As a blogger it can be extremely helpful to have a system of organizing the blogs you visit or plan to visit. I find it easier to manage the blogs I follow with Google Reader.
What is Google Reader you ask?
What is Google Reader you ask?
Well, Google Reader is a free, Web-based reader for RSS feeds. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. These feeds can be found on most every web site. RSS feeds provide a simple view of content, including pictures, text and video without the sites' style and formatting and allows websites to distribute new content as it becomes available.
How do you find RSS Feeds?
Google Reader allows you to subscribe to feeds easily by clicking on the RSS universal symbol and subscribing. There are different RSS readers available, but Google is my favorite and one of the best in my opinion. So lets say for instance, you have a Blogger blog and want to follow a WordPress blog. Since Blogger has decided to retire Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012, in order to follow a WordPress blog, you would need to bookmark it, search for it with a search engine, type the url directly into your address bar or subscribe through an RSS feed to stay up to date. By subscribing through RSS, you can find the blogs you subscribe to in one location, which is your Google Reader.
To find the RSS feed to subscribe to on a website, look for the orange box with the white arches like in the photo above. Now if you don't remember the website url you want to subscribe to, you can find it within your Google Reader, type in the name of the site or use a keyword in the search box and Google will usually find it for you with its own directory.
I subscribed to several feeds, but how do I organize them?
Now that you have subscribed to several blogs using the RSS feed, you can organize how you access or view the sites within your Google Reader. The less complicated way to find your Google Reader is to sign into your Gmail account. If you don't have one, it's easy to sign up for one, just go to Gmail.com and sign up. Once you are inside your gmail, you will see a list of tabs at the top, the very last tab should say more. Click More and then scroll until you see Reader. Click it. Now you should be in your Google Reader. Now to organize the feeds/sites you subscribed to, you should create folders. Click manage subscriptions in the lower left hand corner of the main page of your Google Reader. There you will find options to create or delete folders. One of my folders is called, My Favorite Blogs, to help me navigate to my favorite blogs without having to search. You can also delete feeds and categorize feeds into folders for better viewing.
How do I create a folder?
Your feeds will be in the left sidebar. On the right side of each feed, there is a drop down menu with a black arrow to change or make a new folder, bundle, etc. Click the arrow and then create a new folder, click on it, and choose the new folder option. After naming it, the feed you clicked on in the first place will automatically be sorted into this folder. Once you've created a folder, you can quickly add several feeds by clicking the drop-down button on the far right to change folders.
How do I star a post?
You can also star and label a post for quick sorting later. I often do this when I'm pressed for time and then I'll go back to my starred post and categorize them. You can star a post by clicking on the star icon on the top left of the post, or add a star option on the bottom left. To find the posts you starred, click the starred items feed on the top left menu.
How do I label a post?
If you blog, you probably know what labeling is, it's like adding a tag. To label or tag any feed item, click the edit tags button on the lower right hand side of the post. To search or find labels or tags, you will need to use a keyboard shortcut; pressing g followed by t. This allows you to go through stories by tag using your keyboard arrows.
