Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Tutorial: Guide to Google Reader


I'm sure many of you have heard of/already use Google Reader or a similar site, but if you don't already, you TOTALLY SHOULD!
Google Reader is a site designed to help you create an account with google, then help track, group, and organize all the blogs you read in one convenient place! I used to spend HOURS going from page to page, checking blogs a million times a day, but now I just periodically check my Google Reader page!

Features of Google Reader:
1. group blogs that you read in one place and allows you to subscribe
2. organizes and stores your favorite posts
3. allows you to subscribe to yourself to track your own subscribers

First you need to set up an account. You can go here to start setting up your free account!


Next, start subscribing to all your favorite blogs! You can click on the button in the upper left corner of the window to view the dialog box where you can paste a URL. Go to your favorite blog, highlight the URL at the top of the browser, and paste it in this box. Click to confirm.

Next, you can start viewing the latest blog posts! In the same upper left corner, you will see when you have new posts that are unread. By clicking on this you can look to your right and scroll through all unread posts at your convenience. Once something is read, it disappears from the unread list.

you can also view all the blogs you subscribe to in the lower left corner!

When reading posts, you can click the star in the upper left corner of a post to "favorite" that post. This allows you to refer back to it easily. When needed!

To comment on someone's post, just click the title of the post in Google Reader and it will navigate you directly to the webpage for that post where you can comment as usual.

One of the BEST things I find about Google Reader is that if you subscribe to your own blog, you can track the number of subscribers and readers you have! On any given person, just click the upper right corner where it says "show details" to view your own number of subscribers!

I hope this helps some people find a more organized and efficient way to read your favorite blogs. I find that it's faster, more convenient, and makes the whole process SO much more enjoyable and inspiring!

<3
E

5 comments:

Alexandra Rae said...

Thanks for posting this :-) I already use Google Reader (and loooooove it) but I still learned something new about viewing the number of subscribers. Thanks! Just a question: Do you know if there's any way to see WHO subscribes to your blogs?

PaperCameraScissor said...

I love using Google reader.

Emily Mae said...

Thanks so much! I always just had all my favorite blogs in bookmark folders...but Google Reader is so much easier! :D

Amy said...

i just switched to GR and love it. that's how i follow you! ;)

ps, i stole your blog button. teehee.

Amy said...

it didn't work :( the picture shows an X