Before I became a blogger (you can read about the story behind my blog here), I had a handful of bloggers that I followed regularly. I had maybe 10-12 blogs bookmarked on Google Chrome, and every day during lunch would sit down and click through each of the blogs to see if they had anything new that day.
This system wasn’t horrible, and feel like I really grew to love the voices and stories of those bloggers I was following regularly. But as I’ve jumped more into the blogging world, I’m starting to feel like just about everyone has a blog and it starts to feel overwhelming to follow them. I want to follow along with all of my friends’ and family members’ blogs, but don’t have the time to click around each day and figure out if anyone’s posted something new.
Since I became a blogger, I’ve found LOTS of great ways to follow your favorite blogs and to find new ones, and I’m sharing those ways with you today. So if you feel like everyone you know is starting a blog and you can’t keep track of them all, this post is for you! Read on and get organized in your blog reading, my friends!
1) Subscribe to Email Newsletters
This is by far the best and most reliable way to make sure you never miss a post from your favorite bloggers. When you subscribe to follow a blog by email, the blogger will send newsletters with post updates or the full text of posts straight to your inbox. These newsletters can be daily updates with posts or weekly/monthly newsletters with a roundup of recent posts. Most bloggers view their email subscribers as part of their family and will often send additional updates, freebies, and other fun goodies your way when you subscribe. If you really like what you’re finding on a blog, you should give this a try!
On most blogs, you’ll see a signup form that looks something like this one below. Sometimes they pop up as you’re browsing the site and other times they’ll be at the foot of a post or in the sidebar. Shameless plug…I’d love to add you to my newsletter family if you want to enter your email below!
2) Bloglovin’
Bloglovin’ is maybe my favorite discovery of the last few months hwne it comes to blogging. On this site, you search for your favorite blogs and add them to your “feed.” You can also have them add blogs to your feed based on your interests and other blogs you like, a fun way to discover new blogs. Whenever you check back, Bloglovin’ will show you new posts from that blog on those blogs themselves, but it stays within the Bloglovin’ frame so you can just click from blog to blog to view new posts. This saves you the trouble of clicking over to blogs when there’s no new material, and you can comment, like, and read without ever leaving Bloglovin’ site. This is how I follow most of my favorite blogs and I can’t recommend it highly enough! Click here to follow my blog on Bloglovin’ and start using this awesome site!
As you can see below, you’ll browse through the newest posts from any blog you’ve added to your feed, and just have to click the top buttons to save it to your favorites or share via different social media.
3) Feedly
Like Bloglovin, this site creates a feed using favorite blogs you bookmark, and you can just head to the page to see any new posts. You can follow more news-centered blogs, save articles for later, or connect to your Hootsuite account to share posts with people on Facebook or Twitter. I’m more used to the format of Bloglovin’ but I know lots of people who use Feedly and love it.
A Feedly feed looks like what you see below, with the ability to pop up certain posts and read them and then close them again.
4) Social Media
Most bloggers have accounts specifically for their blogs on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and this is a fun way to get personal updates, see other fun articles the bloggers are sharing, and get updates about the blogger’s own posts. Here’s some more specific tips:
- Facebook: Facebook is a great place to connect with bloggers in a more personal way, but is not a reliable way to get post updates. The Facebook algorithm means only a handful of the bloggers’ posts to Facebook will actually show up in your feed. If Facebook is the main way you follow bloggers, know that the more you engage with the posts (like/comment/share), the more you’ll see their stuff in your newsfeed!
- Twitter: This is a great way to get quick updates about posts or other content from bloggers. Although it’s not as big for most bloggers as Facebook or Pinterest, it is a great way to quickly find content and connect with bloggers.
- Instagram: This is a fun visual way to follow along with what your favorite bloggers are up to, and if you’re nosy like me, a fun way to get little peeks into their personal lives. It’s also not usually as big as Facebook or Pinterest (at least in my experience) so it can be a fun way to connect.
Most bloggers have buttons on their blog to make it easier to follow them on various social media. I have these little gray ones and you’ll see them on the bottom of my posts and on the top of my sidebar.
5) Pinterest
This gets its own category because it’s just plain fun! If you like a blogger’s style or taste, this is a really fun way to get inspired with recipes, crafts, DIY projects, and other articles about everything from blogging to life, marriage, and faith. Most bloggers will also share fun stuff from other sites and blogs, so it’s a great way to get more content in the same niche as the blogger themselves. AND it’s such a good way to organize ideas and inspiration you can come back to later! I’m a big fan of Pinterest if you can’t tell.
Lots of bloggers will have a tiny button like the one above, a “Follow Me On Pinterest” button, or a little widget that lets you actually see their Pinterest feed like the one below. This makes it easy to see what kind of things they’re pinning and decide if you want to follow along or not!
Visit Pinterest’s profile on Pinterest.
Most bloggers have links to their social media pages at the top of their site, so it’s usually pretty easy to find them and get started. If you enjoy the content a blogger is putting out there, I hope you’ll follow them on social media or join a newsletter to show your support and make sure you don’t miss any great content!
How do you follow along with your favorite blogs? Any recommendations of new blogs I should check out?
I don’t think I could keep up with as many blogs as I do without the help of Bloglovin’. 🙂
Katie @ running4cupcakes recently posted…Running Questions–Answered.
I totally agree! It makes it a million times easier!
I actually use the reading list that blogger provides and any blogs that I regularly follow I know by heart so I just continually check their blog. However, bloglovin is really great for all of the blogs that I want to read when I’m on the go.
liz @ sundays with sophie
Liz Joiner recently posted…surprise!
I agree! I have a handful of blogs I’ve followed forever that I always check and then a bunch of new ones I’m just starting to follow. Bloglovin’ is great for that!
Yep I do the same thing as Liz Joiner. But there are a few that I follow with an email subscription if I can’t add it to Blogger.
As for suggestions I’ve really been enjoying “We are THAT family” by Kristen: http://wearethatfamily.com
MB recently posted…Three things I wish I was better at
Nice! I’ll have to check out that blog. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
I love bloglovin and a handful of blogs I’ll just check their actual website every so often. I rarely do the email thing because I get sort of overwhelmed by the amount of emails especially if I can’t read them right away. I like facebook too but am SO annoyed by how it only shows certain things.
Sarah J recently posted…A Generous Home: Update on my Word of the Year
I totally agree…I feel like so many bloggers are all about the email subscription but I get overwhelmed by it too. Bloglovin’ is my favorite by far!