Monday, March 18, 2013

How to Sort Your Blog Reader

There has been much buzz the past week about Google closing its Google Reader on July 1. All I have to say is, "never fear my faithful readers." I really am not understanding how this is going to affect GFC, but I do have 4 other following options for you. Just in case you don't want to miss a single BHG post!!! (that needs to be read in a super excited voice.=))


Take a look over at the top of my side bar. The first 2 items are
#1-Follow Barefoot Hippie Girl. See that BL, that is the 5th icon in the strip? It stands for Blog Lovin' which is a blog reader. You can click on that, and subscribe to my blog posts that way. Everyday or so, you will get an email from BL, with all the new blog posts from the blogs you follow.

#2-subscribe by email. The great thing about my email service is that it is NOT google's feed burner. So, even if they decide to make that go belly up, you will still get my posts via email. I use Feed Blitz. You can enter your email address, and voila', posts sent directly to your inbox. Every day!

Two other ways you can follow me are...
#1-if you follow me on FB, I will always share my posts over there, at least once a day. Nothing changes for those of you who just click over from there.

#2-google plus. If you add me on Google+, I will add you back. Which also means that you will get an email everyday with my latest post...

And since I have now just talked about 3 ways you can follow me by getting an email (or 3) a day, I want to talk sorting.

The fact of the matter is, I probably follow 50 blogs on a regular basis-via bloglovin', GFC, and email. I don't have time to read 50 blogs a day. That's practically a novel or a collection of short stories. And, I have my own blog to write, plus life to live. Sorry kids, there won't be dinner tonight, I had blogs to read...


Meres is a sorter. This is her potato categories.

So, I sort. There is basically 3 categories I am going to work with-purge, read now, read later-if I have time.

Purge: Are there blogs you follow that you never read? Get rid of them. No guilt.

Maybe you subscribed to a blog to fulfill the terms of a giveaway. Maybe you subscribed to a blog because you liked a post they wrote-but then something seemed to change. Maybe you found out they weren't really your style. Maybe someone has changed-you or them-and the blog isn't relevant to you anymore.

And also purge duplicates. My BFF was getting my blog posts every day via Google+, my old email RSS feed, and my new RSS email feed. Even for a BFF, daily triplicates of her bff's musings was a bit much. She unsubscribed from one or 2 of them. And I wasn't offended.

Read Now: some blogs you read because of friendship, or because your are in the same online community or forum, or because you absolutely love the content. These blogs you read every day. You read every post. You never miss one.

Well you should sort a group for these blogs. In most blog readers, there is the option of sorting your blog subscriptions into groups. You can have as many groups as you want. Personally, I have two. Read now, and read later-if I have time.

By read now I mean, read the day it is published. Not the minute it shows up in my inbox or reader feed. But some time that day.

Even with our favorite blogs and bloggers, there are some types of posts we enjoy reading, and some we don't. I almost never read a dyi or craft post. They really aren't my thing. If I have a project I want to do, I will google it. I do like to see house project posts. Painting, foyers, kitchens. But they aren't top priority for my reading.

Read Later-if I have time: Those dyi, craft and even some recipe posts, all go into my read later category. Some of my favorite bloggers only have a post or two a week that I read. So, their blogs as a whole, tend to be in the read later category.

You can sort your blog subscriptions in to these 2 categories or it can be a post by post action. Whatever works best for you. This subject doesn't really apply to me today. I'm going to give this particular post a pass. For instance, one of my friends hosts a link up for single/kid-free bloggers. Since I'm neither single nor kid-free, I give that weekly post a pass. But I read all the other posts this friend publishes.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by your blog subscriptions and are about ready to throw in the towel on it all, I hope you will give this sorting a try. You may find it rather liberating and exhilarating.

Life is too short to spend it reading blogs you don't like. Life is too short to spend all your reading time on blogs and never cracking open a book. Life is to short to miss the heartfelt posts that really speak to your soul.
source

How many blogs do you read? How do you keep your reading list to a manageable roar?


Btw, on Wednesday we are going to talk junk. Junk mail. I'm going to talk paper and virtual junk mail on Wednesday. And, let me just say that I hope you don't categorize Barefoot Hippie Girl as junk mail. But if, for some reason, you are signed up in more than one way to receive my posts, I would call the more than one way "junk".