One of my goals this year is to get more people reading blogs! [One of my other goals is to get more people writing them! So watch out!] The biggest reason people don't read more blogs is: "don't have time". What if reading blogs was as easy as checking your email? What if you didn't have to bookmark all your favorites and go to each site? What if each site came to you instead? That, my friend, is what a reader can do for you!!
Once you have a "reader" you just add all the sites you want to follow and then check the reader like you would your email. All the new posts show up as they are published. You just have to scroll through them. No more going to a blog only to see it hasn't been updated. You just "set it and forget it". [Hey, I sound like an infomercial!] If you have an Gmail account you already have a reader, just look at the top of your Gmail page and you'll see:
Click on the word "Reader" between Documents and Web.A reader really is a huge time saver! You can organize your reader any way you see fit. So if you are only in the mood to read friends blogs but want to skip the others you can do so easily. I subscribe to all sorts blogs, including several "money saving" blogs. Now I rarely miss a great freebie or deal!
Another great feature of a reader is the ability to search what you've read. If you want to look up an old blog post for some reason (ex: recipe) then, in Google Reader anyway, you can just use the search function. Again this is a great way to keep up with the deal blogs... just search the store you're looking for a deal at and all posts from all the sites you subscribe to will show up (sorted most recent first). This is how I make my CVS or Walgreens shopping lists.
My hubby and I both use Google Reader, but there are other readers available. They are easy to set up and easy to check. There really is no reason not to give it a try! I know some of you use the links on your own blog as a "reader" of sorts, but you are still clicking over to each blog to read. With a reader they are all on the same page. There's no need to click back and forth. You also won't miss any posts. If more than one new post has been added, those sidebar links will only show the most recent post not all the posts since you last checked. You might be missing posts... and you don't want to miss any posts (especially mine)!!If you're skeptical, just give it a try... I think you'll be surprised!
Here is a YouTube video that explains it for you visual learners:
I love Google Reader! It's made it so much more simple to keep track of the blogs I read!
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