✅ Feedback System - WORKING!

What You Have

A super minimal feedback widget that appears at the bottom of every blog post:

Was this helpful?

[❤️] [👍] [🤔] [😐]

(Click any emoji → Instant submit → "Thanks! ✨")

No popups. No forms. No navigation. Just one click.

✨ CONFIGURED WITH GOOGLE APPS SCRIPT

Your feedback system uses Google Apps Script to save responses directly to a Google Sheet!

How to Test

  1. Run Jekyll: bundle exec jekyll serve
  2. Visit any blog post at http://localhost:4000
  3. Scroll to the bottom
  4. Click a reaction emoji (❤️ 👍 🤔 or 😐)
  5. See “Thanks! ✨” message
  6. Open your “Blog Feedback” Google Sheet - you should see the response!

Viewing Feedback

Open your Google Sheet: “Blog Feedback” in Google Drive

You’ll see a new row for each reaction with:

What Gets Collected

Every time someone clicks a reaction:

FieldExample
Timestamp“2025-11-10T15:30:45.123Z”
Post Title“The Team That Built Revolutionary Products”
Post URL“/og-apple-team/”
Reaction“loved”, “helpful”, “interesting”, or “meh”

No personal data. Completely anonymous. No tracking.

How It Works (Technical)

The Setup (Already Done!)

Step 1: Created a Google Sheet called “Blog Feedback” with columns:

Step 2: Created a Google Apps Script that:

Step 3: Created the feedback widget:

` to _layouts/post.html

That’s it! No Google Forms, no API keys, no complicated setup.

What You Get

Every time someone clicks a reaction:

  1. Instant visual feedback - emoji animates
  2. Thank you message appears: “Thanks! ✨”
  3. Data saves to Google Sheet automatically
  4. Also saves to browser localStorage (backup)

Your Google Sheet will have:

Benefits

✅ 100% Free - unlimited submissions forever
✅ No authentication - anyone can click
✅ Instant submit - one click, done
✅ No popups - stays on the page
✅ Auto-organized - Google Sheets does the work
✅ Easy analysis - charts, filters, pivot tables
✅ Export anytime - CSV, Excel, PDF

Viewing Your Feedback

Open your Google Sheet anytime to see:

Quick Analysis:

Create a pivot table:

  1. Select all data
  2. Insert → Pivot table
  3. Rows: Post Title
  4. Values: Count of Reaction
  5. See which posts are most loved!

Create a chart:

  1. Select Reaction column
  2. Insert → Chart
  3. Chart type: Pie chart
  4. See reaction distribution!

Customization

Change Reactions

Edit _includes/feedback-widget.html:

<button class="reaction-btn" data-reaction="mind-blown">
    <span class="emoji">�</span>
</button>

Just add your emoji and reaction name!

Change Styling

All CSS is in the same file. Update:

Troubleshooting

Not seeing data in Google Sheet?

  1. Check that form field IDs are correct (entry.XXXXXX)
  2. Open browser console (F12) - any errors?
  3. Make sure Google Form is not set to “Accepting responses: OFF”

Want to test without filling your sheet?

  1. Create a test form first
  2. Use it during development
  3. Switch to real form when ready

Next Steps

Once you have this working:

  1. Monitor weekly - check your Google Sheet
  2. Look for patterns - which posts get most ❤️?
  3. Track over time - is engagement growing?
  4. Share insights - write a post about what you learned
  5. Iterate - try different reactions, see what works

🎯 When You’re Newsletter-Ready

You’ll know you’re ready when:

Then launch that newsletter! 🚀

Privacy Note

This system:

That’s it! Simple, clean, and respects your readers’ privacy.

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