Logistics: Clearing up Some Confusion regarding Navigating my Blog

As someone who has always enjoyed writing but whose strong suit has never been navigating technology, starting a blog was just a wee bit outside of my comfort zone. I had actually never even read a blog until shortly before embarking upon my own, so this has been a rather steep learning curve for me, to be sure. 

And yes, I'll fully admit that my novice status as a blogger has shown itself on numerous occasions, the first being that I launched my blog back in September without having a tried, tested and true means of having people 'follow' me. Truly a beginner's mistake!

The problem is, that issue has followed me (no pun intended, but heck, it works!) through the months and now into my fifth month of blogging. Several friends approached me during the holidays, bringing up my blog of their own volition (thank you for your kindness!!) and saying they've read a number of my posts but that they don't know how to follow me and/or reply to my posts. I'll do my best to try to demystify these logistical hazy areas.

How to 'follow' me on my blog

For starters, most people who have successfully begun following me have agreed that it is easiest to do so on a large screen (i.e., a laptop or desktop computer) as opposed to a small screen on a mobile device. Following these steps should lead to success:

1. Go to my blog website at https://www.BalancingB-G.blogspot.com

2. Go to "Follow By E-mail", on the right-hand side of the screen, under all of the follow options. Input the e-mail address to which you would like to receive my posts, and click "Submit".

3. You will arrive at an "Email Subscription Request" page. Complete the subscription request.

4. Respond to the verification message received via e-mail by clicking on the highlighted link.

5. You should now be following my blog. Any time that I publish a new post, which varies in frequency, you should receive an e-mail copy of it. While I do not know who follows me by e-mail, please consider yourself in that group of fine folks whom I silently thank each and every day!

Some of you have clicked the "Follow" button on my blog, but have reported that you do not receive any notifications regarding BalancingB-G. But some of you might . . . this is a grey area for me. It seems that this option may only provide you with notifications pertaining to my blog if you are a blogger on this site yourself. Not very helpful for most of you . . . I'm sorry that I've misdirected so many of you. ~sigh~ Between my lack of technical know-how and this being a free blog site, this entire process has not been as simple as I would have hoped.

If you are not receiving my posts after having gone through the above process, please contact me via any personal contact info you have (Facebook, BBM, e-mail, texting, old-fashioned phone call) and I will try to help.

How to 'reply' or 'comment' on a blog post

The next problem relates to commenting on one of my posts. I was very disappointed to learn from several of you that you had left comments on some of my posts, or more aptly, that you thought you had, but there were no comments to be seen. A comment left successfully should appear at the bottom of the post itself. Also, I reply to every comment left by my readers. Every single one. So if you have not received a reply, I have not received your comment.

Following is the step-by-step process for leaving a comment if you receive my blog post via e-mail. Alas, it is not nearly as straight-forward as one would hope.

1. At the bottom of the e-mailed post, you must click on the highlighted "Balancing B-G" link. This will direct you to my blog website.

2. Now you will find yourself at the top of my entire blog, not necessarily where you wanted to be or comment. Sorry! You will have to scroll to the post you wished to comment on. Sometimes I feel like my blog is from the 1990s!

3. Once you have scrolled to the bottom of the post on which you'd like to comment, you must click on the highlighted words "No comments" (should no previous comments have been made already) or "2 comments" (for example, should two comments have already been left). So "no comments" does not mean that no comments are welcome, it simply means that none have been left, and you are more than welcome to change that!

4. Now you can type your comments in the box where it says "Enter your comment . . . " After typing your comment, you can click on the far right "Notify me" box to ensure that you receive notification of both your own comment as well as my reply to your comment. Then click the "Publish" button.

If you go straight to my blog site rather than receiving an e-mailed post, you would not have to do Step 1 as listed above.

If you receive my posts via e-mail and reply to it directly, I will not receive your message. 

This should be much simpler than it is, in my humble opinion, but I'm not about to switch blog providers at this point in the year, and so we'll try to make the best of it. 

Your readership and comments are ever-so-much appreciated, and I truly hope that some of the bumps in the road that I've experienced here have not turned anyone away. Thank you for your persistence and encouragement!

A huge thank you also to my one-man I.T. crew, M. I couldn't have even written this post without you!

My wonders: Have you ever struggled with technology in an area of your life, to the point of deep frustration? Were you able to solve your problem, and if so, how? Now that you know how to comment on my blog, please do so! Lol!