I’m probably the worst blog strategist on the planet. When starting this blog, I seriously doubted that anyone would read it… and up until recently never thought much about subscriptions. People told me a blog should be “subscribe-able”—so I found the quickest plug-in, activated it, and never thought about it again. In fact, over time, I actually inadvertantly had two different email entries to subscribe to this blog.
One of my summer goals was to redesign the blog and finally get a grip on subscriptions. I never even bothered to figure out what services I was using or how they functioned. So, if you are a subscriber—THANK YOU for putting up with my ignorance and lack of attention to this feature. I’m writing to inform you that, with the help of others more intelligent than I, we finally have a long-term solution of subscription management.
I share this for two reasons. First, perhaps you stop by here frequently and never thought of subscribing—well, now would be a great time. There are two basic ways to subscribe, which I will detail below. Subscribing simply means the content comes to you—rather than you having to remember to look it up.
Second, perhaps you or someone you know subscribed some time ago. I’m afraid we may have lost some in the transition. I’ve never tracked it, so I really don’t know. You may need to re-subscribe. Also, some have entered email addresses with typos, so the intended email subscriptions were never activated. Either way, here’s the set-up now:
Email Subscription: At the bottom right of the homepage (before the footer), there’s a simple email entry box that will subscribe you to a weekly email update. This will include any new posts from the week and will come to your email address. I will never do anything else with your email address. If you choose to subscribe—I’m grateful that you would allow me to have some small influence in your life. (If you received this post via email, you are all set!)
RSS Subscription: Most people don’t use RSS. If you enjoy reading blogs and other recurring internet content, you should discover and set up RSS. There are lots of options for RSS readers (I use Google Reader) and lots of Apps to use on various devices. RSS is a simple way to pull every new post on this blog (or any other) into a reader format that constantly pulls new content into your reading line up. If you choose to subscribe to RSS, you should just be able to enter caryschmidt.com into the reader software of your choice.
(By the way, subscribing is free, in case your wondering.)
I apologize for being subscription deficient. I hope you will consider subscribing or encouraging someone else to, and if you do, thank you. I am grateful that you find something here worth reading or passing a long to others. I’ll do my best to be a faithful steward of your time and attention—your two most valuable resources.
By the way—I would really like some feedback on the new blog design. In particular, I’m wondering if the home page should be a simple, long list-view of recent blog posts (like it used to be) or if the current rotating images of recent posts is acceptable… or if it even matters. (This question is somewhat irrelevant for subscribers, but I’d still like your opinion.) Please shoot me an email or leave a comment with your thoughts. I would love to hear from you.
Thanks for taking a moment to let me address “blog stuff!”
