by Chris Guld
Have you noticed on Blogger blogs that many of them now have a section called ‘Followers?’ What does that mean? And, how do you use it?

First an example, if you go to our personal travel blog, you’ll see a section that says, ‘Join this site’ with Google Friend Connect. This is Google’s "Follower’s" gadget. You can add it to your blog simply by editing the Layout and adding the gadget called Followers.

Here’s the basics: each little icon represents a person who has visited our blog and wants to keep up with our story. Some of them are family and dear friends, some of them are people we’ve never met. All they did to get on this list is to click the Follow button. Then there is a screen that asks if you want to Follow publicly or Follow privately. The difference being whether or not your face shows up on the gadget.

So, what does this do for the Followers? Assuming they also have a Blogger blog (you don’t have to, but it helps) – all the blogs you are Following show up on your Blogger dashboard with the most recent posts. This gives you a quick way to check in on everyone all from one screen. You will not get any email from this – you still need to check your Dashboard’s Reading List – but all the blogs you follow will be here in one place.

The blog’s you follow will also show up in your Google reader, if you have a Google account. I use the reader more regularly than the Blogger dashboard. And I have lots of sites listed there that aren’t Blogger Blogs.

Another reason that people ‘follow’ blogs is in the hopes that others will in turn follow them. See and Be Seen! If you click on the little picture of anyone in the Followers gadget, you will see information about them, including their blog, if they have one. Then, you may as well forget about the rest of your day, it’s shot now!

Related posts:

1. Make money with your Blog
2. What is an RSS Blog Feed and Why You Want One
3. Blogger Pages