Create A Branded Username For Google Plus URL

Google Plus is a very popular social media, and is especially useful for bloggers and webmasters, who not only have to catch traffic from the social media itself, but also adopt it so easily use and integrate with other Google services, such asBlogger, Google AdSense, Google Webmaster Tools, and so on. Google Plus is great in many respects. But it has one very obvious flaw, something which even newcomers to the network notice as well. Google Plus does not have personalized usernames in profile URLs. For example, for profiles or pages, you can't have a URL like plus.google.com/name, as you can on Facebook and Twitter. What you have instead is plus.google.com/1234567890 etc. There is a workaround for this, and you can create a brand username for your Google Plus Page or Profile URL!

Google Plus Profiles currently contain a long string on numbers, which are not easy to memorize. And so, unlike Facebook or Twitter, if someone asks you for your Google Plus profile link, you can't easily direct them verbally. You first have to open up your Google Plus profile, copy its URL, and then send it to someone via chat or email. This is very time- and effort-consuming. And if you're away and you need to give someone your profile link verbally or via message, the best you can do is tell them to look you up, hope there aren't very many people with the same name as yours, and trust that they'll find you.

All this involves much hassle. But you can get rid of it simply by using a great web app called GPlus!

What is GPlus?

GPlus is basically a URL shortening service for Google Plus. With it, you can get a personalized username for your profile in the form gplus.to/username. Note that this is a URL shortening service, which means it won't change your actual username on Google Plus. It will just provide you a redirect link, so when you enter gplus.to/username in your address bar, it won't directly open your profile. Rather, it will redirect you to your Google Plus profile.

Customizing Google Plus Profile URLs

1. You need to fetch your Google Plus Profile ID first. Log into your Google Plus account, and click on the down arrow next to your profile image in the top-right region of your screen. Now click on View Profile. Now, you can see the ID in your address bar. (See the image below. The highlighted numbers make up the ID). Select your ID and copy it.

2. Take this ID, and go to GPlus. In the Nickname, type in the username you want to use. Now paste your ID in the ID field, and click on Add. Be sure to type in only your ID numbers, and not any slashes (/) or any other part of your profile URL. Usernames can only be between 3-25 characters.

Once you click on Add, GPlus will show you whether all is okay or not. And that's it! Now you can type gplus.to/username into your address bar, and you will arrive at your own Google Plus profile!

Customizing Google Plus Page URLs

The process for customizing page URL is the same as for profiles. But there's a slight difference. Google Plus Page URLs are somewhat different than profiles.

Notice how page URLs are slightly different than profile URLs. But you just have to go for the string of numbers between the slashes.

Claim your username now!

This is a really great service which has been started recently. And already, millions of profiles and pages have been added to it. Claim your own username now before someone else scoops it up!

Read More

How to Automatically Share Blog Updates on Google Plus?

Social Media promotion is every blogger's need. If a blog is an engine, then social media acts like a lubricant, without which a blog would stall. This is why bloggers need toshare their awesome content so that people around the world can know about it. To that effect, Google is trying to help out bloggers by ruffling quite some feathers. Recently, Google released the Google Takeout service that lets you merge two Google Plus accounts together. Now, you can connect your Google Plusaccount with Blogger to easily share your posts and also gain recognition for your work on social media. A share box will automatically appear when you publish a post, with which you can instantly share your content with the world! We'll look at how we can do this in this post.

Please note: This service is for Blogger blog only. It isn't available for WordPress or TypePad or any other publishing platform blogs. Also, Google makes it pretty clear that this feature is not available for you if you have adult content on your blog. This is Google's way to keep its social channel clean, which is a good thing.

Connecting Blogger With Google Plus

This trick will work only if you have your Google+ and Blogger profiles under the same Google Account with a common name. If both your profiles are under one account, then you are in luck. Simply log in to your blogger account, and go to your blog dashboard.In the top-right region of your screen, you will see a cog icon.

Clicking on the cog,  you will see an option to Connect to Google+. Click on that, and you will see a confirmation screen.

You are ready to make the switch. Just check the "I've read...." box and click switch.

If in the future, you want to disconnect the two accounts and revert to your Blogger profile, you can simply use the cog icon again, and there'll be an option to disconnect the two accounts.

Sharing posts

Once your posts are linked, you will see an option to share your posts right from your Blogger dashboard. This will also let you share your posts whenever you want, without having to deal with auto pop-ups.

Besides this, whenever you publish a post, you will see a pop-up box appear that has sharing options. It is pre-filled for your ease, and you can add a comment as you like. You can also choose which circles you want to share the post with. By default, the option will be set to Public.

If you don't like this sharing box, and if it's annoying you, you can simply disable it by going into Settings >> Posts and Comments.

That's about it. You can take advantage from this feature to easily share your content without having to manually go to your published pages and then using the available sharing widgets. If you want automation, you can use an app such as HootSuite. If you have question regarding this post, feel free to ask :)

Read More

How to Automatically Share Blog Updates on Google Plus?

Social Media promotion is every blogger's need. If a blog is an engine, then social media acts like a lubricant, without which a blog would stall. This is why bloggers need toshare their awesome content so that people around the world can know about it. To that effect, Google is trying to help out bloggers by ruffling quite some feathers. Recently, Google released the Google Takeout service that lets you merge two Google Plus accounts together. Now, you can connect your Google Plusaccount with Blogger to easily share your posts and also gain recognition for your work on social media. A share box will automatically appear when you publish a post, with which you can instantly share your content with the world! We'll look at how we can do this in this post.

Please note: This service is for Blogger blog only. It isn't available for WordPress or TypePad or any other publishing platform blogs. Also, Google makes it pretty clear that this feature is not available for you if you have adult content on your blog. This is Google's way to keep its social channel clean, which is a good thing.

Connecting Blogger With Google Plus

This trick will work only if you have your Google+ and Blogger profiles under the same Google Account with a common name. If both your profiles are under one account, then you are in luck. Simply log in to your blogger account, and go to your blog dashboard.In the top-right region of your screen, you will see a cog icon.

Clicking on the cog,  you will see an option to Connect to Google+. Click on that, and you will see a confirmation screen.

You are ready to make the switch. Just check the "I've read...." box and click switch.

If in the future, you want to disconnect the two accounts and revert to your Blogger profile, you can simply use the cog icon again, and there'll be an option to disconnect the two accounts.

Sharing posts

Once your posts are linked, you will see an option to share your posts right from your Blogger dashboard. This will also let you share your posts whenever you want, without having to deal with auto pop-ups.

Besides this, whenever you publish a post, you will see a pop-up box appear that has sharing options. It is pre-filled for your ease, and you can add a comment as you like. You can also choose which circles you want to share the post with. By default, the option will be set to Public.

If you don't like this sharing box, and if it's annoying you, you can simply disable it by going into Settings >> Posts and Comments.

That's about it. You can take advantage from this feature to easily share your content without having to manually go to your published pages and then using the available sharing widgets. If you want automation, you can use an app such as HootSuite. If you have question regarding this post, feel free to ask :)

Read More