Organizing Online Inspiration: Google Reader

Craft & Design

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Since we’re focusing on organization this month, we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite tools for organizing all that inspiration you find every day online.
I’m a huge fan of Google Reader. Not only is it an RSS reader, it’s a powerful tool for saving and organizing any blog or website post you want to locate again in future. I look at a whole lot of websites in a day, and am constantly referring back to things I’ve found online. I’d be lost without my Google Reader!
So here’s a short screen-capture video I shared on my blog a while back. It walks you through some very useful features you might not have known about.

24 thoughts on “Organizing Online Inspiration: Google Reader

  1. Linzee says:

    What an excellent and thoroughly useful post for helping me save and sort through the many blogs I enjoy. Thanks so much!

  2. julielesbonstuyaux says:

    This post is so ironic because I only started using Google Reader a couple of days ago and it changed my life!
    It’s nice to see all the possibilities that I now I have!!!
    I also wanted to share an easier way of moving a blog into a folder: just drag it into the folder and that does it automatically!
    Thanks again!

  3. CJane says:

    I’ve been a lover of reader for a long time, but I’ve never gotten too deeply beyond subscribing and using the beloved ‘next’ button, so I appreciate your tips.
    One that I followed was adding my own blog to my feed but…it didn’t add. I got this message (I put my url into the search field):
    “Your search did not match any feeds.
    Suggestions
    * Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
    * Try different keywords.
    * Try more general keywords.”
    What’s the deal? How do I fix this?

  4. Diane Gilleland says:

    So, Google Reader doesn’t see your blog’s RSS feed as tied to your URL for some reason. Usually, this can be corrected in your blog’s settings somewhere. Will you give me your blog address, and we’ll see if we can figure it out?

  5. CJane says:

    Caitlinjane.com.
    Sorry, I filled it in when registering to comment and assumed it would show automatically. Thanks!

  6. Diane Gilleland says:

    OK, so I got the same result as you did when I put your main URL into my Google Reader. But when I clicked the RSS symbol on your blog and copied the URL for your feed, I was able to put that into my Reader and see your posts.
    …So I suspect that the problem is in how your theme is coded. You might want to look around in all your theme settings and see if there’s any easy way to change the URL that’s attached to that orange RSS button.
    Alongside that, you might consider setting up a Feedburner feed for your blog (http://feedburner.com) You can use your main blog URL to create the Feedburner feed. Then, Feedburner will give you a nice, universally-readable feed URL, and you can attach this to your orange RSS button. That should then allow you to subscribe from either your main URL or the RSS button.
    Hope that helps!

  7. Anke says:

    …. this article really helped me a lot!! There where a couple of things, I tried to sort out and now I know how to do them.
    BUT I found another thing that confuses me: as you suggested, I added my own blog to my reader. I can see my own posts, but not the pictures in my posts! I have noticed this with other blogs too and I find it very anoying. I can not change that with the blogs I am reading, but I sure would like to change it with my own blog! The thing is I dont know how! Is this something that has to be changed in the goggle reader or on my blog settings? I have no idea what the problem is! Can you help me out?

  8. Diane Gilleland says:

    Hi, Anke – Most blogging platforms have a setting that will have your blog’s feed display as either full posts or as excerpts. Sounds like your feed is displaying as excerpts.
    If you’re in WordPress, look in your Dashboard for the Settings section, and then click the Reading option. You can change the setting on that page.
    If you use Blogger, there’s a Settings tab in your dashboard, and there’s a section for Site Feed. Look for “Allow Blog Feeds,” and there’s a pull-down menu there.
    Unfortunately, you can’t change how other people’s blogs display in your Google Reader. Each blogger controls how his or her own blog displays in readers.
    Hope that helps!

  9. Anke says:

    …it helped a lot!! Now everyone can follow my blog with pictures! Without your article I would not even have been aware of that!
    You made my day…
    thank you again!
    Anke

  10. Discount laptop computers says:

    Indeed a very good read! Very informative post with pretty good insight on all aspects of the topic! Will keep visiting in future too!

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