I am so excited because I finally solved a problem that has plagued me for a time. Granted, I am not tech literate and have a tendency to live in the dark ages without looking for solutions.
When I started to blog again last year, I learned that FeedBurner had burned itself out and was no longer available for mail subscription. That meant that I could not offer email subscription to readers as a way to keep up with posts.
I don't know about you, but there are two ways I stay up to date with blogs I follow: either by configuring a blog list (see reading corner in the sidebar) or by following via email through the blog if offered.
I was flustered about FeedBurner because that was the service offered by Blogger; since it has fizzled out (see that is probably not even the proper tech word to use), I intended to just exist without the email subscription, though it still bothered me.
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| follow.it |
Today I finally did something about it, and I found a really great service that I want to share in case anyone else is interested. The service is free and easy to navigate and use, especially if you are technically slow like I am. It is called follow.it and you can add an email subscription to your blog or site by going HERE and following the super easy instructions.
And if you want to follow me or keep up with my posts via email, there it is in my sidebar. Just enter your email. You'll get an email from follow.it to confirm. And then, enjoy!
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| The Story Graph |
Also, I went back to The Story Graph, which I had deleted when I also deleted my blog last year. Now I am back. They make it easy enough for you to upload your GoodReads books so you don't have to enter 100K books one by one. (I'm exaggerating.)
Yes, it is similar to GoodReads, but at the end of the year it presents more statistics about your reading that may be fun to review. You can compare different years or months of reading to each other, and I think you can manipulate the information to get different comparisons. I don't know that it really helps you, but some people like stats about their reading journey. And like GoodReads, there is also a community to interact with other readers, if you like.
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| LibraryThing |
I am still on GoodReads, but my favorite is LibraryThing. I think GR is better for community, but I prefer the organization of LT over GR. Readers can also upload their books from GR.
(Otherwise, I don't think I can come up with a great argument for why I like the one over the other, other than I know that I tend to gravitate to LT slightly more. Maybe it is because for years I had coveted using LT, but their service had a fee; then in 2020 they opened it up at no cost to everyone because many were stuck at home twiddling their thumbs and LT took pity. Maybe that's why. I don't know.)
Also, LT sends out a great monthly recap of interesting bookish news, The State of the Thing, that I look forward to reading when I see it in my inbox.
Ok, that's it for maintenance.
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So, have you found any bookish gems out there that you want to share?
I love Library Thing too!!! I didn't know you used it. I love it for storing what I read. I'll definitely put the Follow Link on my site too - Thanks, and have a good weekend, it will be hot here for sure and I have mow the lawn tomorrow
ReplyDeleteMy husband can't wait to buy a riding mower -- so he can make the kids to the lawn. So you're on LT? Under your blog name?
DeleteOoh I used to use LibraryThing back in the day. And I keep hearing about StoryGraph. Does it give you a public profile page or is it more of just a personal app?
ReplyDeleteMy most exciting find this past couple of weeks is the Personal account feature on JSTOR. Currently, they have a temporary increase of 100 free articles per month! It's the nerd in me, but I've been missing my JSTOR access ever since college... Haven't signed up yet but I am looking forward to taking advantage of this soon. :)
What a cool site! I bookmarked it so I can go back and explore. I do like primary sources, too. I'll have to look for the personal account feature. So you can tailor it to your interests, I am guessing?
DeleteStory Graph does offer community features, like following similar accounts to yours. The sight matches readers by their books and reading preferences. However, you don't really have much of a page to personalize. You have your avatar and then your books, but no place to add identifying marks other than what name you go by. I couldn't even link my blog, which would have been a cool feature. At least I don't see where there is one.
That's the best news I've had all week - JSTOR without a University account! Thanks for that Marian. I've registered and, no doubt, will be spending many happy hours reading about esoteric subjects most people have never heard about! [lol]
DeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these different platforms, there’s surely many ways to fry a fish. There’s other ways to follow blogs, I made the change from blogger to wordpress, and I was able to transfer all my posts at blogger. Wordpress has its own reader, and whether you are at a pc, laptop or even your phone with the wordpress app, there’s that reader feature and it feeds the new posts of the blogs you follow. If it’s a wordpress blog, I only click a plus button and it adds it to my feed automatically, any other blog, I go to my “blogs I follow”, and I type or paste the url and voilà, I have all my friends blogs at the tip of my phone or anywhere I am!
I used The Library Thing many years ago and that Story Graph looks great!
Hi, Silvia, I have wanted to use WordPress soooo badly, but I can't figure it out. When I came back to blogging last year, I started w/ WP and designed my blog and was almost done. But I couldn't work out a few issues that I didn't like, and I just ended back at Blogger. :( I keep saying one day, I will try again. It's good to know I can transfer over all that I am accumulating over here so I won't lose my history. I do have a WP account and I have used the Reader feature. It's the only place I am able to comment on The Classics Club.
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