How to Navigate a Blog

Have you ever felt a bit overwhelmed when you visit a blog? I sometimes do (and I visit a lot of blogs. I have about forty blog feeds in my Bloglines account.).

Previous Posts:
What if you read on down the page and want to know what was written just before that last post at the bottom? With some blogs, there is something at the bottom to click on to get to previous posts. With this one, I'm sorry to say, there is not; and to be perfectly frank, I have not yet figured out how to add that...without a total revamp of the blog which would cost me many hours and too much risk of lost content. I'm not big on gambling...

So...if you ever want to know what came before the posts on the current page, here's what you can do:
Scroll down, skimming the sidebar for "Archives". In this case, it's the last list just above the pictures of "Random Books from my Library". Click on the current month and you can see all the posts from this month. In this way, you can be sure you don't miss any content. (Should you have so much time on your hands. )

Contact Blog Owner:
Now, what if you want to contact a blog owner? Been there, done that. Some are easy; some not so easy. First thing you can do is look for a profile. Where there is a profile, there is often (though not always) an email address. In my blog, if you look under Contact Me in the list of Labels (Alphabetical), you can find my email address.

If you can't find someone's email address, on most blogs you can leave a comment. I once needed to talk to someone whose email address I couldn't find anywhere, so I left her a comment giving her my email address and asking her to email me - and she did. (I have a friend who I know reads my blogs but doesn't have email. Could I leave her messages in my posts? Don't worry, _________, I'm just joking...and hope you all are doing well!).

Search:
You are researching turtles and you remember this blogger who wrote about turtles (not me). Or you want to see what someone looks like. Go to "Search" and type "turtles" or "pictures" and voila! you get everything on that topic. Yes, that search field at the top left isn't for the web, nor even for all the blogs in the blogosphere. It's for the very blog you are visiting. This is not available on all blogs, but it is on most blogs whose addresses have "blogspot.com" in them.

So, have fun. But, oh yes, there's the schoolwork and the housework and spending time with the family. I'm outta' here!