How To Use Linky Followers

Last week we introduced Linky Followers to our friends here At The Picket Fence.  If you missed the post explaining the premise behind Linky Followers you can read our Linky Followers introduction post which will give you more details on the thought behind this new follower tool.  As a quick recap, Brent (the owner of the popular Linky Tools) was asked to help create a product that mimics the concept of Google Friend Connect. 

You might be asking why someone would need a replacement for GFC (Google Friend Connect).  Google announced that as of March 1st, it would be deactivating the GFC widget off of all non blogspot (Blogger) blogs.  This would be any blogs that are self hosted (you pay for it) Wordpress blogs, Wordpress.com blogs, Typepad blogs and many other smaller platforms that are out there. They also recently announced the close of Picnik (a free photo editing website that many of us use) 

This has quite an uproar in the blogging community! Many blogs that have remained very loyal and happy with Blogger as a platform are now in the process of switching to Wordpress blogs.  Why?

Well there are many reasons, and I won’t go into them in this post, but many believe that Google will eventually phase out GFC for their blogging platform as well.  Google owns Blogger, in case you weren’t aware of that and if they believe that a program of theirs is not lucrative to the company as a whole, they will not keep it no matter how much we want them to (i.e. Picnik)

The next question become WHY would Google do this with the popularity of the product.  Let me introduce you to Google+. 

Google+ is Google’s latest and greatest social media idea.  It was created to compete against Facebook.  Google is transferring all of it’s products onto Google+.  Picnik will be leaving us in April to be replaced with Google Photos, Chrome is on the scene and it has become very difficult to use Google products without using Chrome as your browser (this is because Internet Explorer is Chrome’s number one competition) In a nutshell Google wants you to use Google+ for all of your Google needs, and there is a very real possibility that Google Friend Connect will be absorbed into Google+.

So, what if you don’t want to learn or keep up with ANOTHER social media program like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest? Maybe you are wary of Google in general or have a non blogspot blog. That is where Linky Followers and other options come into play.  Here’s a rundown of the following options and some pros and cons of each.

Part 1

Google Friend Connect

Positive

1. Well established and Familiar
2. Easy for those with a blogspot (Blogger) blog to use
3. Will place all blogs you follow on a dashboard and update new posts

Negative

1. Is going away for all non blogspot blogs (LARGEST ISSUE)
2. COULD go away for ALL blogs in the near future
3. No way to categorize blogs making it difficult if you follow hundreds of blogs to find your favorites

RSS or Email Subscriptions

Positive

1. Ease of use for reader
2. Readers are easy to access from smart phones, ipads, etc.

Negative

1. Potential to receive HUNDREDS of emails everyday into email if you follow lots of blogs, cluttering up inbox
2. Readers NEVER actually visit your blog page which effects statistical data regarding page views, etc.  Often Sponsors and Advertisers do not take into consideration these followers in your stats because email and rss subscribers never see your sidebar sponsor spots, ads ,ad campaigns (like Blog Her etc.) unless you include them in a post. (BIG ISSUE FOR MONOTENIZED BLOGS)
3. There is no option to categorize the blogs you follow to keep track of them.  You must scroll through hundreds of posts to find your favorites or those you check on everyday

Linky Followers

Positive

1. Widget has similar look and feel of GFC
2. Simple and easy way to follow not tied to any other major platform like Google or Facebook (they will never sell or use your data in anyway)
3. A concise way to see all of the blogs you follow, all of your follower and their blogs as well as keep track of blogs who do not use Linky Followers at all.
4. Blogs can be categorized! (Huge plus if you follow hundreds of blogs)
5. Blogs can be viewed directly in Linky Followers without ever leaving their site but will still record a page view on that blog helping their statistics
6. User can pull up Linky Followers directory and follow multiple blogs right from their with a click of the mouse

Negative

1. Blog posts must be manually updated to remain at the top of a followers blog reader (this is because it costs an exorbitant amount to set up a system to continually scan thousands of blogs every second and update a post automatically.  Only platforms like Google and Facebook have the ability to do this as of now)
2. Must go to another site to see blogs you follow (like Facebook, Twitter,  Pinterest etc you must go to that site to see your account and to use it.) But once you are at Linky Followers you can stay right there to view all of the blogs you follow. (I will show you how to do this!)
3. You will have to start over again with followers (let’s face it we’ve all worked hard to build up our GFC followers and many will have no choice to start over and we might all have to at some point)

So, those are the pros and cons we see of the Follower Tools we have used.  Now let me show you HOW to use Linky Followers so you have a better understanding of it. 

Part 2

(are you still with me?? haha!)

First you will need to visit Linky Followers by going directly to the website or by clicking on the Follow Me option on our widget.

You will need to register a new account with Linky Followers.  You will see this screen.

Then you will be asked to register your blog if you have one, if not you can check the do not have blog.

Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email to your email address.  Click on the link and it will return you to Linky Followers and you will need to sign in.

Once you have signed in successfully, you will see the following screen automatically.  Below I have added arrows and text to explain what each area on the pop up welcome screen is for.

If you would like to grab your widget code right away to place on your blog, copy and paste the code in the box outlined in orange on your blog.  If you do not know how to do this you can find instruction for placing code on your blog in our Blogging 101 Series.

Please grab the appropriate code for your particular blogging platform as noted on the screen shot. You can also change how many thumbnails appear in your widget right within the code.  The default is 64 (ours is set to 100, you can set it to 1,000 if you’d like but it would be one BIG WIDGET!)

If you are not ready at this point to add your widget code to your blog, don’t worry you will see it again and it’s always available. 

Once you are signed in successfully, we suggest you immediately add your thumbnail image, this is the image that will show up in people’s follower widget.

See the red arrows above, click on (edit) under the generic thumbnail image to add your personal image.

Below is the screen where you will add your own file from your computer.

Once you have chosen a file the file name will appear and then you will select (upload file).

Here is my thumbnail file uploaded into the photo editing option.  Here you can crop your photo to see how it will appear, select Crop and Save when you are ready to finalize your photo.

Notice on the screen below, you can now see the generic photo has been replaced with my photo. If you choose not to upload a photo right away, a generic image will be used for your profile.

Below is a screen shot of Your Dashboard.  Beside each arrow below I explain what the individual tabs represent.

First select (Manage Your Stuff).  Here is where you will create your profile, set up your blog and preferences. You have two options. Manage Your Profile and Account and Manage Your Blogs. First we are going to manage our profile.

The screen below is where you manage your profile. On this screen you will create your thumbnail message (what people see if they hover over your thumbnail with their mouse), it will show your Full Name, Password, Groups you want to show on your Dashboard Scroller and your profile information.

You can create a profile message that will be seen by other users that can include hyperlinks, email address, etc. You can see above that we hyperlinked At The Picket Fence (which is why it appears in blue)

Once you have SAVED your settings in Manage Your Profile return to Manage Your Stuff and  select MANAGE YOUR BLOGS. This is where you manage the blogs YOU own!

Each arrow below has text next to it describing what each function does in Manage Your Blogs.

Here you can see the widget codes available to you anytime you need them!

If you click on the EDIT button under Widgets for this blog (see above screen) You will open the options to customize your widget. 

Below you can see the options you have to customize the widget (follower box) on your blog(s). See arrows and text below for detailed description of each option, including adding a featured follower, change order of thumbnail appearance, etc.…oh and look there’s your widget code again! yeah! Once you have customized your widget for your blog, select UPDATE.

Now click on the Edit blog or Update post by your blog name  as seen in the screen shot below.

This will expand the area where you can manually update your most recent post, change the description of your blog that appears under you name in people’s readers and enter the direct url to the post you want to update.  This is not necessary but the most recently updated posts show up at the top of people’s readers. Be sure to UPDATE when you are finished.

Now return to your Dashboard, where you will see this screen again.  On your dashboard you will not only manage your stuff, but you can manage the blogs your follow, your followers, maintain a private blogroll of blogs that do not use Linky Followers.  You will also notice a scrolling list of blogs you follow that you can click on.

But the most helpful tool on this page is the Blog Reader. 

From your dashboard you will use the Blog Reader (it’s that big orange button) to access all blogs YOU follow. Let’s check out how this works. Click on Blog Reader and you will pull up a screen that looks like this. Below you will see a partial list of the blogs we have categorized as Favorites.  You can also pull up your Everyday and General lists in here as well by selecting the GROUP you want to view.

I am using the lovely Alison at Stuff and Nonsense as an example. To see a blog in your reader select the View Blog option.  As you can see below, once I select View Blog, Alison’s blog will appear below my grid. (This may open in a new tab on your browser occasionally)

But, I can’t see ALL of her blog.  To do that I just need to hide the grid by clicking on the orange arrow….there she is! ;)

Once I am done reading the blog I have selected and leaving a lovely comment or browsing around, I can minimize the blog by selecting the arrow again and can move on to another blog, repeating the process. 

I can view EVERY blog I follow right from Linky Followers AND it will register as a page view for them!

I can search for a specific blog I follow by entering their name in the search window, or scroll down through my list one at a time. Just be sure to click on CLEAR when you want to clear out a search and return to the full reader. 

Now, let’s pay one last visit to the main page, where I want you to select the Linky Followers Blog Directory. See screen shot below.

This is a directory of ALL the blogs signed up with Linky Followers and it is growing by the day!

Below you can see a screen shot of ALL of the blogs that use Linky Follower (whether they have the widget added to their blogs yet or not) You can scroll down through the blogs and if you see one you want to follow just select FOLLOW ME.  (At this time you can also add them into a specific category or move them around in categories at a later date.)

This will automatically add you as a follower to their blog in their thumbnail widget (if they have one) and it will add their blog to your blog reader.  If you are already following a blog it will change the FOLLOW ME to FOLLOWING.

The Directory also has it’s own Blog Reader.  See screen shot above.  By selecting this you can view a blog you might like to follow within Linky Followers.  If you like what you see than hit Follow Me…wait that rhymes doesn’t it? ;)

Most recently updated posts will always appear at the top of the directory! A great reason to keep your post updated in Linky Followers!

WOW! Are you still with me, has this cleared up some of your questions about Linky Followers? I sure hope so! So, is Linky Followers for you?

Well, only you can answer that question.  Maybe you’ve already joined and were just waiting for information on how to use it.  Maybe you joined in the middle of this tutorial so you could follow along.  Maybe you are waiting to see if it’s right for you and your blog..that’s okay! We all need to make the best decisions for our own blogs, since they are an extension of ourselves. 

  Remember, this is just a TOOL to use as needed. 

  Some need a hammer and some might need a nail gun to do the job, pick the best tool for your needs!

I would suggest considering at least joining Linky Followers and adding your blog even if you haven’t decided on adding the widget to your blog page. This will allow people to find you and add your blog to their readers even if you choose not to use it to follow other blogs. That way if GFC does disappear someday, you will have an account already established in Linky Followers with followers in place.

Do you have anymore questions for me? Any thoughts (yikes I might have opened the floodgates with that. haha!), is your head spinning? or did this help? Let me know what you think!

Signing off for now..but I’ll keep track of the comments and reply here ASAP! Thanks as always for following us…At The Picket Fence.

Technorati Tags: Google,Linky Followers