Blogging Housekeeping

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I was right - while Jon's at work this week, before we head out to Suffolk, I've got plenty of time on my hands!  There are things to do, of course, but I think that today and tomorrow I'll primarily be orbiting cafés with wifi so that I can confirm last-minute wedding details by email and get caught up on some blog housekeeping.  (I'm seeing as many people as possible, too, of course, but most of my friends are busy during normal working hours!  Remember those student days when nearly everyone was free for a coffee almost anytime between 9am and 5pm?)  My family arrives in London on Wednesday morning, so I'll be a bit manic from the moment they land through the wedding weekend, which lasts until Monday morning.

While I'm thinking about all the blog housekeeping I'm doing, though, I thought I'd share the method to my madness!  At least, it's the method I'm currently using - it's changed a bit since I commented on Lauren's fab post from a few weeks ago about how she organizes the blogs she reads and I'm sure it will continue to evolve.  But her post, plus the backlog of more than 400 unread posts in my Bloglovin' dashboard, made me rethink how I sort everything.  Like so many of you, I feel really guilty when I fall behind on my blog reading - my Twitter feed is full of blog friends bemoaning how much they have to catch up on!  But, also like you, I understand when my readers miss a few days or weeks of my posts.  After all, sometimes we have to get out of our screens and into our real lives!  I do put pressure on myself to stay current, though, and the best way for me to minimize that is to be realistic and organized in how I follow blogs.

Back in February, I shared how I cleaned up my Blogger dashboard, which is how I followed blogs and got notified about new posts.  I never read blogs from Google Reader, but when that went away I used it as an excuse to transfer everything to Bloglovin' - and I love the flexibility and focus it gives me.

I follow 89 blogs.  This number used to be higher; when I commented on Lauren's post, I had a group called "mag reads" that then became "expert reads" before I got rid of it completely.  In there were all of the professional blogs I followed - you know, the ones that present themselves as experts on whatever topics (decor, styling, fashion, blogging, etc.) and that serve as the bloggers' livelihoods.  Honestly, while I love skimming those sites, I don't look at them regularly.  Having them in my dashboard just ended up being irrelevantly stressful - I was never going to clear those unread posts and I didn't need the pressure of that number creeping ever higher.  So I made sure I was following the bloggers on Twitter... and then I unfollowed all of the blogs on Bloglovin'.  When I see them tweet about a new post that interests me I can click over, but otherwise they don't bother me!

Here's how I group the blogs I follow:

Daily Reads
These are the blogs I try to read on a daily basis. For the most part, I have a relationship (even if only online) with the blogger and I feel invested in his/her life.

Regular Reads
I feel less responsible to my regular reads. Of course I enjoy them, which is why I follow them, but I don’t feel like I’m letting anyone down if I miss their posts for a week and then binge-read everything in one sitting.

Sponsors
My sponsors’ blogs get their own category – I realized very soon into offering sponsorships that I had to do this! When life gets busy enough that I have trouble making it through my daily reads, I need to highlight my sponsors’ new posts so I can make sure that, no matter what else is going on, I read them and comment on them and share them. This is super important to me!

To Discover
When I find new blogs, I resist putting them into either the "daily" or "regular" groups right away.  I want to see how frequently I actually feel compelled to stay current with their posts before I label them.  Sometimes I find that, after a blog has been put into "to discover," I never read it again even though I do check that group regularly for new posts!  That's a sign that I shouldn't have followed it in the first place.  It's all about being realistic.

I do feel like a disclaimer is necessary: I've been awful at reading everyone's blogs for the past six weeks or so because of real life demands on my time and I hope none of my readers try to guess which category they're in because one isn't better than another.  It's just that, with more than three years of blogging under my belt, I've learned I have to be smart about how I follow blogs or I'll quietly implode at my laptop.  But, like I said, this method is constantly evolving.  What suggestions do you have?  I'd love to hear what works for you, dear readers!