Blogging 101: What does it mean to "follow" a blog? How do I do it?

"Following” a blog is a lot like adding someone as a friend on MySpace or Facebook – by becoming a Follower, you will automatically see the latest posts to the CRCC blog when you sign-on to Blogger just like you would see your friends’ updates on the main Facebook page. As we detail below, these updates will appear on your Dashboard page on Blogger (which is very similar to a News Feed on Facebook, for those who are familiar).

As outlined below, the steps to following a blog involve:
1) Signing up for a Blogger account
2) Signing in to Blogger
3) Becoming a Follower of the CRCC Blog

1) Signing up for a Blogger Account
If you already have an account with Gmail (Google’s Mail application) you can sign-in to Blogger using your Gmail username and password. Otherwise, here is how to obtain a Blogger account:

Go to http://www.blogger.com/
Click on the orange button that says “Create a Blog”
Follow the next few screens and input your information (this is an easy process, since only a few of the information fields are required to register)

The registration process involves setting up your own blog, which you may choose to use or not. Once you are registered for Blogger, however, you will be able to leave comments and follow the CRCC blog!


2) Signing In
Once you’ve created your Blogger account, signing in is easy.

Go to http://www.blogger.com/
In the top right hand corner, put in your username and password and click “Sign In”
Presto! You’re now logged in to Blogger.


3) Becoming a Follower of the CRCC Blog
So now you’ve completed the first two steps, and are ready to become a Follower of the CRCC Blog.

The easiest way I have found to do this is provided here:
Sign up, log-in, and navigate to the CRCC blog at
http://www.crccadvocacy.blogspot.com/.
At the very top of your CRCC blog screen, you’ll see a blue strip with several clickable buttons on it. Starting at the top left corner, follow the blue bar in toward the center until you see the button that says “Follow Blog”.
Click that button and you are now an official Follower!

If you do not see those buttons as an option, you may need to Sign-In again – sometimes Blogger is pesky and signs you out when you navigate to a new page.


Navigating to the CRCC Blog
The next time you visit Blogger, I’m sure you will be anxious to get to the CRCC blog!
This is easy to do.
Upon signing in, you’ll be taken to your “Dashboard” page
Scroll down the “Dashboard” page a little bit and you will see a section called “Reading List”
Under “Reading List”, click on the “Blogs I’m Following” tab. This will show you the latest posts from the CRCC blog.
If you want to visit the actual CRCC blog at this point, click on the title of any CRCC blog post and the CRCC blog will pop up in a new window.

Stay tuned for another useful post on leaving comments on what you read here on the blog!