Google Plus +1 Count Problem on Blogger Blogs

As a blogger, we all put in hard work to build the reputation of our site on social media sites. Social media signals such as votes and comments are some of the metrics that the readers use to judge the quality of the post. However, when some technical glitch or bug adversely impacts the social media signals it badly impacts the performance of the blog not only on the social media sites but also on the search engine results.

Google plus is one of the most effective and reputed social media sites on the web and the +1 count that the bloggers get on this platform play an important role in improving the overall performance of the website. 

However, in the recent past year, a large number of bloggers are complaining significant drop in the plus one count as well as the disappearance of +1 count from the dashboard as well as blog posts. Such problems not only result in low motivation but also distract, disturb and distress the bloggers.

Many BlogSpot bloggers have reported this problem on the blogger help forum and I am one of them. For the past several months many bloggers have been experiencing several problems related to +1 count in their blogger blog. Some of them are as follows:

Mismatch in the +1 counts

 The +1 votes do not show up on the blog post resulting in the mismatch in the actual number of +1 count a post gets and the number of +1 counts that the blog post shows. As you can see in the screenshot. 

A significant drop in plus one count

A large number of posts have not been displaying the plus one count. No matter how many plus one you get, the number of plus one count does not show any change. Moreover, the post with a large number of +1 votes has been registering a big drop in the +1 count.

For example, I got more than 100 +1 likes on one of my blog posts but now it shows only +3 counts. However, in the comment box, the count of plus one has not changed as you can see in the screenshot.

Disappearance of plus one count

The +1 count has been disappearing from the dashboard as well as the blog post. Some of the blog posts have stopped displaying plus one count in the dashboard and the post itself. As you can see on the screenshot.

The problem is getting from bad to worst. By the time you would be reading this post I would have lost several more +1. Google engineers have been working on this problem and have assured to resolve the issues. But they are not sure how long it may take.

Meanwhile, I would request the Google team to please provide the answer to the following questions. It would help the bloggers to focus on their work and encourage them to keep sharing their post on Google plus.

• What could be the possible cause of this problem?
• Will the disappearance of Google plus count from the blog post affect the performance of the site on search engine results?
• If the problem is resolved will the bloggers be able to retrieve all the plus one counts they have already lost?
• What would you suggest the affected bloggers to minimize the impact of this problem?

Have you also been experiencing a significant drop in +1 count in your blogger blog? Have you also noticed that +1 count have been disappearing from most of the blog posts especially the posts that have received a large number of plus ones? Which of the above mentioned problems you have been experiencing in your blogger blog? Please feel free to share with us in the comment box.

Please do share with us the following information.

1. When did you notice the problem for the first time? 6 months back 
2. How many posts do you have on your blog? 50 
3. Which template have you been using in your blogger blog?   Awesome Inc, however, this problem continues to exist on other templates as well. I have tried simple as well as dynamic templates but results are same. 
4. Have you been using third party badge on your blog? No 
5. Have you linked Google plus comments to your blog? Yes

I am sure it will help the Google team to understand the enormity of the problem and the pattern of affected blogs. 

If you have faced the similar problems in the past and have managed to resolve the problem please share with us too.

Privacy Policy Page: How to create one for your blog

If you are planning to monetized your blog using Google Adsense or any other monetization method you will be required to add Privacy Policy page to your blog.

A Privacy Policy enables your blog visitors to understand what kind of cookies you use in your blog and what kind of information you collect from them. It is a good blogging practice to maintain transparency while conducting business online.

Moreover, Google Adsense has made it mandatory on the part of blog owners to include a Privacy Page on their blog. Google Adsense is very strict about Privacy Policy and does not allow blog without privacy policy to run Adsense ad on their site.

Create Privacy Page for your blog

To make Privacy Policy page for your blog you can use online auto Privacy Page generator. However, if you want to create your Privacy Policy page manually, you will have to read a wide variety of Privacy pages to understand what to include and what to exclude in your Privacy Page.

I would suggest you to make use of auto privacy page generator to create Privacy Page automatically.

A majority of the service providers ask users to first create an account on their site. You can easily create an account on these sites and use various other services that these sites provide to the users.

Serprank.com is one of the sites that help users create privacy policy page online. You can easily sign up can create privacy page for your blog or website. You will be required to provide following information while creating your privacy policy page.

1. Email ID 
2. URL of your website or blog 
3. Advertiser information. For example, if you are planning to use Adsense check the box next to it or any other advertising partners such as Chitika or Amazon.

Finally, click on create my privacy policy and the site will automatically generate a privacy policy page for you.

Steps to add privacy policy page on your blog

• Create a new page on your Blogger/BlogSpot blog or WordPress website.
• Copy and paste the content you generated online
• Save the page as Privacy Policy and you are done. 

Video Tutorial

Here is an informative video from bloggermadesimple that can help you add the page on your blog successfully.

Do you know any other method to create and add a privacy policy page to a website or blog, please feel free to share with us? If you liked this post please share it with others too.  

How to Increase Website Traffic With Twitter

Despite sluggish growth in recent past years, Twitter is still one of the most effective social media sites to drive traffic to your website. If you want to increase traffic to your website with Twitter, in this article you will learn several tips and tricks.

With over 316 million active users as of November 2015, Twitter stands at number 8th position in terms of leading global social media networks with active users. Twitter is one of the fastest and easiest social media platforms to bring more readers to your website. Unlike other platforms, Twitter takes less time to increase followers as users in this platform are very active. 34% of the twitter account holders log onto their account more than once a day. 

Here is the list of top social media sites and how twitter is performing relative to other sites.

                                                                            Source
The number of active users on Twitter has increased by over 250 million in the past five years. You can significantly improve traffic to your website if you know how to get more readers to your website or blog using Twitter.

As of January 2016, @katyperry with over 84 million followers stands at #1 position in terms of accounts with the largest number of followers worldwide followed by @justinbieber, @taylorswift13, and @barackobama.

However, interestingly the average number of followers per user is far less. Can you guess? It's only 208. So unless you are a celebrity or a big brand, it's not easy to get a huge following on twitter. You will have to work out ways to increase your followers and bring more traffic to your website.

Why is twitter so important in terms of increasing blog traffic? Have a look at the number of monthly active twitter users. 

                                                                               Source
When I started using this platform I never thought it could be such a great source of driving traffic to my blog within a short span of time (6 months). I used to believe twitter is much noisier than any other social media network. However, over the course of time I learned several things and now I find myself in a better position to use this platform effectively. 

Tips to get more website traffic with Twitter

Create a short profile: a profile is the first thing users look at when they want to follow you. A profile provides users idea about the content of your tweets. When it comes to a decision related to following someone on twitter, a majority of the users first check your profile, your niche, quality of your content and number of followers in your account. I have personally experienced an increase of 10% in the number of followers the day I created my profile.

Add your picture or logo: if you are a business entity you must include your company logo in your profile. A logo indicates that you are seriously following your business and it also helps in branding. If you are an individual you must include a picture in your profile. Users are most likely to remember a picture than a name. A picture in your profile helps users to recognize you and it also increases the familiar with other users. 

Post quality content: you are most likely to gain more followers if you post quality content. You can judge the quality of your content on the basis of its performance on other social media sites. 

Your image will build on the basis of the content you share with other users. So make sure to share content that enhances user experience and engages them with not just new information but also contextualized stories. 

Create a posting schedule: the best way to increase followers on twitter is to post your content regularly and frequently. Twitter allows you to Tweet frequently. If you have a large number of posts in your blog you can post as many as 20 Tweets per day. 

You must create a posting schedule and post your content according to a predefined marketing strategy. Never make the mistake of posting all of your content at the same time. It is always a better idea to post your content at an interval of two to three hour depending on the amount of content your want to share and the performance of your content on other social media sites. 

I have included a list of some of the social media tools at the end of this post that you can use to schedule your tweets, gain more followers and improve the visibility of your tweets.

Make use of #tag: hashtags enable you to reach out to target audience. Use of hashtag is one of the most effective methods of increasing followers, traffic, likes and reshares on Twitter. The day I started using #tag on my Tweets, the number of followers increased at much faster pace. I have personally experienced an increase of 25% in readership and 15% increase in likes. Here is a screenshot of one of my tweets that show how effective are hashtags if used correctly.

Write attention-grabbing headlines: Since twitter allows you to use only 140 characters to share your content, therefore it is important to write tweets that can help you stands out from the crowd. Your tweets should be long enough to cover the topic and short enough to create curiosity. Rephrase your tweets if you are not able to bring traffic to your website. Your tweets must be able to generate adequate interest to make readers click on your link.

Unlike, search engines where the ranking of the website depends on many factors, twitter provides all the users equal opportunity. Therefore, the title of your Tweets can make a huge difference and can help you driving tons of traffic to your website. However, make sure your content is great and tweets are relevant to your post content. Make sure to never misguide your audience. 

Use visuals to drive more traffic: Images, infographics, video, statistics, GIFs are the great sources of attracting the target audience and bringing them to your blog. An image speaks louder than words and if you can use a right image you can bring tons of traffic to your blog. 

According to Bufferapp.com, content with visuals gets 94% more total views and 40x more likely to be shared on social media networks. If you include video in your content, it would become 50x easier for you to rank on the first page of the search engine results. Video content is increasingly gaining popularity and this is why video content is the future of blogging. 

Make sure to read and like the tweets of fellow users: one of the strategies that most of the users adopt on twitter is that they frequently like the tweets of other users. When you like the tweets of other users on this platform the sender of the tweet is notified. This increases familiarity and helps you win more followers.

Build a list of target followers: Although a large number of followers are useful to increases readership, however, it does not guarantee increased engagement and conversion. You cannot drive more traffic to your website if you have untargeted followers in your account. Your followers are most likely to read your content if it satisfies their needs. 

For example, if your content is related to a local business, you are unlikely to get traffic from other geographical regions. Therefore, it’s no use targeting audience in Australia if your business operates only in the US. This is why a large number of users fail to drive traffic to their site despite many followers. Twitter allows you to set a geographical preference so that you can reach out to your ideal audience.

Employ time management practices: make sure to allot time for each activity on twitter. Whether it is sharing your content or reading the content of your followers. Allow a fixed time for each activity depending on your other commitments. Don’t be under the impression that if you will spend more time, you will get more success. Ideal 20 to 30 minutes would be more than enough in the beginning. You can gradually increase the time depending on the performance of your tweets and increase in the number of followers. On an average, twitter users spend 170 minutes per month on Twitter. 

Create an effective follow and unfollow strategy: Don't worry if you don't have a large number of followers. According to the Telegraph, the average twitter followers per user on twitter is 208 as mentioned above. So if you have more than 200 followers you should be more than happy. 

However, make sure to follow your target audience. When following or unfollowing other users keep these things in mind:

• Do not follow and unfollow the same account over and over again (twitter might ban your account)
• Do not unfollow a large number of accounts in a single day (20 is the limit)
• Unfollow accounts that offer little in terms of content quality
• Unfollow untargeted accounts
• Do not unfollow accounts that offer you a lot in terms of content quality
• Unfollow spammers
• Unfollow accounts that follow you just with the intention of making you follow them back and then unfollow you
• Follow only active accounts. 44% of the twitter accounts are inactive.

When it comes to deciding who to follow on twitter you should look at these parameters: -

1. Look at the number of accounts the user is following: you stand little chance of following back if the user is following a handful of accounts.
2. Look at the frequency of tweet : do not follow an account that fills your stream with a large number of tweets. You are most likely to miss important tweets if you have several accounts that spam your feed. Similarly do not follow inactive users. 
3. Look at the content of the tweet: a great content helps you learn and grow whereas reading low-quality content is the wastage of time.

Actively participate in conversation: If someone likes your post or mention you in a tweet make sure to like the tweet or reply directly to the person. Communication allows you to increase familiarity and which in turn strengthens the bond between the audience and the account holder. 


Communication is the key to success on social media platforms. If you like a tweet, make sure to like it or reshare it with your followers. 

Influence the influencers: building a relationship with key influencers is the key to success on social media sites. You can do several things to attract the attention of key influencers in your industry such as mentioned them in your tweets, link back to their sites, quote interesting things or simply comment on their blog. The more an influencer gets familiar with you, the more successful will be your digital marketing strategy. 

Tools to drive traffic to your website

Use social media tools wisely to your advantage. There are several tools that you can use to improve your performance on twitter. For example:

Bufferapp: you can use this tool for scheduling tweets. You can schedule 10 posts in advance and set the time as per your requirements. 

Socialoomph: you can use this tool for repeating queues of tweets. This is a great tool for advanced users as it can automate almost anything. However, this tool offers limited functionality in a free version. 

ManageFiltter: you can use this tool for following and unfollowing accounts on day to day basis. This app also has functionality to target accounts based on location, keywords and account activity

Crowdfire: it is an application that helps you increase your followers. It provides you information about the number of new followers you have gained in a week. Basically, it is a self-promotion app that tweets on your behalf and lets other know about your performance on twitter.

However, keep in mind that these tools have been designed to help you improve penetration of your content and gain more followers on this platform. So make sure to use your own discretion while using these tools.

If you misuse these tools, they could also become the cause of your account suspension. Therefore, use these tools wisely and never use them for spamming or following or unfollowing a large number of accounts in a single day. 

Is there anything else you would like to suggest to drive more traffic to a website using twitter? Please leave your comments. If you liked this article, please share it with others too.

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• How to increase blog traffic with Google Plus
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How to Become a Freelance Writer Online: Beginners guide

If you are looking for ways to make money online as a freelance writer, the freelancing sites provide you several opportunities. The online freelance websites provide newbie as well as experienced writers the opportunity to earn money online from the comforts of their home. However, getting work on freelance sites is not a cakewalk you will have to work out ways to win contracts on these platforms.

If you are new to copywriting or online content writing you might find it a bit difficult to get online freelance work. However, there are several online writing courses that can help you hone you writing skills. As a new freelancer, you might not be able to earn as much as the experienced freelancers usually earn. However, something is better than nothing especially if you are unemployed. 

If you are new to freelance content writing and have little experience of content writing I would suggest you to first learn how to write content. It will help you get basic skills in content writing which in turn will help you get at least low paying contracts on freelancing sites.

You might like to read:

• Three ingredients of an article that audience love

On the contrary, if you have reasonable writing skills you might not find it difficult to get work on online freelancing platforms. Here are some freelancing tips that will help you get work as an online freelance writer. Follow these guidelines to get success in freelance content writing.

How to Become an Online Freelance Writer

In the beginning, most of the people aspiring to become an online freelance writer find it hard to find right platform and course of action they should take to establish themselves as a freelance writer. 

Join world’s leading freelance content writing websites

Upwork, Fiverr, Peopleperhour are some of the world’s leading freelancing sites for writers. You can join these sites to get work as a freelance writer. You will find a large number of clients on these platforms looking for writers with intermediate to high level of writing skills. 

If you have reasonable command over English language and you know how to put things together as a writer you will not find it hard to get right clients and earn money online. Intermediate writing skills might not help you win lucrative contracts; however, it will help you win low to medium paying job contracts. At the same time, it will help you improve your writing skills. 

Keep your expectations low at the beginning of your freelance career. Here is a screen shot of client feedback and my earning on one of the freelancing sites I joined in the beginning of my freelance career.

You might like to read:

• How to get work on online freelancing websites

Select your writing niche carefully

A niche is the category of writing services you want to offer to the potential clients. For example, if you are good at writing product review you can offer product review services. Similarly, if you are good at article writing or academic writing you can create a profile that highlights your core skills. Choosing right niche will not only help you establish a long-term relationship with the client but also help in getting great reviews. 

Online clients have a wide variety of needs and they consistently look for the right person who is an expert in his or her field of writing. You can significantly improve your chances of winning more contracts if you know your work. Therefore, it is always advisable to select your writing niche carefully. Choose writing services that you can do effectively and efficiently. You are more likely to excel in your field of work if you have adequate knowledge, interest and skills to carry out the task. 


Reach out to right clients

To become a freelance writer you need to focus on right clients. Your writing skills and area of writing determine whether a client is right for you or not. If you are good at article writing you should focus on client looking for article writing services. 

On the other hand, if you are good at academic writing you should focus on clients looking for academic writers. Never make the mistake of sending your proposal randomly. Freelancing sites are highly competitive and if you want to earn money as an online freelance writer you must target right clients. Thus, create your proposal keeping in mind the requirements of the client. 

As a new freelancer, you cannot win high paying clients. High worth clients mostly look for experienced freelance writers with many years of experience. Therefore, always target new clients or the clients who are looking for freelance writers with intermediate writing skills. It will help you in two ways.

First, you will be able to deliver you work as per the expectations of the clients. Second, it will help you get great feedbacks from your client. Freelancing sites rate a freelancer on the basis of clients’ feedback and star rating. Higher rating and good feedback help you establish yourself on freelancing platforms. 

Read Also:

• How to win clients on online freelancing platforms

Improve your writing skills

If you want to pursue freelance writing as a career, you should focus on improving your writing skills. You cannot survive in the business of freelance writing unless you make conscious efforts to improve your skills with time. 

There are several online writing courses that can help you improve your writing skills. Udemy provides several free as well as paid online writing courses that I am sure will help you gain writing skills. Moreover, The Writers Bureau provides several paid course that can help you excel in content writing as well as associated services such as proofreading, editing etc.

If you want to become an online freelance writer you should know how to exceed the expectations of your clients. Freelance writers are highly in demand due to growing popularity of blogging. Businesses are increasingly looking for the highly skilled writer to maintain their blog. Freelancing is the future of work. In the United States, 33% of the population works as a freelancer and provides a wide variety of services to clients across the world. 

You might like to read:

• Four reasons why freelance is the future of work

The good thing about freelancing is that you don’t have to quit your regular job and you can pursue it to earn some extra bucks. It is equally good for housewives, students, self-employed as well unemployed people. your potential to earn money on the freelancing site depends more on your writing skills and experience rather than the degrees you hold. 

So if you are passionate about writing and determined to become a freelance writer, you should better start with online freelancing websites. If everything goes well you can also start your own online writing business.


What other things would you suggest aspiring content writers to become a freelance writer? If you liked this article, please leave your comments and feel free to share it with others. 

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