The Quiet Concert: My Journey Through Feed Readers

Feb

2015

My Journey Through Feed Readers

Welcome to Thoughts for Thursday! This feature is our outlet to talk with you about whatever we currently have on our minds. It might be bookish, it might not! Now for this week's thought:

My Journey Through Feed Readers

When I started blogging, Google Friend Connect paired with Google Reader was the way to follow blogs. And when I started following blogs, there wasn't much rhyme or reason to who I followed. We participated in the meme Feature & Follow quite a few times and that encouraged a lot of "following back". In quick time, my feed reader became a mess of blogs that I didn't share any interests with nor have any personal connection with. The blogs I did care about were being overshadowed by the ones I didn't.

When Google announced that it was getting rid of Google Reader and Bloglovin emerged on the scene, I stupidly just imported my feeds from Google Reader instead of taking that opportunity to start fresh. So Bloglovin ended up being no more helpful to me than Google Reader was. One day I noticed that I stopped using it entirely and was just deleting those emails automatically because they were filled with posts I had no desire to read. Instead, I was keeping a mental list of blogs that I liked and made sure I visited them on a regular basis. But there were only so many blogs I could keep up with...

Around that time, Ashley mentioned that she used Feedly to follow blogs and I thought to myself BLANK SLATE and quickly transferred my mental list to a new account. But now that I wasn't limited to what my memory could hold, I started adding more and more of my favorite blogs. But then I panicked because I didn't want my Feedly account to become so huge that I became overwhelmed with Feedly too.

You see, there are blogs I read/comment on almost every post and then there are blogs that I read/comment on when I have time. I wanted each of those two groups to have their own home. That's when I decided it was time to clean out my Bloglovin account...

OMG that thing was a DISASTER. So many blogs I followed hadn't posted in YEARS, others I haven't read/thought of in years. And then there is the fact that my interests evolved. It took me a while to clean it up and then once all the clutter was gone I realized that there were so many blogs I liked that I never followed! WHAT? In reality you were in my mental list or I was following you via Feedly BUT STILL. This is why you might have noticed me JUST following you even though we've been friends for a while. Sorry about that. But now I'm likely following you twice so...

It's still a work in progress as I try to figure out what works best for me but I feel MUCH BETTER now that I am significantly more organized. Now I can be a better commenter too.

So how do you follow blogs/manage your feed readers? Do you have any tips and tricks to using Bloglovin or Feedly?

Comments (10)

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Lucia 94p · 526 weeks ago

I used to follow blogs by email. But than I found myself deleting ton of emails without even reading them so I decided to try Bloglovin. And I fell in love. The only trick I have is to follow only blogs I am honestly interested in LOL
My recent post REVIEW: By Any Other Name by J.M. Darhower

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mel1704 86p · 526 weeks ago

I used Google Reader first too and like you, it was a mess in the beginning. I did all the 'follow me back' stuff and I added almost every blog I cam across. When I switched to Bloglovin' I immediately cleaned it and every once in a while I go back to see if there are blogs I'm not interested in any more. It's also sad to see how many blogs quit over time :(

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Pam@YA Escape · 526 weeks ago

I was the same way in the sense of just reading blogs I liked and not following anyone. Then when I started blogging and paying attention to ways to follow people and have people follow you, that was when Google Reader was going away so we put Bloglovin on our blog and then set it up so we could follow people. What I like about it is that you can set up categories. So you can have the list of blogs that you follow on a regular basis and then other blogs that you check and read when you have time. I haven't actually paid attention to blogs that I'm following but haven't posted in a long time…I should probably do that!
My recent post Audiobook Review: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

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Kay · 526 weeks ago

It sounds like you have a good start on organizing the blogs you are following! I really want to go through some day and update my Bloglovin as well. It is kind of a mess. There are some old blogs that I wasn't a super big follower of to being with that haven't posted in forever that I just need to take off at this point. I also know you can put blogs in like groups I think on Bloglovin and I would love to figure that out. Perhaps this post will be my inspiration to be a little more organized! :)
My recent post ARC Review: The Winner's Crime by Marie Rutkoski

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Elizabeth · 526 weeks ago

I am returning to blogging after a 4 year hiatus and finding so many changes to how things work. Right now I'm not actually "Following" I just have blogs on my Dashboard reading list. Last week I deleted those that were no longer blogging and those that didn't interest me. I don't know enough about Bloglovin to choose to use it. What's the difference? There's also Google+, which has taken over my name and profile on blogger. Do I want/need to maintain that? What's a circle? I'm not actually asking, just showing how overwhelmed I am with what to do.
My recent post Be Aware

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novaxwn 57p · 526 weeks ago

I have the same two categories. In BL, it's all the blogs that I religiously comment on. In Feedly, it's the ones that MIGHT have interest to me but also do a LOT of memes so I'm just there for the reviews/discussions.

When I started BL, I totally had the same problem. Except for me, I was the Giveaway Girl. I would follow ANY blog because giveaways, right? *shudders* It was a DARK TIME.
My recent post I Live For Bad Books

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lisalostinlit 58p · 526 weeks ago

I definitely think it's about time that I go through my Bloglovin account and PURGE AWAY! It's a mess. And like you said, I have a very hard time keeping up with it. I'll definitely work on that very soon. :)
My recent post Blog Tour Author Interview + Giveaway: When Joss Met Matt by Ellie Cahill

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Wendy @ Book Scents · 526 weeks ago

I just checked out feedly!! I hadn't used it ever before but it does look very clean and easy to use. My BL is also a huge mess. I haven't decided if I should just do a massive clean up on it or switch to feedly completely? It's so hard! Haha

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Alisa @ Papercuttts · 526 weeks ago

I use Feedly, and migrated there after Google Reader closed up shop. I recently added bajillions of book blogs, including tumblrs, and after about a month of that, I'm starting to figure out which are keepers and which are not. The tumblr blogs get a little out of control, so I've subscribed to all of them inside of tumblr and deleted them from my feedly... thus I can open Pandora's box when I feel like it. I want to refine my reads even more, and to make bloggy friends because I value their subscriptions. Let's see!
My recent post 'Orhan's Inheritance' Knits Wounds Closed

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littlebookstar 68p · 525 weeks ago

I used to sort of have the same situation when I first started blogging . I think followed almost every blog I encountered and that was a big no no because I couldn't keep up with the posts. I think Bloglovin will help you out big time though because you can use their folders and group your favorite blogs and blogs you comment on when you have time. Also, I started unfollowing blogs who I'm not really appealed with their posts.
My recent post Stacking the Shelves #14