How I Follow a Million Blogs

I have a thing for systems. I have a system for everything. If I don't have a system, stuff doesn't get done.

As I've become a more avid blog reader, I've developed a new system for keeping track of them all, reading the ones I love regularly without cluttering up my reader with the scores of blogs I come across that I find interesting, but haven't decided if I'm in love with just yet. But when I find a new blog that's kinda' cool, I want to come back later and see if I do fall in love with it.

So I present to you...

My Blog Reading System

You're reading my blog right now, so there's a decent chance that you read other blogs, too. If you don't, this post isn't for you. Also, this is how I organize my blog reading. In addition to loving systems, I also change them all the time! Because what worked when I read 10 blogs, no longer works now that I read many more than that. So depending on your reading habits, do what works for you. This is what I do.

1) I use Google Reader. Mostly because my blog is here on Blogger. And Google is awesome.

2) When I come across a blog post that I find interesting or memorable, I go ahead and click "follow." I learned that there are times when I read something and think, "not bad" and then days or weeks later I'm still thinking about something in the post. But if I don't follow it right then, I'll never be able to find my way back to it. So if it strikes a chord at all, I follow right away rather than lose it to the vastness of the Internet.

3) I love my folders!

I have created the following categories for the blogs I follow:

• IRL - Blogs written by the people I know and love in real life. I want to know what they're up to and read what they write. Also, I want to be caught up if I should actually run into them... in real life.
• Dailies - My favorite blogs of people I don't know IRL. I want to read them daily (time permitting).
• Good stuff - I often enjoy the posts on these sites, so they're high on my list. They're just not, "OMG! I missed a post!" good. But don't get me wrong though... they're good.
• New - All the other blogs that I stumble on that struck a chord (as I said above). One good post can land you in my New bucket.

(Obviously you can create folders for however you read. Craft blogs, mom blogs, funny blogs, etc.)

So if you don't know how to do folders in Google Reader, it's pretty easy. Here's how:

Go to Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader). Click the tiny link in the bottom left-hand corner that says Manage subscriptions.

You will see a list of all of the blogs you follow. Each one will have the option of changing the folder.

Or you can just click on the check boxes next to each of the blogs you want to group together and then click on More actions at the top and then put all of those selected blogs into the same folder.

4) Bookmarks make it easy!

Are you still with me? OK, one last step and setup is done. But here it is: the whole reason for creating the folders is so that I can jump straight to the posts in that folder without having to go to Google Reader. Here's how: at the top of that page that listed all of your blog subscriptions, there's also a link that says Goodies.

Go there. About halfway down the page there is a section that says Put Reader in your bookmark.

I have created a bookmark for each of my folders. You select the folder you want from the list and then that little Next button next to the drop down box changes. If you're on your computer, you can then just drag that little button up to your bookmark bar in your browser and voila! Instant bookmark to the newest post in that folder.

In my world, I do all my blog reading on my iPad now. Setting up the bookmarks on an iPad is a little trickier, but totally worth it because...

5) Read blogs!

I open my iPad and click the IRL bookmark. I go straight to the newest blog post in that folder. I read. I comment. I click the IRL bookmark again. I go to the next post. On and on that way until I click the link and it tells me, "There are no more unread items in your IRL folder." Sweet. I move on to Dailies. Then I vacillate between Good Stuff and New. Depends on whether I'm loving the Good Stuff, or if I'm in the mood to check out some New stuff. Sometimes there are guest bloggers. So I go to their blogs. (I, of course, subscribe if it's interesting.) Oh! Did I mention that back on that Goodies page on Google Reader there's a button that you can drag to your bookmarks bar that will subscribe for you? So if it's not a Blogger blog, you can just click the Subscribe button. Yeah, that's cool, too.

6) OK. One last thing. I occasionally have to go back to Google Reader to reorganize. This is the part that I'll probably lose you. (What? I lost you two steps ago? Oh well, here's the last step anyway.) Sometimes things need to move. New blogs prove worthy of being upgraded to Good Stuff. Some aren't my thing, so I unsubscribe. So when a blog needs to move, I head back to Google Reader. And while I'm there, I fix one other thing: all those new blogs that I've found and subscribed to, well, they don't automatically go into my New folder. (Bummer, I know.) So every now and then, I go to Google Reader and go to that Manage Subscriptions page. I click the link that says Unassigned and then throw everything into New.

OK. I have to say. I love my system. Now that it's all set up, I sit in bed with my iPad and just read and comment and read and comment and it's great. But now that I've explained all that goes into the setup, I'm afraid that I may have scared you all away. What do you think? Too complicated? Simply awesome? What is your system? Like I said, I love my systems, but I am also always changing them if I can find a way to make them better. Let me know what you think!

And someday, maybe I'll share my system for keeping my pantry organized or getting old clothes out of my closet. Probably not though. If you think my blog reading system is complicated, you should see the rest of my life.

Comments, Tweets, FB, or Phone Calls

I got a call earlier this week from my husband's cousin. She lives about 4 1/2 hours from us, so we don't see her very often. Mostly on holidays and other special occasions. But she's great. Want an example? Well, that call that I got earlier in the week, it was to tell me that she reads my blogs. She doesn't always comment (do any of us?), but wanted to let me know that she does read them and really likes them. Is that not the coolest thing ever? It totally made my day.

I know that lots of bloggers really prefer the response to their blog posts to come in the form of comments. I, too love comments. (Even though I can't get my new comments to work quite the way that I want them to just yet. *sigh*) So if you're feeling so inclined, please leave a comment. But I also know that sometimes leaving comments is probably the least user-friendly way of responding to a blog post. You have to enter your name and your email address and your web address. Sometimes you need to need to login through some other account. Some people have (gasp) captcha. I do a lot of blog reading from my iPhone, so jumping through all those hoops on my tiny little screen is an even bigger pain. OR if I read blogs through my Google Reader iPhone app, it's an even bigger pain, since you have to leave the Reader format to go to the actual site, but when I get there, Google still makes me login even though it knows it's me since I'm logged into Reader, just to leave a comments. In the end, a response tweet or a comment through FB is just SO much easier.

And then there are all those blog posts that you read that make you smile or think or that you just kinda like, but don't have any really deep response to. And it makes me think that what I always thought of as the stupid Facebook Like button maybe wasn't such a bad idea after all. Because sometimes all of those hoops you have to jump through just to say, "nice post" just aren't worth it.

So I'm going on record. I love comments. Feel free to leave me one. But if you'd rather respond via Tweet or FB or even by giving me a call, I'm totally cool with that, too. (I realize that most of you don't have access to that last option. Sorry about that. And no, I'm not giving you my phone number.)

And to cousin-in-law Becky: Thanks. You made my day.

Life Outside the Social Media

I am a fan of social media. I really am. I came later to it than many people, but what's not to like? facebook, Twitter, Blogging, it's all good. Well, mostly good. There's thing thing that's been bugging me ever since I joined facebook and has gotten exponentially worse since I started blogging: How to not talk about social media, when you're spending face-to-face time with your actual friends?

See, when something interesting happens in my life, I usually update my facebook status. When I have a random thought I've got to get out of my head, I tweet about it. When my children do something adorable or something annoys the crap out of me that cannot be contained in 140 or even 420 characters, I blog about it. Some of this is for the other people in my life. My Little Ants blog (my other blog about my kids), for example, exists primarily so that grandparents and other distant relatives can read stories about my boys and I can feel less guilty about the fact that I am horrible at sending pictures regularly. It's separate from this blog so that said grandparents and great-grandparents don't need to sift through my regular tirades to get to adorable stories about their grandkids. And I still love facebook for staying up to date with the lives of my friends whom I don't see as often as I used to. But this blog is pretty much just for me. If I hear something on the radio annoys the crap out of me, I can blog about it instead of yelling at my radio. Well, maybe in addition to yelling at my radio. (It's how I know it'll be a good post. Is it yell at nobody in my car worthy?) Don't get me wrong. I am very happy to have readers. (Hello, readers. *waves*) In fact, I love a good debate and LOVE thought provoking comments.But I truly hope that no one is reading this blog just because they think I'll be disappointed if they don't. Really, people, we've got too much going on in our lives to read blogs we're not interested in. So if everyone I know never reads this blog again, I'll really be ok with it. Same with facebook. If you're not digging what I'm putting out there, unfriend me; or at least hide me from your feed. We can still be real friends even if we're not facebook "friends".

But how do you talk to people who are friends with you on facebook without starting every sentence with, "Did you see what I posted on facebook?" It's even worse now that I have a blog. I say way too often: "Did you read my blog post about x?" 

What I'm saying is this:

You just said something that reminded me of something cute my kid did. But I've already blogged about it. So if you read that post already, I'm not gonna' tell you the story again. So I just want to know if you've already heard this story before I tell it to you again.

But here's what I think it sounds like:

Dude. I am so awesome that I have a blog that's totally about every random and awesome thought that pops into my head. My blog is so awesome. And you should totally be reading it. Every post. It's all about me, you know? So are you reading it? Because you totally should be.

So if I am ever out with you for dinner or we're talking over a nice bottle of Cabernet and I ask you, "Did you see my blog post about x?" Please know that my feelings of self-worth are not tied to your answer. I just want to know if I should tell you the personal anecdote that just popped into my head and happens to be something I've already blogged about.

Cool?

Cool.

Meta-Blogging (Again)

I may have dived into this blogging thing a little too quickly. I wrote my first post 28 days ago. I didn't really give it much thought. I figured I'm going to max out at about 20 readers anyway, so it's not like I needed a full-fledged plan or anything. Not.

27 days ago I decided that maybe I had been a little careless in naming my blog. (Everyone agreed.) So 26 days ago I renamed my blog. The new name is a fine name. It suits me. But today, while driving home from work, I thought of the perfect name for my blog. Dammit! Why didn't I think of this 27 days ago? Wanna know what it was? "Witch & Moan" It's perfect, right? Because basically all I do here is bitch & moan, but then it goes with the cute little witch-themed avatar over there. Oh I am so clever. But dammit, how retarded am I? Really? I'm going to change the name again? It's not even a month old. Plus, when I told my husband my incredibly clever alternative blog name, he thought the current one is just as good. Whatever. I can't even think about it. I'm a moron; let's just leave it at that for now.

Next up, let's talk number of blogs. I currently have three. That's right, three. One month ago, I had zero. Today I have three. And I'm thinking of creating another one. What is wrong with me??? Well, I'll tell you. Before I created my first blog (way back in March of 2011 as you may recall), I had a pretty good idea that the reason I would not be a very good blogger was inconsistency. I know that good blogs (i.e. blogs people actually want to read) generally A) are updated regularly and B) have an overarching theme. I figured I'd suck at both. What I'm passionate about from day to day changes drastically. (You may have noticed.) But overall, I think it's going ok. Turns out that if my theme (B) is stuff that bugs me, I've got plenty to talk about, thus satisfying A. Yeah! But then I wanted to have a cute little blog about my kids, and I wanted to keep that separate from my snarky blog, so that's blog #2. Then I decided I'm going to try to improve my photography chops, so I created blog #3 just for me to chart my progress. (Don't even worry about that one, it's totally boring.) Then today I started writing a post for this blog that was about a new book I just ordered on Amazon and it was way to serious and introspective to post here. So that would be a fourth blog. Really? A fourth blog? Meanwhile, I have a 4 year old, a 7 month old, a husband, a job, 2 dogs, & a house that doesn't clean itself.

But I guess the whole blogging thing is my new leisure activity, and it's kinda nice to have a place (or several) to "think out loud." And as my husband said today when I asked him, "How many blogs are too many?" he said, "I don't think it's the number of blogs, as much as the amount of time blogging." Oh, he is wise, my husband.

So in summary, here's what's bugging me today: my own freaking insanity! But what the heck else is new?

So I'm off to create a new blog. Or maybe not. Or rename this one. Or not. Really, I don't have a clue at the moment. Maybe I'll get a spinny-wheel out of one of my son's board games and let the Chutes & Ladders gods decide.