Add a Google Form to Your Blog

A Google form provides a great, simple opportunity to increase interaction with your readers.

And more interaction means more loyal readers!

Google forms allow you to easily incorporate into your blog contact forms, competition entry forms, surveys, quizzes, blog carnival sign-ups, guest post submissions, the lot. All great ways to increase reader interaction.

I've recently used simple forms to allow readers to create and request new mommy lists.

Why Bother?

You might be thinking there are easier ways to build interaction and you're right.

But, learning how to use Google Forms is a great way to grow your marketable skills and help you earn money from everything you've learnt blogging.

Most of us mommy bloggers won't make lots of money from our own blogs but if we learn great skills we can apply them to the websites of small companies, charities & community groups and earn money - from home - that way.

Google Forms are a first step from "just" blogging to actually building websites that people can interact with. Playing with forms will give you the confidence to do much more.

This easy tutorial takes you through the steps to include a Google form on your blog. It only takes a few minutes to follow and it really is a great investment in YOU ... I promise :-)

Login to your Google account, (you will need one to create a form).
Go to the Google Drive Apps home page
Click on Go To Your Drive button at top right, (or create a drive if prompted)
Click on the Red CREATE button on the left (shown below)
A drop down menu will appear and on this click on the Form item in the menu

You will be prompted to Choose a Theme but as these are unlikely to go with your blog I would just click Cancel.

Add the First Question to Your Google Form

Click on the Title field at the top to edit the title (as highlighted below)
Click on the Form Description field just below the title (highlighted below) to give more information about the form
Enter the first Question Title (as highlighted below)
Select the Question Type you want from the drop down (highlighted below); you can choose from Text, Paragraph Text, Multiple Choices, Checkboxes, Choose from a list, Scale, Grid, Date, Time
If you choose a Question Type with multiple possible answers e.g. Multiple Choice or Checkbox, you can add more options by clicking the Add Other link
If you want the question to be mandatory, click the Required Question check-box
Fill in the Help Text field to give readers prompts on how to answer

You've now added your first question and can click the blue Done button

Add More Questions

The Google form you've created will now be displayed as below
To add another question click the Add Item drop down menu (highlighted below) and select the type of question you want to be displayed

Complete the question as previously
You can keep adding questions to the form by clicking the Add Item drop down as in the examples below

Configure Google Form Behaviour

When you have added all your questions you can customise how the Google form will behave when readers enter their answers
When you click the blue Done button all the questions you have created will be displayed with the message and checkboxes as displayed below
Double click the message text to edit it
If you want readers to be able to respond more than once, e.g. to submit guest post ideas, check the first box but if they should only respond once, e.g. for a survey, leave unchecked
If you want readers to see everyone's answers, e.g. if you're organising a meet-up, check the second box, but if responses should stay confidential leave unchecked
If you want readers to be able to change their answers check the third box

Review Your Google Form

To review your form click on the View Live Form link at the top of the screen
If you want to change anything click the black Edit this Form button at the top right

Save Your Readers' Answers

You need to tell the Google form where to save your readers answers
To do this click the Choose Response Destination link at the top of the screen
A pop up message will display as below
Edit the name of the New spreadsheet in which the Google form saves your readers' answers to something meaningful as I've done below

Display the Google Form in Your Blog

To display the Form in your blog click File menu at top left and then Embed
A pop up will display as below
Edit the width & height to the dimensions you want on your blog
Then copy and paste the HTML and paste it into either a post or page on your blog