How do you keep up with your favorite designers?

27 posts / 0 new
Last post
How do you keep up with your favorite designers?

Do you check their blogs? Do you 'like' them on Facebook? Do you get their newsletters? I'm curious because I'm finding different designers do different things and it's really quite a pain! I follow some on FB, I get some newsletters, I subscribe to some blogs... but it gets overwhelming. How do you ladies do it?

Honestly, I don't really. I'm kinda flighty when it comes to stuff like that. Like you said, its a bit overwhelming so I just sort of trip along with what I see on the internet in the forums I visit. Every once in a while, I'll do a "digital scrapbooking kit" search just to see if there are any new designers popping up. Mind you, I bypass about the first 10 pages that come up because those are always from the big/well established digi scrapbooking sites.

LOL that's probably a good way to handle it! smiley

I subscribe to newsletters of my favorite designers/companies and follow quite a few on Facebook. Though I must admit that Facebook isn't at all reliable. If it's not on the first page or so of my feed, I probably miss what's been posted. I just don't have the time to dedicate to reading all of the updates. So far I've been able to keep up with the newsletters...but again, I only subscribe to my favorites.

I had a heart attack recently when Google announced they were shutting down Reader, which is how I keep track of what's happening.

OMG, Google is shooting down reader? Well, I need to find other RSS reader for the third time in a couple of years...

What I do is add the blogs that interest me on the RSS program I think suits best on that time: I started with FeedDemon, that got discontiued. I tried to do it on Mozilla Thunderbird, which worked for a while but it was slowing my pc so I gave up. I´m using the google reader now, although I have to admit I havent opened it on the last weeks, because I´m spending way too much time on this forum.

I don´t think Facebook is a good source of information for me, because I loose too many posts.

Marisa, that's kind of why I was asking! I found another reader to use but I just don't like it as much.

Yeah, Facebook eats posts or something... what a pain. I guess I'll just have to get used to the other readers! blah! smiley

I get newsletters (many designers include freebies) and I have been using Google Reader which has been wonderful. Since the news of them shutting down I have read several things of alternate places. I have finally decided on Feedly which appears to be close to Google Reader. The one who recommended it (I don't remember which designer it was) did say there is a little bit of a learning curve but gets easier.

Good question. I've been wondering the same thing. I never used Google reader. I usually subscribe to e-mail updates and/or newsletters which are sent to a scrapbooking only email account. I don't like following on facebook, but I do follow my favorites on Pinterest. It will be interesting to see what people do.

I use the RSS feed, this way, I can see when a blog has been updated without having to visit it to find out. I also get newsletters.

newsletters

Newsletters and Facebook primarily. I do use Google Reader but I didn't organize it well so it is difficult for me plus its not even all scrapbooking stuff- I have varied interests.

Here's the thing about Facebook. The more a particular poster gets shared and liked, the more often their posts will appear on Facebook. I am guessing based on my own experience that the more often you will see similar posts as what you share too.

SO the moral to the story is: go to my wall and start sharing!! LOL!

I also think I'm switching to Feedly. I used it for a while before, then switched back to Google Reader, and now I guess I'll have to switch back. Feedly has a cleaner designer than Reader, which is nice, but sometimes it had problems displaying content, which is why I switched back to Reader. I'm hoping they've maybe fixed that at this point, I haven't had any trouble yet, but I haven't done a lot of reading yet....With Google Reader shutting down, they'll probably get a large influx of people which should hopefully help them make improvements.

I tried another one first but then read about Feedly. The other thing that was great is that Feedly pulled all the sites I had over from Reader (completely) which the other one did not. Also, any updates you do in Feedly will update Reader also, so if you start now you have the advantage of switching without extra work of reading/updating Reader. You can tailor it to your desires by using preferences.

Yeah... so I joined her website. I didn't know she was my favorite until I got here but everything seems to pail in comparison.

A lot of designers have a 'subscribe to my blog by email' button on their website. Every time they update their blog you will get it in your mail. In my mail program I have set up a scrapbook folder with folders of designers and stores that I follow, and I have set up filter rules. When mail comes in it gets filtered in to the appropriate folders and when I have the time I go through them. Most stores and designer update on Thursday so I will have some things to read over the weekend.

It's also handy to keep some blog pages that have tutorials on them, I mark them with a blue flag so I know not to delete because it has a tutorial. Lots of news letters and blog updates have either a freebie related to the latest kit of a discount code.

If you read your mail online that will be harder to do but I just use my mail software.

I only read blogs on my iPad with an app called mr.Reader. mr.Reader uses Google rss feed of course as all other readers do. The developer assured us not to panic he will use another feeder source and make the transition painless and easy.

I use to read Feedly but I hated the 'magazine' design and that they decided what was interesting to me and what to read next. I like the old style rss news readers where I can go from one blog to the next.

Thanks for the tips on Feedly, ladies... I am getting such good information off of this site! So glad I found it.

I subscribe to my favorite blogs by post, and the rest by newsletter. Everyone else is Facebook. Not necessarily so I can see their posts, but because most force you to like them to get cute freebies.

If I find myself deleting the newsletter more than 3 times without wanting to read it, I unsubscribe from that designer. Actually, I do the same for all companies.

@Christine: In Feedly you can go from one article to the next. I find it to be more or less the same as Google Reader, except they have some more interesting ways to view what you read (but still the regular standby option of post after post too).

Until now I have used the "subscribe to my blog by email" on the pages I like as I am not using Facebook. The problem is that I am discovering new interesting sites nearly every day and my inbox gets a little crowed some days lol.

It is very interesting for me to read about the different possibilities to stay updated. I will probably have a look at Feedly to see if I like it.

Christine: Thank you so much for the tips about the organization of e-mails. I thought I was quite organized (as half Swiss... lol)but the idea with the filter rules hadn't ocurred to me yet smiley. And I particularly like the "blue flag idea".

This site is such an amazing source of information. Thank you ladies for sharing your knowledge and experience.

I wrote an article the other day on how I keep everything organized. Basically I:

-Have a separate account for emails
-Use Thunderbird for RSS Feeds
-Created an "Interest List" on FB so all of my digiscrap sites I like all appear under one news feed

More details on the method to my madness can be found in my article I wrote here:
http://digiscraplove.com/2013/03/20/easily-organize-stay-updated-on-all-your-favorite-designers/

To people that are using feedly: Is it really good? Did you get used to it? Isn´t it suffering with traffic problems due to too much users?

I really need to find a solution for my RSS still this week.

@Lorien I have been using Feedly and for the most part it is really similar to Reader. I have one big problem with it though....when I try to add a new blog I have tried it based on the way they say to do it but I have not been able to get it to work. So I have ended up adding it to Reader since it is still available and Feedly is automatically updated and updates Reader when I read the posts in Feedly. I tried to look for help with Feedly but cannot find a place to get questions answered. I would like to find a solution because that is the only one I have but it could be a "deal breaker." Specifically, when I click the button to add it opens a place to put the url and a list of things "they" think I am interested in. So I then add the url and cannot find an "add" button. I tried to hit enter but that does nothing-and I cannot figure out how to take all the others that I am not interested in off the list. Kind of frustrating.

If anyone else can figure this out I would be much beholding!

I've been using Feedly without any problems.

To add a blog do the following:

Paste the url or feed in the search box. I had to wait a moment for it to find the blog, and then click the + icon.

Add it to whatever category and then click "add" at the bottom.

I tried Feedly and I just didn't like it. I've resorted to getting my RSS stuff in Thunderbird, which is actually working quite nicely for now since I have my email and feeds all in one place.

@Marisa Woo hoo, thank you so very much. When I looked at my Feedly page it was different than your...mine showed "+ Add website" so I had to figure out why......

For all, found my problem....I am on Firefox and I had to load to Firefox - I updated my software and a button showed up to add it to Firefox...guess it was an add on or something. Now I can put the url and press enter. And now my page shows "+ Add Content." All is well now.

If you are on Firefox ensure you load the add on.