Saturday, June 19, 2021

A Little Blog Housekeeping!


 Hi, all!

I've had to make some housekeeping changes on the blog, and thanks to Paulette at The Way I Sew It, I finally found a good solution to the loss of Feedburner, which sends out emails to subscribers when I post something here.  And Paulette did such a great job of describing what it entails, I'm going to copy her words right here.


As you may have read elsewhere, some of us bloggers are having to migrate our email subscriptions to a different platform if we formerly relied on Feedburner to do the job.  As of July 1, Google's Feedburner will no longer work for email subscriptions.  They are shutting that part of the service down.

That has left many of us scrambling for alternatives to handle sending our blog posts via email.  For me, it boiled down to two options that were free.  One of those options seemed a little easier to set up, and that was the service known as follow.it.

The important thing for you to know is:

  • If you were receiving my blog posts by email previously, you will continue to get them by email from follow.it.  There's nothing you need to do.  The email may look a little different, but the content will contain the entire blog post, as in the past.

  • If you have not previously signed up to get the blog by email, you can do that now!  Just enter your email address on the right sidebar near the top.  Be sure to confirm, if you're asked to do so, to make sure you start getting the posts.

Of course, you're always able to add this blog to your favorite feed reader, if that's how you prefer to keep up.  If you've already been reading the blog with a feed reader, such as Bloglovin' or Feedly, for instance, nothing will change.

I do want to point out a couple things about the emails from follow.it.  Because I chose their basic free plan, I have less options for controlling the look and functionality of the emails.  For instance, there may be links that follow.it adds to the bottom of each email.  These have NOTHING to do with my blog and I have no control over them.  I'm trying to think of a nice way of describing them, but I can't, so I'll just say it:  To me, it looks like click bait.  If you like that kind of thing, click away.  My suggestion, however, is that you simply ignore those links.  That's what I'd do.

To that end, you will note that I've now added my signature at the end of my posts.  If you're reading the post via email, when you see the signature, you'll know you've reached the end of my content. 

If you wish to view the blog post directly from the email, or if you wish to comment (and I love comments!), click the "Continue Reading" link directly below my signature in the email.  That'll take you directly to the blog.

Note that if you hit "Reply" to the email from follow.it, your reply will not reach me.  It goes to nowhere land.  Your best bet is to click through to the blog and comment there.  Or email me directly at salliesue57 at gmail dot com.  Again, I do not receive direct replies from the blog emails.  If I would upgrade to a premium plan, I could control that and other things; but since I make no income from blogging, the free basic plan is the best option for me at the moment. 

And if you don't subscribe via email yet, but want to (it's a great way to be sure you don't miss anything on the blog), fill in your email address in the field in the left side bar and confirm it if you get a confirmation request!  

Hugs!

Sarah

5 comments:

  1. I just wish I could figure out why comments on my blog aren't sent to my inbox anymore. It makes it difficult to respond since they don't come to the inbox. BAH! Technology! LOL

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  2. I "hate" the new tech world, except without it I would never "met" you. I read your blog through Feedly; although sometimes all of a sudden you appear in my emails. Go figure :-)

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  3. Changes are so hard! Rough to make the necessary follow-up changes x 10!

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  4. I'm so glad this was helpful for you, Sarah! One thing I noticed was that the way I put my signature into my blog template (as a CSS), it didn't show up in the first follow.it email. So I had to take that bit of code out and now I'm having to add it as a .png file at the end of each post. Sort of a pain to remember to do that, but at least it's showing up now.

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  5. Two other blogs I follow have switched toFollow.it and I've received their posts without any problem, however, others have commented on those blogs that they are receiving the posts. Also, if you click on the post title in the email it will take you to the blogger's page and comment window. Everyone needs to practice some patience as we go through another transition in blogging technology.
    Pat

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Comments make me smile!! If you want a PDF of a pattern, PLEASE leave your email address in your comment, or email me directly at salliesue57 (at) gmail (dot) com!