Easy way to follow blogs

I've had a few friends ask me about how I keep up with everyone's blogs. I use a program called Feedreader. You could also use googlereader. It is fantastic for following public blogs. Sadly, it doesn't work for private blogs. Here is a link to download Feedreader for free.

http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/Feedreader/1027544364/1

Just follow the instructions to download and install. Once you have installed Feedreader, you will need to input the addresses for the blogs you wish to follow by clicking "New Feed" in the file menu. The program will automatically look for the feed to that blog. It will give you a prompt where you choose the RSS or Atom feed. Travis says it doesn't really matter which one you click - it's just two formats for the same thing. Also, he recommends that as you set up each feed for it to check, set the update period for 10 mins. or any time period rather than leaving it on Intelliupdate. He says that sometimes that doesn't work like it should.


Click on "Manage Feeds" from the file menu to make any changes to the name of the blog, the update period or whatever. Make sure to click "save" on each feed that you make changes to. Then just click "cancel" to go back to the regular screen where you can check blogs.

Once you've typed in the addresses, Feedreader will automatically let you know whenever someone updates their blog. You will have a little cube in the system tray at the bottom of your computer screen. When it's yellow instead of grey, click on it and it will open feedreader and show you who has a new post by bolding their name. Just click on the bolded name and you'll go directly to the new post. Then you won't have to keep checking around all the time - especially at those blogs that only update every few weeks or months. The first time it checks each blog, all the posts will be new to the new Feedreader program, so just click through all the posts you've already seen.

I hope this helps. If you run into trouble, just email or call me and I'll help you out (or get my husband to ;)