Today I’d like to share with you a teeny tiny little thing that has changed my life.Well, at least my blogging life, which is a decent portion of my real-world life. 🙂
This is your Blogger profile. Actually, it’s mine, but I’m sure your looks similar. (Sorry to those of you who don’t use Blogger or have a Blogger profile. I only use blogger, so I’m a bit Blogger-centric.)
See this little blue Email link the on the left, underneath my profile picture? That is the teeny tiny little thing that has changed my blogging life. And it can change yours too!
If you are like me (and I’m kind of making a big presumption that you are, so just go along with me here for a minute), you like blogging for many reasons, and one of those reasons is connecting with other people, people that you would never have met or had contact with otherwise.
Well, having that little email link in your profile makes connecting with other bloggers (at least those who use Blogger) so much easier! (No, this is not a paid promotion… sorry for all the exclamation points. 🙂 )
Once you’ve added your email to your profile and made it visible (thus adding the little blue Email link to your profile), when you leave a comment on a Blogger blog, the author can reply directly to your comment via email. If your email isn’t in your profile, the author has to put in more work to respond to you, checking your Blogger profile (if you have one) to see if your blog is listed there, and coming to return the comment. Leaving a comment without your email in your Blogger profile is kind of like leaving your name but no number in a voicemail message: it’s possible to return your call, but it takes some legwork, and probably some help from caller ID.
And, if you’ve ever entered a giveaway where the host requires your email address for your entry to be valid, having your email listed in your Blogger profile means that you don’t have to expose your email address in a comment, where it is plainly written and vulnerable to spammers. (Don’t worry — the Email link in your profile keeps your email address safe.)
So, listing your email in your profile is a win-win-win situation! (Any Office fans? 🙂 ) And, it’s sooo easy. It will take you less than 2 minutes. Here’s how:
- Log in to your Blogger account.
- Click Edit Profile, the second link in the list next to your profile picture.
- Check the box that says Show my email address, the third option in the Privacy section of your profile.
- Scroll down and check that the email address listed in the Identity section is the email you prefer to have your comment replies (or comment subscriptions) delivered to.
- Scroll all the way down to the bottom and click Save Profile.
Ta-da! You’re done and ready to become connected. Now when you leave a comment, the blog author can respond directly to you! Yes, this is a little bit self-serving since it will help me, but in all honesty, once I added my email to my profile I started making friends in the blogosphere. Not just the hey-I-stalk-you kind of friends, but friends where I feel like I know a little bit about her (because I’m pretty sure every single blog I follow is authored by a female) and she knows a little bit about me. It’s nice.
So what are you waiting for? Go add your email to your profile and then come back here and introduce yourself. I promise to personally respond to each of your emails. Can’t wait to meet you!
Lu (or Lorene if you prefer) is the mom of one squirmy boy and the wife of a singing and dancing elementary teacher. She is the proud author of this weekly Wednesdays on the Web (WotW) segment here on Housewife Eclectic and spends the other days of the week blogging about books, crafts, recipes, and whatever else comes up at just Lu.
Great tip! I actually set up a Hotmail addy for my blog so I could feel a little better about exposing an e-mail address to the universe. I made a sidebar widget with it and put it right at the top of my blog page. At first, all it really did for me was increase mu e-mail spam (and OK, it still does) but eventually, some of my bloggy friends started reaching out to me by e-mail. I love it…it's fun to have people make that connection.
Such a good post. I did this a while ago when one of my bloggy friends told me to!!! Now I hate when others don't have it. I like to respond to each and every comment and it does make it so much harder when the no-reply thing comes up.
I've actually created many more close relationships by being able to respond this way!! It's a must!!!!! Hopefully more people will do it!
What a great tip! Thank you for sharing!
Have a super day!
Lynn
http://www.bradybunchplus1.blogspot.com
P.S. I actually just had this happen yesterday so I'm really excited to know this now. 🙂
I got this tip from someone else earlier this month, and I'm so glad I did. It really does change your blogging life! I also like replying to people's comments myself, and sometimes it makes me sad when they don't have their e-mail address listed so I can't.
Again, thanks for sharing!
Cheap Geeks Anonymous
Haha! I love it!
I've been preaching this same thing for years or months or whatever!
I'm always frustrated when folks don't have an email in their profile. Great post to talk people through how to do it.
Agreed! This is a great thing to do! I need to spread the word on this. Lives could be changed everywhere!!
What a great tip!! I found your blog through From The Kitchen of: Mrs Bettie Rocker. I have one, too, if you'd like to take a look: http://www.kitschysuburbia.blogspot.com
Thank you, Thank you…I have been trying to figure out how to do this…you are a lifesaver!!! 🙂 That's why I like you so much! 🙂
You RULE for this post…. If I can't reply direct from a comment, I don't reply. Call me stingy, I don't care. I've told so many people to do this and yet, they haven't. Sigh.
I am very new to blogging, and just by reading the above comments, i'm very glad you posted this! 🙂 When setting my profile up, i thought, ehh, i dont wanna expose my email. But it makes total sense! Thanks for the great tip!! Now hopefully i can start to experience what everyone else is and maybe get better at it all! 🙂
I am an office fan! (love the reference)
I am also a big fan of enabling email addresses in blogger profiles!
Great office reference! I hope everyone in the entire bloggy world reads this post and follows the directions! I used to try to track down everyone who left a comment with no e-mail address, but sadly I've given up. I don't have the time to do that, but I do wish I could reply to them. I hate to leave people feeling ignored. The majority of responses are just that – kind responses, but now and again the person that I responded to responds back to me and a fun extended bloggy-friendship blooms. I love that!
I completely agree. It is so much easier to make contact with the email in the blogger profile. Thanks for making ppl aware! Have a great day!
Nice tip. I'm a WordPress convert (used to blog very sporadically on Blogger) so this doesn't apply the same way but it's still handy info. I really like your blog header – I've been finding great headers all morning. Methinks I feel a Hot Blog Headers posting coming up!