How to follow blogs

I know I’ve got a few friends out there who aren’t bloggers, but know people who are bloggers. (You know who you are…) You may not want to dive into the world of blogging, but you want to keep up with what a few of your friends are doing. Surely there’s got to be an easier way than remembering to go to their websites every day to see if there’s something new!

Good news – there is a much easier way! As bloggers, we’re writing for you – and we want you to read it! So we do our best to make it easy for you to keep up with what is going on in our little corner of the internet.

Most blogs will have a section that looks sort of like this:

These are our “connect with me” icons. They are an easy way for you to get in touch (and stay in touch!) with us.

Sometimes the icons are simple logos. Sometimes they are designed to match the theme of the blog a little better. (I love these coffee cup icons from A Latte With Ott, A. Some day I’ll have fun little alarm clock icons…)

Usually you’ll be able to tell what the icons are for just by the way they look. Sometimes if you hover your mouse over the icon without clicking, you’ll see a little message pop up that tells you what it is for. For example, the envelope icon on my blog lets you email me directly.

And if you’re really not sure what the icon does, check out the bottom left corner of your screen. When you hover over the icon, the website it will take you to usually pops up at the bottom of your screen. On this page, when you hover over the Facebook icon, a tag that says “Facebook” pops up near your mouse pointer, and the actual Facebook web address pops up in the bottom left corner.

That’s all well and good… but how does this help you stay connected with what’s going on? Liking a blog on Facebook will usually keep you posted on what is new and exciting on that blog. But Facebook is being a little stingy with its sharing lately. So a better way to make sure you’re always up to date is to subscribe to the blog.

There’s two ways to do this. For the more tech-savvy, you can follow a blog in an online reader, like Google Reader. Click on the RSS icon (the one with the 3 curved lines), and you’ll be able to set that up.

Not ready to make that jump yet? There’s an even easier way. Look for something like this:

Many blogs will have this right on their main page. This option lets you get new blog updates right in your email inbox! Piece of cake!

Sometimes you might have to click on the RSS icon to get to the email option, but it’s still so easy… On Goodeness Gracious, click on the RSS icon…

And it takes you to this webpage where you can set up your reader or sign up for email in the same place.

Pinke Post has both options right on her blog – subscribe in your reader, or get updates by email. Easy peasy!

Subscribing with a reader or through email are great ways to stay connected and keep up to date on what your favorite bloggers or friends are doing. You’ll only get emails when there is something new posted on the website, so no worries about tons of spam coming your way!

What blog are you going to subscribe to? Will you get emails, or use a reader?