How To Use Google Reader To Follow Blogs

The biggest problem in reading blogs is following them up as and when a new blog is posted. A trusted way to ensure that you don’t miss a single post is to subscribe to RSS feeds. But too many RSS feeds again can cause confusion and mayhem that you may want to avoid.

However, there is an easier way of keeping track of all the blogs and that is through Google Reader.

• With the Google Reader in your computer you can not only read your favorite blogs, but can also use it for sharing what you find interesting with your friends and relatives.
• If you are a blog owner yourself, then you may be interested in rival blogs and here again Google Reader can help you keep track of how things are moving, easily.
• Organizing blogs and sharing within your company may be important if you are into social media marketing. After all marketing cannot be viewed in isolation; you need to keep track of competition.

For those who are not aware of and would like to use it, here are the few steps that they may want to take to make life a little easier.

Steps To Use Google Reader To Follow Blogs

Step 1 : Google Reader Sign Up

The first step to getting Google Reader for you is to sign up. If you are already using Google services in any other way for example Gmail, then you may not be required to do a fresh sign up. You can use the email ID to gain access to the Google Reader as well.

Step 2 : Browse And Subscribe To Your Interest

The next step of course would be to find out the ones that are of interest to you. There are two ways in which you can do it.

1) Browse Blog Option

On the left hand side of the Google Reader screen you will find the Browse option which will give you a list of blogs to choose from. If you already know the blogs’ name, then simply type it out.

Once you have located what interests you most, subscribing is just a keystroke away. Click on Subscribe and it will have been added to your reader list. For most part, it is intuitive.

2) Coupon Blogs Option

Then there is the option to subscribe to coupon blogs. Coupon blogs are simply a means for adding groups of blogs to your list to make things easy for you.

Now you are all set to have a great experience, all without having to download or install anything.

Step 3 : Organize Everything On Google Reader

There is more to Google Reader than just reading blogs. Google Reader also provides you with means to organize everything in a systematic way, and that is done with the tags option and by creating folders.

1) Google Reader Tags Option

Tags not only will help you recall a particular blog but will also help you share them with your friends and follow the blog itself. The whole process is fairly simple.

To add a tag all that you have to do is click on the ADD TAGS link you will see at the end of the article and it will be tagged. There is also a provision for editing the tags should you change your mind.

2) Google Reader Creating Folders Option

There is also another way in which you can organize your Google Reader to make it effective and that is creating folders where you can stash away individual subscriptions.

The steps involved are fairly simple – Go to Feed Setting to select or deselect folders and then to the Manage Subscriptions page where you can do all the manipulation.