Tips & Tricks: Feed Yer Reader

I did this myself shortly after I posted my Gravatar tip yesterday, so I thought I’d share this little trick with you as well.

When you are logged in to WordPress, you can add any other WordPress blog to your reader list easily, just by clicking the gray Follow button at the top of that blog’s home page.

However, self-hosted blogs often only have follow-by-email options on their home pages.  If you are like me (yes, I know each and every one of you is a unique and special snowflake, but work with me here), and you want everything in one place, you can add a non-WP blog to your WP Reader feed by doing the following:

1. On the top right hand side of the WP Reader feed locate the tab that says Blogs I Follow.  Click the Edit button.  This will bring up a list of blogs you follow, filed by title, in reverse chronological order.
2. At the top of this menu, there is a box that says Enter a blog url to follow.  Put the full url of the non-WP blog inside that box (for example:  https://mrsfever.com), then click the +Follow button next to the box.  New posts from the blog will now show up on your Reader.
3. Voila!  That non-WP blog is now added to your Follow list.  You will receive an email at your WP admin address notifying you of the change.

FYI:  When you add a non-WP blog to your Reader, the default setting is to notify you via email of all posts and comments.  If you are like me (yes yes I know… you are not like anyone, you are a special snowflake… we’ve already been over that), and you don’t want all of that stuff sent to your email box, it’s super easy to change your notifications from the Edit Blogs I Follow menu.  Just click the Edit button next to whichever blog you wish to edit notifications for.

Easy, peasy.

For more information about what you can (and cannot) do via your Reader, click here.