A Closer Look at the New Google "My Business" Insights for Pages

Brand pages on Google Plus just got better! Today Google announced that page owners now have access to some basic stats that can help them learn more about their audience and view trends in their follower count and the +1s, comments and reshares of their posts. New businesses getting started with Google and current users of Places for Business will have access to the new Google+ Dashboard. 

Below are a closer look at the new Insights (analytics) for my client's brand page, +Naturally Colored, after clicking the new "My Business" tab. Insights were previously only available for local pages.

New Dashboard for Google Plus Brand Pages

New wording under the Share section indicates that "Posts you share here will appear on Google+ and Google.com." According to the information on the "Learn More" page, posts "will appear on the Google+ stream for your page and may also display across Google on Maps, Search, and more." While this information is not new, the placement under the Share section will likely make more users more aware that Google Plus is Google.

Dear Google: A Petition To Improve Circle Sharing

Circle sharing is getting has a bad rep - and it is only going to get worse; but it doesn't have to be this way. I would never bring a problem to your attention without offering a solution; so here is the problem as I see it, as well as a proposed solution.

Adding shared circles are one of the ways users find people to follow on Google Plus; therefore, it stands to reason that many of those who wish to gain a following would want to be included in shared circles in the hopes of increasing their following when the circles are added. As someone who has had success sharing circles, I know that getting a circle shared outside my community by as many people as possible is the key to reaching new people who are currently not following me.

Those who have 'mastered' circle sharing are generally the ones who strongly encourage or even require sharing in order to stay in - or get in - the next circle. This can promote a circle sharing frenzy by those included, as well as attract spammers attempting to get into subsequent shares. The frenzy surrounding these circles, and the fear of being spammed, causes many seasoned Google Plussers to be leery of sharing or adding circles at all. On the other hand, the frenzy entices those who are new to circle sharing - the newbies who have no clue what they are doing and often add and share every circle they are included in before finding themselves with streams filled with junk, notifications that are out of control, and circles that are a mess.

It takes time to vet a circle so it is easy to see why shortcuts are taken in order to get the next share published; many of the larger shared circles are not properly vetted and are often filled with people that even the circle creator does not know. Some of these people might not wish to be included in public circle shares, especially the ones filled with spammers, but there isn't a way to "optout" short of blocking those that include you - after you have already been included.

Even worse than taking shortcuts, some circle "creators" have built a following routinely adding circles (many will follow them back), sharing these circles as new circles with themselves included (so others will add them) and then immediately deleting the circles (so they aren't following anyone back and can continue the process without hitting their 5K limit). This is in essence flooding Google Plus with their circles, circles of people that they never "really" circled in the first place, circles of people that didn't have them circled, and that they likely never interacted with at all.

So what is the solution?

The solution is very simple. Rather than allowing a circle creator to share a circle of people they are following, only allow them to share circles of people that they are following who are also following them back. I have followed this practice of only including those who are following me rather consistently and believe this is one of the reasons I have been looked to as someone with "decent" circle shares. Don't get me wrong, there are still many who frown upon my circles, because as I said, circle sharing has a bad rep on Google Plus.

While this solution will not eliminate the circle sharing frenzy, it would certainly give people more control over who is allowed to include them in a circle share. Furthermore, limiting the pool that the circle creator has available to only those that are following them back would go a long way toward preventing spammers from creating their own circle shares; after all, if no one was following them, they wouldn't have anyone to share.

Sincerely,
+Christine DeGraff

Do you agree with this solution? 
If so, please sign the 'petition' below by saying "I agree" in the comments below or offer a better solution if you have one. If you do not think there is a problem, you are welcome to state your case.

Google Announces 18 New Updates

Today's "A Morning with Google+" Live HOA broadcast included an announcement of the following updates that will be available today to their 540M active users:

Google Hangout App Updates:

1. Addition of location sharing
2. Animated gifs support
3. SMS integration
4. HD full screen videos
5. Algorithms for facial recognition to improve lighting
6. Photo editing tools including spotlight features and focus effects

Google Hangout On Air Updates (Broadcasts):

1. Improved ability to plan hangouts with dedicated landing page
2. Promotional tools
3. Management tools

Photos:

1. Backup for full resolution images
2. Coming Soon: Full size backups and background sync on for IOS
3. Automatically select your "highlights" or best pictures by hiding blurry images, looking for the "important people" in your life and landmarks
4. Search for images even if the images are not tagged using "deep learning" that recognizes images for 1000 additional words added including "apple pie," "beach," "sunset," etc. You can also include searches such as "my dog at the beach."
5. Ability to search your images as well as the images shared in your friends circles per their privacy settings
6. Improved auto-enhance with more control and settings on an album by album basis
7. New HDR filter in Snapseed
8. Adding Analog Efex Pro to the Nik Collection for advanced photo editing
9. Additional "Auto Awesomes" for action sequence and eraser

Auto Awesome Action Sequence

Videos:
Too mind-blowing to talk about. You will need to watch yourself. Video starts at 0:49 minutes.

Surprisingly, no updates on Helpouts or Google Glass.

Google Helpouts Launch Seems Imminent

Update 10.29.2013 - Google Helpouts Launch Date Leaked
According to +Android Police sources launch date is set for Tuesday, November 5th
http://androidpolice.com/2013/10/29/google-helpouts-will-reportedly-launch-tuesday-november-5th/

Tomorrow's Live Hangout on Air "A Morning with Google+" during which time "the Google+ team will be sharing a few updates" seems like the perfect venue for the unveiling of Helpouts by Google. After only 5 hours, the event already has close to 8,000 "yes" responses and Google Plus communities are buzzing with rumors and speculation about what will be revealed during the broadcast.

Helpouts is a new way to connect people who need help with people who can give help, over live video, anytime, anywhere. I received an invitation code in early October and completed my listings and interview with Google just last week. My listings are still in a "Pending review" status (see screenshot below) but I have been told by several people, who were also pending just days ago, that their listings are now approved.

Although Helpouts is not yet open to the public, launch is obviously imminent. I had my first "Helpout" this past Friday, an interview with a representative from Google to review my listings, and he said "very very soon" when I inquired when the site would launch. Helpouts are really a lot like Hangouts and I expect that if you are familiar with Hangouts, you will have no problem getting used to Helpouts.  

In one of the Google communities I belong to, one of the members who has already been approved for Helpouts posted a few screenshots of the new Helpouts. He said that there were about 400 of so listings already approved and that the Helpouts homepage was automatically scrolling through the various categories and showed the top listing in each. He also reported that next to each listing is a share button that allows people to share the listing via G+, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well as the ability to link and embed listings. I just checked my listings and I now have the "Promote" button as well (see screenshot above).

Categories for the rollout include: Art & Music, Computers & Electronics, Cooking, Education, Fashion & Beauty, Fitness & Nutrition, Health & Counseling, Home & Garden and Other. 

If you are interested in making money online by sharing your skills and knowledge via Helpouts, apply for your invitation code at https://helpouts.google.com/welcome. You might also want to follow +Helpouts on Google+ to learn more.

Have you been approved as a Helpout provider on Google Plus? If so, feel free to add your name to the list below which will be updated once Helpouts has officially launched. 

Helpouts on Google Plus

View more lists from Christine DeGraff

Mastering Circles: The Key to Success on Google+

Updated: August 9th, 2014

Understanding Google+ circles and how to use them to begin building an active, engaged audience continues to be the holy grail that new users, especially businesses, are trying to achieve. Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about circles as well as additional resources with more information to help you learn to master Google Plus circles.

1) What are Google+ circles?
Circles are the way you group the people you follow on Google+. The default circles for profiles are "Friends, Family, Acquaintances and Following," and the default circles for pages are "Following, Customers, VIPs and Team members," but you can delete them or rename them if you prefer, and you can add additional circles and name them as you see fit. There is no right or wrong way to set up your circles, so the best way is the way that works best for you.

Example of how I have one of my pages circles set up.

Hint: Determining your main goals for your Google+ profile or page(s) is a good strategy to help you organize your circles. Ex: Create prospects, leads and customers circles for your business page.

2) What happens when you "circle" someone?
Similar to following people on Twitter, you follow people on G+ by adding them to your circles. When you add someone to your circles, you will see the content they choose to share with you. If someone adds you to their circles, they will see the content you choose to share with them. The diagrams below depict an overly simplified version of what content is seen when you follow someone that does not follow you back; when someone follows you when you don't follow back; and when you follow someone that is also following you.

"Amber" follows "Bob" but Bob doesn't follow Amber.

The posts that Bob chooses to share publicly will appear in Amber's stream.*

Bob will not see Amber's public posts unless he visits her profile page.**

Bob follows Amber but Amber doesn't follow Bob.

The posts that Amber chooses to share publicly will appear in Bob's home stream.*

Amber will not see Bob's public posts unless she visits his profile page.**

Amber and Bob both follow each other.

Amber's public posts will appear in Bob's home stream.*

Bob's public posts will appear in Amber's home stream.*

*Note that settings can be adjusted per circle to turn off posts to home stream. In that case, the way to see them is to view the circle.

**Note that if someone shares to extended circles or if someone in your circle has recommended a post by giving it a +1, you may see someone's post in your streams even if you do not have them circled.

A lot of people who are new to G+ tend to think that they need to "follow back" everyone that circles them; however, since the limit on the number of people you can circle is 5,000, you may as well forget that strategy as it can only work until you reach that limit. The best advice I can give you is to circle people that you want to follow and don't play the follow/unfollow game or you will likely end up with lots of followers, but little engagement.

3) How do I find people to circle?
There are several ways to find people to circle on Google+. You can follow people that are on the SUL (suggested users list); you can add shared public circles; you can perform searches and find people based on the results; you can click hashtags to see others who have used them; you can join communities to meet people with similar interests; you can find people through post comments; you can find people who attend events/hangouts on air, etc. You can also use +NOD3x (www.NOD3x.com) to find popular posts in your niche. There is no wrong way to find people to circle; however, if you are business, you will likely want to try to target those that are most likely to be interested in your product or service.

4) How do people find me on Google+?
While it is not hard to find people to circle, getting found by others is a little more difficult! First of all, you are likely not going to be on the SUL at first (in fact, the majority of users will never be on the SUL) so that takes away that option. You are probably not going to be included in very many shared public circles at first... another option gone. That means you are basically relying on getting found by people searching (and showing up high in the results) and getting added by people you engage with in communities and on posts - and that can take time - a LONG time!

There is another option to grow your following and that is to proactively add people to your circles that are likely to add you back. You can do this by adding people one at a time on a case-by-case basis; by adding shared public circles on a regular basis; or by adding people in bulk using +Circloscope. Remember that whenever you add people to your circles, you will want to take the time to "vet" your circles to decide who to move into more permanent circles and who to remove. Vetting a circle basically means viewing the stream to look for people you might be interested in getting to know (read their about us, look over their posts, etc.) and then moving them to one of your "keep" circles and eventually deleting the rest. The key is that not only does this help you find people, it will allow people to "discover" you because (see #2) - many people will follow you back.

You will also help people find you by engaging on other people's posts, being active in communities, displaying your Google+ badge or link on your blog, website, etc. AND of course by posting good quality content. That all goes without saying; however, it is not the focus of this post.

5) Isn't what you just described, adding circles, keeping a few and then deleting the rest the same thing as the follow/unfollow game - like on Twitter?
No, I don't think it is. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to decide who to follow without viewing someone's stream, which may or may not be shown to the public (and there aren't any "circle viewers" at the current moment - hint hint +CircleCount - we need to talk) so the only way to really decide whose content interests you when you add a shared circle is to view the stream. I recommend giving it a few days or even a week before you delete the circle to give people a chance - just because someone posts a #caturday post once a week (or #goaturday - shout out to +Michael Chase) doesn't mean that they don't share anything that might interest you the rest of the week.

6) What can I do to make myself more likely to get followed?
Here are just a few suggestions to make yourself more likely to get circled by others on Google+.

• Upload a profile photo - people do not like to circle "blueheads." I will not even consider following someone who does not have a profile photo and would never put them in a shared circle... with one exception... 
• Complete and optimize your "about" section; using keywords can help you get found in searches and many people do read your bio before adding you to their circles. Hovering over someone's name will bring up their "hovercard" and although there is very limited information available, it is important that you have a cover photo and have set your location. In fact, +Stephan Hovnanian has an awesome post showing 19 (and counting) places that display your hovercard across Google - go ahead, hover over him and then circle him!
• Create a free profile (or update yours if it is already indexed) on www.circlecount.com and add some tags (keywords) as well. +CircleCount is free and provides stats to help you better understand Google+. This is also where you can see whether or not you have been included in any shared circles.

7) What are "shared" circles?
A shared circle is simply a circle that is shared. If you share the circle publicly to your stream, anyone who comes across it can add it. Anyone can share a circle on Google+; however, if no one adds these circles, they won't do the people included much good - and the way to reach more people to add the circles is by encouraging those included to share it.

In my opinion, there are "levels" of shared circles and I think it is important to understand the difference:

1. The first is a small, curated ("cherry picked") circle share - a very desirable circle to be included in; although it may not get many shares, it will likely be added by many of the person's followers and can bring those included some very targeted connections. Being included in a circle like this is basically being recommended as someone to follow. These circles can usually be added without much "vetting" as they have already been selected and are people known to the person sharing.
2. The second is a niche circle that is likely larger and less carefully curated that could be shared by anyone, but would likely be shared by someone in the niche. Doing a search for "real estate circle" or "lawyers circle" for example might bring up a few of these types of circles. When you add these circles, you would expect that many of the posts in the stream will be ones that someone in the niche would be interested in reading.
3. The third is an interest based circle - such as a photography circle. These circles are usually larger and get more shares. You would generally want to "vet" these by adding them to a "sort" circle and looking through the stream.
4. The fourth is what +Dustin W. Stout has coined a "chain letter" circle. Basically, it is a circle that strongly encourages sharing or even requires it. While these circles usually get the most shares and lots of adds, they are frowned upon (hated) by many here on Google+. They are usually "all types of people" rather than niche or interest based. One thing I would like to point out is that one of the reasons that circle curators use the "you must share" requirement is because many who build these circles use +Circloscope to help build them and the only way someone will be detected if building a circle of sharers is if they have shared the circle. 

The bottom line is that whether the person creating a large shared circle tried to create a "good" circle or not, these circles really contain all kinds of people and need to be vetted. If you add these by creating new circles and naming them with the name of the person who created the circle, you will soon figure out which ones made the effort and which ones did not. I have added dozens of these circles by people that I consider "good" circle creators - the only ones that you will see me share - and I have met tons of great people and get incredible engagement.

You can also use +Circloscope to combine shared circles and filter them to remove those that are inactive (haven't posted in awhile), that do not have profile photos, that are already following you, etc. Watch the video below to learn more.

8) You have over 80,000 people in your circles - how do you manage that many followers?
Actually, I have less than 5,000 IN my circle, just like everyone else; 80,000 people have me in their circles. There is a big difference though between having 500 people in your circles and 5000, so be sure to understand how to control your notifications and "adjust the volume" before adding too many or you will be in notification hell. I am still tweaking mine. As far as managing circles, such as un-following people that I have not engaged with or that become inactive, I use +Circloscope.

If you are new to Google+, come visit me and say hi at http://gplus.to/chrisdegraff. Don't be afraid to leave comments on my posts - and let me know that you are "new" to Google Plus so I can help point you in the right direction!

To truly master the art and science of circles on Google+, I highly recommend that you circle +martin shervington and watch his video tutorials. You can learn more on his website www.martinshervington.com.

Disclaimer: I am now one of the co-founders at +Circloscope. 

What would it take to get you to switch to Bing?

Would you switch to Bing to earn the equivalent of $1 per week? That is essentially what you could earn with Bing Rewards just by searching as you normally would - only using Bing rather than Google.

At 1 credit per 2 Bing searches (up to 15 credits a day), you could earn 105 credits per week. That is enough for a 60 minute Skype Credit (100 credits); or you could save up for a few weeks and redeem them for a $3 Amazon.com gift card (340 credits) - or a few more weeks to earn a $5 Starbucks Card (525 credits). There are opportunities to earn additional credits, such as for referring a friend or adding Bing to your browser, and you can also reach a higher status so you can earn additional credits (and bragging rights), and since I am not sure of the exact amount you can earn, let's rephrase the question:

What would it take to get you to switch to Bing?

Although I had taken the "Bing It On" Bing vs Google Challenge once before and preferred Google, I decided to take the challenge again. I had a bit of a problem because their service went down several times during the challenge, but I decided not to weight that into my decision as Google hasn't been running perfectly lately either.

I have to admit that the challenge was not easy because the results are very similar (although when I searched my name it was easy to spot the difference as Google showed the number of followers I have in my circles); and in the end, I was a little surprised that I choose Bing in 3 out of the 5 rounds. So... will I switch?

I believe that using Google is such a habit at this point, that in order to get me to switch, Bing's results would either have to be quite obviously much better than Google's, or their rewards program would need to be so incredible that I could not pass it up - and at $1 per week - Bing is not even close to the mark.

Google AdSense: There's mad money to be made online!

Whether you are marketing yourself, your business or someone else's business online, I can guarantee you that at some point either you or someone you work for is going to look at your efforts and the countless hours you spend online and say "SHOW... ME... THE... MONEY!" When this eventually happens, your ability to monetize or justify your work by showing a ROI will likely determine whether your efforts will be considered successful or a colossal waste of time. With that said, I am at a point where I need to start showing myself the money for my efforts and I figured it might make for a few good blog posts as well. I am also hoping that if I do have any flawed logic here, one of my readers might be able to point it out to me or may bring up a point that I have not thought of yet.

A little background.

In 1997, I started my online journey by providing search engine optimization (SEO) services for clients all over the world, all of whom found me online (SEO was a little easier way back when!). I also set up several other websites and included Google's AdSense on one of them. On Friday, July 11, 2003, less than one month after AdSense launched, I got my first taste of "money for nothing" when I earned $2.17 from clicks on the ads on my site. I was excited at first and spent my spare time (which wasn't much considering I had 3 young kids and a full time job) improving my site in an attempt to make more money. Unfortunately, it didn't make as much as I had hoped and I eventually put it aside. Over the years, I worked for several companies ranging from start-up to large corporations, and started my own web development company in 2007. I checked in on my site and added a few more over the years, and the checks, although small, continuously rolled in.

I don't want to be kicking myself 10 (more) years from now!
I have decided that it is time I got serious about making money online. It has taken me 10 years, during which time Google AdSense celebrated its 10 year anniversary, to come back to the realization I made in 2003, which was, "There's mad money to be made online and how much I can make is really up to me."

Methods to monetize.

My goal is to monetize several of my existing websites and my blog ("web properties") as well as my social media profiles ("social sites") using three distinct methods:

1. Google AdSense and other CPC/CPA Ads
2. Affiliate and Referral Programs
3. Influence Marketing Campaigns

My plan is to tweak my existing and/or set-up additional web properties as needed for method #1; to research and test various programs until I find the right ones to promote for method #2; and to continue growing my fan base on my social sites to improve my acceptance rates for method #3. Regarding method #3, I am starting to find out that I am "not quite there yet," especially as brands do not yet seem to put a lot of weight on Google +, which is where I focus a majority of my efforts. On the other hand, I may be way ahead of the curve when they finally catch up. Because I am just getting started with methods #2 and #3, I will focus this post on method #1. I haven't played around too much with other CPC/CPA Ads (cost per click/cost per action), so will save my findings for a future post - and in fact, may just skip them altogether as I doubt any are better than Google AdSense.

Pick the low hanging fruit first.
Because there is only so much time and yet there are seemingly so many "opportunities," I want to target in rather quickly on the ones that I believe have the potential to provide the highest ROI and focus on them. I also want to develop a testable theory by making a few hypothesis based on some existing data as well as on some assumptions I feel that I can make based on experience. Since I am already familiar with and am already making some money with Google AdSense, and since I believe there is room for improvement, it makes the most sense to start there.

Analyzing the data.
Note: It is against Google AdSense's TOS to reveal actual click through rates (CTR) or details regarding property performance, so I am going to err on the side of caution and adjust my numbers. Disclosing gross payments is allowed, so I have included those numbers. 

Fact: It took me close to a million page views to earn approximately $6,500. This was achieved over a 10 year period with only one website running ads during the first 4 or 5 years.

Fact: Approximately half of this amount was earned the first 8 years and the remainder was earned in the past 2 years. It took twice as many page views (now across 20+ properties, although the majority was on about 1/3 of them) to earn the same amount, likely due to lower advertiser rates, something that is out of my control.

Fact: Over the past 3 months, I have been averaging around $250 per month. Of the higher earning properties, higher page views didn't always correlate with an increase in clicks. This is something that I believe can be played with by changing ad positions, styles, etc. Also, some of these properties are seasonal, so looking at just the past 3 months may need to be adjusted.

Based on the information I gathered and looking at property stats in Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, I believe I can determine which sites could possibly be improved and what the outcome might look like if I were able to achieve a higher CTR for a particular site.

Current Income: $250/mo
Initial Goal: Double Current Income

Property: A (seasonal)
Earnings: $355 (average $120/mo)
This site is my best performer but looking at several years worth of stats, I can see that page views are likely to dramatically drop this month (Sept) and won't pick up again until Feb.
Action Item: Revisit this site in January to determine additional action.

Property: B
Earnings: $24 ($8/mo)
I have made several attempts to improve the performance of the ads on this site without much luck. The site has great potential in my opinion and an extremely low bounce rate. The number of page views and CPC (cost per click) are similar to Property A, so in theory getting the CTR up to the same level should result in an increase of earnings of approximately $100/mo.
Action Item: Reposition ads on pages with highest page views. Also need to make that page more "sticky" as time spent per page is rather low.
Potential Increase: $100/mo

Property: C
Earnings: $96 ($32/mo)
At 1/3 of the page views and clicks, this site has the same potential as Property A. Although the site has increased page views year after year, it is a small town site (population 4,000); therefore, I do not think attempting to triple the page views is really practical. A large portion of the page views are people looking for a particular thing to do (seasonal) for a site that has at least triple the page views if not more, so targeting the related keywords a bit more might make a marginal difference.
Action Item: Spend 1 hour targeting keyword in January to prepare for the next season and see what happens.

Properties: D and E (seasonal)
Earnings: $72.50/$76 (combined average $50/mo)
These sites have a much higher CTR than average, so it makes sense to try to increase the page views. Since they are both so similar in both stats and content, will just go ahead and plan to work on both at same time even though their seasons are slightly different. Initial goal will be to try to triple visits/page views.
Action Item: Add additional pages for search to try to increase visits and page views. 
Potential Increase: $100/mo

Property: F
Earnings: $40 ($30 in past month due to recent changes)
This site is another with extreme potential. The page views used to be much higher but suffered due to some site problems which resulted in a loss of indexed pages.
Action Item: Add additional pages for search to try to increase visits and page views. 
Potential Increase (based on past performance): $100/mo

Properties: G, H, I, J, K, et al
None of the other sites (5 or 6) seem to have much potential, making up the remaining $15 or so per month; however, if each site potentially can earn even $3, if they could be added quickly enough, that would be an additional $30/mo for each 10 sites added.
Action Item: Consider for future.

Additional improvements needed.
Google AdSense now has a "Scorecard" to help you optimize your revenue by showing areas that need improvement. Mine need quite a few, so I will also work on those issues for even more possible improvement.

A good investment.
If all of my data and assumptions are correct, I should be able to meet my initial goal of doubling what I am currently averaging with Google AdSense. While an additional $300 per month may not even seem worth writing this blog post over, much less making changes to the sites, considering that I have had my account for 10 years already, a few adjustments today could add up to $36,000 over the next 10 years - seems like a pretty good investment to me!