Harrisonblog

Subscribing to, or following, a blog can be very handy. It allows you as a reader to have all of a blog’s posts in one spot, along with any other blogs you follow, so that you aren’t having to navigate through the web to each blog you love every day. In other words, bring all your favorite blogs to one place! Here’s how:

1. First, we suggest creating a free Google account (if you don’t already have one).

2. Once you have your account set up, look in the upper left hand corner, and you’ll see a series of links that take you to different parts of your account –Web, Images, Videos, Maps, Shopping, Gmail, and a drop-down menu for “more.”  Click on that drop-down menu, and select “Reader.”  Or you can click here.

3. Click the “Add a Subscription” button.

4. Type in the web address of the blog you want to follow, and click the “Add” button.

5. At the top of the screen, you will get a message that reads, “You have subscribed to [name of blog].”

6. Now all of the recent posts from that blog have fed into your Google Reader account! To read this blog from now on, simply go to Google Reader, and new posts will be there waiting for you.

7. Once you start subscribing to a lot of blogs, Google Reader allows you to organize your blogs by topic or category. It really is a handy tool that will save you lots of time!

OTHER WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE TO BLOGS

Say you came across a blog that you find interesting to read, and you’d like to subscribe to it, but don’t want to go to your Google Reader account to set it up.

If the blog has a button or link for subscribing via an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed — below is the button we use here at Harrisonblog — simply click that link or button. It will bring you to a page full of content from the blog, and at the top of the screen, you can choose which application to use for the feed. You would choose Google, because you already have a Google account (step #1 above). Then click the “Subscribe Now” button, and you’re done! Next time you visit Google Reader, the most recent blog posts from that blog will be waiting for you to read.

Some blogs also provide the capability to follow that blog by becoming part of a community of followers. For example, this blog has a section for followers. To become a follower of the blog, click the “Follow” button (see photo below). You will be given the option to choose which account to use for following the blog. We suggest using your Google Account. You can then choose to follow either publicly or privately. (This choice just determines whether your photo is displayed in that blog’s followers section.)

The main difference between this sort of following and subscribing to a blog, is that following via a community as described above doesn’t automatically feed new posts into Google Reader. With this type of following, you would see all recent posts on a Blogger Dashboard, also done by Google. (The reason for this is that some blogs are run on Blogger, and some aren’t. Those that blog using Blogger have the option of adding a section on their blog for “followers.”) If you use Blogger often, this is a good option. If you don’t, we suggest subscribing to the blog using Google Reader, as described above.

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So, while you’re here, why not subscribe to Harrisonblog?