Monday, March 09, 2009

Highlighting Not So New Blog Tricks

Follower
There is a sort of new feature called Blogger Following. The feature lets readers/viewers publicly subscribe to your blog and, if you want it, can add a "Follower" list to your blog so that people can see who follows your blog. It lets you know who is reading, and they don't miss a single sentence fragment. Against my better judgment, I have added a follower list – but not because I wanted to show followers on my blog. I guess I did it for two reasons: (1) so that people could click on a hyperlink to follow me, and (2) because I can more easily add to another feature, Blogs I’m Following.

Of course, after starting to use the Followers, they sort of upgraded it. Now you can click on the followers to see their blogs and who they are following. Sort of cool. I really think this follower thing sort of increases the social networking aspect of blogging. Maybe.

Blogs I’m Following
If you are customizing your Blogger blog, there is a fairly new feature called "Blog List" You can click on the link to read more about it. Oh, and if you want video to do this, you can see it here. Anyway, it is cool because you can import subscriptions, import followers, or import . . . well, any site. For some options, like snippits, the webpage/blog will need a valid RSS feed. Yeah, I don't quite know what this means, but it was on the video.

Oh, and the reason I am writing this post today is because Deb wanted to know about the Blog List. Problem for Deb, is that I think she still is using Blogger Classic, and I think you have to upgrade to Blogger Whatever in order to use this feature.

Next Blog
I started clicking on the Next Blog feature. Why, I don't know. It was a random, or semi-random impulse. The blogs started out tame. A few that only had a few posts. One from a "best selling author" and stress free advocate/guru. And then some scary crap.

About every tenth site I visited had no "Next Blog" controls. Of course, I wanted to flag them, but since they don't have the helpful bar, they don't have a flag feature either.

I have used the Next Blog a few times, and each time I have used it, I have not found a blog that I have liked. Not a single one. That is a bit sad, really. Because I want to follow a blog or two. Really I do.

9 comments:

Deb said...

I love the follow feature, however I can't get people's little icons on my blog to show em' off, because of the old classic version of blogger. I have tried using the newer version and HATE IT. The format is just awful and I can't get anything inserted in the places I'd prefer them to be. (Sounds bad...) Are you using the classic version? I am able to follow and be followed, but I'm not a click away, as most newer blogs are.

If I press "next blog", I only get blogs in different languages now. Do you find that?

Also, that one blog, the "scary blog"----LOVE IT! That was so interesting. I am now a follower!

Thanks!

Leesa said...

deb: I am able to get stuff to work in the new Blogger. I just do. And I do get different languages when pressing "next blog."

Deb said...

How do you get your profile info and photo on the top right hand corner? When I switch to the other blogger, it drops my entire profile all the way to the bottom. I have to hire a blogger guru to my house to fix this up for me. *sigh*

Xmichra said...

I love the blogs i'm following link (so much easier!) bu i get either random languaged sites, or sales sites when i hit next blog. I pick up new reads from other blog links or from witty comments on another blog.

Deb - if you would like I could fix your blog up for you. I bet i could get it to look like it is right now, but with your added widgets. Thought I'd offer :)

Ian Lidster said...

I'm sort of with Deb on this one and am stuck with my classic blog and I suppose I should get off my pretty ass and make some changes. Thanks for your tips and hints, Leesa. They're always apprciated.

Leesa said...

Deb: I am using a customized bit of code, actually.

Xmichra: What a kind soul. I hope Deb takes up your offer.

Ian: I was afraid to change as well. But I made the leap. A long time ago.

Cliff said...

I spent about 10 months as mainly a local blog. One day, out of curiousity, I started clicking on "next blog" after a few clicks, I discovered Liquid's blog. The rest, as "they" say is history.

I have discovered a variety of blogs by clicking on next blog, from scary to weird, to offensive. I have also discovered those who appeal to nobody. But the ones I have seen the most of are the angry political blogs. Very little, if anything, I would like to promote.

Leesa said...

WIXY: I can understand while there are angry political blogs. Can you imagine having a position and you can't affect anything? I would be angry too. It seems that the "next blog" worked better for you than it does me.

Cliff said...

I guess instead of using my blog to voice my political comments in a forceful angry way and eventually not have readers, I utilize my 92 mile round trip to and from work and yell at my steering wheel. It has the same effect and makes me feel better.