Back in September I joined Facebook and something had to give. That something ended up being my blog reading. Facebook took over that slot in my life that used to be spent on my Google Reader catching up with everyone in the blog world. As of late, Google Reader and I have become reacquainted and have done some catching up. It's been pretty sweet.
For those of you who are still going to the individual URLs of your favorite blogs hundreds of times each day to see if they have been updated (and I know some of you are because my Google Analytics tells me that 14% of my visits are from people who visit my site 100 or more times a month! Don't worry--I don't know your names so I can't name them :)) you seriously need to check out Google Reader. It's a one stop shop for all your blog-reading fun. Now all you need to do is click on one bookmarked URL and you can instantly see which of your favorite blogs have been updated since you last visited.
Here's a screen shot of my Google Reader:
For those of you who are still going to the individual URLs of your favorite blogs hundreds of times each day to see if they have been updated (and I know some of you are because my Google Analytics tells me that 14% of my visits are from people who visit my site 100 or more times a month! Don't worry--I don't know your names so I can't name them :)) you seriously need to check out Google Reader. It's a one stop shop for all your blog-reading fun. Now all you need to do is click on one bookmarked URL and you can instantly see which of your favorite blogs have been updated since you last visited.
Here's a screen shot of my Google Reader:
All you do to set it up is click on the "Add a Subscription" button on the top left and copy and paste the URLs of your favorite blogs in there. Then they will show up listed under "Subscriptions." You can further organize them into folders like I have. So in this screen shot, I can click on my "Photogirls" folder and see that I have 2 unread posts from all of my blogs listed in there. Once I click on that folder I can preview the posts and read the first couple lines of each to see if I'm interested. If I'm interested, I can click on the individual posts and see them in their entirety (photos & all) in the window on the right. It's pure genius and makes an efficiency-lover like me VERY HAPPY.
Don't forget if you do use Google Reader to click on the posts and open them in the original blog every once in awhile to leave some love in the form of a comment. If I ever have a happy thought in regard to a post I read, I always take time to leave a comment. For me comments are like great big hugs and I can't get enough of them--so thank you to all of you who comment regularly!!
Recently, one of my photo friends showed me another cool thing you can find through Google Reader. If you click on "Browse for stuff" -- the very technical term on the list in the upper left -- you can click on "Browse" and then search by keyword for different blogs. You can type in different keywords like "photo" and it will bring up all the blogs with that word in the title. You can also search for your own blog and find out how many people subscribe to your blog through Google Reader--so cool!!
Don't forget if you do use Google Reader to click on the posts and open them in the original blog every once in awhile to leave some love in the form of a comment. If I ever have a happy thought in regard to a post I read, I always take time to leave a comment. For me comments are like great big hugs and I can't get enough of them--so thank you to all of you who comment regularly!!
Recently, one of my photo friends showed me another cool thing you can find through Google Reader. If you click on "Browse for stuff" -- the very technical term on the list in the upper left -- you can click on "Browse" and then search by keyword for different blogs. You can type in different keywords like "photo" and it will bring up all the blogs with that word in the title. You can also search for your own blog and find out how many people subscribe to your blog through Google Reader--so cool!!
I'm totally blown away and humbled that 1,120 people find my blog interesting enough to subscribe to it. Thanks guys! I'll work hard to keep bringing good content your way. In the meantime, if you haven't already, check out Google Reader for streamlined blog reading fun!
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