Google Reader is being retired in two weeks. Google Reader is the tool many of us use to track our favorite blogs in one place instead of bookmarking, but don’t fret- it is still possible to use other services to track blogs, and you won’t lose your prized list of blogs.
If you haven’t used Google Reader and instead try and remember your favorite blogs by memory to randomly check when they update, make it easy on yourself and only get updates to your feed when new blog posts are updated, it’s a great way to save time and be sure you never miss a post from your favorite blogger.
With Blog Lovin you can follow the blogs you already read through Google Reader as well as discover top blogs and discover new blogs by category. Best of all, you can easily import your existing list of blogs on Google Reader with a one click import feature.
What is sort of a bummer about Bloglovin’ (for bloggers at least) is that when people are using their system to discover new blogs- they are ranked by followers, so if your blog was just registered with Bloglovin’ you may not rank high up in your category, so you will have to work hard to tell your current readers to follow you and get those numbers up! What is great though, is that it’s just another tool for readers to find you and a great, easy to read system to make sure you follow the blogs you already love!
I haven’t used Feedly but people love it! You can get the Chrome extension for it and easily import your Google Reader list. The design is ideal for quick perusing of your favorite posts with easy reading.
As you go along, adding new blogs you discover is super easy- if you are browsing outside of Feedly but want to add a new one to your feed, you will see a little ‘F’ icon pop up on the bottom right of your screen, and bam- it’s added, easy peezy! This is great if you would rather discover blogs on your own instead of using Bloglovin’s ranking system.
Another option to follow blogs you love without Google Reader is to follow blogs by email. Many bloggers have subscription pages or buttons to sign-up in the sidebar.
I used to compile my “Beautify Your Week” newsletter each week but since Google Reader is being retired, I’m going to switch to a more frequent format so readers can get emails as new posts are added. You can subscribe to Frugal Beautiful by email!
Be sure to follow your favorite bloggers on social media if you want another way to keep up to date on their posts- many bloggers will tweet, pin and post their latest blog updates to advertise and get traffic. Many bloggers, (myself included) will have social media icons in the top sidebar- so be sure to click those!
Find Frugal Beautiful on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and You Tube.
Networked Blogs is primarily used by bloggers to feed their blog posts automatically to their business Facebook page- it helps on lazy days. However, you can follow your favorite blogs as well.
Ughhhh I don’t want to deal with this…. but thanks for the options I will be using them!
Ughhhh I don’t want to deal with this…. but thanks for the options I will be using them!
Oh no!! Google Reader is going away??!
For the longest time I didn’t use Google Reader. Instead I simply bookmarked blogs I liked and went back and checked what was new. Eventually I gave in and now wish I hadn’t. I am no tech whiz, and a lot of my favorite blogs are only saved in Google Reader. I guess Google is running out of server space or something, but I came to count on this service… damn you Google!