Keeping up with other blogs: WordPress and Blogger

A few days ago, I asked for advice on how to keep current with the blogs I want to follow.
Some blogs sent me an email every time a new blog was posted. 
Other blogs did NOT.

As an example of a blog that DID send me an email every day something new was posted, I mentioned the Mad Genius Club, written by the conglomerate of people who know how to write and can explain it.

As an example of a blog that did NOT send me an email every day something new was posted, I offered Peter S Grant's fascinating Bayou Renaissance Man, where he shares wit and wisdom on pretty much everything that exists.

Well, today, I believe I discovered the answer to my question, as I was listening to the music of Gregor Joseph Werner, suggested as good Sunday music listening by the aforementioned Peter S Grant (see? told you: pretty much everything that exists).

The blogs I get an email notification for, are all Wordpress blogs. The blogs I DON'T get an email from, are Blogger.

When you post a comment on a Wordpress blog, you have TWO notifications boxes to check: 
"Notify me of new comments via email."
"Notify me of new posts via email."

Now, if you check that second option, even ONE TIME, you will forever get email notifications when new posts appear on that blog, until you change the setting.

Blogger, for some reason, doesn't OFFER that second option.

There are at least two ways to provide a sorry substitute for an affirmative notification, and I did them both many moons ago. 

One is to bookmark the blog; I've got a tab on my browser labeled 'Writing, Reviewing, and Blogs,' and that's where I store those bookmarks. To read the blog, I have to remember to DO it, and then to click two more times, once on the browser tab, then on the name of the blog. That's remember, click, click. Can you guess where the weak spot is? Yup. Remember.

And the second method I just discovered today. On my blog page dashboard, the left side of the page has options (most of which I never use) which can give you information about page views, traffic sources, etc, AND, if you scroll down, there is an item called 'Reading List.' 

I never paid any attention to it before, but today, since I was looking for a way to generate daily email notifications, I clicked on that, and BEHOLD! It contained those blogs to which I had subscribed, which used the Blogger platform just as I do, and which have never emailed me. To access the blogs this way, I have to have my blog open to the dashboard, scroll down, and click the selection. That's remember, click, click to open blog dashboard, scroll, click. And, once again, can you guess where the weak spot is? Yup. It's still Remember.

Having JUST discovered this feature this morning, I don't know if the Reading List will only contain blogs written on the Blogger platform, or if I can add WordPress or some other platform to my Reading List. I will attempt to determine that over the next week or so.

My goal, however, will be to see if I can find some way to have any blog I'm subscribing to send me an email. Someone suggested I apply to an RSS feed, but I've never done that, and don't know what it is or what it does. I prefer an email, because It's friendly, not intrusive, and I can ignore it if I want to, as I scan the list of similar emails.

And I may want to consider switching my platform from Blogger to WordPress.  If I am finding reading WordPress blogs easier, because it's just a click on an email, perhaps others have that same experience. And, since I've been blogging for four years, nine months, and one week, I wonder if I have accumulated followers? I know there are a small number who are following me, but there are a lot more readers than that. Four out of the last five posts I made (all except the one I wrote yesterday)  broke 100 page views, and one broke 360.  I'm wondering now if perhaps those numbers would be a little bit (or a lot) higher if I provided email notification.

It's an interesting thought.

Fellow bloggers: have any of you changed platforms? For those of you who use WordPress, do you think that platform brings you any other advantages/problems? Any other advice you can offer?

Peace be on your household.