Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

Important News About Using Google Friend Connect (GFC) to Read Blogs

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Many of you may have noticed that I haven’t offered any extra entries in my giveaways for following me via Google Friend Connect (GFC). There’s a reason for that! Google has decided that any blog not using Blogger (I use WordPress) can no longer use GFC as of March 1st. They have neither confirmed nor denied if readers will still be able to see posts in their feeds from non-Blogger blogs. I’m betting that you won’t be able to see them, which really really stinks if you regularly check GFC to stay up to date with your favorite blogs.

I’m actually taking down GFC on my site in a few days, so it won’t be an option to follow me that way anymore. If GFC is your preferred way to follow Stuff Parents Need, I do have several alternatives to suggest so that you don’t miss any of my fabulous reviews and giveaways!

1. Please strongly consider subscribing to Stuff Parents Need, either via email (delivered to your inbox each day) or through Google Reader, which is a feedburner service. Click here to sign up via email and click here to sign up via feedburner (or RSS).

2. If you prefer to follow blogs without a subscription to each and every post, consider adding me to your circles at Google+. This is sort of like a Facebook alternative with some cool customization options. I put updates there about all my current posts, so you can easily skim through them and decide what is relevant to you. Click here to follow me on Google+.

3. If you are more old-school in your social media, I’m on Facebook, too! All my posts are highlighted there, as well. Click here to follow me on Facebook.

4. If you prefer Twitter as your way to follow along, that’s an option, as well! Click here to follow me on Twitter.

All of these methods get extra entries on giveaways, so it’s honestly a great idea to follow me all 4 ways! But as long as you are following me on at least one other platform, we won’t lose each other when the GFC switch-off happens.

The Great GFC Experiment: The Results Are In!

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You may recall that at the end of April I made the announcement that I would be trying an experiment on my blog. I decided to test out an increasingly popular requirement that many review/giveaway blogs are setting: following the blog via google friend connect in order to be eligible for a giveaway.

Here was my hypothesis: Blogs that made this requirement were experiencing tremendous (and rapid) growth to their follower numbers by setting this requirement. I thought that there would be an attrition rate of a handful of people who didn’t want to use GFC, but that it would be offset by the very large number of people who would be willing to sign up or were already signed up, and would be willing to add my blog to their list in order to be eligible for the giveaways.

So for one month, I did set this requirement

My results were completely surprising to me. I found that my growth while requiring GFC was very similar to the growth I had the month prior, when I did not require it! During the month of April, my GFC follower number grew by 70 people. During May, it grew by 80. Though I find the difference to not be negligible (every person counts!), it is still so much smaller than I thought. I was honestly expecting my GFC follower numbers to be twice what they were in April with this requirement.

It seems that I incorrectly assumed that requiring GFC was the very best way to grow blog numbers. In fact, it had very little impact!

I’m SO glad I did this experiment, because I’ve been wondering if I should do it for almost a year now. I did it. I saw the impact, and I don’t need to do it again.

While I would love for you to still sign up for my blog on GFC, it is no longer a mandatory requirement (you will see it show up as a bonus entry, though!). In a month or so, I might try a month long experiment with requiring subscribing to the blog. I’ll give you advance notice if I do, and I’ll also report my results back to you. For any current giveaways where GFC is listed as mandatory, that is still the case, so just be aware of that.

This was so interesting, especially since it disproved my hypothesis! Thanks for sticking it out with me!

If you have a blog and you had a very different experience (or even a very similar one), I’d love to hear it!

A Change on the Blog for May: Requiring GFC for Giveaways

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Hello fabulous readers,

I’ve been mulling over the idea of requiring following Stuff Parents Need via Google Friend Connect for several months, now. It seems that my readership level has hit a wall, and I need to switch it up a bit in order to try to keep growing. I’ve noticed that this is a growing trend for review and giveaway bloggers to require readers to follow via GFC, and I’ve also noticed those bloggers experience very nice gains in their follower numbers after making this requirement.

I’ll be honest with you; I’m not yet convinced that this is an excellent idea. But I also think it is worth a shot, which is why for the month of May, to enter a giveaway on my site you must follow me via Google Friend Connect. I’ll assess how it went at the end of the month, and make a judgment call at the time about whether or not to leave that requirement or remove it.

Why am I doing this? Well, in order to keep bringing you very cool products that you can win, I have to have a good number of followers. Typically, when I only get to review a product and not also give it away, it is because the company I worked with didn’t find my following high enough to warrant the extra investment in product. This always makes me sad, because I get a lot of joy out of giving away cool stuff! So I want to have the type of blog where companies consistently want to offer a free product to my readers! But to do that, I must keep growing.

If you are wondering, “What is Google Friend Connect, anyway?” Wikipedia has a very detailed answer to this question that you are welcome to peruse, but for all intents and purposes on my site (and most others) it is a very public way to show the readership of your blog. It can be much more than that, but that’s all I’m currently using it for. Just being honest, here.

Please know that I’m open to your feedback on this issue. This blog is for me, but it is also for you!