Tuesday, April 5, 2011

How Do You Organize Your Blog Reading?

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum One of the things I love about blogging is that sometimes you read a post that causes the light bulb to go on. Such was the case with Roots and Rambles, Where I Get My Information post by Marian Pierre-Louis.


Marian talked about how she uses folders in Google Reader to manage her blog reading. I’m probably going to embarrass myself here, but for some reason, using folders to organize blogs I read had not occurred to me! Duh. With over 350 blog subscriptions, it was becoming difficult to keep up and also not get sucked into spending all of my time reading blogs.

Here are the folders I set up:
  • Must read
  • Top Blogs
  • Non Genealogy
  • Read With Time
  • Rarely Posts
I find I’m getting through my reading much faster and am now able to pick and choose what I read based on how much time I have or simply what mood I’m in. One unforeseen benefit is that when an item shows up under Rarely Posts, I get right to it because I know it’s someone I don’t hear from as often but I want to read what they have to say.
So now I’m really curious. If you use folders to organize your blog reading, what folders have you set up?

Photo by p. Gordon


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

13 comments:

  1. Michelle,

    Don't feel bad. It took me ages to discover there were folders in Google Reader. My life has been so much easier since. Glad it's working for you too.

    Marian

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  2. Michelle,

    I started using folders in Google Reader after reading Marian's post about this topic. I didn't know folders were an option!

    My folders are:

    Alerts: includes results for alerts I've set up with Google Alerts. Information in surnames, eBay auctions and various other topics of interest go in this folder.

    A-MR: I use "A" to move the folder to the top of the alphabetized list. the "MR" is short for "Must Read" so my favorite bloggers get this tag.

    A-Lincoln: the blogs dealing with my home town

    Those are my main folders. I like the idea of adding one called "Read Later" - for the blogs I always enjoy and want to take time to read thoroughly. These are usually not time sensitive blogs.

    I also get a news feed of the obituary listings from my local newspaper. It's kind of weird learning about the death of someone you know when it comes through your RSS feed. But I don't have to go to the newspaper to read the obits every day any more.

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  3. I have never thought to use folders either. Thanks for the tip!

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  4. So funny you just posted this, Michelle! I decided to take the NGIS "Social Media for Genealogists" course that started this week, and that was covered in our first reading. So far the course is a bit too easy, but I actually hadn't considered doing it either! Wonderful post and idea!

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  5. I've been mulling how I want to implement using the folders. I just can't seem to decided how I want them organized. Yours is short and sweet. I think I'm just going to have to set up a few and see how it works.

    Jennifer

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  6. I am glad I'm not the only one who hadn't thought of using folders!

    Susan, Thanks for your insights. I expect I will be tinkering with the folders I've set up and trying different things so it's great to see what others do.

    Jennifer, Just go for it and let things evolve for you! You'll find what works.

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  7. Folders are a lifesaver. I have must read, genealogy trade, general genealogy blogs, new blogs, technology, DNA, and locations folders. I started using them in January in an effort to limit morning blog reading to 20 minutes. It's been very, very useful.

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  8. I've been using folders for my Google Reader for some time. I started with general topic folders, such as Genealogy, News, Scrapbooking, General. Now I'm finding that I really should add a few more folders, especially in the Genealogy catagory as it's growing - every week I add a couple more blogs.

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  9. I haven't reached the point yet where I need folders, but once I do, it's good to know they are there.

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  10. I subscribe to a ton of crafty/giveaway blogs and then a few personal/opinion blogs that kind of get lost in the fray. I just noticed the option to organize with folders in Google Reader. Will that also organize our "Reading List" in Blogger which displays blogs we follow. I don't really use Google Reader that much and kind of prefer to just use my Blogger Reading List. Do you know of a way to organize that into folders? I've been looking but haven't had much luck.

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  11. Sarah, That's a really interesting question. I don't know the answer maybe one of our other readers will.

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  12. Not even thought about folders. So anyone know how to sort into folders loads of blogs or do they have to be done individuallŷ?

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  13. Julie, If you are using Google Reader, you can click and drag from the subscription list into folders. I believe you will have to set up the folders first.

    Clicking and dragging to folders seems to work fine for me now when I add new blogs to Google Reader. Good luck!

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