How to Use Google Reader with iGoogle

This post will show you how to use Google Reader to easily manage multiple subscriptions to blogs or other news sites.   

I have come to learn through my consulting work with small businesses that using a blog reader is not necessarily common knowledge.  And having struggled with it myself, I can understand why.  Like anything else, it's easy once you understand how. 

You can read the details below, or watch the two videos.  The first video is a comprehensive overview, while the much shorter second video is specific to just subscribing a blog to a reader.

Google Reader vs Email Updates

Just about everyone understands how to subscribe to email updates of blogs like this one.  However, if you subscribe to more than a few, you are held hostage by those emails that crowd your inbox.  Like so many eNewsletters, your subscriptions become a form of interruption marketing, which encourages you to opt-out.

Using a reader allows you to get the news at the time and frequency of your choice by subscribing to the RSS feed, as opposed to feeling compelled to open an email, which is another subscription.  The reader puts you in control.  It also saves you clicks, as you will see from the video.  With a reader, you may open 10 of of the 20 posts you have just received, and then only read just the 4 or 5 that seem interesting.  Then you can delete all 20 with one click.  Poof!  

How It Works

First of all, there are other readers besides Google's, but most of us heavy users prefer it for its simplicity.  To get started you need a gmail address.  Then just search for Google Reader and set it up.  Many blogs will have a link like this on the homepage: Subscribe to This Feed.  You can click on that to subscribe to the blog's RSS feed, or simply go to the browser window and click on the orange chicklet, which is often easier to locate.  It looks like this:When you click on the chicklet, it will offer two options:  Add to Google Homepage or Add to Google Reader.  Choose Reader.

The Latest Feature:  Here's what has just been added as a capability.  In the upper left hand corner of your Google Reader you will see the button for "Add a Subscription."  I use this to read my local newspaper.  You can use it to stay current with any website that doesn't give you an RSS feed.  You just create your own by entering the url in that subscription box. 

iGoogle

After you subscribe to a few blogs, your reader gets to be a mess.  This is where iGoogle comes in handy to streamline everything, while also helping you manage other web content.  My iGoogle interface includes my Google Reader, the Google Calendar that I use to remind me when to pay bills, along with a few widgets like espn.com, and of course jeffkorhan.com – this blog.  iGoogle is set as my homepage, which serves as a reminder to check my reader for updates.

iPhone

If you have an iPhone, get the Google Mobile App to get all of this functionality, and more.   Once it is downloaded and your settings updated, the apps button at the bottom will take you to your Google Reader.

That's all there is to it.  Simple.

Now you know how to subscribe to any blog to get regular updates.

If you are getting value from this blog, why not start by subscribing to this one?