{to follow or not to follow}

Lately, many of my friends, family, and friends via the www world

have been telling me that they read my blog;

that they like seeing the Snake in his every day splendor,

that they’ve learned a little thing or two from here,

that they like my seldom DIY’s or even more scattered recipes, etc.

I’ve been more than flattered.

At first it was hard for me to put our life out there.

It felt so vulnerable in the beginning

but it has become one of the things that save my sanity every day.

I get lost in my little space on the Internet.

To have such positive feedback is more than I could’ve ever expected from my little endeavor.

I guess I'm trying to say thank you for the encouragement and support

because it really means a lot to this girl.

I’ve also heard:

“I wanted to comment but I don’t know how!”

I even got a Facebook message recently saying:

“I want to follow your blog but I feel like it’s stalkerish since I haven’t seen you in ten years.”

So I want to tell you all a few things. Click read more!

You are not a stalker when you follow a blog. Casey from The Wiegands recently shared this post with her readers and I really couldn’t put it into better words. Here’s a bit of what she said:

If you have a favorite blog and want to let the author and readers know that you are a fan... you can do that by "following" their blog. 
I think it is a nice way to say we "support" you and what you have to say!

Sidenote: have you been to Casey’s blog? 

She shares her heart with her readers like no other blogger mama I have encountered before. 

Joys, sorrows, everyday life… she puts all of herself out there. 

Head on over there to find see her freaking a-dor-a-ble kids and check out her art.

So you want to support us? Great. You must want to know:

how do I follow?

There are a few different ways but these are the ones I am most familiar with:

  

1.       Google Friend Connect is by far the most popular. It allows you to follow blogs via your gmail, twitter, or yahoo accounts. 

For example, I follow all of my favorite blogs using my gmail account, 

so during the Snake’s naptime while I’m checking my email 

while eating lunch, I click on “Reader” 

and all new posts from my friends appear before my eyes.

2.       You can sign up for a BlogLovin’ account and search for your fave blogs by name. When you sign in to Bloglovin’, 

new posts will come up on a very clear, simple, and easy to navigate page.

3.       Follow by email. Simple. Punch in your email 

and when a writer posts something new, 

you’ll have it delivered to your inbox.

Oh and like Casey said, you can choose to follow 

privately or publicly via GFC.

Bloglovin’ and follow by email are always private.

OK. I know you went ahead and followed all of your favorite blogs already, 

now you're wondering:

How do I comment?

See the “0 Comments” below, underneath my signature? 

That means no one has shown me any love today.

You can click on it, though, and this will come up:

If you like something, leave the writer a note saying, “Yay!” or “I totally agree!”

Or even share your thoughts if you have some advice for her/him.

Fill the official stuff like the word verification

to prevent us bloggers from getting a million spam messages thrown at us.

Then publish your comment!

I read every comment my readers leave me and I try to get back to them via email.

Comments are always public but if you want to send the writer a note 

without letting the whole world know, send them an email. 

Most of us publish our emails somewhere on our blog… usually (not always) in this format:

es {dot} tomasello {at} gmail {dot} com

Sound it out. Type it out.

That concludes today's public service announcement.

I hope this helps someone out there!

Now go out there and show your favorite blogs some love!

It really does mean a lot to us.