This week I’ve been writing an article for the Studio Art Quilt Associates Journal. My assignment was to write about blogging so I’ve been talking to a half-dozen art quilters about their blogs. One of them is Rebecca Hosta and during our conversation she asked such a terrific question. She said:
One thing that has mystified me is finding other blogs…I’d love to know how blogs relate to the web/internet as a whole and how they are searched and indexed. I have no luck finding blogs, and conversely, no one is finding mine.
There’s a lot to this question and I just want to focus on one aspect in this post: how do you find blogs?
I’ve been an avid blog reader for 11 years and I currently keep up with about 100 blogs. How did I find them? And how (and why!) do I read so many?
I find blogs by following my own curiosity. When I encounter an artist, crafter, or writer that I like I look to see if they have an active blog. When one of my Facebook friends links to an interesting blog post, I read it and then look around a bit to see if I might like the rest of the posts the author has written. I discover blogs via links from Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. When I hear an especially interesting podcast interview with someone I hadn’t previously heard of I look to see if they have a blog. And, perhaps most often, I discover new blogs from links within the current blogs I read.
I think all of us do some of this. We click over to a blog from Facebook and read a post, then click back to Facebook and engage in conversation about what we’ve read. But in that pogo sticking from Facebook to a blog and back again we’ve lost track of the blog where the article originated.
And that’s why we need to use a tool for keeping track of blogs. When I first began blogging people kept track of blogs by keeping a list of their favorites on the sidebar of their own blog (see the right sidebar on Stitches and Seams for an example) and they used Google Reader. Google Reader was an RSS reader, a web application that creates a digest of all of the new posts from the blogs you choose to follow. It allows you to follow lots of blogs all in one place.
Google Reader was shuttered in the summer of 2013 and at that moment many people simply stopped keeping up with blogs in an organized way. They began to rely on social media for links to new blog content, but they aren’t seeing every new post and I think that’s a missed opportunity.
Just before Google Reader died I exported my blog list and imported it into Bloglovin, another RSS reader (Feedly is another and there are more). It operates in essentially the same way. Input a URL into the Bloglovin search bar and the blog will pop up. Then hit follow. You can organize your blogs into groups if you’d like, but I don’t. It’s just one long feed.
I know there’s a contingent of people out there who like to receive every blog post from their favorite blogs via email. I think that can work if your inbox stays manageable. I get hundreds of emails every day and as my business grows the volume of email grows. I need blog reading to take place elsewhere and that’s where Bloglovin comes in.
I mainly read Bloglovin on my phone. I read blogs with my morning coffee and over lunch. I think of my Bloglovin as an ever-changing, independently published magazine tailored just for me. Here’s a small selection of the mix of blogs in there right now:
- Alisa Burke
- The Swellesley Report
- Pinch of Yum
- Instagram for Business
- Phoebe Wahl
- Scrapbook Update
- Unraveled
That’s an artist’s blog, a hyper local blog about my town, a food blog, a social media blog, an illustrator’s blog, a news blog about the scrapbooking industry, and Ravelry’s blog. When you set up and build your RSS reader your selection will reflect your interests and will likely be totally different from mine. Periodically I weed out blogs I’m no longer interested in, but I’m always adding new ones. It just takes a few seconds and it’s so worth it.
I think now more than ever following your favorite blogs is helpful to your business. In fact, I’d say that just like you should pin for work you should follow blogs for work. All of us are now in the role of content curators. Want to build your Facebook page? Find good links to share. Want to make your newsletter amazing? Find good links to share. Want to be interesting on Twitter? Find good links to share. Where do those links come from? For the most part, at least in the craft world, they come from blogs.
Even more than that, blogs are a way for you to keep up with what’s happening in your industry. Reading blogs helps you see trends forming, introduces you to new products on the market, educates you about shows and conferences you might have otherwise missed, helps you see what kinds of books are getting published, and so much more. They’re like Instagram, but longform and longform is still important.
Social media is an unreliable way to keep up with blogs. Not every blogger you’ll want to follow is active on every social media channel and even if they were you’ll surely miss some posts. If you don’t currently use an RSS reader, give it a try. Set it up, install the app on your smartphone, and add a dozen of your favorite blogs. Blogging is very much alive and there’s so much to be gained by following along.
Fifth House Sun says
Bloglovin does have appealing convenience aspects. But after the lamented demise of Google Reader, there was discussion of how using Bloglovin reduces the page views of the blogs read through it. Can’t find if that has changed or not.
The default set-up of Bloglovin was reported to be that the reading of each blog happens inside Bloglovin’s frame. The URL is credited as part of Bloglovin, and not as a page of the blog. Which means each page view is “stolen” from the blog itself and added to Bloglovin’s page count.
The most recent article I could find was from November, 2015. It mentioned how one can set up one’s Bloglovin account to keep reading on the blog’s page. Or how the blogger can set up her blog to prevent the Bloglovin frame from taking the page count. (Article: http://www.themoderninfluencer.com/how-to-stop-bloglovin-from-stealing-your-page-views/) Do not know if this works or not.
Otherwise, does seem like a very handy tool.
Abby says
In my Bloglovin setting I have it so that I read blogs on the URLs themselves and not within the frame. I don’t know what it does to pageviews, though.
Fifth House Sun says
Think that if the URL doesn’t have Bloglovin in it while you’re reading, then your set-up counts for blog page view. That Bloglovin is basically a link, like one would click to any site. Clicks=page views. Sounds like you’ve set it up, so that your reading increases the blogs’ page views.
If someone hasn’t set it up to do that, then think it is a “frame view”. And then Bloglovin stays in the URL. And the reading counts for Bloglovin’s page views.
LisaE says
How do you get to this setting?
Abby says
Here’s a tutorial: http://www.permanentprocrastination.com/2015/06/remove-frame-from-bloglovin.html
Dawn in NL says
Hi, I use Inoreader, which I find is similar ro Google reader. I don’t know about pageviews. I think it may depend on the blogs settings, because some blogs I can read in inoreader and others I have to click through to the site.
Carol Y says
I use Feedly and like it just fine. In Feedly, you can click the ‘Add Content’ button and search for blogs via title or topic – useful for finding new blogs! I notice some blogs are set to only provide an ‘Abstract’ of their posts to Feedly followers rather than the entire post, and some blogs are ‘Must Read’ which provides even less, and you must go to the blog to read. I do notice if I upgraded, then I could share my collections (make them public), but I’m not up for spending an extra $65/yr (also includes more integrations for easier curating and quoting).
Sometimes I just follow blogs via WordPress, which also has a Discover feature, which are nonspecific suggestions (of WP blogs), and a Recommendations feature, which is specific based on your previous follows. I thought WP had a feature where you could search WP blogs based on subject, but I can’t find it now.
MELANIE MCNEIL says
I’m a WordPress blogger and I use WP’s reader, also. I love being able to track all of my favorites that way, rather than having email notifications. I follow yours there, too.
One thing that is worth noting: we’ll never know how many followers we have as bloggers, since there are so many different ways to follow. People use any number of readers, or they can still go the old-fashioned way and bookmark blogs, checking regularly for new posts.
Besides being a blog reader or follower, another topic worth discussing is how to be a good blogger, and a good commenter. I covered it in a recent post. https://catbirdquilts.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/things-ive-learned-from-blogging/
HeathersSewingRoom says
Thanks Abby a great post as I have just downloaded the Bloglovin app onto my iPhone and I am finding it really great. I to am finding those daily emails getting too much and are looking for ways to get them out of my in box but not miss the things I enjoy therefore the App works a treat.
Abby says
Super!
Andrea R says
I use Feedly and switched to that when Google Reader died. I’ve been reading blogs online since forever (before 2000 when I started my own) and readers of some kind are the only way to keep track, without bookmarking sites and visiting every day.
Some feed readers, like Feedly, do give numbers on how many are subscribed., but only via that service For blog owners, running your rss feed through something like Feedburner also gives stats on anyone subbed to your feed.
The WordPress reader tool is at WordPress.com. Their search tool and global tags only search blogs and sites hosted at wp.com and not self hosted sites.
Blogger based blogs have a Follow button, but that is also internal to Blogspot only sites.
I wasn’t a fan of Bloglines because it seems there’s too many steps to read lots of posts from different sources at once. In Feedly, I just scroll down to the next one. If anyone has their feed set to excerpts, I will click it open in a new tab. I do most of my reading on my laptop. Then again, if someone cuts off too much of their posts and forces people to read on their site mainly for ad views, I quickly loose interest. Because then they are thinking more about advertisers and not readers. I’m happy for people to sell to me, that’s fine. Not so much if it’s just all about the ads.
To find new sites to read, I’ll take recommendations from people I’m already reading, using Feedly’s search tool, checking out the profiles of people I like on other social media platforms and finding their sites then adding them to Feedly.
The good thing about a separate feed reader is that you can add sites from any source as long as they have an RSS feed. And these days, any platform that allows regular postings also has a built in feed. š
Liz Plummer says
I use Feedly too, I like the way you can easily share posts with it and skip from one post to another really easily.
In the early days of blogging (I started mine in 2005), we found each other via blogrings – before social media it was either that or Yahoo groups or other email lists. The Artful Quilters blogring which grew out of the Quiltart mailing list doesn’t seem to exist any more but before Facebook it felt like a real community of bloggers, leaving comments on each other’s blogs and encouraging us to keep blogging – it certainly did for me.
Andrea R says
Oh Blogrings! š Those take me back.
Elaine @Beech Tree Lane Handmade says
I love Feedly. I have all the blogs I subscribe to there and categorized for easy reading. There are some blogs I subscribe to via e-mail (like Abby’s!) because I want to read those posts right away, but all the others I put into Feedly and then read them when I can. I really like the layout.
Sarah says
I’ve been blogging for 15+ years (really) and I think the way I find blogs hasn’t actually changed that much. For me, it’s mostly a mix of seeing what other people link to and just clicking around. I think that’s why it’s often difficult to figure out how some blogs grow and some don’t — because while there are specific things you can do that will help, there is still an element of randomness to it.
I used Google Reader for years and switched to Feedly because it felt very similar to Reader and that’s what I was used to.
Anna Veach says
I use Bloglovin’ but the funny part is that when I signed up for it, I was subscribed to a daily digest of blogs I subscribe to and then a few “Related blogs” which are typically sewing/quilting related (I think I only follow maybe 4 or 5 on Bloglovin’) I don’t know how I subscribed to the digest version but it sends a snippet of the post and then I typically go and read it later. If that initial snippet (or the featured image) doesn’t grab my attention, I won’t go and read it. I think that’s an important point to consider when writing those first few lines of a blog post.
I’ve always been one to subscribe to posts in my e-mail because I KNOW I’ll check my e-mail but I won’t always check Bloglovin’. Also, in the old days when I spent hours on my personal computer, working for myself in a way, I used Pinterest to keep track of the posts that came to my e-mail that I wanted to sort away for later, such as tutorials for various techniques. I think it really helped build Pinterest followers at least.
Eileen Keane says
I use the search on bloglovin’. I love applique so I put that word in for my search. I’ve found loads of them this way. I’ve had 2 blogs, neither of which I have the discipline to maintain. I love reading them, not writing them.
Christiana Anastassiou says
I am new to blogging and I would like to know how can I get my blog into Bloglovin so that other people can find me?
Thank you..
Christiana
Abby says
I think if you Google “how to submit a blog to Bloglovin” you find some instructions.
Christiana Anastassiou says
Thanks Abby. I will try.
Marit says
I found our blog via iHanna, who shared the link in her blogpost… and I follow iHanna via RSS. I just LOVE blogs so much more than the ‘fast’ facebook posts and twitter. There used to be a lot of activity in artist’s blogland, it’s getting a bit quiet nowadays but I keep on blogging (it’s my kind of medium!) and following interesting blogs, like yours so HI, I’m a new follower! Hug from Holland, Marit
Natalie says
I follow a bunch of blogs on Bloglovin’ also. I generally like it, but it drives me crazy that I have to click from my email to read a full post, only to be brought to a bloglovin’ page with a partial post and I have to click through again to actually read the post. Does anyone else have this problem? I’ve looked through settings and can’t find anything to change this. I usually click through to at least 2-3 at a time and would really like to just be able to click through once for each post.
Abby says
Iām a little confused. Why are you clicking from an email?
Natalie says
I get an email like a daily digest of any blog updates from blogs I’m subscribed to.
Abby says
I see. I like to use the Bloglovin app on my phone or on the desktop. I see a photo and the first few words of the post. If I click it I can read the whole post on the blog itself and comment on it or share it if Iād like. That works well for me.
Abby says
Natalie, You may just need to turn off the Bloglovin frame. I did this several years ago and remember being much happier afterward: http://www.permanentprocrastination.com/2015/06/remove-frame-from-bloglovin.html?m=1
Natalie says
Thanks so much, Abby. I’ll check it out. I do like getting the email digest, otherwise I forget to read anything. ???? I appreciate your time!
Nancy Myers says
This article was very helpful for me. I now have some things to explore. I never really knew what I did to get Bloglovin. And, I want to read blogs at the URL to give credit to the writer. I don’t have a specific way to list my blogs, so that is part of my organizing that needs to take place.
Thanks.
Sue says
Great post! I’m a big fan of blogs and with instagram as an adjunct I think the pressure is off now to post as frequently. I mostly find new blogs through link ups, round ups of those link ups, and the suggested blogs that come through as part of bloglovins daily email. Also if you register your blog to yourself you will be notified of new followers and post reads.
Cathy says
I love visiting and reading quilting blogs, it seems like I add one or two a week. However, it’s a big time suck to me, I’m spending more time reading about quilting than I am actually quilting. It’s really time for me to cut loose.
I made an Excel chart, where I document the blogs I visit each day. I have columns relating to how many posts per week, how many things I actually find interesting or useful. Does the blogger make quilts I like? or quilts I would like to make? Or, are our tastes vastly different? Did I save a photo they shared? Do they occasionally do raffles or give=aways? I enjoy paper piecing so if a blogger also does, they get a notation in that column. Do they share free patterns as well as selling them? If they’ve shared a recipe I might like I note that too, etc I may choose to stay with a blog because they have cute children š Basically, I’m trying to select the best blogs for me, so I get the most of what I’m interested in.
Cathy says
PS there are currently 79 blogs on my list :p
Anita says
I came here from A Quilter’s Table… The loss of Google Reader killed the blogging experience for me and I don’t know how to get it back. I haven’t been able to find another feed reader that has the ability for clean & organized following. Bloglovin’ lumps blogs all together and I can’t keep them straight or get a clean link. š I sure wish I knew what the answer was for keeping up, but on the other hand, my life is less stressful with the wane in keeping up.
If a person owns a business I think it is absolutely necessary to have a web presence, but for those who don’t own a business… then what? Instagram sort of works but yet not as well as back in the days of Google Reader and when Flickr was thriving. The times have changed for sure.
Abby says
You can get a clean link in Bloglovin. Go in to settings and turn off the frame.