Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Keeping in touch

With the demise of AOL Journals, we'll lose the Alerts system for keeping track of journals. So, something else needs to take its place. I suggest to use a feedreader. One is provided by Google, called Google Reader. If you've set up a Blogger blog, you've set up a Google account. Google Reader is part of that. It's fairly simple to use.

Each blog has a so-called RSS feed, often indicated by an orange graphic in the address bar. You can subscribe to that by clicking on the graphic . You are then prompted to specify which feedreader to use, and confirm. All you have to do from there on is check back the Reader at regular intervals. You will be notified of comments through Blogger, or whichever journaling hosting service you use.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you Guido, that was one of my questions.
Lisa

Anonymous said...

Another suggestion to get alerts is to sign up to google alerts and put in the name of the blog you want an alert for, every time an entry is made you get an email.

Anonymous said...

ive also added an auto updater on the facebook group so it can be seen on the links if anything has been updated,
sue

Anonymous said...

I have also created an MSN group for Jlanders to keep in touch. Here is a link for you. Friends can post there whenever they like...and adjust their mail settings to get notified when anyone posts if they wish to...no alerts needed.
http://groups.msn.com/JLandFriends/jlandfriends.msnw

Anonymous said...

I had created a blogger blog when Animal Hubbub stopped publishing. Since I had been blogging for them under the name of petsmiou, and had folks that wanted to stay in touch and have access to another pet related site in which to participate.

I sent emails to many of the folks who commented on my entries, sending them the link to the new blog, Frequently Feline
http://frequentlyfeline.blogspot.com/

Many folks subscribed, and I also send reminders when I post a new entry for those folks who requested notification.

Once the blogs are really active, google search will find us as well.

Jo
aka Kneadstoknow

Anonymous said...

Also, if you click on "Follow this blog" on one that you read (on Blogger), it will automatically add it to your feed on Google Reader.

Beth
http://nutwoodjunction.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I have added Google Reader.  Must I add each entry separately?  Is there a way to add the whole journal at once?

Help I am not savvy in this!

Anonymous said...

You add only the URL of the WHOLE journal. Not of the individual entries.

Anonymous said...

I am not sure what little orange symbol you are talking about, I see it on the website itself but there is no orange symbol in the address with.  I am using AOL browser, they have no symbals....do I need to use another browser?
Marie

Anonymous said...

I agree that Google's feedreader is very easy to use.  That's what I use to monitor the majority of the journals and blogs that I read.  If you start using Blogger you can also "follow" the blogs that you read from your Blogger Dashboard.
Lori
http://journals.aol.com/helmswondermom/dustypages/
http://lori-dustypages.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

About a year ago, I wrote an article about feed readers. Go here to check it out: http://journals.aol.ca/plittle/AuroraWalkingVacation/entries/2006/09/07/feed-your-mind/2078
-Paul

Anonymous said...

using the 'follower' option works similar all you do is check the dashboard and you can see all the journals at once :)

Anonymous said...

We just recently added "following" to Blogger; you can follow any blog (Blogger or not) and see updates to everything you follow from the Blogger dashboard at http://www.blogger.com/home.  When you do this, it also adds it to Google Reader behind the scenes, so you can use either the dashboard or Google Reader to keep track of updates.