How to promote your blog: A Wordpress Tip from a Blogger user

I am a Google Blogger. I randomly chose that blogging platform because it is simple and free to use. What I did not realize is how simple Blogger made it for fellow users to follow each other. Included in every standard template was a little "Follow Me" button at the top of the page and a Google Friend Connect widget in the side bar. If I found myself on a blog I liked it was easy to follow them and my dashboard would keep me up to date on any new posts. I found the system pretty easy and inviting.

Then one day I found myself on a WordPress Blog. The blogger was funny and I really enjoyed her post. I immediately wanted to get her future posts and begin following her blog. At the top of her side bar was a little widget that said "Follow Me" so I clicked. Expecting a little pop up window which would confirm my intention to follow this blog I was given the choice of "following" the RSS feed or getting an email every time a new post came out.

RSS feed? What the heck is that? What will I do with this? I don't use a reader to follow blogs. I get all my blog updates in my Blogger Dashboard. An email of the blog post? I don't want my email cluttered up with blog posts. I like my dashboard. How can I get the new blog into my dashboard?

The answer is with Google Friend Connect.

WordPress Blogs which offer this little widget allow Blogger users to follow their blog from within the platform with which they are comfortable. A Google Friend Connect widget says Welcome Blogger user, there is room for you too in my blog community. Many highly successful (read lots and lots of followers) Wordpress bloggers offer this feature but it has been my experience that the large majority of new wordpress users do not include this feature in their blog templates. As a reader interested in your blog I can not begin to tell you how annoying and frustrating this is.

I have been blogging for about a year now and in no way consider myself a professional blogger but I do think I have learned a thing or two over the past year. The number one thing I have learned is to make it easy for people to follow you. If you have a WordPress blog, make it easy for Blogger users to follow you. Add the Google Friend Connect Widget.

I mentioned earlier that I am an Blogger user but recently I've decided to dip my toes in the Wordpress water. I have heard all the vast benefits of Wordpress's flexibllity so I thought I would test out in a little test blog I call Everyday Bacon. So far I have to admit that I haven't been finding Wordpress as user friendly as the Blogger platform but even so, a novice like me was able to add the Friend Connect Widget.

This is how I did it:

From my Wordpress admin dashboard I clicked on "New Plugin" and in the search field I put "Google Friend Connect." This generated two pages of options so I selected the one that had 4.5 out five stars. I'm certain others will work as well but as a novice user I thought a tried a true popular option was the way to go.

Once I chose the plugin I clicked on "Install Now" which makes this widget available for use on my page. From there I went to the "Install Plugins" tab and clicked to make my plugin available on my site. So far the only follower is me (testing to make sure everything worked properly) but I'm ready if anyone is interested in following my blog. I probably need to post more regularly for that to happen but that is another hub topic all together!

Make it easy for Blogger users to follow by adding the Google Friend Connect widget to your blog!