Very early this year (I’m talkin’ six months ago) I published a post asking how you follow your favorite blogs. At the time, I used bookmarks. Really. I had over 100 blogs just bookmarked into my browser and I would visit each one individually. I said it was because I liked actually visiting blogs to appreciate the work people put into the blog’s design and post format. And at the time, I bashed Bloglovin’ because I didn’t like that when you clicked on a post, it has the Bloglovin’ bar at the top.
And how wrong I was.
Because little ole me did not realize that you can select to not have that and I disregarded the fact how actually easy this site is!
How Bloglovin’ became my new bff
If I’m being honest, I simply just gave it more of a chance. I was getting frustrated with how easily I would fall behind on posts. Weeks would go by before I got a chance to sit down and read any, so to visit each blog individually and scroll through someone’s recent posts was becoming daunting. Doing that portion of it would take hours, not including actually commenting on any of them.
So, I simply just gave it a chance. I downloaded the app and just used it more often. Eventually, I found a method that worked perfectly for me. So…
How I use Bloglovin’
THE MAIN FEED: Unfortunately, this doesn’t add for much customization. However, I did revert back to the list format, rather than the grid format, when they mixed things up. I did not like the grid, it became too complicated. As for organization, I use a different way of organizing individual posts.
HOW I READ POSTS: Most of the time I can’t read posts the day they are published. So, what I do instead is check Bloglovin’ every day, or every few days, and save any posts I want to read to a collection. Then, once I read them, I remove them from the collection and LIKE them to tell me I’ve read it already (in case it pops up again and I forget).
I also might move them to a different collection depending on the post – if something interested me, if I want to share it elsewhere, if there is a book that I want to remember.
MY COLLECTIONS: These are all the collections I put posts in (everything after “Remember to Read” is for after I’ve read the post).
- REMEMBER TO READ – This is my main collection. I put all posts I haven’t read but want to read into this one.
- REFERENCE – This collection is for those posts that inspire me. Sometimes I read a post and it triggers some ideas for my own or I want to write a response post. Those go here.
- BOOK TAGS – I save any tags that sound fun to me here.
- MONTHLY – This is for my wrap up posts when I share your links. Whenever I write my wrap-ups or bi-weekly catch ups, I go to this collection to see if I saved anything to share. I don’t always remember to do this portion of my wrap-ups, so if you haven’t seen anything for a while, it’s from my laziness not your guys’ lack of interesting posts. Ooops.
- BOOKS TO CHECK OUT – I save any book reviews I read that really got me into a book into this collection. I don’t always use this one, but its still there just in case.
As a bonus: Pocket
I’ve talked about this one before, but it’s worth adding to this post. When I comment on a post, I add it to my Pocket account using the Google Chrome extension.
This allows me to go to one place that contains all of the posts I’ve commented on, visit them, and reply if the original poster has responded. It makes sure that my inbox doesn’t get bombarded with comment replies.
Do you use Bloglovin’?
If yes, how do you use it?
If not, what method do you use to follow blogs?
38 Comments
This is awesome! I don’t use Bloglovin – opting for Feedly instead, but I think I may give it another go just to see why everyone loves it so much.
Tanya Patrice
Girlxoxo.com
I’ve never used feedly, so I can’t speak on it. Bloglovin’ is super easy and yeah, everyone uses it so it’s easy to follow blogs!
I love Bloglovin. I don’t think I would know how to keep track otherwise. I love being able to save certain posts in collections too.
Yeah, now that I use it more regularly it makes my life so much easier 😀
I honestly would not be able to keep track of anything without Bloglovin! Honestly the best tool out there for blog feeds and posts ? but I totally agree – at first that Bloglovin tab was super annoying and it made it really hard to read posts. But yeah once I found out how to get rid of it, Bloglovin was just magical ?
You use it in such an organised way too – which is really awesome because I know I usually lose track of posts and I should definitely look into doing it your way!
hahah we were both haters. I guess I do use it in an organized way haha It’s just the easiest method for me! There are SO many great posts out there that its sometimes hard to keep up. Even with the way I have it organized, I still miss a few and have to visit blogs individually to make sure I read them 🙂
I used to use live bookmarks but at some point I mostly started using bloglovin too. It’s so much easier! But I feel like it doesn’t show me everything :-/ Like, I feel like I’m missing posts. Do you ever feel that way?
It’s funny though, when you had that post about Pocket I didn’t understand the point of using it but now I recently started using it lol. Except I use it kind of similarly to how you use collections in Bloglovin. I save the posts to Pocket that I want to go back and read later. And then if I comment and it’s one of those systems that doesn’t send a notification just to me, I’ll tag it in Pocket as “commented” so I can go back. I’ve also been saving tags there. But I’ve never used collections in bloglovin, I will have to give that a try and see if I like that better.
But ugh, no, I never view posts in the bloglovin frame. And if anyone views mine that way, I can only imagine how screwed up they must look since I use so much custom stuff.
I have not used any blog feed thingie before, although I have a Bloglovin’ account. I subscribe by email, delete the ones that look boring, and try to remember to click over and read the others. I also use the blogroll on my blog to keep my favorite blogs in mind. HOWEVER, after reading this post, I went over to my Bloglovin’ page and figured out how to do the things you wrote about, AND I created a Pocket account, to which I will now add this page so I can remember to come back and look for a reply.
In other words–very well written, convincing, and useful post! Thanks so much!
Ah, that is so good to hear! I’m glad I could be of help and I hope it ends up working for you 🙂 I don’t subscribe by email because they would honestly just get lost underneath all my other random emails haha. Bloglovin is the easiest one for me. Let me know how it works out! 😀
I love this post! I’ve actually been making an effort to clean up my Bloglovin feed lately because somehow I was following 1400+ blogs. I realized that when I followed a blog it also followed the person who owned the blog, so I had a lot of cleanup to do… :/ I’m definitely finding it much more useful after customizing it more! Thanks for sharing!
Tracy @ Cornerfolds
OH WOW. 1400?! I don’t have that many. Still, I probably need to clean mine up a bit.
Making a collection for posts to read is so clever! Most of the time, I just keep the ones I want to read in my feed. Obviously, this means my feed gets clogged all of the time. Most of the time I have over 100 posts sitting unorganized in my main feed. I am definitely going to try making a “posts to read” collection.
The only organization I have on Bloglovin is putting my blogs into groups. I have a book blogging group, a beauty group, a writing group, and a “everything else” group. This helps organize my feed a tiny bit. If I ever want to just look through posts about makeup and beauty, then I just have to click on that group.
Thanks for the great tips!
Thank you! Yeah, having that collection is super helpful. instead of scrolling to find the one I want to read, I can just visit my collection 🙂
Groups is actually a great idea! I don’t really read blogs that aren’t about books but there are some that lean more YA or more towards other genres. So that could come in handy. Speaking of beauty blogs, do you have any you’d recommend?
I love Bloglovin! I actually discovered this pretty early on my blogging days. When I first started blogging, I wanted so badly to follow some of these big blogs but since most of them aren’t wordpress.com I couldn’t just click follow. But I also didn’t want to subscribe to e-mail because my e-mail is full already haha that’s when I discovered bloglovin and signed up immediately. I have to admit, I love blog hopping through it more than wordpress readers. And I agree, I don’t like reading blog with bloglovin bar at the top so I always make sure to turn it off 😀 I only have one collection, Remember to Read, in which I save posts that interest me but don’t have the time to properly read yet. As for reference posts or monthly wrap up, I use my bookmark 🙂 and I’m so pleased to see one of my post is on your reference collection hahaha <3 great post!
Puput @ Sparkling Letters
I knew about it, but for some reason I was just so anti-bloglovin hahaha I really don’t have a good reason why to be honest. It’s proved to be so much better than bookmarks, especially since I can have it on my phone and ipad. I never even bothered with wordpress reader, actually. I found the interface to be ….ugly? >.<
hehe yep! I loved that post 😀
HHMMM. Bloglovin’ and me have never been best buddies. I like it, but I usually use the WordPress Reader to read most of my posts. Other than that, I also follow via email for blogs like yours. I use pocket sometimes If I find a good article. Though the collections idea sunds really useful and cool so I will be trying Bloglovin’ again!
I never used the reader. What do you do for blogs that aren’t on wordpress? Also, awwww, thanks for letting me take up some of your email real estate <3
Interesting. Blogs that aren’t on WordPress, I usually check for any email sign-up forms, really. And if they don’t have that, then I usually have to miss them out! Now, I’m going to try bloglovin’ for non-wordpress blogs!
Aw! Yes! Then definitely try Bloglovin so you can follow those ones! There are some amazing non-wordpress blogs out there 🙂
POCKET AND BLOGLOVIN YAAAS. Even though I used pocket mainly to save articles and fanfiction, I love using it. Bloglovin is definitely my best buddies for blogging! I love having all the blogs I’m following in one place, and just able to save the post too! It’s just honestly the best blogging platform! I still used the traditional bookmark thingy though, idk why ?
hahaha I think one of the main reasons I finally switched from bookmarks to Bloglovin is that Bloglovin is mobile. I couldn’t take my browsers bookmarks everywhere with me, so it was just easier 😀
Bloglovin is so awesome! If not for Bloglovin I’d probably only keep up with a handful of blogs. I just really hate the idea of getting 50 emails a day telling me a new post is out.
OH MY GOSH YES. At first I signed up for emails and it just got insane in my inbox haha
I love Bloglovin! I kind of wish it had a better layout when viewing posts, but I usually view them as a grid so I can easily scroll and open multiple posts at once etc. I also have a collections management system going! I find it so helpful to keep track of posts I really enjoyed reading and want to share with people or to refer to later etc 😀
I really need to download pocket though, it sounds like such a good way to keep track of comments you’ve posted and across all blog platforms. I hate signing up to emails for comments but if there’s a way to sign up to replies to my comment only then I will often do that.
Jordon @ Simply Adrift
I agree. I don’t like them much in either the grid or list view. Although, the list one is just easier for me. I end up skimming to fast in grid and missing things.
Yeah, I don’t like signing up for comment emails either! It’s a little more work to use pocket, sometimes I Forget to check it, but I prefer that than not even checking or email lists.
I will give it another chance then.
It’s so frustrating because I don’t understand how to use it and nobody follows me there.. So I thought it was just a waste of time. But I’ll try to figure things out again.
Even if people don’t follow you, it’s helpful for following others. Just curious, do you advertise that you’re on there? Like, do you have a follow on bloglovin’ link available for people? If you don’t, then it might be harder for people to add you.
Ok so I am feeling pretty daft right now because for years I’ve just been adding posts to different collections and now I’m so overwhelmed. Your method about saving, reading, commenting, loving and then unsaving is brilliant! Thanks for sharing!
Nihaad – Read & Seek
Aw! Well, I hope the unsaving and liking thing helps. It’s useful for keeping track. Also, when you save & like posts it shows up in other peoples feeds to more exposure for that blogger !
Your method sounds great. I’m just confused because i don’t know how to unsave a post. Can you explain that to me?
You know how you click the + to save a post? Just click it again and it should unsave it! 🙂
Got way too excited seeing some of my posts in those screenshots 😉 haha!! This such a helpful post. I ALWAYS forget Bloglovin’ exists. I really need to check it more regularly. This has definitely helped me want to try and use it more!
This is great, Molly! I’ve always wanted to use Bloglovin’ more but honestly don’t know where to start – between that and my regular WordPress feed, I just get overwhelmed every time. 😛
BUT I’ve installed Pocket thanks to your rec a couple of weeks (months?) back and I’ve been using that for work! Haven’t really found a way to integrate it to my blog-reading routine, but I shall persevere.
See, I never even bothered with the WordPress feed hahaha. I don’t know why, I just didn’t like it at first glance. Also, that’s awesome! Even if you don’t use it the same way I do, I’m glad it’s been helpful for you 🙂
Awesome post, Molly 🙂 I admit I don’t really use Bloglovin’ that much, but when I do it’s basically just to follow blogs. I hardly ever save posts or read them on Bloglovin’, though I’ll go to the original blog some other way in my weekly check-up on those I follow.
I used to just visit each site individually through bookmarks. Sometimes I still do that when I fall behind on blogs and Bloglovin’ doesn’t just do it for me haha but Bloglovin’ is nice to just check up on every few days to save posts & then read when you have time to sit down to. Give it a try! 😀
I love bloglovin. I am fairly new to book blogging, so it has really helped me to discover the hundreds of blogs that are out there that I want to follow. I like the daily email and open the posts I am interested in in new tabs. I am for about 20 other blogs read/ comments made a day.
That’s perfect! It is totally helpful for new bloggers. I made the mistake of not using it when I started, so that’s good you do. It makes it easy to keep track 🙂