Since the new blog carnival,Friday Favorites, is coming up soon, I thought for Works for Me Wednesday this week, I would share with you my technique for saving posts, articles, and websites for sharing in link posts.
The secret tool that I use for this is the Shared Items option in Google Reader.
To use this you first need to use Google Reader. If you don’t already use Google Reader to read all of your favorite blogs and keep updated on them, well….you should. Head on over to google right away and sign up to use this service.
If you use Google Reader, you will notice at the bottom of each post you read several options for further actions to take. The options listed in mine are “add star, like, share, share with note, e-mail, keep unread, and edit tags”.
To save items I want to have reference to later, I click on the share option.
This does several things…
1. It enables me to “share” through Google Reader the items of interest to me with people that “follow” me. They see the items I have clicked on to share in their own reader. It has been a neat way to communicate with my husband, Chaplain Andrews.
2. It make it possible to constantly share great posts on my blog. I have a widget installed on my sidebar (look to the right) that shows a link to my latest shared items. So, I’m always sharing links with you when you visit DailyDwelling! Feel free to browse through these links at any time. I usually get rid of old links after I have posted them on Friday Favorites.
3. These shared items are saved within a folder in my Google Reader so that I can go back to them.
When I am writing my link post for Friday Favorites, all I start by opening the shared folder in my reader. Then a list of the links I have used the share option on shows on my screen. I can click on each one individually to see the post and open them in a separate tab to link to in my Friday Favorites post.
I also put a bookmarklet in my bookmark toolbar so that at any time I am visiting a website, even one that I’m not subscribed to, and see content that I would like to share, I can click on the bookmarklet and it shows up in my shared items folder.
I REALLY hope that made some kind of sense to you!
This has been the easiest way that I’ve found to save posts to use as a reference in my link posts. I have tried others, but this is the one that Works for Me!
Visit We Are THAT Family to see more tips and tricks that work for other moms this week.
And start saving your favorite posts to share in the Friday Favorites blog carnival I will be hosting every Friday. It’s a great way to share your favorite posts and sites with others and to find new ones as well!
You can grab the button in my sidebar and use the Friday Favorites graphic to your left in your post.
LifeAtTheCircus says
Thanks for the tutoring session…will def have to give this a try!
bridget {bake at 350} says
Oh, this is great. I use the “star” feature all the time, but I’ve never used the “share.” Love that widget on your blog! Fun!
Buffie says
I love this tip. I’ve been using the share feature in Google Reader but had never thought about using it to create a favorites posts. Thanks for the tip. I just may have to join you for this week’s Friday Favorites.