Thursday, July 9, 2009

Keep up with Simply Back to Basics-Simply

I follow a few blogs. I enjoy reading them, but I always have trouble keeping track of them and I never seem to remember to check in to see if there are new posts. Today I found a handy tool that I wanted to pass along, which will simplify my own "blogging" and may help you keep up with yours.

This tool is part of IGoogle. For those of you who do not know about IGoogle; it is a customizable home page and requires that you establish a Google account; if you don't have one, it will prompt you to obtain one. Here is a screen shot of the page you will see if you follow the above link. Beneath the "Sign in" is a link to click to "Get started".


Once you have your IGoogle page, you can add all kinds of customized gadgets to suit your needs. The one I mentioned above is the Feed/RSS which allows you to add blocks on your page that show the latest updates on your favorite blogs.

Here is a picture of my home page. The blocks on the center and right side are Blogs that I read/follow and the pluses represent recent posts. I can tell instantly if I am up to date. If I hover over it, I see the text of the post. If I click on any of the links, it will immediately take me to that page so I can read more.


To get this feed gadget, go to the right hand side (upper) of your IGoogle page and click on "Add Stuff". Then go to the left hand side and click on "Add feed or gadget" (you may have to scroll down to do so). Then type the site name/URL that you want to follow, such as, www.simplybacktobasics.blogspot.com in the box and enter. It will automatically add it to your home page. (You may need to actually visit the site and copy/paste the actual URL for accuracy).

If you want to add my blog to your page, you can simply click this button on my blog .

I hope this quick tip helps you to stay on top of your blog reading. It can be really fun to keep up with many different ones, but it requires a strategy so it does not become an entity of its own!

I just added my friend's blog, Explore What's Next. She is an incredibly interesting lady and an amazing psychologist/life coach. I am so excited to have this tool to help me stay up to date on her postings.

If you need help with this or any other organizing project, simply call Linda, 716-631-5619.