Most of the people I know in real life are aware that I have a blog. They’ve even taken the time to read a post from time to time (for which I am most grateful), but often I hear a statement similar to this one, “I love reading your blog when I remember to check it, but I just can’t remember to keep up with it.”
I get that, and it doesn’t in any way offend me when those I know don’t read every post, but I thought I’d share a few tips I’ve learned over the past couple of years of blogging. Because honestly, it’s a whole different realm that can be overwhelming. In light of my own blog as well as the growing number of people I know in real life are joining the ranks of blogging, I thought I’d share a few ways you can easily follow the words of the friends you know and love without getting overwhelmed.
1. Determine how many blogs you want to follow. It can quickly get overwhelming to keep up with all of the posts written on a daily basis. There are literally thousands to choose from, and many of them are written by wonderful people, but let’s be real here – we all need to have a life outside of the Internet. Choose a manageable number of blogs that you enjoy reading and then enjoy reading them. 🙂
2. Find a method that is easiest for you to keep track of when your list of bloggers publish new posts. The two most common ways for people know are through email subscription and Facebook updates.
Email Subscription. Did you know that you can receive new posts from most blogs directly to your email inbox? This is a great and easy option for a couple of reasons. First off, you don’t have to remember to physically look up the blog’s web address. When the blogger publishes a new post, you know about it as soon as you check your email. The other nice thing is that you are then in control of what to do with the post. You can take a couple of minutes to read it right then or you can save it for later without worrying that you’ll forget to go back and read it because it’s waiting for you in your inbox.
One bit of advice I’d encourage you to consider before subscribing by email is how often the blogger publishes new posts. If it’s a blog that publishes multiple times per day or every day and you’d prefer to not receive an excessive amount of emails, think twice before subscribing. In case you were wondering, I try to post about once a week on my blog. You can go here to sign up for an email subscription to my blog. It’s painless. Just make sure you confirm that you want to follow along once you get a confirmation email.
Facebook updates. If you’re on Facebook, you’ve undoubtedly seen your fair share of links pop up from various sources on your news feed. Many bloggers have a Facebook page set up for their blogs and will post when they have new posts available to read. If you rely on this method to keep up-to-date with posts, you are probably missing a lot of posts. Facebook has made several changes to how things appear in our news feeds, and unless you take a few seconds to set up your preferences, the odds are you’ll miss out on updates.
- Go to the Facebook page of the blog you’re wanting to follow. Once you’ve liked it, click on the button titled “Liked” at the top right side of the page.
- Click on the “Liked” button and choose which options you want to apply to your news feed. If you want to receive updates in your news feed, make sure the “Show in News Feed” option is selected. If you want to go a step further and receive notifications when updates are made (ideal if you only sign into Facebook every once in a while and will consequently miss some posts otherwise), you can select the “Get Notifications” option as well. See the graphic below if you’re a visual person.
I hope you find this information helpful and doable. You do not have to be a blogger to enjoy reading blogs, and I assure you from personal experience that taking the time to read what us crazy word people have to say and then letting us know about it encourages us so much. Words of affirmation are most generally our love language…who would have thought? 🙂
Kelly,
What a beautiful page and a wonderful blog. I enjoy your simple honesty in your writing. Keep that encouragement going; we all can use it. I’m a senior-senior citizen and still learning about Jesus. Thanks for letting His light shine through you.
Hugs, Susie
I hear the same thing from my non-blogging friends. These are great tips! I’ve done the old-fashioned thing, too – I’ve “bookmarked” many blogs that I like. I can’t read them all every day, but I periodically click on different ones to see what is going on.