Blog Reflections #5: How Do You Read All Those Blogs?
I’ve been playing catch up over here in the house due to some minor annoying issues and I had no idea what to write about. Tomorrow is going to likely be another post lite day. I commented on a post at Harsh Reality and decided, “Hey, that’s a great post to follow up to my Ten Things I Learned About Attracting Blog Readers and to schedule for a bright and early 6:00AM when I’m still asleep!”
My number of followers has reached around 350 mainly confined to WordPress and Twitter. I follow almost everyone who follows me on WordPress and plus several more that don’t follow me. So, you might wonder, How Do You Read All Those Blogs?
I don’t. That would be impossible and right now I’m not even making any income from blogging and I do have other duties to attend to!
I click like and follow quite generously, but I don’t end there. I guess maybe a lot of people do just click and move on. I don’t know how any one else manages their reader. Most (not all) of those I follow follow me. I can’t possibly read everything so I kind of fell into a pattern of filtering.
I do have two useful skills that some people don’t have in their arsenal:
1. I can speed read
2. I can type very fast (in my heyday I could do a solid 85wpm)
I begin by opening my WordPress reader and I scan my feed and scroll through reading headlines and looking at pictures. If something someone has done can be read directly from the reader or catches my eye I will “like it” because…well…I do like it. Not necessarily enough to comment on it or share it. It might be a poem I thought was nice, a beautiful photo, or a short blurb.
If something looks particularly interesting or is from a name of a follower that I recognize as visiting me and commenting pretty often I will right click and open it in a new tab to read after I finish scanning my feed. I usually I stop at a dozen tabs and read them through. After I am done reading, I like them and I will generally make a comment or tweet/pin/share depending on the subject. Even if I don’t comment, I will almost always share the piece in some way. A recipe that interests me I will pin, I will tweet helpful guides or poems, and I will Facebook share videos, photos, or memes.
I do this process periodically, not all at once in one sitting. Some days I will search my reader by subject instead like “cooking” or “crafts” or “writing” – to see what’s going on specifically with my followers pages first and I do the same: scan for likes, open in new tabs for more thorough inspection, comment/share. If in the scanning I find new blogs that I like I will follow. I am experimenting with the WordPress “lists” feature, but it is not a drag and drop system so it is a bit annoying to have to open two windows so I can copy and paste addresses to the list. However, this is allowing me to sort my favorite blogs by subject so I can read them first (selective lists that I plan on keeping pretty short).
I also use this process to drop any blogs that might be just for advertising or (once in a blue moon) a blog I find objectionable.
How do you manage your reader?
16 comments on “Blog Reflections #5: How Do You Read All Those Blogs?”
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Aspiring writer, wife, mother of two, owner two cats. Teacher, lover of science, books, science fiction, fantasy, and video games.
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Laissez Faire 
I just systematically read through it. Anything that catches my eye, no matter what it is, I will read. I also try to comment but on those rare occasions that my brain malfunctions, just a like.
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When I only has a few readers I would do that, but once it hit 50, I had to starts changing how I was connecting to readers.
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That’s true but I think I would like to try it anyway. If I go insane, I’ll probably change my mind.
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I scan my reader like a magazine. If it interests me, I’ll stop for a while, comment when I feel I can add something to the conversation or move on. There are many, many interesting posts, so I’ve traded reading for television.
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As my readership grows I have found I need to adapt to fit it all in.
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I have to admit that I do not read every blog I follow. I always read the title and if is interesting I will read the post. I get the notifications in my email and usually check them there before I go to WP. I always try to make the attempt but some are too long to read from my email. I never like a post I haven’t read though. If I like it or comment I have read it. Some days I am way too busy with life on life’s terms to read anything and I will just skim through when I have a minute. Thank you for sharing this. Peace and blessings.
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That is one thing I don’t do is read posts via email. I find it much harder to manage, organize and share. Thanks for stoping by! I see your blog in my reader pretty regularly!
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I am pretty picky about what shows up in my reader. I used to follow everyone that follows me but I found myself avoiding the reader and missing the posts that I genuinely like to read. So I spent time curating my blogs that I follow and now I pretty much enjoy every post in my reader. I like reading blogs more than I like writing them so it wasn’t doing me a service to have an overwhelming amount.
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Yes, it does take time to skim when you aren’t as selective, which i why I tend to search by subject , visit my regular commenters first when they respond, or I have considered using bloglovin just for select “favorites”.
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First thank you for the follow. I am glad you found me, as during a quick scan, I found your blog very interesting with a wide variety of topics. 🙂
I do “attempt” to read 15 blogs a day, and comment on maybe 10. This can be very difficult, because instead of an 85 wpm typist, I am more of a 8.5 wpm one finger typist.:) I am drawn to those bloggers, where there has developed a friendship, where there is endearing conversation on each others blog.
I write down the blog of every comment I make, so I can check back if there is any conversation going. Also to stop by any blogs I might have missed on my reader.
Blogging interaction is so important to me. Am always humbled when someone stops by my blog with a comment.
A great post! 🙂
~Carl~
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Typing I and II were the best classes I took in high school! I’ve been hiding in bulletin board groups, so getting out there in the blogiverse has taken some getting used to. I remember being on the cutting edge of the Internet and now I feel like an old fogey trying to figure out how the new-fangled buttons work.
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Being home for most of the day, I typically read all the posts I follow, unless they are just links or multiple posts in a row, then I scroll past to look for interesting comment. I’m not a fan of links unless they are of particular meaning, I like to read comment. I can also speed read, so that helps, but mostly it is because I can’t work or really get out still.
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I wish I had taken advantage of more down time when my babies were small to network and read more blogs, but when I was nap trapped I often just fell asleep! Still do, actually.
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Very nice description of your routine. I have spent HOURS reading blogs. I try to ‘filter’ by the title, who wrote it, or photo but mostly I just want to read everything. Frankly, if I open it, start reading and it doesn’t pick up or I notice that it’s a long one, I usually back out. If it’s long and has my attention, I keep reading. Thanks for the tips.
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I also started dabbling with the WordPress “lists” feature for sorting my favorite blogs by subject so that I can read them first. The down side is that it doesn’t have a nice drag and drop feature, so I have to open two windows to copy and paste addresses to the list.
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This is great. Usually for me, it’s the end of the day but even at my most tired days, I still hop onto my blog, click the “Blogs I Follow” in my Reader and just start from the very top. I scroll down to pictures, read titles and anything that intrigues me – I too ‘like’ and ‘follow’ (if I aren’t following them already) and just write my opinions about the post or just have a conversation (like I do in every day life). That’s how I manage to read mostly, and reply or comment back. I’m not even sure how many people I follow, but I try my best everyday to converse back. I like to think I type quite fast. But I don’t read too fast.
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