Add The Followers Gadget To The Blog

It's been a bit over 2 months since Following was added as a Blogger feature, and daily we see anxious bloggers asking

How do I get Followers to my blog?

as if that is a holy grail of blogging. My first answer is always

Write interesting and relevant content for the blog, so people will read the blog, and will want to Follow the blog.

But there is yet another detail, that not all bloggers seem to get.

Add a Followers gadget to the blog. Having a Followers gadget, with pictures of other Followers, will attract more Followers than just the "Follow" link in the navbar. The "Follow" link, besides not having pretty pictures, works differently than the Followers gadget.

You're going to get a different class of blog readers using the Followers gadget, than the Follow link. The Followers gadget lets people Follow the blog

• without signing in to Blogger
• using a different Blogger account
• using a non Google account

The navbar Follow link requires the reader to be logged in, with the primary Blogger account, to the navbar. People who Follow the blog using the navbar link won't be as casual as those who Follow using the gadget.

Also, the Followers gadget encourages readers and visitors, by making your blog into an active part of the Following community that contains your blog.

You add Followers, like every other gadget, using "Page Elements".

The navbar link, frankly, is a poor substitute for the gadget. If you have a blog that uses a classic template, with which people who insist on publishing by FTP are stuck, the navbar link will be your only choice. But if the blog has a layouts template, and you want Followers, the gadget is your best accessory to add.

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