Friday, April 19, 2013

Blogging The New Challenge Part 3: Use Feedly

Blogging: The New Challenge Part 3

Read blogs in a Reader such as Feedly

This week we've talked about the challenges facing bloggers in 2013. On Monday, I asked if blogs were still relevant. On Wednesday, we discussed ways of finding new readers. Today, I'm talking about reading blogs using a service called Feedly.


How do we fit reading blogs into our lives easily without it taking too much time?

Confession--I've gone through periods when I haven't read blogs.
I've been:
a. too busy
b. too discouraged
c. too distracted
d. out of town.

But I always get drawn back to reading blogs.
Why?
a. I feel connected to the author
b. I learn something new
c. I've been questioning something and a title offers the answer
d. I like to read!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I find blogs through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, my Blogger subscriptions, search engines, and recommendations. But it's hit-or-miss. I want to keep up with a few dozen favorite blogs on a regular basis. With Google Reader disappearing, a new RSS Reader is the most obvious choice.

Melissa Tagg (@Melissa_Tagg, Tag(g)lines) Tweeted, "If only all of life was as easy as switching from Google Reader to Feedly..." She's someone I trust, so I immediately Googled "Feedly."

Feedly is a Reader similar to Google Reader. It allows you to organize your RSS subscriptions (Google Reader, YouTube, Google News), and it's a great place to read blogs and share links to your various social media sites. You can sign up for a free web-edition in Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. You can also download an App for your smartphone or tablet.

I am using the Google Chrome free version. Feedly effortlessly brought all of my Google Reader information to my Feedly account. I then spent twenty minutes thinning out my folders and reorganizing the blogs into new folders better suited to my current blog-reading habits.

I was not shocked to see more than half of my subscriptions were no longer active (nothing had been posted in more than thirty days). 

If you're familiar with Readers, you'll be pleased with Feedly's easy-to-navigate layout. A column on the left lists any folders you've created. Click on the folder name for a list of current posts of all the blogs in that folder. You can either read the post in Feedly (and share it on your social media sites with the buttons that appear), or you can click on the link to the left of the post to go directly to the blog address. It's up to you!

I'll be paying attention to the trends as the year goes on, but right now, I am committed to continuing my three-day-a-week schedule. The way I see it, with author blogs dwindling, mine has more chance to get noticed. I'm a glass-half-full type of person! And I will always want to read blogs. I enjoy them!

If you read blogs, do you use a Reader? If not, what do you use? Would you be more likely to read blogs if you had an easy way to organize them, like using Feedly?

**A friend contacted me when this post went live that her comments got eaten. A few weeks ago, I switched to not allow Anonymous comments anymore due to the increase in Spam. I have a feeling WordPress bloggers might be having trouble commenting on my site. I have since gone back to anonymous comments, but I have comment moderation on after 1 day of the post going live. Sorry if this is inconveniencing anyone. I'm trying to avoid Captcha's! Please e-mail me jill(at)jillkemerer(dot)com if you are trying to leave a comment and it disappears without saying "your comment is waiting moderation." Thanks!!**

Thanks for spending the week with me! Have a wonderful weekend!

22 comments:

  1. Well that was easy. I thought I would have to export all my subscriptions with Excel, but Feedly did it before I knew what happened. Thanks for the tip, Jill & Melissa!

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    1. I know! GR disappearing gave me a big old headache. Feedly was like 2 aspirin! A total relief!

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  2. Wow, this is great, Jill! Thanks for the tip!

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  3. I've switched over to Feedly, too. :) Question for you--it seems like Feedly arranges posts by date *and* by blog name instead of strictly by date. Have you noticed that/do you know of a way to configure it to date only?

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    1. I went to Preferences and switched the "Start Page" to "Today." I'm not sure if this will fix the problem for you or not. I also prefer the "Magazine" look so I can see photos and read a snippet. I opted to have Feedly show me "Featured" blogs so I have access to a variety of blogs in my subscriptions without having to search them out or commit! Play around in the preferences--I think you'll find a layout you can live with. :)

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    2. Thank you...that worked! Would you believe I've been looking for the answer to this for over a week? :) I appreciate it!

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    3. I WOULD believe it, Elizabeth! You'd be shocked at how long finding basic info takes me sometimes!! Ugh!

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  4. I've never tried an easier way to organize blogs, but I don't follow too many because I don't want to feel overwhelmed. Not only that, I'm really challenged when it comes to all this stuff. I pretty much know how to blog and use Facebook - sort of. Even though they keep changing it on me. I need to take a social networking class. For dummies :)

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    1. Ha, ha! I would never know it, Cindy. You always seem like you're up on the latest social media stuff.

      Feedly takes the "overwhelmed" out of reading blogs. It speeds up the process--for me, at least!

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  5. I just switched over and am working on how to reorganize and thin out but the transfer was as smooth as butter! :)

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    1. Mm, mm--smooth as butter! Ha! Feedly is the perfect reader for my brain. It let me choose how I wanted to see the blogs (magazine-style, of course, duh!), if I wanted "featured" blogs (yes, this rounds out my regular reading), and a ton of other things. I'm really, really liking it!

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    2. I've been diligently organizing and I love the way I can set up categories and yes! see it magazine style! Awesome!

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    3. I know!! I can't wait to actually read blogs next week--woo-hoo!!

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  6. Oh cool, I'll have to check it out!! Currently I just use my Blogger dashboard, but some blogs don't show up all the time there for some reason.

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    1. You can add wordpress blogs, typepad blogs, and other blogs in Feedly too. I think it says "add a subscription" and a box shows up to the right. Copy/past the URL in and click on the results. Voila!

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  7. I've put off switching from Google Reader to Feedly because I was afraid the process would be time-consuming and difficult. Was I ever wrong! Encouraged by your post, Jill, I stopped to take care of the task, and guess what? The transition was seamless and took all of one minute. It kept all my categories and presents the posts in a clean, easy-to-read format. Wow!

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    1. I know! I think we all owe Melissa Tagg a big round of applause for sharing this one!!

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  8. Yay glad the transition is going so easily for everyone! And I have to give big thanks to Anne Mateer who blogged about Feedly awhile back. I wouldn't have had any idea what to do with all my Google Reader subs without her!

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  9. So, I think I signed up for Google Reader, but honestly don't know if I ever used it. It would be wonderful to have everything together. I'm off to check out Feedly. Thanks for sharing this simplifying tip!

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  10. I blog on Word Press and I've been using their reader exclusively since I found out Google Reader was going away. I may try out Feedly though. Word Press was my primary reader, where I followed my favorite blogs and then I'd test drive blogs over on Google Reader to see how I liked them. Since I moved everything over to Word Press, it's a little overwhelming.

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  11. Good question. I too wonder about blogs with all the other social networks, but I keep reading and writing them.

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