addition to this, I also need to make my Google+ account more attractive, as I need o add friends and contacts from Facebook to Google+ as well as join Groups or Circles as they are called in this still expanding World that Google has created. Google+ is a lot like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Skype all rolled into one, which partly explains its growing popularity. Its lack of Privacy snafus thus far is making it increasingly a alternative to Facebook, hence the reason why I’m slowly moving over to Google+!

This is all a very tedious time consuming exercise which basically requires me to re-share most of my previously published works. But based on the traffic boosts thus far, now threatening 2000 unique visitors a day, I’m more than pleased as it’s worth it.

Social Networking is a great way to boost traffic – Facebook and Google+ Integration

The integration of a Facebook Like Box and a Google Like Box should give me an idea of all my fans I have aside from using the built in Blogger Fan Box which is based on Google’s old Google Connect standard. Integration involves getting code snippets from Facebook’s Developer Page or a third party website and embedding it into my blog’s main Template.

This requires manipulating HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and thus requires me to save a backup copy first before I proceeds and mangle my blog permanently as a recommended precaution. Curious, as in the Telecoms Engineering Field whenever installing firmware updates on BTS (Base Transceiver Stations), we basically do the same thing.

Thus far I’ve integrated Google+ into My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica and Jamaica Downloads and I’m seeing the results. Next I’ll be re-opening the comments section of my blog to allow persons to freely post on my blog without having to be members of Blogger or have a Google Connect pass, an older defunct method of identification online. Since everyone is on these two major Social Networks, it makes sense to integrate them into my blog.

Facebook traffic numbers indicate that they have 1.15 billion active users and 819 million active mobile users in the Second Quarter of 2013 as stated in the article “Facebook’s Q2: Monthly Users Up 21% YOY To 1.15B, Dailies Up 27% To 699M, Mobile Monthlies Up 51% To 819M”, published Wednesday, July 24th, 2013 by Josh Constine, TechCrunch. Integrating Facebook’s Comment Page should boost my web traffic, especially as I have a very active Facebook page and I’m a member of several very large Groups that are tech oriented.

Google+ is now ramping up to some 343 million to 345 million active users since December 2012, making them the No. 2 Social Network behind Facebook but bigger than Twitter with more users based on statistics from web analytics firm GlobalWebIndex as stated in the article “Report: Google+ Bigger than Twitter with 359 Million Active Users”, published May 2, 2013 by Matt Clark, IGN News and “Google+ continues to dominate LinkedIn & Twitter, could catch up to Facebook”, published July 8, 2013 10:16 PM by Dylan Tweney, VentureBeat.

And they continue to grow……

After all, despite my feeling on the affairs of Google as it relates to their biasing their search results towards Google+ as stated in my blog article entitled “Facebook extinct as Chrome to be No. 1 Browser in 2012AD – FB rides Bed Knobs and Broomsticks Mobile Revolution against Google+”, they do have considerable heft, making it better as a member of Blogger to have them as an ally instead of being in opposition with them.

Seeing as it was Google that suggested the idea to me on Google Buzz, the internal Newsletter, it now seems to be the right time to get interested in posting on the new Social Network Google+, for which I already have two (2) active accounts. I’ll also be checking out some other Social Networks such as Instagram when I eventually get a smartphone!

The work is ongoing and as time rolls by, dear reader; you’ll eventually see the changes on My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica and Jamaican Downloads blogs!

How to integrate a Facebook and Google+ Comment Box

These steps, which I’ll soon be implementing on My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica and Jamaica Downloads blogs, are fairly simple and straightforward. As per usual, the one involving Facebook uses their Facebook’s Developer Page, as I’m not so trusting of embedding HTML Script from Third-Party pages.

So here are the correct steps based on the article “How to add Facebook Comment Box in Blogger”, published December 2012, The Great Informer:

1.      Go to the Facebook’s Developer Page

2.      Submit your blog name and Blog URL. Note: Blog Title = Blog Name and Blog address = Blog URL

3.      Click Create App

4.      Facebook will then ask you to verify your identity

5.      Copy the App ID and save it on NotePad

6.      Log into your blogger account

7.      Click on Template

8.      Select Edit HTML

9.      Make a copy of your template in Microsoft Word BEFORE you proceed to do any work

10.  Select Expand Widget Templates

11.  Search for the HTML Code as follows: or

12.  Once you find it, copy and paste the following HTML Snippet below that particular HTML Script:

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3.   

4.   

5.   

6.   

7.   

8.   

9.   

10.   

11.   

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13.  Make sure to change YOUR_APP_ID to the App ID you'd copied earlier

14.  Save the Template

15.  Disable the Default Comments box from Google by selecting Settings and then Comments

16.  Select the hide Radio Button

17.  Save settings

18.  Preview the Blog to see if the setting have taken hold or if you need to adjust the script

I’ve also found the correct procedure for implementing the Google+ Comment box as explained in “How to add Google+ Comment Box in Your Blog Simple Steps”, published September 2013, by S. Srikanth , Curiosity Dimensions:

1.      Login to Blogger Account

2.      Select you blog

3.      Click on Google+ 

4.      Select the checkbox Automatically share after posting and Use Google+ Comments on this blog to activate the Google+ comments box

That’s it! Once it’s added you’ll have BOTH a Facebook and a Google + Comment Box. All comments on your posts shared on Google+ and Facebook will have the associated comments appearing there, making it easy for you to gauge the opinions of your readers of your blog while you browse Facebook or Google+.

Thus it allows you to handle both your Social presence as well as monitor your blog. Even better, it set up your blog and Social Media presence to be more easily managed by someone else.