Sometimes I think, to myself, that the power of the internet can be very underestimated. The internet is a (sometimes) wonderful place where we get to share our ideas and people can read these ideas. Before the internet, people would write books to share their ideas but think about how much more expensive that would’ve been. We also have to take into consideration that without the ability to order a print copy of a book we would like to read, most books wouldn’t be available to us because they wouldn’t be available locally or you wouldn’t even know they exist. Therefore, the internet allows us to share our ideas that will be instantly accessible to people who are interested in hearing what we have to say from all around the world. But what if the people who were interested in hearing what you have to say didn’t really know when you shared something. Or, maybe you have found a really cool blog or news publication on the internet that you love to keep up with but you have trouble doing this. Below Velvet Blue Ocean (VBO) is ready to share with you 3 easy ways to keep up with your favorite blogs and news publications.
1. RSS readers:
My favorite ways to keep up with my favorite blogs, magazines, and news publications is by using RSS readers. After following, if you check your RSS feed, all the most recent published articles or blog posts from these websites you just followed will show up, allowing you to read them right from the RSS site or app. RSS tools even give you the links to bring you right to the website of the respective article is from. Here are some RSS readers that I would really like to recommend:
Feedly
What I really like about Feedly is the compatibility with different devices, the large number of websites it recognizes and the preference options it provides you with. I say it is compatible with many devices because I have experienced both, the comfort of using the website on my PC and laptop, and the App on my phone and tablet. From my experience, Feedly recognizes the articles of many sites that could not be recognized by other RSS readers. And, even if you can’t remember what sites to follow off the top of your head, Feedly recommends to you a list of blogs that you can check out in their respective categories. Some of these categories include comics gaming, business news, fashion, etc. On your personal feed, you can create your own groups to categorize the sites you follow and you can filter your feed based on these categories that you have created. The app has an option for you to go back and see articles that you have recently read. You can switch the theme of the app from a white background with a black font to a black background with a gray font or vice-versa. It even has a ton of other options in the settings to make the user experience more suitable for the individual user.
Bloglovin’
Bloglovin is my second favorite RSS feeder but before I touch on the negatives, I would like to touch on the positives. The homepage is much more compatible, or more comfortable on your PC or laptop than it will be on your phone. The layout is very much like Pinterest, there are multiple articles displayed as tiles. This makes it really great if you want to scroll through multiple articles at once. What I dislike about Bloglovin, as well, is that it doesn’t recognize a lot of the sites I want to keep up with. Also, it doesn’t give you the option to build your own categories or filter your feed based on those categories. However, they do have their own categories that you can explore to find more blogs to follow. Some of these categories include fashion, street style, lifestyle and more.
Please be aware that you are not limited to the above options, therefore, if you would like to learn more, feel free to search google for the term “RSS Readers”.
2. Social Media
This seems like a very obvious thing to do, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t follow, or forget to follow, their favorite publications/blogs on social media. I really want to stress the importance of this because it really helps you to keep up to date with not only their articles but also their progress. This is also a great way for you to be able to give more direct feedback on how you think the publication is doing. Sometimes publications can even update their readers on certain events and things that deserve a more urgent response. This could mean giveaways, upcoming events or even live coverage of an event. It’s also good to have reminders every now and then about a blog or website that you like to visit because as humans we sometimes forget about them. It is also really beneficial to give words of encouragement to people when you appreciate their work. This way it motivates the blogger/writer to keep coming up with more content. Of course, the social media tools that every website users are different but here are some essential social media platforms to follow your favorite blogs, new publications or new sites on:
A lot of people use Instagram to share visual content that relates to what their entity is about. You may even find inspirational quotes to move you forward in whatever your field is. This is also a platform that many influencers use to interact with their audience. Whether they use the comment sections, live sessions or reviewing their recent mentions or tags. In Instagram is also a great way for you to gain exposure or be exposed to similar influencers in your field. So I strongly suggest that you follow your favorite sites on Instagram as it’s very likely that they use that social media channel.
From using Facebook myself, it is pretty safe to say that Facebook pretty much like a more social RSS feeder when it comes to keeping up with your favorite sites. A lot of publications set up their facebook to automatically share articles that they post so if you follow your favorite site’s Facebook page, you can see their articles as soon as they post it. Also, think about how convenient this could be for you to see their article from scrolling through your timeline. This could save you from constantly going to their website and checking for new articles. Facebook also has a live feature that people sometimes use to connect with their audience. So this could really help you in having a more direct interaction with these influencers. What I like about the Facebook platform is that it also allows you to share videos with your followers. And Facebook even adds a list of related videos that you can watch if you enjoyed the one that was previously posted. This could make you aware of the content other influencers are producing. I also like the fact that Facebook is so compatible with so many devices which makes it easier for you to access at different locations. Being able to access Facebook from different locations makes it easier for you to stay instantly and constantly up to date.
Like I mentioned before, these platforms vary based on what the what their pages use, therefore, nothing is better than checking the site for the social media icons that are usually somewhere in sight. Some other social media to check out are Youtube, Vimeo, Twitter, and Pinterest.
3. Subscribe to Newsletters!
Subscribing to a website’s newsletter not only helps you to get update and reminders about a website that you want to keep up with, but it also helps you to be “in the know” about different things that you would probably be interested in knowing about. Being subscribed to a newsletter also helps you to keep track of the information as it is sent to your inbox, opposed to if it was posted to a website and you weren’t aware. You might even visit the site again at a later date and there might be tons of articles that were published since the last time you visited, making it extremely hard to catch up. on all the info you’ve missed.
These might all seem like very simple and obvious tips for keeping up with sites you may be interested in. But if only I could get paid for the number of times people told me they had trouble keeping up with their favorite sites, I would have much more money in my bank account, to say the least. So these were my tips for easy ways to keep up with your favorite publications.
Comment below how you keep up with your favorite publications.