Why I’ve Ditched Bloglovin’.

Uhhh Bloglovin‘. That wonderful RSS reader that once-upon-a-time all bloggers were using to house their blog and follow others. What used to be THE site amongst bloggers, is now pretty much defunct and it’s official, I’ve ditched it.

The reason I made this decision was based on some interesting 3rd party research, my own research and personal grievances with it.

And you BET I’m about to go into all of that now plus, talk about an alternative you could use instead, and how to block Bloglovin‘ from reading your RSS feed.

What’s wrong with Bloglovin‘?

The Bloglovin‘ Bots.

I’m sure you can guess (or you already know) the kind of bots that are basically running Bloglovin‘ now. All you have to do is click on your latest Bloglovin‘ follower, and you’ll see.

When I first started gaining new followers on Bloglovin‘, I was excited! All of a sudden my numbers started climbing, and to outside viewers, it would look like my blog was gaining traction. Until I clicked on one of them and found they were a bot. They ALL were, and they kept on coming. Even now I’ll get an email telling me I have new followers and I don’t even need to check to know it’s a bot. In fact, bots make up so much of my following now, that it’s embarrassing and it doesn’t help my blog or my account in any way.

This is a platform-wide issue. When Google searching to find out more, I came across their Trustpilot which is overrun with negative reviews and makes trusty old Bloglovin look not so trusty. I’m honestly a little scared at some of the speculations too. A few other bloggers have talked about this as well including; An Introvert Talks and Feed Your Addiction, along with a few Tweets. But it doesn’t seem to be an issue that’s brought up too often. Have bloggers just not cared, or not noticed?

You can’t block or remove these bots either, so your account is stuck like this and the bots just keep on coming. Maybe you’re thinking, shouldn’t Bloglovin’ work on this issue if it’s harming their brand so much? This would be a great point, and it brings me to my next find…

Photo by Jess Bailey Designs from Pexels

Bloglovin‘ seems to have been abandoned?!

So because I’m a Capricorn, when I have questions, girl, I NEED to find the answers. I did a Twitter deep dive and searched “bloglovin’ bots” and “activate social” to come across a few other bloggers talking about the spam, and others speculating how emails go unanswered and it seems like no one is there anymore. Their Twitter account @bloglovin has been completely wiped, and the company has re-branded as Activate Social almost distancing themselves from Bloglovin‘. However, that account also seems to be dead with the last Tweet posted in 2019.

The Instagram for Bloglovin is still up, interestingly, with no real mention of it “now being Activate Social” like on Twitter – but is seemingly also dead. Or, well, it isn’t used as often as you think it would for a Social Media company. Upon more digging, you’ll find Tweets and comments galore of girls frustrated over the fact that they get no answer when they email the company. It’s like no one is there anymore. Which does seem a little scary when you think about the kind of bots that are on the platform now.

No one uses it anymore, anyway.

This brings me to the next part of this post – my research. Since I can’t simply be satisfied with what I find from others, I have to get some opinions of my own. So I held a Twitter poll, and an Instagram Story poll, and this is what I learned.*

*very limited amount of votes but each from a unique user. 2/5 votes on Twitter said they still used it while 4/4 votes on IG said they don’t use it.

from polls conducted on Twitter & IG (from an account that has now been merged with my main account)

Helloaycan on IG said she doesn’t use it anymore because; “the site lags, no updates for years, half the links never work.” Which stood out to me with the whole ‘Bloglovin‘ being abandoned’ speculation.

It seems like it’s all bad and no good with the only bloggers benefiting from Bloglovin‘ being the ones who gained a loyal following before the bots took over.

So what is a Bloglovin‘ alternative?

If you’ve developed a nasty taste in your mouth for Bloglovin‘ as I did, you might be wanting to ditch it. But ditch it for what?

While you can easily switch to another RSS feed reader or start collecting emails to send newsletters instead, there is one seemingly obvious answer. Just use your Social Media platforms!

The reason Bloglovin‘ was so popular was that it allowed people to follow all their favourite blogs in one place. It was convenient and easy, and no one was getting annoying emails. If they wanted to catch up on new blog posts, they just logged into Bloglovin‘.

I mean, how do you like to follow new blogs? Do you subscribe to emails, follow an RSS feed reader, or do you just follow their Instagram/Twitter?

I’ll find their socials and follow those instead – admittedly, I don’t even use Bloglovin‘ anymore. Everyone always Tweets their new blog posts and promotes them on IG anyway, so that seems like the best fit. So, replace your Bloglovin‘ buttons for your socials instead!

Sumo has been my favourite social sharing builder for years! It’s free and so easy to use. You can create an actionable widget that encourages people to follow a social account.

For this, you’ll want to go to the ‘Forms‘ tab and select ‘Get Social Shares‘ as your ‘Goal‘. Then just play around and design your widget and place it on your blog wherever you want to. Just make it clear that this is how people can “Subscribe” to your blog!

How can I remove my blog from Bloglovin‘?

If you really want to remove your blog from the platform entirely, there’s only one way, and this is something you DON’T want to do if you still want to use other RSS feed burners.

Because Bloglovin‘ reads all public RSS feeds, there’s no real way to stop it from reading your blog. Deleting your account does nothing so you might as well keep it. The only alternative that I’ve found is to make your RSS feed private. Bloglovin‘ won’t be able to read it anymore, but this means no other RSS feed reader can either. So only proceed with this if you’re using the Social Media option for subscribers, or you’re collecting email subscribers instead.

How: if you’re a WordPress user, install the plugin Disable Feeds and activate it. This will simply disable your RSS feed, and it can be switched on again at any time. No harm done!

What are your thoughts on Bloglovin’? Do you still use it, and will you keep using it?

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