Sunday, September 4, 2016

How to manage reading all of your favorite blogs



"greatness is not a solitary act"
Is something I wrote on some college application. Although this is an important aspect of most forms of success, this sentence rings true especially for blogging!


On a random side note, please send over some mosquito incinerator and a magical panacea for all these wretched bites, my poor flesh has been eaten by the blood sucking vampire monsters, and it itches so bad, SO BAD! 

Something I've noticed since I've made this blog is that blogging by yourself in your little hobbit hole doesn't work, you have to go out and talk to people (frightening as this may be, especially if you're low-key afraid of the Internet and stuff), they can help you, and you can help them. You don't have to go and be instabuddies with everyone if that's not for you, but interaction is a key part of blogging.

And no, this doesn't mean you should only go to blogs to bring traffic back to your own (you probably weren't thinking that but if you were, I caught ya!) You should comment and follow blogs you actually enjoy reading, it makes for better interactions later on. But looking for support in the blogging community is a great incentive to get out there and find blogs you truly enjoy.

Now you've found all these wonderful blogs, each of them special and cool with different charms and personalities, what could go wrong!? Suddenly you're drowning in all of the lovely blogs you want to read and end of missing and forgetting some great blogs.
I'm no expert on managing reading many blogs and most of the time am drowning myself, but I do have a few helpful tips I've picked up juggling a large reading list :)



Pretty self explanatory, but one of the easiest and most helpful things you can probably do. Even if you don't read every blog you bookmark regularly, you can scroll through your bookmarks on a rainy day when you have nothing to do.
It also does wonders to prevent prevent the, darn it I can't find that amazing blog that had everything I needed on it, scenario.



Most bloggers have the widget in their side bar and doing this helps both you and the blogger, you're giving them a shiny new follower (which is always exciting!) and when you add them it makes it easy to see all their new posts. When you visit your own blogger dashboard your subscribed blogs show up in a handy mandy little box at the bottom, and any of their recent posts in chronological order. This is better than bookmarking because a) there's less of a chance of the blogs getting lost in all the other bookmark junk on our computers, b) you can see if they posted anything new and c) you can access it from any computer.
The only thing I don't like about this method is that you have to be signed in to your google account and you can only access the feed from your blogger dashboard. It's just a little cumbersome for me and I don't get any sort of notification.


 
Again, most bloggers have this (Hint hint, you can follow YJR here)
And while I don't like Bloglovin' for discovering blogs, which is a topic for another day, it is very handy for keeping up to date on the blogs you read. It's nice because you can read the posts directly in Bloglovin' and not have to navigate between everyone's individual blogs.




You are NOT required to read every blog all the time.

I know the feeling of wanting to read ALL blogs ALL THE TIME and comment on all posts because blogs are wonderful and the pressure can get stressful.
But we're all humans here yes? That means we often have busy lives and our responsibilities should take first priority. When things get rough it's okay to drop regularly reading blogs you like, you shouldn't feel guilty for it and it in no way means you don't like their blog. Your health and work comes first, take care of it.

9 comments:

  1. Loved this post, Crystal! Errrgh, I follow so many blogs - some simply because I like to return a follow I receive (not the best of reasons, I know, but I just feel wrong not returning the favor!), and others because I enjoy their content and/or personalities. Most I'm following for both reasons.

    But every blog I follow is one that I think is great (even if I'm not typically into the kind of things they post, that's where personality comes in. Take fashion and beauty bloggers, for instance. Even book reviewers. I don't care much for fashion or beauty, and I don't get to enough books to fangirl over the newest release of something - but those two categories make up more than half of my blog list because so many of them are fantastic people!), and it can be super difficult to visit them regularly. Even irregularly.

    You've got both the time aspect and an ever-growing pile of names that make it such a hard thing to keep up with. We just have to stop by when we can, I suppose!

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    1. This. Is. All. True!
      We do what we can, and that is enough :)
      Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. Super super super amazing post! I love it! With the graphics and the meaning and all. Love it. :)

    Nabila // Hot Town Cool Girl

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    1. Thanks Nabila! I'm glad you enjoyed the graphics, I had a lot of fun making them :)

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  3. This was such a nice post! I don't read blogs regularly, just when I've got free time or when I'm bored. I usually scroll down my bloglovin' app and see if there's anything interesting. I don't usually comment unless I'm on laptop but if I know the blogger, I make sure to leave them a comment on twitter about their post :)
    Otherwise, I do check my GFC feed regularly but again, just go over it to see who updated. Reading the post happens like several days after it's been posted xD
    the-emo-wolverine-writes.blogspot.com

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    1. Thanks :)
      Oh i'm an avid blog reader, I probably spend more time reading blogs than I do working on my own.
      I don't comment very often either because I like to write nice long comments, they're much nicer than just saying great post, even though those are great comments too :)

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  4. Yesss. I like Bloglovin for catching up with blogs but not for finding new blogs, bleh. And because I don't want to be overwhelmed, I'm going to unfollow all the blogs I follow on email and GFC on email if they post often.

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    1. I've found that its hard to find small blogs through bloglovin so I normally look for links in other blogs' comments.
      I don't really understand what you mean with your following plan but good luck :p

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    2. I meant that I follow some blogs on email and Google followers. I only want to follow them on the Google followers widget.

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