Powerbloggers stay clear. This is strictly for newbies.
I discovered Reader a year into blogging on WordPress.
- What is Reader?
Its that icon up there sandwitched between ‘blog name’ and ‘follow’ on your blog site.
Its the window that permits you to peer into your peers – I mean, fellow bloggers.
It lists
a] Latest posts by the Blogs you follow get updated here. You can either glimpse a preview or read entire post, depending on walls erected by that WordPress Blogger.
P.S- You can hit ‘like’ or ‘comment’ directly via Reader. Be warned – this indirect route however, does not add up to hits or views on Blogger’s blog. So you are that invisible visitor whose voice filters into comment box without leaving a footmark, since WordPress only counts views as those who actually click on web url.
b] Freshly Pressed – Those chosen blogs who get ‘limelight’ed by WordPress. Since it never happened to me, I wont elaborate (sulkily) on it’s benefits.
c] Tags – Millions of blogs floating all over and you wish to find that niche, eclectic crowd with pooled interests. How?
Scroll to ‘Tags’ and type in the magic word. For example – Mahabharata, Photography, Haiku, Quotes, Book reviews, etc.
You will automatically get zoomed down to blogs that have posted in & around these tag words. From here, you can further select blogs you wish to follow/ comment/ like.
d] Notifications – Now move your eyes along to right hand corner of Reader. See that symbol / icon shaped like a ‘Bell’? Correct, you have seen it before on Twitter too.
That functions just like ‘Recent Activity’ on Facebook.
It duly notes down 1} Those lovely people who decided to ‘follow’ you.
2} Even lovelier people who posted ‘comment’ on your precious post. 3} Most importantly (to me), it gives feedback on feedback to your feedback.
I mean, suppose you posted a ‘comment’ on fellow blogger and forgot all about it. Now that blogger will (hopefully) reply to your comment and in turn, hope that you continue a chain of conversation.
Notifications notifies you of Blogger’s replies to your comments made on fellow Blogger’s blog. So it basically permits you to be in touch with your recent and past verbal volleys.
Enough information for today. Enjoy!!!
Sue Dreamwalker said:
It took me longer than you to discover the ‘Reader’ And thank you for the info..
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Most welcome! There is always something new to discover in life … and in WordPress.
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BroadBlogs said:
Good to know. Thanks.
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Yes, there is always something new to uncover. Makes life easier to navigate and connect to fellow bloggers. I wish there was a better way to connect to non-WordPress bloggers, though!
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Christy Birmingham said:
I have only recently started to make use of the Reader. Great description here!
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Wonderful. Always glad to spread the word around. Make sure to let me onto secrets too. There is so much left to discover in WordPress.
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Phoenix Rainez said:
Hi I must confess I am still learning my way around wordpress so this post was very helpful thank you.
What I need help with is the new pages thingy!! I opened a new page in my blog whichnI discovered I needed thru reading other helpful advice but now I want to move some of the articles I have posted onto this page. Is there a way I can do this without retyping the whole post again?
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Hello, we are all learning every single day!
Pages are usually static information. E.g – first time visitor to my blog will see my Arjun: Without a doubt page. I cannot post new articles to a page. I can at the most, modify the written information.
Posts are dynamic – i.e they get uploaded on Reader and visitors can see new posts as they get written and published. Posts can be categorized, e g- into Music, book review, Spirituality etc.
So your pre-written articles can be stored under new categories, as you build up your blog. But you cannot add posts to a Page.
Let me know if this was helpful to you. I too, was initially completely at sea about pages vs posts. WordPress support forum has more info on the same discussion.
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Phoenix Rainez said:
Thanks for that info. So in other words to move old posts from my orginal blog to my new page I have to retype them? I have tried the copy and paste route but it just moves my old post to the top again and won’t put it into my new page.
By the way it was your title Impractical Dreamer and the purple butterfly that caught my attention to follow you. I escape to a world of dreams and fantasies whenever I write and purple is my favourite colour.
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Oh, by Page you meant a whole new blog? I thought you meant adding a Page to existing blog.
Well, for new blog, I guess your new blog can ‘Follow’ your old blog. And then re-blog your old posts. Sounds OK?
Yep, love the color purple. Its dreamy, breezy and yet royal.
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Phoenix Rainez said:
Ok I see what you are saying here.
Please if you have time take a peek at my blog and see. I opened a new page on my blog titled SECOND CHANCES this is where I want to move posts into from my category Second Chances but don’t seemto be able to copy and paste?
When I want to add a new post to that page it goes back to my original blog? Would this mean I will have to manually add posts to this page after the first post just sort of like a continuation of the first post?
Not sure if I am explaining myself properly as the wordpress help couldn’t understand what I needed either.
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dr sweetyshinde said:
I understood.
I broke my head over this issue for months – and WordPress could give me no simple explanation.
So I discovered a route –
Go to Dashboard, click on ‘Appearance’, click ‘Menu’. There you will see Menu structure. It is like a hierarchy showing which posts come under what category etc.
(For example, I have book review as a category, under which come genre based book review.)
So all you need to do it drag your ‘2nd chance category’ to the left. In menu structure, the left-most automatically become the tabs you will see on your Blog main page.
So once you drag your original 2nd chance category to align under your existing left-most tabs, like Home , About etc, it will automatically act like a Page. Except that all old posts will continue to exist under 2nd chance tab on main page.
It may sound complicated, but isn’t at all. Try it once.
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Phoenix Rainez said:
Thanks a million ♥ finally something that makes sense. You’re a star ★ thank you for unconfusing this problem for me ♥★♥
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Ah, Sweety Shinde -Take a bow! Glad it helped.
As I read somewhere – “It takes genius to simplify.’
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Phoenix Rainez said:
Well then I am very lucky to meet you. Thanks for stopping by my blog ♡
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Most welcome.
And Hey! In all this technical talk, forgot to congratulate a fellow AUTHOR cum blogger. Just like me!
I watched your UTube trailer. Very sweet and fresh.
All the best for your ventures.
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Phoenix Rainez said:
Thank you so much. Means alot coming from someone like you who is techno expertise 🙂
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Who me? I just learn out of necessity.
I wish we writers could just concentrate on creative aspects instead of technology, but just cant seem to escape it.
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Phoenix Rainez said:
So true. Would love to be able to just write and let someone else do all the editing and marketing 🙂
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Honestly! Marketing shifts the whole focus away from writing into business acumen.
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Phoenix Rainez said:
I love connecting with other Authors. So much you can learn from each other.
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Very true. There is so much creativity all around waiting to be discovered.
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Phoenix Rainez said:
Thank you and thanks for taking the time to watch my video clip.
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Did you give inputs to your techie friend? How much time did it take to prepare one?
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Phoenix Rainez said:
Reblogged this on Phoenix Rainez.
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Thank you very much, Phoenix!
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Phoenix Rainez said:
Thank you for this helpful tip ♡
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The Story Reading Ape said:
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog….. An Author Promotions Enterprise! and commented:
Great tip from Dr. Sweety 😀
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dr sweetyshinde said:
So sweet of you! Hoping this will save many newbies the headache of keeping tabs on comments, re-comments and likes. Cheers!
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The Story Reading Ape said:
My hope as well (including myself Sweety) – THANK YOU for posting it 😀
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Most welcome. YOU count amongst the Powerbloggers, though!
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The Story Reading Ape said:
MOI? No way – I’m the runt of the litter when it comes to Blogging Sweety 😀 😀 😀
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dr sweetyshinde said:
My, my!
As my Heroine (of Arjun: without a doubt) says to my Hero – All that perfection – and modesty as well!!!
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The Story Reading Ape said:
Furry Blushes 😀 😀 😀
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D. Wallace Peach said:
I had no idea that the likes and comments don’t translate. That’s annoying. I live in the woods and have to access through satellite. My internet is sooooo slooooow. I thought I was saving time on the shorter posts by not having to fully open each site. (Big sigh). Now I know. Thank you for the informative post.
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Oh, they do get counted as actual likes and comments. However, they do NOT get counted as ‘views’ or ‘hits’ on your blog.
I know, shortcuts always carry their pros and cons.
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D. Wallace Peach said:
Oh, okay. So it affects statistics. Thanks for clarifying! I was having a fit about my slow connection and now I’m not quite as perturbed.
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Correct. Glad to soothen your nerves.
P.S- Slow Internet must count as high ranking stress-giver of our times!
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Let's CUT the Crap! said:
Reader is too overwhelming to me. I tried it but it doesn’t work for me.
Thanks for the pep talk. Always neat learning new things. 🙂
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dr sweetyshinde said:
It WAS to me too. Now it has eased my WordPress-life quite a lot.
Try it once again- it really helps! And yes, the learning curve never reaches baseline – it just keeps its arc up, up and up.
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Let's CUT the Crap! said:
Thanks for the heads up. Must take another run at it. 🙂
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dr sweetyshinde said:
Yep. In retrospect, most difficult things do look simpler.
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Let's CUT the Crap! said:
😀 😀 😀
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theowllady said:
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
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Elizabeth Melton Parsons said:
I love notifications even though they do omit quite a bit of my visitors at times. The reader is evil. 👿 It does not like me and the feeling is mutual. I do however love your post on it. 🙂
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dr sweetyshinde said:
haha- you have given Reader quite a sinister personality.
Well, Reader seems to be a Jekyll-Hyde fellow, who behaves well with me. Lucky me!
And thank you for the appreciation.
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