Goodbye, Google Reader! Now What?

How many blogs do you follow?  If you find that you enjoy reading blogs from time to time, and there are more than one or two that you enjoy, you'll want a good way to see when those blogs are updated.  Many of us have used Google Reader for years.  As of July 1, it is gone.

So what's a girl to do?  Here are several options for following and reading great content and keeping it organized.

1.  Subscribe via email.  There are a few places where you can do that on the right side of the screen and you can also have MamaGab sent to your inbox by clicking here.  As Google Reader has gotten closer its day of expiration, I've seen more and more people subscribe via email to my blog.  It's really the best way to make sure you don't miss anything from your favorite blogs.  Your email address won't be used for anything else because it's really very hands-off; You enter your email address and FeedBurner begins sending you feeds (blog posts) directly to your inbox.

2.  Follow on Feedly, Bloglovin', or another alternative.  I know that Bloglovin' and Feedly will instantly import your Google Reader blogs into their page so that you can continue following the same pages without missing a beat.  It really only takes one minute to set up an account and move all of your feeds over.  I would be surprised if it takes you two minutes.

I've only recently started playing around with Bloglovin' and it is really nifty.  I need to organize my blogs into categories like homemaking, homeschooling, food, Christian living, etc. and then I feel like I'll really see the benefit of Bloglovin' over all the other options.  You'll see the title and first few lines of the blog post, but then you can click on it and view it on the blog itself if it's something you're interested in.

To follow my page on Bloglovin', you can click here or click the icon to the right, but you can also follow any blog on Bloglovin' just by copy & pasting their web address.  It's super easy.  I've also downloaded the app so that I can browse blogs while nursing my baby (who probably nurses way more often than an 11 month old should, but that's besides the point).

3.  Follow on Facebook.  This is a tricky way to follow blogs.  It's great to "like" a page on Facebook, but Facebook has gotten sophisticated with what it shows you in your newsfeeds.  For example, did you know that the more you interact with a given page, say, This Old Schoolhouse, a homeschooling blog a follow, the more likely it is to be shown in your feed?  But if you rarely comment or click "like" on their posts, you won't see them much, if at all.  And of course it requires you to actually read your whole feed, so if you're trying to cut back on internet time, you may never see some of the posts from Pioneer Woman or whoever it is that you follow.

When you click "Like" on a page, it's always good to update the settings and choose to see "all updates," or even click "get notifications" so that you are notified every time the blogger updates their page.  I know that my blog's Facebook page is the place where I share some of the ins and outs of our day, as well as ask advice or questions from all of you.  It's a fun conversation to be a part of, but it's also easy to miss; we don't  sit around on Facebook all day, now do we?

What do I recommend?  All three if you want to be in the loop with your favorite writers.  You can always delete something from your inbox if you don't have time to read it.

Want to know what I read?

Here are a few of the bigger blogs that I enjoy, in no particular order:

Life as Mom
The Time Warp Wife
Raising Homemakers
Challies
Desiring God
The Gospel Coalition, specifically Kevin DeYoung from DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed.
Keeper of the Home
The Humbled Homemaker



What are some of your favorite blogs?  Do you already subscribe to Bloglovin' or any of the other feed readers?