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?
Aspiring writer, wife, mother of two, owner two cats. Teacher, lover of science, books, science fiction, fantasy, and video games.
writing, traveling, and tap dancing around town.
Leave your fear of the dark at the door, suspend your disbelief and come on in...
Writer and procrastinator
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Warden of Words // Shaper of Stories
Bewitching Journey of Words to Meaning
This is the story of building a cottage , the people and the place. Its a reminder of hope and love.
Just your average PhD student using the internet to enhance their CV
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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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