What is Google Plus Anyway?
Alright, so there’s this new thing called Google Plus. In this preparatory chapter we’ll be giving an overview of how Google + can help your business with marketing and also show you how to set up your account for maximum results.
>>You Can View the Google Plus Video Tutorials Here<<
If you’re brand new to Google +, here’s the low down, Google + is a new social network. If you’ve ever used 
MySpace or FaceBook, think of Google + as like those services. But of course, there is a catch: Google + will DOMINATE as far as marketing your business goes compared to FaceBook, for example.
People are still in the process of catching onto advertising on FaceBook. They keep a list of friends to offer their products to, kind of like having a list on Aweber or GetResponse. Another thing they do with FaceBook is buy advertising via banner ads, and so on. So if they think FaceBook is the way to go as far as social media, wait until they discover what Google + has in store for them…
I’m going to take it that you know the basics of SEO and how us marketers try and get our pages to #1 in Google. This way, we get more traffic to our pages offering products, which will in turn generate more revenue. In a nutshell – on top of the standard SEO stuff, we’ve now got something else to concentrate on within Google.
► The +1 button.
This magic +1 button takes only a couple seconds to click, and by people clicking it, they’re recommending you to the world. So where does this +1 button show up? In a few different places actually. Let’s take a look at one standard example:
Do you see that little button there?
Let’s take another, closer look:
That is mighty beautiful, isn’t it? You’ll be seeing these all over the place in the time to come. When people see ads that they like and they click this button, it adds it to their Google social network, and that’s where it’s going to pay off. Once the +1 buttons are clicked and they’re saved to someone’s social network, and someone else within their network runs a search on something, they’ll be able to see who in their network liked that particular ad.
This gives the person an idea of how popular the website is and it’ll drive more traffic to your pages. We all know that people are
more likely to click on the first 3 links within a Google search, so this will only add value and more ‘clickability probability’ to your pages.
→It doesn’t stop there though. Let’s say that you’re a paid advertiser on Google:
Isn’t this just the best? If you’re an avid user of Adwords (PPC in general), you’ll absolutely love what’s going 
on with Google +1.
Now let me clear something up: if you’ve got a PPC campaign running via Adwords, when someone clicks the +1 button, you will NOT be charged for a click in your Adwords account. So that’s a relief!
So by people clicking on the +1 button next to your ad (or, ANY +1 button anywhere for that matter), you’ll be getting the golden seal of approval and people will take more well to it.
Another benefit of the Adwords and +1 deal is that you’ll be able to see which ads are getting the most +1 clicks and you’ll be able to decipher your competition better. That’s only just the beginning. There’s a lot more detail coming up, so hang tight.
Also, we are not limited to this displaying in search results, and on the Google ads that I’ve just shown you. We can also add this to any page that you want on your website, like so:
→ Now take a look at this little screen where it’s in action:
So this is functioning somewhat as a social media icon, right alongside the other big names out there. We will get onto how to add this to your site soon as well as other methods of implementing Google + into your daily marketing activities. First we need to cover the basics and set you up with an account. Let’s take a look at that now.
Creating A Google + Account & Setup
As of writing this (August, 2011), there is no extremely simple way of signing up, unfortunately. Currently, open signup is closed to the public as Google refines and beta tests their new social media idea. You may stumble upon a page that looks like what you see in the screenshot below:
As you can see it’s closed off to the public. But don’t stress,because there IS way to get in still. You’ll have to ask a friend, a business partner, affiliate, or even go on a forum somewhere and ask if someone has any invites. By being sent an invitation link, you can sign up for your Google + account no problem.
Depending on when you read this though, there may be an open signup, so that will make life easier. Google + is still in its infancy stages, but regardless, try and get an account in any way that you can to get there EARLY and wreak havoc. Let’s take a look at what happens when someone sends you an invitation link:
This screen looks a bit different, eh? All you do is type in your name, select your gender and possibly even add a photo if you’d like.
Keep in mind that you MUST be signed in with a pre existing Google account so it can be ‘tied’ to Google +1. Once you fill in all of your information, click Join. Now before we head on over to Google Plus, I need you to take a look at something:
ACCOUNT SETUP:
Go to Google.com and sign in with your normal account. At the top right, click on your username and it’ll reveal the dropdown that you’re seeing in the screenshot above. Click on Account Settings.
OK. once you’re at the Account Settings area, click on the Google + settings like you see in the screenshot on 
the right. This will reveal a bunch of settings. Make sure that all of the notifications are turned ON as you see in the screen.
These may be selected automatically, but if they’re not, then select them for sure. There’s still one more thing that we need to take a look at though, and it’s what we get when we scroll down:
Whatever you do, MAKE SURE that you click the ‘edit’ button (where the red arrow is pointing). Here, we can actually enable Google +1 on websites, that aren’t Google websites.
This is a very important step that is easy to miss
→ This will being you onto the following page:
Make sure that you Enable it and once you go back to the page prior, it should look like this:
Good. Now we’re rocking. Just make sure that that setting is turned on, that you’ve got your notifications turned on and you’re set. Now we can take a look at the user interface and get to explaining some of this stuff.
Now return to Google.com and take a look at the upper left side of your screen. Click where you see your name (subscriber, in my case).
By clicking this you’ll be brought to the user area of Google +. If you take a look at the screenshot below, I’ve pointed out where you should get started with filling out your profile information:
This is pretty much the final step before we actually start using Google +. Setting your account up is the longest part of the work you’ll have to do, so rest assured, actually using Google + to your benefit is a breeze.
Take a look at the arrow that you see in the screenshot on the last page. It’s pointing to different buttons that you can click to fill out your profile information. About Me, Photos, Circles, and so on. Let’s have a look at the About Me section.
This is where you’ll want to fill out all of the info that you possibly can. It’s pretty much self-explanatory, but there are a few pointers that I can give you to make sure you fill this out correctly.
Make sure that you fill out your business name and under the typical ‘interests’ sections, put some good keywords from your niche. For example, if you’re in the marketing niche, put SEO, product creation, and so on. Also note that where you can, you should put a plug of your business’ website.
That way people will be more inclined to visit your page. If you’ve got a product up you can make a sale, and if you’ve got an opt-in up, you get another lead. Put your plugs there when you can! There’s a separate place where you should insert an actual link and it’s on the right side whenever you’re editing your profile. Have a look:
And there she is. Add as many as you’d like, but try and get your main ‘cash’ website at the top of the list by adding it first.
You can also edit photos and a few other things in Google +. Not difficult at all, it’s just like using FaceBook. Do the best you can with it – I have faith in you. So let’s get onto the meat and potatoes of the course, shall we?
Putting It Into Action
There’s no time to waste. Let’s get directly to putting this into action. First I’ll show you some of the more advanced features inside the Google+ dashboard, and with these features, it basically becomes a new method of promoting your products to a list. After that, I’ll be showing you how to get tons of +1 clicks with a few different methods for you to try out.
○ Circles
Basically, Google Circles within Google + is a way to create separate lists of people. For example you can create a two lists that have your business partners on one, and all of your customers on another. Now as far as a list of buyers goes, I won’t say that Google + or anything else is a replacement for an actual email list like something on Aweber, but it does have its benefits.
A lot of people don’t even use email anymore because of how convenient it is to use a social networking site. People keep in touch with their friends, associates and business partners via messages, which are kind of like email. And that’s where Circles will come into play.
Click on the button that the arrow is pointing to. It looks like a couple of circles intertwined. You’ll be brought to a page that looks like this:
Keep in mind that you need to add people to your Circles in the first place in order to organize this. When you’re browsing people on Google Plus, you’ll see an ‘add to Circles’ button. Click that and then they’ll show on the page that you see in the screenshot on the last page.
As you can see by that screenshot, I’ve got only one friend on this test account – Brad Gosse. Currently he’s added to my ‘friends’ circle. The other options that you see here are Family, Acquaintances, and Following. Feel free to add anyone to any of these circles by simply dragging their name to that particular circle.
On the left side you’ll see that inside the Circle it says, ‘Drop contacts here to create circle’. Once you drop the person there, you’ll be met with a dialog where you can name your Circle.
This is simply organizing your list. You can go through the people you’ve added and sort them later, or you can add them to the Circle that you want to upon adding them on their Google Plus page.
What I like to do is create two completely separate circles. One for my business partners, and one for customers/buyers. This way, when I send messages in the future, I can target a specific group. For example, I may want to send all of my partners a notice that I’ve got a new product on the way and that I’d like for them to promote it.
After I’ve contacted them and I’ve got all of my affiliate mail-outs squared away – when it’s time to shoot out the product to my list, I can go right back to Google Plus and create a message that goes only to my list of buyers. On top of that, think about what your partners will do. They have may an email list they’ll promote your product to, but they’ll also be sending a message to THEIR Google Circle list of buyers.
All of this takes place from one single place – Google Plus. And remember, this isn’t a replacement for retaining an email list. You should always have that regardless. However, also factor in that Google Plus is 1: free, and 2: that many people don’t even use email anymore since social networking is taking off and it’s where they do most of their communication.
▬ Streams
Let’s talk about Streams. A stream is where you post a message and it can be viewed by whomever. This is kind of like posting on a Facebook wall. With the streams feature on Google +, we can select who gets to see the messages you’re posting on your stream.
For example, you may want to post more of a ‘personal’ message there so your actual friends can see it – you know, something funny. To do this, write a message in your stream box at the top of your page.
After that, click on the ‘Add circles…’ button. You can select which group (or, ‘Circle’) gets to see your stream message.
When you click this you’ll be able to see all of your Circles and you’ll be able to select which ones are able to view your stream message. Nifty. After that, it’s just clicking the ‘Share’ button, which shares your message with whomever you want to see it.
That’s it, it’s pretty simple. Make a few circles to keep in touch with your list and your partners, post a message informing them of whatever you need to and you’re set.
▲ +1 Wizardry
Alright, so here’s what you’ve been waiting for. In this section we’ll be taking a look at getting a load of +1 clicks in various ways. I’m also going to show you the simple application for adding a +1 button to your website, and give you a few ideas on how to encourage people to +1 your page.
As mentioned already, a +1 click will help your pages in a variety of ways. Some of them are minor, but some of them are major. Let’s take a look at the smaller, less important methods first, and then we’ll get onto explaining the big picture and how it all adds up.
Every time you click the +1 button, it will be saved to your +1 clicks. These will display on your profile. However, currently – since Google+ is still in its beta testing phase, the +1 recommendations aren’t so visible. This will probably be corrected in time, but here’s what you should do to get these to show up with your audience.
Go to your Google+ dashboard and click Profile. Do you see any place where your +1 clicks are visible to everyone? Most likely not. This feature is somewhat hidden, so here’s how you turn it on:
► When you’re on your Profile page, click the +1 button.
Now click the Edit Profile rectangle on the right side. Now since you clicked the +1 tab already, you should see some new dropdown where you can enable the +1 section on your profile.
By ticking, ‘show this tab on your profile’ you’ll now have you +1 clicks show up. Just click Save and you’ll be set. This is kind of like Twitter somewhat, and you’ll see what I mean in just a second.
OK so let’s view our profile from a user’s perspective – one where you won’t see any of those Edit buttons. At the top right just below the Edit Profile button, click the, ‘View Profile As’ button. Then click, ‘As Anyone On The Web’.
Now you’re seeing what everyone else is seeing when they visit your Google+ profile. OK, so now we can see the +1 button or tab showing up. So let’s click that and see what’s there… As you notice, there aren’t any recommendations or +1 clicks for us. Let’s add some now and see what happens. Let’s go to Google and type in something like, ‘Insurance’
OK, so this is a standard search here and I’m going to +1 just a completely random page.
So now we’ve got a +1 click. Let’s head back on over to our profile and see if it’s showing up now.
Voila. THERE it is. Now it’s showing up on our profile. You see, this is kind of like the FaceBook Like feature. You can add these +1 clicks by turning it on like I showed you a minute ago. But there’s still a catch here. The catch is that currently – since this is in beta phase as I said, you really have to manually browse to someone’s profile and click the +1 button to see what they’ve recommended.
Now take in mind that this is for a +1 click on a search engine. These aren’t showing up too easily within our network, or, Circle as Google calls it. People have to browse to that +1 Clicks page of yours to see what you’re recommending.
Now as I said, this is more of a ‘minor’ +1 click, at least in some way. That way being that it won’t be so easily shared with your Google + Circles. But DO NOT underestimate ANY +1 click, especially one that was on a search engine. We’ll get onto why in just a minute. First, let’s take a look at how we can actually share a +1 click recommendation with our stream.
Now what I just showed you is more along the lines of FaceBook – the Like button. Now we can take a look at something that’s more along the lines of Twitter. Ok so let’s do this: let’s go to Google.com, and instead of clicking a +1 button next to a search result which will only be shared on your +1 pages on your Google+ profile, let’s click on an actual web page and go inside.
This is a random page that has some social media icons on it. Of course, here’s that nifty +1 button. Now usually when we’re in a search engine – Google, the +1 button next to a search result just says something like, ‘You publicly shared this’ and it adds to that +1 page of yours. But it’s a little bit different whenever we’re actually on a web page.
→ Let’s click this little +1 button and see what happens.
Do you see this box that it gives you? This was added within the last 2 weeks or so from the time that I’m doing this course. What this does is it easily allows you to share this with your stream, and it doesn’t show up just on your +1 page that Google+ users have to manually browse to.
With this box that drops down, we can share this on our stream with any of our Circles that we’ve created previously. This is pretty much automatic and it’s really simple. And not only that, you’re going to get more than just a little notification in your stream.
What happens is that this actually adds a photo, it adds a snippet of the page, and it adds the link to your stream – all automatically as I said. So let’s just click here, add it to our stream and see what happens when we go visit our profile.
You see it showing up now? That was pretty quick huh? So whenever you’ve got your website up – maybe it’s a product page, some copy or a sales letter, or just anything that’s going to make you some cash, you can put it in your stream so people will be able to see it easily. And easily they’ll see it, since it has a photo and a snippet of that page.
See, I told you it’s kind of like Twitter. But it’s even better since it’s a bit more automatic and it adds a photo. Share your product pages with your List or Buyers Circle to get people interested in your stuff. You can take it from there.
+1 Clicks Galore 
OK, so there’s still one more benefit to this whole +1 thing. As I mentioned, when you’re in a Google search results listing, you don’t get that little dropdown box that lets you add it to your steam, at least yet since Google+ is still in its beta phase. And also as mentioned, you should never underestimate ANY +1 click at all, no matter if it’s going to show up in your stream or not.
The reason I say this is because any and every +1 click that you get for any of your pages will ultimate increase the value of it in Google’s search results – the SERP or search engine ranking position.
The +1 button is the new factor that plays a role in Google’s search engine results display algorithm. Usually as marketers, we spent 90% of our time building backlinks to get our pages to #1 in Google. Now I’m not going to discredit the importance of backlinks, but since this +1 factor is a part of Google’s new algorithm, marketers will be spending lots of time getting as many organic +1 clicks are possible.
This will get your pages to #1 quicker than ever before. So let’s see how we can maximize these +1 clicks in a variety of ways.
First, let’s go over the process of adding the +1 button to your website. Visit the following link:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button
As you can see, there’s a simple code that you copy and paste and insert into the html on your website. Also to note is that you’ve got plenty of options for customizing the way your +1 button looks and what is displayed along with it. You can add a snippet to it, you can add an image, re-size it, and so on. This is pretty much intuitive if you’ve ever fooled with adding an image to your website.
You’ll notice that whenever you make a change to the way the +1 button is displayed that the code changes in the box where I said you should copy and paste. Make sure to get it perfect before you copy and paste it.
OK so let’s fast forward a bit here. Talking about html and how to position this exactly on your website is beyond the scope of this course. But really, it’s very simple and you can look that stuff up anywhere. Let’s just go to a random page and see where a +1 button is already added to someone’s website.
You see the +1 button here? Right below the article? That’s a very effective strategy. This appears right by some other social media icons so it blends right in. It’s a good idea to have some sort of blog up where you post updates frequently, so that way, every time you post an update, you’ll have a +1 button for people to click.
For example, let’s say that you do video updates for your blog. Every time you do a video update and your subscribers, followers – whatever you want to call them – are watching your video, at the end of it, make sure to tell them something like, ‘If you liked this video, click the +1 button’.
This way you’re encouraging people to take action. And encouraging them to take action is more effective than letting them figure all of this out on their own. Believe me, I’ve been involved in video marketing for a while, and every time I requested that they take action, everything was more successful.
Another idea is that maybe you’ve got a standard page with some content on it, or maybe it’s a proper blog, and on these pages – no matter which type it is – you simply post text updates.
What you can do is instead of requesting that they click the +1 button via video since not everyone is on camera all the time, is just put a note either at end of the article for people to click the +1 button if they liked what they read. But even better, come up with a cool photo that instructs them to click the +1 button if they liked what you put up.
Once again, by requesting that they take action, they’re a lot more prone to actually do it, and I’ve proven that in all of my years of video marketing and email marketing.
There’s also another thing that we can do. I’m going to guess that at least half of you use WordPress for your website. Let’s face it, it’s fast, convenient, and really easy.
Instead of copying the code and manually pasting it into the html for every page that you’ve got up on the web to add a +1 button to it, we can also install a WordPress plugin that will add this little button to our blogs automatically.
If you go to http://www.wordpress.org and type in Google +1 at the top right in the search box, you’ll come up with a myriad of plugins that will add the +1 button to your posts automatically. This is absolutely VITAL to install into your WordPress blog if you use WordPress as your main website platform.
Once again, it’s really out of the scope of this course to get into the fancy details of a WordPress plugin installation, so view the installation notes for the plugin and you’re sure to have it up and running in no time.
To recap the WordPress deal, every time you make a new post (and I hope you WILL give updates frequently) you’ll be able to get a ton of +1 clicks. Make sure to recommend people to click the +1 button whenever you post a new article update, news update, video update, and so on. And if it’s just a normal text update, try the idea of adding a cool image which has a +1 button that encourages them to click it.
G PLUS RECAP
So now, we can recap the big picture here. If you’ve applied any and everything that I just said, you should have the potential to get thousands of +1 clicks and recommendations. Now here’s the beauty of it: this probably slipped your mind already, but remember, whenever someone else clicks the +1 button either in a search result or on a page, it’ll show up on THEIR Google+ profile.
This way, if they’ve got tons of friends on Google+, just imagine how many people will be getting a look at what you’ve put up.
The +1 tab on your page is a little difficult to find like I said, but it’s still important. You’ll get your +1 clicks showing up there, so hopefully people will pay attention to that until Google adds something where you can add that to your stream like on a page.
And as just mentioned, clicking the +1 button on an actual page not only adds it to your +1 tab on your profile, it gives you that little box to add a snippet and a photo as well as the link into your stream… and just imagine how many people will be re-+1′ing that image, snippet, and link onto their Google+ stream.
So now you’re starting to see the big picture. There’s potential for stuff to go viral very easily with Google+ because of the stream feature combined with a +1 button on one of your pages. It’s kind of like the domino effect. Take advantage of it, and start doing it NOW. If you do, you’ll be able to get ahead much earlier than anyone else.
And finally, let’s talk just a little more about Google’s search display algorithm. No one knows exactly how Google’s system, algorithm, whatever you want to call it, works. As marketers, we know how important it is to make backlinks – at least we know that much about Google. And this +1 button is going to be as important, if not MORE important than a bunch of backlinks.
From here on out, you should treat +1 clicks with equal importance as compared to backlinks. Not only will it help with search engine ranking position, you’re also going to get the +1 stream recommendation with a snippet, photo, and the link added to someone else’s Google+ stream.
And hopefully one of their friends will see it, and re-+1 it. And one of their friends, and one of their friends, and it just keeps going and going and going and going and going and going and going and going and going and….. going.
When I first started as an affiliate marketer one of the things that gave me the hardest time is gaining an understanding of the basics. I’m talking about the basic fundamental skills any Internet marketer/affiliate marketer absolutely has to have.
