stick around!

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Hey friends, I wanted to check in and remind you that Google Reader is going away so very soon (in like 2 weeks!) and I hope that you don't lose your prized list of blogs you follow!  This place has not only helped me grow my business, but I've been able to meet some incredible new friends through this community.  Having a creative outlet is such a healthy habit in my life and I can't wait to see where else it will take me, I hope you keep me company along the way!   There are a few ways to follow that I wanted to share with you today- if you have another favorite method please share!

With Blog Lovin you can follow the blogs you already read through Google Reader as well as discover top blogs and up & comings- be warned, browsing their lists is a huge time suck!  One thing I'm not a huge fan of is how the ranks are based on fan counts.  This part is unfortunate because some blogs with the greatest content may never make the cut.

I love Feedly!  I have the Chrome extension for it and have been using it for a while, not only can you easily import your Google Reader list- but the design makes for smooth reading.  When you have it all set up and you visit blogs (away from your feed) you will see a little 'F' icon pop up on the bottom right of your screen, this makes adding a blog insanely easy! A side plus is that compared to Blog Lovin, its not a popularity contest- just good reads.

Another option is to follow blogs by email, some have subscription pages/buttons/etc, others have a sign-up in the sidebar (like me!).  This is a great way to get blog posts delivered right to your inbox.  

Networked Blogs is primarily used by bloggers to feed their blog posts automatically to their business Facebook page- it helps on lazy days.  However, you can follow your favorite blogs as well.

Personally the easiest way for me to follow is via Social Media outlets.  I can keep up with all the feeders and bookmarks I make, but really, if I see something on instagram, facebook or twitter and it looks interesting then I will be clicking on through! 

As a blogger numbers sometimes matter, especially when you want to work with brands or other bloggers- so having big Google Reader counts go away is going to be a new adjustment for a lot of people.  One thing that is most important to me is feeling like my community is still here, that my efforts don't go to waste and that something that makes me happy is still something that makes you happy too.  So stick around!