I love you. With bling.
And that's why I'm going to post this information. If you read Simplicity and my other blogs via Google Friend Connect or a blog reader (such as Feedly or Bloglovin) or you simply favorite it in your browser, please disregard the rest of this post. You're good.
If you read blogs via FeedBurner email subscription, please read what I have to say...EVEN IF YOU HAVE HAD NO INTERRUPTION IN SERVICE!!!!
That's right. I'm yelling at you. Sorry about that.
The recent changes implemented by a number of large email providers have negatively impacted many blog readers who use FeedBurner email subscription services. As I have noted before, there is little hobby bloggers like myself can do to fix this without paying actual real money.
I remind you...I make no money off this blog, do not want to make money off this blog, and am happy just sharing freely with you because I love you. Please reference the card above.
If you are a blogger with a small subscriber base, you should not have a problem finding a free service to replace FeedBurner, which seems to be making no effort whatsoever to fix the problem. Those bloggers with larger subscriber bases (I have 1,500+ email subscribers) have to pay between $30-$50 a month or more through alternative email subscriber companies, which isn't an option for this here hobby blogger with two boys to put through college and a hubs with an Ironman addiction.
If you read blogs via email, this Feedburner problem is likely to grow. Those of you currently receiving Feedburner emails may eventually stop receiving them if the protocol (or something similar) in use by yahoo and gmail gets picked up by other email providers. Also, it may very well be that Google bought Feedburner with the intention of letting it die, just like it let Google Reader die, in an effort to drive market to its Google Friend Connect and Google+.
So, if you are looking for alternatives to receiving blog posts via email, here are a few ideas.
1. If you read fewer than 15 or so blogs, consider creating a favorites folder in your browser and check each blog every morning for new posts. This won't take too much time with just a few blogs, and you'll find that going to the actual website (rather than just seeing posts in emails) can be rather fun.
2. If you read more than 15 blogs, consider signing up for a FREE blog reader account. There are several different ones available, but I like the simplicity of Bloglovin. It's easy and you only need to sign in to one website each day to find all the new content on each and every blog you want to read. Saves lots of time and clicking. (I get nothing for my endorsement of Bloglovin. I use it and like it.)
3. No matter how many blogs you read, consider a Google Friend Connect account. (That's right. Bow down to the almighty Google. Resistance is futile.) It's easy...well, sort of. Eventually, I figured it out. Currently, there are 900 people following Simplicity via Google Friend Connect. Thanks, y'all! If they can figure it out, the rest of us can, too. The advantage here, as with Bloglovin, is that you only see new content and don't waste your time clicking to the blog when nothing new has been added. I like that.
4. If you're looking for an easy access just to my blogs, the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge, and the OLS team's stamping blogs, I created a single website with links to all of them: Work-Around List. If you favorite this blog in your web browser, you'll have ready access to all those blogs.
5. If you are on Facebook, I plan on starting a Simplicity by LateBlossom Facebook page soon, on which I will post links to posts. Little slow getting on the social media bandwagon, but there you have it.
If any of my readers have other ideas, please post them in the comments. Also, if you have questions, please post them in the comments rather than emailing me. It will be far easier for me to address questions publicly than one at a time privately.
Blessings to you all this Mother's Day weekend.
I use feedly for all my blog lovin' needs. I really like it and find it pretty easy to use :) Happy Mother's Day!
ReplyDeleteI could NOT get my Google Reader feeds transferred to Feedly because I am, ahem, "challenged". But it looked like a very nice site!
DeleteI follow ypur blog using Bloglovin. I like being able to comment on blogs right in Bloglovin. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI have my favorite blogs in a sidebar on my blogspot blog. I can scan the titles and see if they have a new post, and the hour/day of the post. Saves me from going to the blog page to see if it's new. Nothing to subscribe too, no emails, etc. However because I am not subscribed to the blog, the blogger doesn't get me counted in as a subscriber. Not sure that works well for the blogger, but for me as a reader it is great.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I even thought of doing that on the Work-Around List blog. It's a very easy way for people with a blog to get feeds. Thanks for mentioning it!
DeleteAnd for hobby bloggers like myself, subscriber counts aren't important. That's only for bloggers who are making money. Then, I suppose, it does matter. But since you would click on the blog to read the content anyway, the blogger still gets the view and thus credit for it, so it works out in the end. ;)
DeleteI love that you are so devoted to your readers, Susan and we all appreciate all the investigating you've done on this issue. Change is the name of the game in this techy world and it's definitely a constant learning curve. I use Feedly and find it fairly easy to use (although it makes changes from time to time, too!)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan. I am computer challenged so I do have questions / clarifications.
ReplyDeleteWe can still following new blogs, right, just not click on the "follow by email" button to subscribe to blogs? We should only be clicking on either Feedly or Bloglovin when we go to someone's blog sidebar and we want to be notified when they publish, is that right?
I use most of them, but just signed up to Bloglovin. It had me pick three, but now I'm wondering if I have to go back and individually TELL it every blog I want to follow?? I follow hundreds of them. It sounds like if I follow more than 15, it will cost me money? Yikes. If that is the case, I'll just start using my Blog Roll on my side bar, which is the equivalent to setting up a favorites folder.
You mentioned using a Google Friend Connect account. Do you HAVE to join Google + to have one of those? And what does that do? Do you then get notice in an email from GFC every time one of your friends who are also GFC publish, but only those friends who are GFC?
Sorry. I need really basic words and I think a lot of my readers do, too.
I used to get your posts and others via my Comcast.net email account, so I went to Comcast to see if they had information on it. Sure enough, they are blocking mail they weren't before because of some Port 25 spamlarky. Here is the link: http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/email-port-25-no-longer-supported/. They might as well have typed it up thusly: Uro0tk fl pslrkm saprkl rr w kakw- ekl3, because I didn't understand a word of it, let alone what a person can do about it. Sigh.
I'm surprised there isn't more of a hue and cry about this because this isn't just impacting hobby bloggers. I understand that it is impacting businesses, too, who aren't able to reach their client base! I would think that would be a HUGE deal to them, but maybe that's because I'm a Boomer and can dimly remember when client bases meant something.
Sorry this is so long. If you could direct me to a site for dummies, that would be great! I belong to Feedburner, Feedly, Feedspot, and Bloglovin, and I have a blog roll, so I think I'm covered on getting posts, but I'm interested in more information on Google Friend Connect. (Oh and I get some email post notices through Feedblitz, but they always have ads that clutter my eyeballs.)
Lastly, if this is a Feedburner to Yahoo/Hot Mail/Comcast, etc. spam blockage problem, then do you know, are Wordpress blogs also being blocked?
Thanks, Susan!! No hurry on replying. Enjoy your weekend! Happy Mother's Day! Hugs, Darnell
Darnell,
DeleteWow. You're all over the place with this. I recommend consolidating your blog following in one or two places. You're already following tons in Google (I can see the list in your profile) so that's great. If I were you, I'd pick one feed service (Feedly or Bloglovin) and commit. Add all the ones in your Google following to the feed service, and that would be enough redundancy for you in case one or the other goes away.
Or don't bother and just stick with Google Friend Connect.
If your email provider is still delivering Feedburner subscriptions, you obviously can still sign up, but be prepared for things to stop with no notice at some random future date.
Bloglovin is free, but you do have to add each blog you follow. Pain in butt to get them all loaded, but once they are loaded, you're golden. I have 80 or so blogs in it and am very happy with it. It's easy to manage, create groups within the list, add, delete, etc.
You do not have to get into Google+ to read blogs through Google Friend Connect. Just go to your Blogger dashboard and scroll down. You should see all the feeds for the blogs you follow in Google right there.
Wordpress blogs can be subscribed to using Feedburner code if the blogger has added it to his/her blog, so the Feedburner issue does affect Wordpress blogs if they use the Feedburner service.
I hope this helps. Did I answer all your questions? I feel a bit like the blind leading the blind here. ;)
Happy Mother's Day weekend to you, too.
Thank you, Susan! I am the Queen of Ramble, which is why I need a hamster in my head to help rein me in! You have likewise helped and I appreciate your time in deciphering and answering. I will take your advice and I appreciate it. This security protocol crackdown on spam that is regarding our little hobby blogs as spam and blocking them may spread to the other feed services, too, but we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it. Thanks for holding my hand as we blindly cross! (The martini helped, too!) Thanks again! Darnell
DeleteI just am amazed you took the time to try out so many options for yourself. My head would have exploded! I spent ten minutes on Google+ the other day and found myself muttering, "No,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,what?no,nono,no,huh?no,makeitstop,arrrghhh!" I closed the tab, poured a glass of malbec, and surfed Pinterest until I felt better.
DeleteI wanted to let you know that as of yesterday, your posts are coming to me again through my Comcast server! Yay!! My own aren't yet; they still think I'm spam or porn or something!! Hugs, Darnell
DeleteADORE this! Happy Mother's Day to you :)
ReplyDeleteI switched from google reader to Bloglovin when I was forced:( I have gotten used to it. I get too much email as it is, so don't get email feeds!
ReplyDeleteThankfully I am still getting your posts thru email, and I also get it on Bloglovin -- I really do.not.like Google + -- I get so frustrated trying to repay comments and I have no way of getting through to their blog when I hit the Google+ page. [Not always, but enough.] I have actually pinned a post regarding G+ that really I am going to read........really.......... LOL Happy Mother's Day!!! We love you too~
ReplyDeleteShare the link? G+ makes me want to bang my head on my desk. Or drink heavily. Neither of which is good for my health.
DeleteSeriously?!! Happy Mother's Day!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your efforts to keep us in the loop! Personally, I use Netvibes to monitor blogfeeds, and really like it!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Monique, for sharing another option. I've never heard of Netvibes before.
DeleteI just got back from being away for close to 5 weeks and my mind is not on computers and blogs. I have forgotten how to do the simplest things. I have so many emails, etc. to go through that I feel like deleting everything and starting all over again. I thought I had checked off the "no email" boxes. Thanks for all the suggestions as they could help me be more organized.
ReplyDeleteI just got back from being away for close to 5 weeks and my mind is not on computers and blogs. I have forgotten how to do the simplest things. I have so many emails, etc. to go through that I feel like deleting everything and starting all over again. I thought I had checked off the "no email" boxes. Thanks for all the suggestions as they could help me be more organized.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your research and for providing options so that people will not miss out, Susan. I subscribe to 100+ blogs in Feedly and am very happy with it. There is no cost for the basic reader and I am not aware of a limit to the number of blogs you can add.
ReplyDeleteI automatically have my blog posts linked on Google + but am yet to spend any real time there interacting. I keep thinking I should work out how to use it properly but then put it off.
Thank you for the cute card; the feeling is mutual.
Heather T
Happy Mother's Day! I use Bloglovin. But there are some blogs I check every day out of habit, yours being one. I would not pay for my blog. I just post for fun. Thanks for all the info. I hope I don't need it, if you know what I mean.
ReplyDelete