If you have time to just drop a one-word comment, I’d love to know if you are viewing this post in WordPress Reader or actually on my website (or somewhere else?). I’m wondering how many people see the blog and the blog posts the way I design them, or if they just see them the homogenous way WP makes them all appear.
I spend a lot of time crafting how my blog website appears, but I realize a lot of my readers probably never even see that, because they view it in the WP Reader. We all look the same in the reader, and our posts show up in the order we post them.
How My Blog Should Look
If you’ve never seen it, this is how my blog is supposed to look:
I spend a lot of time getting it to look a certain way and only display certain articles on the front page and in a particular order. But if you only view it in Reader, you get a different experience.
This is how it looks on the WordPress Reader:
When a Sticky Post Doesn’t Stick
Those screenshots were taken within a few minutes of each other. Notice the difference in posts? The Reader one has my most recent posts, which were guest posts I didn’t write and would honestly rather have farther down the list.
And that’s the main thing that drives me crazy- the chronological posting. WordPress gives you the option of making a post “sticky,” so it stays at the top of your posts, but it appears to only work on your actual website.
No matter how many sticky posts you have, everybody gets them in order in the Reader.
And that’s how you end up with 8 Designs for Cattle Barns front and center. I can’t imagine that’s going to be a very popular one, but hey, it helps pay the bills!
The posts I write are by Candy Keane. Anything else is a guest post.
The Benefits of Using WordPress Reader
If I were the one reading this, I’d be answering “Reader,” because that’s how I usually read all the blogs. But often, I like to see if the blog does have an actual website and I visit that to see things the way the blogger wants them to be seen.
But with the busy way many people design their websites, with pop-ups and ads and everything, more often than not I come running back to the Reader for a nice clean experience.
How blog posts appear on Reader:
And that’s just one of the benefits of using the WordPress Reader. The WP Reader gives you a centralized hub for discovering, managing, and engaging with content in a clean and streamlined way.
Other reader benefits include:
Discovering New Content
- Centralized Content Hub: WordPress Reader aggregates content from blogs across the WordPress platform, making it easy to discover new posts without having to visit multiple sites.
- Personalized Recommendations: Based on your interests and the blogs you follow, WordPress Reader suggests new content that aligns with your preferences, helping you find relevant and engaging posts effortlessly.
Follow and Manage Blogs
- Easy Blog Management: You can follow your favorite blogs with a single click and manage all your subscriptions in one place, streamlining your reading experience.
- Stay Updated: Get real-time updates from the blogs you follow, ensuring you never miss a new post or important update.
Enhanced Reading Experience
- Customizable Feed: Customize your feed by following specific tags, categories, and blogs, tailoring your reading experience to your interests.
- Ad-Free Reading: Enjoy an ad-free reading experience within the WordPress Reader, allowing you to focus on the content without distractions. This is one of the reasons I like it when I’m reading, but one of the things I also dislike since no ads means no ad revenue.
Engagement and Interaction
- Easy Interaction: Like, comment, and share posts directly from the WordPress Reader, fostering engagement and interaction with your favorite bloggers.
- Community Building: Join the WordPress community by interacting with other readers and bloggers, participating in discussions, and building connections. The WordPress community is one of the best parts of being on WordPress!
Improved Blog Management for Bloggers
- Increased Visibility: Being part of the WordPress Reader increases your blog’s visibility, making it easier for readers to discover and follow your content. Your related posts will pop up at the bottom of other people’s posts, which can bring in new readers.
- Enhanced Engagement: The ease of interaction within the WordPress Reader encourages more likes, comments, and shares, boosting your blog’s engagement metrics.
Convenience and Accessibility
- Mobile-Friendly: WordPress Reader is optimized for mobile devices, ensuring you can access and manage your feed on the go. This is particularly useful when viewing older sites that do not have mobile-friendly pages.
- Cross-Platform Compatibility: Whether you’re on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone, WordPress Reader provides a seamless experience across all devices.
The Reader and Stats
One issue with the Reader that was pointed out in the comments by AM from A Weird With… blog is that those views don’t show in your stats. So, they mentioned clicking through so that the person actually gets credit for that view. I did try to research this a bit and didn’t really get a good direct answer.
The WP help page defines a view as: “A view is counted when a visitor loads or reloads any page of your site.” So, since Reader does not load any actual site page, that does sound like those views are not counted.
Overall, I am more likely to use the Reader than to visit the actual website, but I will make a point of clicking through now a little more often.
I’m curious what the response will be from this post. I hope I do get some responses!
And if you did stumble across my site on the Reader, please know that I don’t write about barns and moms cleaning houses as my regular content. You can access the latest posts I’ve actually written by visiting the blog as it’s intended to be seen at GeekMamas.com, where I promise you will still have a clean reading experience with only a few non-obtrusive ads.
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I use the reader on my phone app. It looks even more different than what you posted, but I like that it gives me a feed to browse. I also read a number of articles via my email when they are sent directly to me.
Thanks for answering my question! I haven’t looked at the app in a while so had to check it out. It looks even more streamlined on there.
WordPress reader..
Nice website! I like the clean layout
Glad to hear somebody views blogs on the website 🙂
I get your posts in my email, so I click through to your site. Using the Reader is nice because sometimes I just want to read a post and move on, but I’ve really been enjoying going to everyone’s sites because they all look so different, and I’m always looking for inspiration for my own. Personally, I think the blue you have is very calming, so I always love stopping by your site.
E-mail and then clicking through is probably the best way to go on this blog, because it cuts out all the junk. I only send the good stuff out by e-mail Lol.
And thank you! I was thinking the same thing when I went with the blues.
I always visit people’s blogs, because I want them to get a proper visit in the stats from me. One huge downside of using the WordPress reader is that visits don’t register when you use it.
I’ve started to use the reader more, but I always click through to the actual site, so that the person who wrote the post knows that I’ve visited for real.
The ad-free thing is great to point out, though and even visiting blogs who use older themes that are not mobile friendly is also good things with the Reader.
I’d wish, though that WordPress would implement proper stats visits from within the reader and also that some fonts and colors would show up more aligned to the person’s actual theme. If that were the case, I’d use the WordPress reader even more.
That is a great point, and something I had wondered about- the stats. I too like to click through and go to the actual blog website. Some sites send me running back to the reader though, lol.
Thank you for the detailed answer to my question. I’m actually going to update the post with what you’ve mentioned.
Great! I feel humbled and honored to have helped ❤️.
I’m in Reader. I prefer it because it helps me to keep track of the blogs I like. 🙂
It is very helpful for that!
reader is better
It certainly does make things easier to read.
I’m on self-hosted WordPress, and I don’t use the Jetpack plugin, so I don’t benefit from having my posts promoted in Reader. But I do have a WordPress.com account and use Reader as my primary place for following blogs. (I came across your post in the Discover tab.)
Many of the blogs I follow are on WordPress.com, so Reader makes it easy to like and comment on them. And I can follow most other blogs, using their RSS feed, there too.
I agree that the downside is, people don’t get to see your site design, and everything is a lot more homogenous. Like you, I often visit people’s sites at least once to see what they look like.
I guess you could force people to click through to your site if you set your RSS feed to excerpts, but I suspect a lot of people find that annoying. I do.
One other small benefit I get from using Reader without being connected to it by Jetpack is, a few people view my Gravatar and click through to my blog.
Hope that’s helpful.
Great, thorough answer! Also, thanks for letting me know how you found the post. I always find that interesting.
Hello, I was searching for others who may be having trouble finding things (as I am) since the latest WP or Jetpack update and your post came up in the results. To answer your question, I’m reading your post through the Reader. Have a good day.
Thanks for answering 🙂