Goodbye Google Reader - Hello Bloglovin'

Help me!!!   I don't want to lose any of my readers - I value each and every one of you and love when you visit.  I'm sure most of you have heard that Google Reader is shutting down on JULY 1st. Hey - that's MONDAY you know!!

I like to follow my favorite blogs thru a reader and I used Google Reader since I started blogging.  Since I needed to find an alternative, I chose Bloglovin'.   And guess what?? So far, so good.  I really like them and the switch was easy and painless.

• It’s easy to get an account on Bloglovin'.  This just took a few minutes. I recommend filling out your profile as completely as possible, though. If you have a blog, others can find and follow your blog from your profile.

• It isn’t hard to claim your blog on bloglovin’. To add a blog and get a bloglovin’ button for your site, you just need to add a bit of code to your site to “claim” your blog. Some add it to the sidebar. I just added it to the bottom of an already-existing post in the “text” view. You don’t need to publish a new post to add it unless you want to announce bloglovin’ through your post.

• It’s easy to follow blogs through bloglovin’. For blogs that have a bloglovin’ button, you just have to click the button and then click “Follow.” You can search for any blogs within the bloglovin’ site and follow them even if they don’t have a bloglovin’ button.

• You can move all your blogs on Google Reader to bloglovin’. THIS IS IMPORTANT!   It’s also amazingly simple.  I just followed the directions on bloglovin’ when I signed up. They were clear and easy to follow. Just go here if you aren’t automatically directed: Import Your Favorite Blogs from Google Reader. Be sure to check that you follow me and your other favorite blogs when you do move your blogs.

• You can organize all the blogs you follow into categories.  How cool is that?

• You can discover new blogs easily within bloglovin’. I love this feature! I set my emails to notify me whenever someone follows my blog. Then I can follow them if I wish as well as check who they follow and find new blogs to follow.

• You can get a free app to follow bloglovin’ on mobile devices such as your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad: Free Bloglovin’ App.

HERE'S THE LINK TO BLOGLOVIN: http://www.bloglovin.com/
(That's cris for pointing that out)

So please be sure to follow me through BlogLovin'.  I'll follow you too.  I don't want to lose track of any of you.  Go transfer over your whole blog list right now!  You can still find me on my Snug Harbor FB page.  Don't wait until it's too late.

Google Reader is Being Retired

If you’ve signed into your Google RSS Reader in the last week, you were greeted with a box that said Google Reader will be shut down on July 1st.

As part of a”Spring cleaning” announcement, listed are changes Google is making, one is in regards to the widely used Google Reader:

“We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.”

The announcement left many angry, upset, with more questions than answers and scrambling for solutions.

So first and foremost, to be clear:

This ONLY applies to readers who use the Google Reader.

User of the Google Reader:  

It’s going to be ok! There’s comfort in familiarity and it’s always painful when things change and I know you’re thinking of all the blogs you’ve collected up over time and added to your Google Reader.
You don’t want to lose your blog collection and you don’t have too…
Google Takeout  is your escape.
You just need to export your RSS Feeds from the Google reader and add them to a New Reader. You have a lot of options out there and instead of re-writing the information others have compiled, I suggest visiting these links:

• Google Reader is Shutting Down; Here are the best alternatives
• Google Reader Alternatives

Once you’ve exported your RSS feeds and imported them into a new reader, you’re all set and you haven’t lost a single RSS feed/blog.
Look for your new RSS feed home now. Don’t wait until the last minute and risk losing your information.

As a Blogger who publishes an RSS Feed:

The first concern anyone who writes a blog should ask in regards to this change is… How will it affect my readership?

I believe everyone will lose a small percentage of readers based on this change, namely the people who rarely check their Google Reader or those who ignore the impending change and don’t export their feeds from their Google Reader to a new one in time.
BUT…with some proactive measures, we can preserve the majority of our readers that see our content via the Google Reader by letting them know what to do.

Let’s help our readers out! They read our blogs via the Google RSS Reader, so what better way to let them know about the changes than by writing a post in our blogs alerting them to the change and how they can fix it. The helpful post you write will pop up in their Google reader and then it’s up to them to take action.
Feel free to copy and paste any of the above information I’ve wrote in a blog post of your own.  I got this copy from Rebecca over at The Outdoor Blogger Network.  Readership is hard earned and here at Snug Harbor Bay, I don’t want any of you to lose a single reader!  And I don't want to lose any of you!

If you've found a new alternative that is working for you and that you like, please leave me the name of it in the comments section.  I'm looking at options and haven't found anything I really like yet.