Taming The Savage Beast: Five Ways RSS Has Made Blogging Easier
The amount of blogs I was visiting was getting out of control. I needed to do something about it. I wasn’t sure how I would keep up with them. This past Friday I wrote about making the switch to Google Reader.
How Google Reader Has Made My Blogging Experience Easier
1. I’m Alerted When New Content Appears On A Blog
I know instantly when someone publishes a new post. Which means I’m not physically going to the url to find that no new content has been added. Yes it sounds silly but that time adds up very quickly.
2. I Visited Every Single Blog Listed In My Feed
Currently I have 100. What’s impressive is that I was able to accomplish this on my to “off weekend”. In total I was online for about three hours. The rest of the time was spent offline.
3. I’m Visited More Blogs And Left Over fifty Comments
I’d like to add this was done in less time than my usual way actually going to each website. Time is very important to me. It is too most people. I don’t have too much of it and my blogging visits was cutting into my work time & off time.
4. Less Time Spent Visiting Means More Time For Other Things
Late nights are spent for what I had planned. After my daughter is in bed. I’m studying or doing light web maintenance. I’m not trying to catch up on my blog reading.
5. I’m Reading All My Blogs From One Location
I would highly recommend that everyone tries it out before forming an opinion about it. Stephen Cronin at More Than Scratch The Surface has listed some excellent reasons why you should seriously consider using an RSS especially for those that, like myself, were reluctant to take the plunge.
If you are looking for a better understanding of web development (PHP, MySQL, CSS, Javascript, Ajax, and WordPress) like myself you’ll definitely want to check out Stephen’s website. His post Taming The Advanced Editor has already been put to use.
Now if I had an one place where I could manage all of my blogs that would be amazing. ;-)
Question: What have you done that has greatly improved your blogging experience?
[tag]Google Reader, Scratch99, RSS Feed, quality blogging[/tag]
on July 16th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
As I accumulated more and more blogs to read, I also made the switch to Google Reader and love it. Your feed is on my list!
on July 16th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Ok, I’m ready to make the feeds jump. Which one is the best one? And how hard is it to set up?
on July 16th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Hi Danielle,
I’ve added you to my reader. I see that you have knitted some really nice things. I’ll definitely be commenting on those.
Sassy,
I use Google Reader. It’s simple to set up. I sent you an email. The url is located here http://www.google.com/reader
on July 16th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
I used to use bloglines but stopped because I couldn’t even keep up with that! After I took my hiatus I didn’t get that many people back to my blog…got a bunch of new ones actually! I might look into this…thanks!
btw…where are those graphics from? I know I have seen them before…
o/t perhaps…but have you ever read or do you remember the book…Where The Side Walk Ends??? LOVED it…reminds me of that book but then again it’s been like 15 years since I have even looked at that book! lol
on July 16th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Are they from Where the Wild Things Are? They look familiar to me too. Now you got us all curious. LOL
on July 16th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Harmonia,
You should it is definitely bringing sanity back into my blog visits.
teeni,
Ding! Ding! ding! You’ve one the virtual prize. It is Where the Wild Things Are. Interestingly enough I’ve never read the book. I think I’ll purchase it for my daughter.
on July 16th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Like you all, I spend way too much time checking blogs for new posts…I will give this RSS feed thing a try…thanks for the info!
on July 16th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Is Where The Wild things Are and Where the Sidewalk ends from the same author(s)??? I’ll have to look…now it’s bugging me…lol
on July 16th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Google Reader has definitely made reading blogs much easier for me. As you read each post, it is marked as read. I leave the posts in list view, start at the bottom and then just ‘k’ away.
- k is the shortcut key for previous post
- j is the shortcut key for next post
- ? displays help and shortcut keys
Using these keys I can get through quite a few posts in a short period of time. When I am moved to comment, I click on the title of the post, and I am linked to that post on the blog and I can comment. If you have to stop all unread posts will be displayed next time you use.
If I am looking at the headers of posts and nothing strikes my fancy, I can mark all as read.
Now with Google Gears you can read your feeds offline. You must install Gears, and this will allow you access to your feeds offline. Read all your feeds, next time you are online, your feeds synchronize back up.
OK, I am practically writing a post in comments so I will stop and finish up with Google reader is a definite time saver, enjoy the time you get back!
on July 17th, 2007 at 1:45 am
Great post. I try to limit my blog surfing and viewing to just a few blogs, and I have them on favourites.
I did download an RSS reader but I haven’t got round to setting it up. You’ve twisted my arm with the benefits thought.
on July 17th, 2007 at 6:24 am
Sherri,
If you’re like me you will wonder what you ever did without it. It has made my blogging experience a lot easier.
Harmonia,
I checked. They are by different authors. Where The Sidewalk Ends is by Shel Silverstein, and Where The Wild Things Are is by Maurice Sendak.
Thomas,
What and excellent post. Thanks so much for including this I’m sure others will appreciate this also. I’ll be adding Google Gears later today.
CatherineL,
Thanks for stopping! I do a lot of blog visits, lol, My favorites have grown a lot, and truthfully I read them all.
You should check out the RSS reader it really has become a lifesaver and has made a huge dent into the time that I actually visit blogs.
on July 17th, 2007 at 8:10 am
I’m totally a google reader fan and I don’t know what I would do without it. I hate to think how many feeds I have in there.. but I also have three Bumpzee community feeds, which are fantastic. I hugely enjoy those. That’s how I found you! :)
Snoskred - has a new home at -
http://www.snoskred.org/
on July 17th, 2007 at 8:19 am
I found this post in my photo-hunt Google Reader folder! It’s just a life-saver.
Gears is my next thing to try with Reader. But you are right: I got through every single Photo Hunt posting and it was marvelous! I never fretted about whether I had already visited. They were all in one place.
If somebody new joins photo hunt, you can tell from TNChick’s site and add them to your feeds.
Unfortunately, there are still some blogs that don’t have feeds.
on July 17th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Snoksred,
I keep saying it but it’s true I should have done this a lot sooner. I’m overwhelmed with Bumpzee. I’m hammered with messages. I haven’t been on that website in weeks. I’m glad you found me. I’m really enjoying your website.
meeyauw,
That makes a lot of sense adding PhotoHunters to the Google Reader folder what a great way to check out who has posted something new. Thanks I’ll be adding them.
I’ve found that out when I was trying to add everyone.
on July 18th, 2007 at 7:00 am
It takes hours and hours to add all Photo Hunters to the Reader. Saturday was the first time I used Google Reader feeds for Photo Hunt and it was worth the effort.
I am thinking of asking Google to add a filter tho, so that after you have these 400 feeds in there, you can just filter out everything that does not have, say, “shadows” or whatever the theme is for the week.