Getting started with TheseReads

The parent blogger community is alight with talk of a new platform to help us publicise our posts and find great new content to read and share and we think it could make a big difference to your traffic. There’s currently quite a wait to have a TheseReads account approved, so popular has it turned out to be, so we’re super excited that JQ and his team are giving Parent Blogger News readers direct access to set up their accounts (via the link below) immediately rather than waiting for the approval process.

So what is TheseReads?

TheseReads is a community where you can read, save and share posts from your own and other sites. It’s a bit like crossing bloglovin with pinterest and then being able to share your favourite finds across your social networks. As is often the case with new platforms, early adopters will have a big advantage when it comes to getting noticed. Parent bloggers in America have been using TheseReads for quite a few months now and many have experienced a big upturn in traffic either directly from TheseReads or from the facebook and twitter shares generated by the platform.

How does it work?

Well, you’ll be relieved to hear it’s pretty simple. Once you sign up for an account you follow other people, blog feeds or topic based channels from which you can see a stream of content. When you see something you like you ‘clip’ it to add it to your own stream. You can also ‘like’ stuff or ‘send’ it to a friend. Your stream will become a collection of all the pieces you have clipped and if other people like your choices too they can follow you. Best of all there’s no confusing algorithm for the profile streams determining who sees what *glares pointedly in the direction of facebook and pinterest*. Everything is shown in chronological order, how refreshingly old school!

And for blogs?

As well as a personal account, bloggers can request ‘publisher’ status. This allows you to add a separate feed for your blog direct from your RSS feed. Once set up, it pulls every new post into its own stream which can be followed by people and your content can be clipped and added to individual streams across TheseReads.

Does it really generate as much traffic as we’re hearing?

Well Cerys from Rainy Day Mum told me:

At the end of January I read an article on And Next Comes L about TheseReads and as I was getting disillusioned with facebook I decided to apply for an invite and was accepted on the 2nd of February. I applied to be a publisher and was accepted within hours. Since then I have seen a steady flow of traffic to my site from TheseReads. So far I only have around 200 TheseReads followers but even though four of my posts have been shared on facebook pages with over 1 million followers this week I’ve seen more traffic from TheseReads. In terms of investment in time, I am spending a lot less time clipping than I do on scheduling for Facebook and I’m getting a higher return.

You can find Cerys over on TheseReads as well as her Rainy Day Mum feed.

Sounds good, how do I get started?

1. You normally have to wait for approval but if you use our sign up link you should be able to sign in via facebook and set up your account straight away.
2. Once you’re registered, have a look around and follow some other blogs, individuals or topic streams that interest you. You can find our profile here and the PBN blog feed here if you fancy taking a look.
3. Go to your settings and make yourself a badge to add to your site to direct your readers to your TheseReads account. It’ll look like the one in my sidebar.
4. Go to the ‘publisher’ section in your settings, enter the details of your blog’s RSS feed and then tick the box at the bottom asking to be verified as a publisher.
5. Have fun clipping anything that takes your fancy for a day or so while TheseReads sets up your blog account.
6. Once it’s up, your blog account will pull the content direct from your RSS feed so you don’t need to do anything except pop over there periodically when you want to clip some of your own posts into your profile stream.

Some things to consider:

• Items that get a lot of clips and likes will end up in the category streams and reach an even larger audience so, like pinterest, think nice images and clear, descriptive titles.
• Don’t just clip your own stuff, it’s a community after all!
• You can attach a bookmarklet to your favourites bar so you can clip direct from a web page. You’ll find it under ‘add link’ (top right).
• There’s an ios app too so you can clip on the go.
• You can send your clips to twitter and facebook as you go to amplify your reach.

If you get stuck you can check out the TheseReads FAQ page and you can always drop them a line via the help section. JQ is super helpful!

We’ve really enjoyed using TheseReads so far and would love to connect with more users so if you do set up an account come and leave your link in the comments so we can pop over and take a look.

Who’s worth following?

The TheseReads community is growing very quickly with new feeds added daily so it won’t be hard to find interesting streams to follow, just check out the ‘related’ list on the right hand side of your feed, but if you’re a parenting blogger then we’d definitely recommend checking out:

• The Parenting Sites category stream
• The Parenting Tips category stream
• Stay at Home Mompreneur
• Cerys from Rainy Day Mum
• Nicolette from Powerful Mothering
• Buzzfeed Parents
• and, of course, the PBN profile and blog feed

So get clipping everyone and don’t forget to come back and let us know how you get on and share your stream.