Comments on: How do you prefer to subscribe? via Email or RSS?

By: Anthony Lawrence

Anthony Lawrence — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:52:53 +0000

You definitely need to go Mac. There is no longer any question about it – Vista is horrible and basically, it’s over: time to switch.

I hadn’t seen Netvibes.. I’ll look into it.

By: Pearl

Pearl — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:01:12 +0000

I use iGoogle also but I am just getting a bit paranoid these days with Google so am using netvibes more and more, and already have 6 pages with millions of links :)

One of these days I need to buy a Mac!! I’ve had too many friends talk down to my little pc :lol:

By: Anthony Lawrence

Anthony Lawrence — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:09:56 +0000

I’ve used just about everything, but nowadays I use iGoogle – dividing things into my own tabbed categories.. for example, I filed you under Blogging.

But like all of us, it’s just too much.. I’m thinking of seeing if I can use Mac’s new Mail and write some filter rules.

So many posts :-)

By: pearl

pearl — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:52:39 +0000

@teeni: naaah :) you are fine… we all forget them… may be writing them somewhere and keeping them safe would help? :)

@Chris: Google reader is great but I’m also a bit cautious in general about relying on just one source for just about everything…. what if google started to charge for all its services one day? don’t get me wrong, I use their documents and calendar, google base and page creator, the desktop and just about every service, but I also use other apps for the same services in case I ever have to divorce Google ;) some paranoia :) but it helps… thanks for stopping by!

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:58:14 +0000

I always subscribe to feeds using Google Reader. I appreciate the way I am able to tag entries that I may want to reference later, and it integrates well with all the other stuff I have attached to my igoogle page.

I can skim new posts, check the weather and watch my calendar all on a single page this way.

By: teeni

teeni — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:15:44 +0000

I never thought about dedicating an email account for that stuff. I guess I just have such a hard time as it is to remember all my sign-ins and passwords. Yikes. My little incredible shrinking brain. LOL.

By: pearl

pearl — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:30:12 +0000

I am always the chosen one I know!! and with spam comments getting lengthier by the second, its becoming more and more difficult to browse thru them to look for any good comments trapped in there!

By: Mike Scott

Mike Scott — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:04:08 +0000

In my case, I can’t say the same. All of mine, except for one, was spam. Either spam comments for cars and pron, or they were trackbacks from splogs.

So I can’t complain. Not sure what is going on with yours, but then I don’t get nearly as many comments as you do.

By: pearl

pearl — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:14:34 +0000

Hey Sue.. don’t be sorry….I’m glad you finally made it here :) You know, I had completely forgotten about thunderbird’s newsreader! I’m going to try it soon… I used to use it before i started blogging and then somehow forgot!! AND I didn;t know about RssFwd either :) you are so resourceful!!

I did try CoComments for a while but then had to give it up – don’t remember why.. but i do subscribe to comments via email.. I somehow am loving bloglines more and more with their new features…

off I go to see how your blog is coming up now :)

By: pearl

pearl — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:26:03 +0000

@hey Mike… I’ve been noticing lately that a lot of the legitimate comments get trapped in Akismet… don’t have a clue why! another post idea :) thanks for coming back with the update :)

@jblu: welcome! you are like me in keeping multiple email accounts :)

By: Sueblimely

Sueblimely — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:48:54 +0000

Hi Pearl
Sorry I have not been visiting for a while, not enough time in the day to even visit my favorite bloggers lately!
I have my firefox default reader set to bloglines for feeds I think may be of interest to my blog readers and for my own blogging purposes. That way I can have a link in my sidebar for those interested in looking. As this list is huge now I tend to only look at bloglines for reference purposes.

My favorite bloggers, I subscribe to by email. If there is not an email subscribe option on the blog I use RssFwd to create the email feed.

Other blogs that I like to keep up with for research purposes I subscribe to headers only in thunderbird’s inbuilt newsreader. The titles are usually descriptive enough for me to see if I need to read the full post. I can skim through a lot of feeds quickly this way.

There are times (like the last couple of weeks) where feed emails and newfeeds are building up! Hence I end up commenting very late :-)

I use CoComment to follow comments rather than email subscribe. It is much easier to follow the thread of conversatons this way and my inbox is not overloaded even more.

By: Mike Scott

Mike Scott — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:26:34 +0000

My preference is to subscribe to blogs with RSS, and then subscribe to comments through email. I get to my email a lot more often than I get to the RSS reader.

My Reader of choice is Google Reader. Bloglines is really good too though.

By: jblu

jblu — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:59:02 +0000

I prefer to subscribe via email…for me, it’s easier to keep track of. I have multiple email accounts, and I have one set specifically for subscriptions. But for the blogs that I like to read daily, I have those subscriptions go to my main account.

By: Mike Scott

Mike Scott — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 04:46:08 +0000

Well, I’m not one of the ones who keep up with hundreds of feeds. I have 14 blog friends that I try to keep up with, and I haven’t been doing a good job lately.

Funny thing though, you mentioning all of these comments getting picked up by spam, I realized that I haven’t checked min in awhile. I had 174 that have been picked up. Wow!

I better go through them now. Thanks for the reminder Pearl.

By: pearl

pearl — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:29:36 +0000

@Pelf: I use my secondary email accounts for a lot of the subscriptions (shopping, newsletters and other memberships I have to organizations etc) not necessarily for blogs…

@Jacob: different means for different scenarios work best.. it seems when I mentioned ‘email’ everyone thinks blogging subscriptions, I should have been clear… :)

thanks for commenting guys… tc and stay in touch!

By: Jobs In Israel

Jobs In Israel — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:45:13 +0000

As a reader, I prefer RSS. I can then use Google Reader to quickly glance the day’s posts from the 150+ feeds that I follow, plus my inbox isn’t overwhelmed.

As a blogger, I prefer when my subscribers sign up via email because then I can connect with them one-on-one.

By: pelf

pelf — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:32:04 +0000

I prefer to subscribe via a reader than by email because I only want emails to arrive in my emails, not notifications that a blog has been updated.

I used to use Bloglines but recently switched to Google Reader so that I do not have to login to another service, especially when I’m not using my own personal computer :)

By: david deangelo

david deangelo — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:52:48 +0000

Thanks Pearl.

I will put on the email subscription soon. Need to set up feedburner as I have not used it before!

By: pearl

pearl — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:36:04 +0000

Hey Meg… I will be trying different services everyone mentioned here, but this seems to be the ongoing problem, unless, I start unsubscribing from the ones I don’t find interesting any more, which, of course, is never the case :)

I switch between the three I mentioned, netvibes, google reader and bloglines – but today ive been reading about RSS Bandit as Mayank mentioned above and it seems pretty interesting so far… will let you know :)

By: pearl

pearl — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:15:26 +0000

Simonne… Now why your comment was in Akismet, is beyond my comprehension! you were right in saying we think alike :) I do have a few email subscriptions too ‘coz I always want to know how things work and feel.. but most of them are in readers…

By: pearl

pearl — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:13:23 +0000

@Mig… My akismet caught your comment ‘coz of links :) sorry! I’ve heard a lot about feedblitz but never really looked into it… I use BackPackit but never knew you could use it for managing subscriptions!?! you’d have to tell me how you do that….:) thanks for stopping by even when you are busy … tc

By: Meg

Meg — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:16:23 +0000

Hi Pearl

I only have one Email subscription which is a daily round up (Search Engine Land) – all the rest are RSS. I too am an avid fan of Google Reader, but don’t as yet share my subscriptions.

Let us know if you find a good alternative :)

By: pearl

pearl — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:19:00 +0000

you are welcome Ricardo… :) and thanks for subscribing too…

tc and stay in touch!

By: pearl

pearl — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:17:58 +0000

this is the first time I am hearing about RSS Bandit…just checked out their site and probably will try it soon… thanks Mayank… you always have something new to teach me :) tc and kit

By: Riccardo Giuntoli

Riccardo Giuntoli — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:26:46 +0000

pearl: thank you for the “welcome”. I’m going to put your RSS on my reader :)
Nice Regards, Riccardo Giuntoli.

By: Mayank

Mayank — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:16:14 +0000

Hey I prefer using RSS reader and RSS bandit has become my recent favorite and I’m falling in love with it!

By: pearl

pearl — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:22:48 +0000

hey Ken… yeah, both are useful in different situations… thanks for coming back! tc and kit

By: pearl

pearl — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:20:28 +0000

Hi Ricardo… Google reader’s search function is surely my favorite too… and Im not sure Comment subscription via email is what I use, im not sue its available any other way though…

welcome to this blog Ricardo… please visit again..

By: pearl

pearl — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:35:53 +0000

Oh David… you should always provide that option to people who do not feel comfortable with RSS or do not understand what RSS is!

By: pearl

pearl — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:31:09 +0000

teeni: I have multiple email accounts and some accounts are set up only for various subscriptions, not just blogs, but other sites I sign up with….. e.g. careerbuilder, dice or epicnews are some ;)

By: Simonne

Simonne — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:25:13 +0000

I prefer subscribing by email. I tried Google Reader, I subscribed to a lot of blogs, but I never remember to open it. Email is much simpler. At least for me.

By: Ken Xu

Ken Xu — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:31:56 +0000

Hmm… It’s depend. I would prefer feed reader when I’m working on my own laptop or computer and I’ll prefer email subscription if I don’t have my own laptop or computer to host my feed data. :)

By: Mihaela Lica

Mihaela Lica — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:10:57 +0000

I actually prefer RSS, but since David Airey suggested I should put a subscribe to comments field (which was pretty damn hard to integrate because of the less flexible theme I use – I will have to change that!!!)
I let people subcribe to comments via email too.
And personally I do prefer RSS to subscribe.
If you want to reach your subscribers easily and professionally via email, I recommend FeedBlitz
You can manage your RSS subscriptions with Backpack.
Of course there are many other options. But I am in a rush to finish a project.

By: Riccardo Giuntoli

Riccardo Giuntoli — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:03:07 +0000

For all my RSS i use Google Reader since they activate the search function.
But i don’t use RSS for all. For example when i POST a comment, or i open a thread in a forum, i like to use email subscription with a dedicated email account.

Best Regards.

By: david deangelo

david deangelo — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:55:15 +0000

Interesting. I will be keep coming back to this article to see the responses. At the moment, I am only allowing people to subscribe via rss readers and not email. I am looking to introduce email subscriptions via feedburner.