M.L. Banner's Blog, page 9

How I received my personal Google URL

As of today, I am happy to announce that my Google+ Page for ML Banner is now located at this address: www.google.com/+mlbanner.  This is so much better than the address I had prior to this (https://plus.google.com/b/102206852943336455398).  Wouldn’t you agree?

Get your own personal Google URL

You can get your own personal Google URL pretty easily.  I’m going to show you the steps I followed below.  I’m doing this because I’ve read other author blogs and found that there were many others who had trouble doing so or going through steps of trickery trying to fool Google into giving them their personal URL.  No need, it’s actually fairly simple.

Step I:  Get a Google+ page

If you don’t know what Google+ is all about, check out my page (click on my snazzy new link above).  It is Facebook for serious people and/or serious interests.  This is because it is a great way to communicate to communities and others that share your interests.  I am connected to several writing/author communities, others related to my personal & business interests, and communities related to the book subjects I am researching.  I will always maintain and update this blog.  However, the truth is my personal website will not have even the smallest of the smallest reach compared to my Google+ Page (+MLBanner): More people will see this Page versus my blog.  So, if you want to increase your reach in whatever field you do, or interest you have; set up a Google+ Page.  You might even find it fun.  Oh, and best of all, unlike website, Google+ is free!

First set up a Gmail account and Google will automatically set up a Google+ account for you.  If you already have a Gmail account, look on top for the navigation to create a Google+ profile/page.  NOTE:  If you already have a Google+ account, you can setup a separate G+ “Page” for your specific interest.  That is why I set up my +MLBanner Page: everything related to my work as a writer, and to keep it separate from my already set-up G+ page for business (+MichaelBanner).

Step II: Get Recognized/Verified

This is probably the most important thing you need to do.  You must be verified by the Google bots that float around checking out and indexing everything on every website.  Hmm, sounds like a great sci-fi book doesn’t it?  Attack of the Google bots!  Sorry, I digress.  After I set up my G+ Page for MLBanner (they assigned me that really long address above), I had to have them verify that “MLBanner” exists.  I did this on my website (www.mlbanner.com) as follows:

I pointed my mlbanner.com site to my G+ Page (note: to make sure the Google bots recognized this, I added a plugin to my blog/website from WordPress called “Verify Google Webmaster Tools” that did this automatically); and
I pointed my G+ Page to my blog/website, mlbanner.com.

Then wait and watch the magic.

Step III:  Use Google+

Write a post or two, join a community or two, reply to a post or two, “+1″ a post or two, and follow others so that eventually one or two may follow you.  I don’t know how important this step is right now, but I know it won’t hurt.  And that’s the main purpose for G+ anyway.

Step IV:  Claim your personal URL

You have to wait for Google to do this.  But, one day you’ll see this:

 

When you click on the offer for the personal URL, you should see this:

 

You will pick your personal URL and the terms and conditions and confirm.

NOTE:  If you are told that you must add some additional characters to your personal URL, that means that Google has not yet verified you (for me it was “MLBanner”) at your website (or in my case mlbanner.com).  If this is your case, go back and follow Step II.

You will have to accept the URL:

 

And then…

 

They automatically set-up your Page with the personal URL.  From then on your URL will show in your G+ Page web address

 

No go tell everyone, just like I’m telling you!

What are you waiting for, go get yours!

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Stone Age Book 1 coming soon

The first book of the Stone Age series will be available on Amazon.com sometime in March.   Come back in the next few weeks and to find out about this new exciting book.

StoneAgeSeries Website Launched

I have just launched a new website www.StoneAgeSeries.com, to provide updates on my new end times novel, Welcome to Stone Age: Book 1 in the Stone Age Series.  Stone Age is coming soon to Amazon.com in 2014

On StoneAgeSeries.com, we will

release the first chapter of Stone Age sometime in February/March;
update you on the March release of the physical and eBook
we’ll discover the science of the book - the realities about the apocalypse from the sun that some scientists predict could actually hit our earth within the next ten years;
and much more.

Of course, updates will be posted here on mlbanner.com.

I look forward to seeing you in both places.

T Minus 3 – 2 – 1… We have lift off!

Thank you for visiting MLBanner.com.  This site was launched to describe the upcoming projects by the writer ML Banner…

Of course that’s me.

I plan to post or point out some interesting articles and/or websites which relate to each writing project, ask for feedback from readers and from other authors, announce new projects and more.

Hopefully you will find this at least mildly interesting.