Create a Free Google Groups Web Forum in Blogger

An interesting way of diverting the attention of your readers is to start a discussion over a topic that is trending in the blogosphere. Those who have successful blogs would agree here that reader’s interaction is extremely significant not only for the website’s reputation, but also for generating affiliate sales.  We do have Commenting system that allows readers to interact, but they don’t have the freedom to start a whole new conversation. For that reason, we have Web Forums that allow a user to start a discussion over any topic that he likes. Those who are looking to add a Forum to their Blogger enabled website then today in this article, we will learn how to create a Google Groups Forum in Blogger.

Our Main Goal:

Installing a Forum in a BlogSpot blog appears to be an uphill task. Since, everything is under Google’s control. Therefore, it gets extremely difficult to host a third-party forum. However, when we have problems we also have their solutions. The ideal way of installing a Web forum on our site is “Google Groups”. It neither needs any hosting nor any kind of money because it is free to use. Therefore, the main goal is to embed a Google Groups Web Forum in the website. 

Advantages of Google Groups:

• Free Hosting: We hardly see any Forum that gives free hosting. The greatest advantage of using Google group is that it needs no hosting. We have to create a Group and embed it onto our website. 
• Free to Use:  There is no need to pay anything because Google Group is absolutely free of cost. 
• Highly Flexible: The platform has robust options that allow the webmaster to customize it according to his needs.

Step #1: Creating a Google Group:

Now before, anyone creates a Google group its essential to have a free Gmail Account. However, those who don’t have Gmail Account then, first register it. After registering a Free Gmail account, Sign in to your account. 

Then Go to https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!myforums and from the navigation menu select “Create Group”. The button would be different from others so everyone can easily find it. We have attached a screenshot below for further help.

Now a form will be opened which would ask for details. Don’t be confused because we will explain each and every text area so everyone can fill it without facing any problem whatsoever. Consider the following.

• Group Name: Here we would enter the name. It entirely depends on a person what he wants to name it. Remember: We can rename it anytime from the setting panel. 

• Group email address: Here we will choose an email address as well as our Forum URL. For example, if we write “tricksforum” in the text area it would provide us with a free email i.e. tricksforum@googlegroups.com as well as URL i.e. https://groups.google.com/forum/embed/?place=forum/tricksforum

• Group description: Write something about you forum, just like we add the description in our website. It would help search engines. Furthermore, visitors would be able to understand the main purpose of it. 

• Group's primary language: This is the language that a person may select according to his desire needs. However, we usually select English (USA) which is a standard language throughout the globe. 

• Group type: Now this is the most significant thing. There are three options i.e. Email List, Web Forum, Q&A Forum. Since, we are creating an online forum. Therefore, we would select “Web Forum”. However, anyone can select the other options too depending upon their interests. 

Now once everything is done. Select the “Create” button present at the top of the page. Now you will able to see a notification, “Congratulation, your group is up and ready to use”.

Step# 2: Embedding a Google Group in Blogger:

Honestly, this is the easiest part of the whole tutorial. Just login to your Blogger account and go to Blogger >> Add a new Page >> from blogger post editor select Edit HTML Tab and paste the following coding in the HTML Box. Remember: Don’t forget to replace “tricksforum” with the email address keyword that we added in the previous step i.e. tricksforum@googlegroups.com.

<iframe frameborder="0" height="1000px" id="forum_embed" scrolling="no"

src="javascript:void(0)" width="100%">

    <br />

</iframe>

<script type="text/javascript">

    document.getElementById("forum_embed").src =

        "https://groups.google.com/forum/embed/?place=forum/tricksforum" +

        "&showsearch=true&showpopout=false&parenturl=" + encodeURIComponent(window.location.href);

</script>

Congratulations: Now publish the page by pressing the “Publish” button. Cheers the online Google group web forum is added onto your blogger website. Remember: Keep in mind, all the Admin setting can be done through the https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!myforums Admin Area.