Bloglovin’ is great, but are you using it to the best of its abilities? First – what is Bloglovin’? It’s an online blog aggregator – it rounds up all your favourite blogs and tells you when there’s a new post.
Why should bloggers encourage Bloglovin’ use? We’ve all heard about Google scrapping GFC (Google Friend Connect) for non Blogger hosted blogs, and of course, Google Reader closing down last year – these events caused many bloggers to think that GFC for Blogger wouldn’t be around too much longer. It hasn’t happened yet, but if you value your follower numbers, it would be a sensible idea to start encouraging your readers to make the switch over before you’re forced into it by Blogger.
Another reason to choose Bloglovin’ is that you can subscribe to any site as long as it has an RSS feed (which are built in to most blogs and tell external services when a blog or website has been updated) – if there isn’t a Bloglovin’ button on a blog, just paste the URL into the “search blogs” field on bloglovin.com
Anyone can sign up to a Bloglovin’ account – you don’t need to have a blog to use the service – and with the various mobile apps available, it’s easy to keep on top of your subscriptions and is a much more interesting read on your commute than the Metro!
Another reason bloggers should encourage use of Bloglovin’ is that it is actively bringing readers to your site. RSS readers like Feedly only show the latest post, and do not reflect in your traffic stats how many people have read that post, but Bloglovin’ uses frames so you have a button to click on to the next blog in your feed and if you wanted to, you can carry on browsing through the site.
Claiming your blog is a good idea as it means that you can get updates about how your blog is performing follower wise, as well as being able to amend the description and category that your blog falls under. It also makes it easier if you ever have any queries about your blog as you’re proving that you own that site – so if you ever change the URL or move blog platforms, Bloglovin’ will be able to make any adjustments for you.
To claim your blog, make sure it’s on Bloglovin’, then head over to bloglovin.com/myblog. Click “claim blog” and search for your blog – this will then give you a piece of HTML to insert into a blog post. This code is specific to your blog and your Bloglovin’ account, so make sure you put this into a new blog post straight away! Once you’ve posted that HTML, click “claim blog” again, and Bloglovin’ will then check your site to see if that HTML is there. If it is, then congratulations, you’re now the owner of the site!
If you decide to change URL’s, then it’s quite easy to take your old followers with you – just post on your old blog that you are moving and give the new blog address (which you’ll probably do anyway!) then get in contact with their support team and they’ll do everything for you.
Do you have any sneaky tips and tricks about Bloglovin’ that you can share?
This is crazy!! I JUST signed up to Blog Lovin’ and discovered all its glory!! Are you psychic…???
Totes ;)
Just claimed my blog, had no idea that was something I could do, thank you!
Thanks for this; I shall convert my blogloving personal account to my blog. It’s always good to think and plan ahead.
This is really helpful! I think I’ll definitely make the jump and get bloglovin!