How Do You Read Blogs?

Since Nesting Place will be moving soon, I want to make sure you will be able to find the new nest. So I thought I'd ask you how you read your favorite blogs. Then I thought I'd explain a little about the different ways one can read blogs. Then I realized that I'm horrible at explaining how to do anything computery, I don't know the proper terms and I will make a fool of myself and probably Al Gore will want to sue me for spreading false rumors about his invention. But, I do read blogs a few different ways online and I can muck up this blog with my big, fat, wrong opinions as much as I want, right?


See that symbol that looks like the Target sign cut in a quarter? It means RSS which is an acronym for something Really Simple that I can't remember that has to do with Syndication {please forgive me real computer people, I don't know if that symbol really means RSS, let's just pretend}. To me, RSS means that you can read something online by subscribing to a feed. {again, I'm sure I'm wrong so read this all about RSS or click here to see what it really means}


Why subscribe to blogs? So you don't have to bookmark each blog that you read or worse, try to remember the blog address by heart and type it in every time. One way you can subscribe to an RSS feed is by clicking on this feedburner box that you see on some blogs. Mine is on the sidebar somewhere over there.

You can also click on this symbol where ever you see it on your favorite blog.



Or this symbol up in your address bar if you see it up there. Anyplace you see that quarter of a Target sign, you can click it to subscribe. But you need s place to stash all of your subscriptions, right? That's called a reader.


This is my google reader. I subscribe to hundreds of blogs and they are all grouped however I see fit and if they have a new post it's easy for me to see and catch up. I admit, I'm a sucker for seeing how someone's blog looks--many, many times I'll click over to the blog from my reader page. If you want to leave a comment or enter a poll, you need to click the title of the blog on your reader and you'll magically be taken to the actual blog with their pretty designs and stuff. But this will make your blog reading life SO much easier and you'll never forget what that great blog you found last week was!

Some of you follow blogs through that google friend connect thing on a blog's sidebar. Oh how I love to see all of your beautiful photos! However, if you only read blogs this way, from what I understand, you are limited to only subscribing to blogs that are on the blogger platform {like this blog is right now but won't be soon} or some of the VERY few blogs that have added this feature to their non-blogger blogs--like Kimba, Darcy and Sandy.

However, if you only read blogs that are accessible through google friend connect and your blogger dashboard, you are missing out on a huge, HUGE majority of fantastic blogs!

Blogs like Chatting at the Sky, The Inspired Room, Simple Mom, BooMama, Pioneer Woman, Bye Bye Pie, and many, many others. Trust me, you don't want to miss out on these blogs.

The thing is, for any of you 3400 people that are following Nesting Place only on your blogger dashboard, you won't get an update when I move. Google won't let me take you with me. It makes me start all over with the friend connect and that seems like a lot of trouble for both you, me and Google. Although I have a feeling that Google doesn't really care.

UPDATE:

According to Shelli in the comments, you can read other non-blogger blogs on your blogger dashboard here's what she says:

HOWEVER, you can subscribe to a non-Blogger blog using the RSS feed and put it in your Blogger Dashboard. All you have to do is copy the url of the RSS feed from the blog of your choice, and paste it into the URL box of blog add feature on your Dashboard. Voila!

Thanks Shelli, you are smart~now if you still want to see Nesting Place {you do, don't you?} you can just add thenester.com to your dashboard once I move!


Here's what it looks like when you read blogs in your blogger dashboard. Do any of you read blogs only through this way? If so, when Nesting Place moves, you will not get any more updates!! I want you to keep hanging out at the nest! Will you consider subscribing to the RSS feed so you can stay? HOPEFULLY, all of you who have subscribed to Nesting Place will still see all the posts in your feed reader for the new nest. Of course, moving has it bumps, there is a chance that you won't see Nesting Place in your reader anymore, if that's the case, I'll write a last post on the old feed asking you to resubscribe in the new feed with a link. We'll just not worry about that for now.

Here's a quote from the comments too. I thought it was an interesting point however, most likely if you have a blog, it has an RSS feed whether you want it or not, people are probably subscribed to you. From what I understand blogger does it automatically--if you subscribe to your own blog you can see how many people subscribe to the feed through that reader. Feedburner is a service that adds up all your subscribers together into one number so you know your total subcribers. Like it or not, if you have a blog, you most likely have an RSS feed and subscribers! Help--am I right about this?

There is a poll over here at the Nest--if you are reading in a reader, click on over and participate! {scroll down, I like to show off my dumpter skilz so it's waaay at the bottom of this post and not centered}

Here's a great little video about RSS junk

Winners of the Garnish $25 gift certificates:

Danielle @ Daily Lakey

Bonita @ Encouraging Words for Writers
{I know her in real life but she was picked highly scientifically!}

Denise @ First A Dream

{contact me ladies and I'll get you your shopping code!}

To me, using regular old gift bags are the equivalent of George Costanza wearing sweat pants--they send out a message saying "I've given up on life". Make your life easier and don't give up by getting some Garnish for the same price as those boring gift bags--and, they are delivered to your door step--George would totally buy these.

Don't forget the poll--down there!