What the heck is a blog reader, and why should I use one? To understand readers, you should know what an RSS feed is. You have probably seen them around, as their logo is everywhere:
RSS = Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication. An RSS “feed” is a way for you to subscribe to an internet site. News, blogs, audio and video sites use RSS feeds to alert readers (or listeners) that there is new content on their site. Some email clients (such as Apple mail) also allow you to add an RSS feed to your email inbox.
Every blog has an RSS feed–you can find it at http://YOURBLOGNAME.com/feed/ To add a blog to a reader, the only thing you actually need is a URL. This means that the RSS icon on your blog can point to your feed URL or your favorite reader. Adding an icon that points to your favorite reader isn’t excluding the people who use other readers. They can add your blog URL to their preferred reader.
Google Reader was the king of RSS readers. You could add your favorite blogs to your reader and it would keep track of those blogs for you–posts you hadn’t read, your favorites, and those you wanted to save for later. You could group the blogs by category or allow them to be alphabetized.
Google Reader shuts down after today, and many people are looking for good alternatives to organize their favorite blogs.
List Of Readers For Bloggers
1. Bloglovin: This service seems to be the most popular among bloggers right now, and they have an app to help you read on the go.
2. Feedly: Rebekah Radice has written a great article about why she uses Feedly and how to import your blogs there.
3. Bloganizer: A new service for bloggers that includes a reader. Though slow to get going, Bloganizer is looking to be *the* place to streamline your blog writing and reading. I’m excited to see what they come up with in the next few months.
4. Pulse: A fun way for your visual learners to read blogs. Pulse organizes your feed into an online magazine for you to browse. They also have an app!
5. Hootsuite Syndicator: Hootsuite has incorporated their social media platform with a reader, which makes it much easier to manage RSS feeds, customize by group and share items to your social networks.
What Reader will you be using?
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I am soooooo sad that Google Reader is shutting down. Why???? Thanks for the other options.
I’d like to suggest The Old Reader. Here’s why I made the switch from Google Reader to The Old Reader: http://aisforbeautiful.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-conundrum-with-finding-new-feed.html
Oh, I should get fixing mine. So thankful for this post.
I’m so old school. I prefer email to a reader!
I haven’t really thought about it, but I see everyone talking about BlogLovin. I’m going to pin this as a reference.
You really explained it all so well. There were even a couple I didn’t know about.
Thanks for the tutorial. I learned so much!
I actually hated reading blogs in Google Reader. It was just so messy and it almost never let me delete anything. I have been using Feedly and it is the best!
(This is Erika from DayCase! Hi Becca!)
Right now I’m alternating between Feedly and Bloglovin’. Still undecided on which I like better, but Feedly is winning at this point.
I have tried Feedly, Bloglovin, and Old Reader and didn’t like any of them. Then I found http://www.inoreader.com/ and it is the most like Google Reader. It’s easy to use and has the features I liked about Google Reader (which no one else had).
Thanks, Kandi! Heading over to check that out now!