What is a Blog?
Short for weblog, a blog is a page updated frequently with (usually) short, chronological entries. No definition will apply to all blogs, but most are run by a single person, contain many links to other blogs and reflect the personalities and idiosyncrasies of their owners. Some are run as personal journals, some contain commentary on world events. Blogs are the next step in Internet development beyond the 'vanity page'.
What is BlogmailTM?
When you sign up to receive BlogmailTM, you'll get an email every day with links to the blogs you like that have been updated during the previous day. We don't include the updated content - we want you to visit the blogs themselves!
How can I use BlogarithmTM?
Get email when a blog changes.
Get email updates when any page on the web is changed.
Track RSS feeds through email.
What About Privacy?
You can view our privacy statement by clicking here.
Getting Started
On our home page, just enter the URL of one of your favorite blogs and your email address, and click the "keep it fresh!" button. Usually within minutes you'll receive an email with a link in it. Click on the link (or copy it into your favorite browser) and we'll create your subscription. That's all there is to it!
After your subscription is created, we will ask you to enter a password (twice, to make sure it was typed correctly) to create an account for you. This step is optional but recommended -- having an account lets you add and remove subscriptions easily, change your email address, and switch between plain and enhanced BlogMail.
If you would like to subscribe to more than one blog at once, you can use the import page. No matter if the list of blogs is on a web page, in a file, or something you want to type in, the import page can handle it. For those hip to the latest technology, it will even correctly handle OPML. You will need an existing account to use the import page. You can create one here.
Updating Your Account
To make any changes to your account, click on "my account" at the top of any Blogarithm.comTM page. Please enter your email address and the password you used when you created your first subscription (see Getting Started above) and click the "edit my account" button. You'll be taken to a page that will allow you to edit a variety of features:
Adding Subscriptions
Once your account is created, all you have to do to add a subscription is to to enter the new blog's URL in the Add Subscription section of the account page and click the "create subscription" button. Your new subscription is created immediately.
Deleting Subscriptions
All of the blogs that you follow are listed at the top of your account page. To delete one or more subscriptions, click the checkbox next to the subscription(s) you no longer want and click the "delete checked subscriptions" button.
Changing User Options
You can switch between receiving BlogMail in plain text or in our Enhanced HTML format. Just select which format you would like in the "User Options" section of the account page and click the "save options" button.
Changing Your Password
Changing your password is as easy as creating it. Just enter your new password is both boxes in the "Change Password" section of the account page and click the "save new password" button.
Changing Your Email Address
Just enter your new email address under "Update Email Address" and click "save new email address". An email will be sent to your old address to make sure you know about the change.
Getting a "Keep It Fresh!TM" Form for Your Blog
If you'd like to make it easy for your readers to get BlogmailTM when you've updated your blog, click on "blogger tools" at the top of every Blogarithm.comTM page. Enter your blog's URL on the next page, and click the "Create Tools" button. HTML code will be created for several forms that you can copy to anywhere on your blog. You can find more details, sample graphics, and detailed installation instructions for most popular blogging systems on our blogger instructions page.
FAQ
Does a blogger need to have signed up with Blogarithm.comTM in order for me to subscribe to their site?
What does a blogger need to do to let Blogarithm.comTM know that their blog has been updated?
We do all the work. Bloggers don't need to do anything to let us know that their blog has been updated, so any blog will work, whether or not the blogger even knows about us!
What about RSS or Atom? What do they mean? What’s a syndication feed? Should I know about this?
If you use Blogarithm, you don't have to know anything about RSS or Atom to take full advantage of what these technologies have to offer. RSS and Atom are syndication feed technologies. They are ways for blogs and other websites to share their content with other web services. When you enter a URL, we check to see if it provides a feed (and continue to check regularly until we find one). If it does, we provide you with all that the feed has to offer!
We believe that it’s our job to use whatever technologies we can to provide you with the most useful updates available, but that you shouldn't have to be concerned with how this all works.
Why do some of the blogs in my BlogMail just have a link to the blog and not any content?
We are able to provide more information for blogs that make content available via a syndication feed (see above) than those that don't. But a link in your BlogMail still lets you know that the blog or website that you're tracking has changes, so it's time to take a look!
But the blog does have a syndication feed - why doesn't Blogarithm use it?
We do our best to detect syndication feeds from any blog to which anyone subscribes, but given the wide variety of ways that people include links to their feeds in their blogs, it is difficult to always successfully detect them. If we don't detect that your blog has a feed, please either let us know or make sure that there's a link to feed in your blog's HTML header.
Does Blogarithm.comTM only work with blogs, or can I use it to find out when any website is updated?
Absolutely! Though we are oriented to providing updates for blogs, our service will work with virtually any website. Feel free to use Blogarithm.comTM to track changes at your favorite band's website, a news service, an online catalog, or any other website.
Why don't you send all the new content instead of an excerpt or just the link?
There are many reasons why we do not send all the new content. In a nutshell, like the bloggers themselves, we want you to visit their sites directly so you can take advantage of all that their sites have to offer, including seeing their sponsors.
Why did my BlogmailTM have a link to a blog that hadn't actually been updated?
Our tests show that our technology is 99% accurate, but since there are so many ways that a page can change without having any fresh content, such as with a page counter, ads, a random content generator, etc, there are a few pages that appear to have changed even though they have no new content. We will continue to make improvements so that our technology will be even more accurate in the future.
Why haven't I received an update?
If you've just signed up to receive BlogMailTM and haven't received any updates, it may be that you did not follow the link in the email that was sent to you when you first entered your email address. Your subscription isn't complete until you confirm that you do receive email at that address.
If you have subscribed successfully but haven't received an update lately, in nearly 100% of these cases, an update isn't received for one of two reasons. First, perhaps none of your blogs have been updated. If they haven't, you won't receive an email from us. Second, your spam filter may have blocked your BlogmailTM from getting to your inbox.
If none of these is the case, please let us know and we'll be sure to track down whatever else might be the cause.
Blogger FAQ
Is it OK for me to modify your subscription form to include it on my blog?
Yes! Feel free to modify our forms as necessary. If you have the ability to modify the forms, you probably can see from the HTML code what needs to be included. For forms, the basic are: a text input named "email", a hidden input named "BlogURL" with your blog's URL as the value, and a submit button named "B1". Also, we'd like you to include a link to our main page or to http://www.blogarithm.com/blogmail.php, ideally something like "powered by blogarithm". Here's the HTML:
"powered by <a href="http://www.blogarithm.com/blogmail.php" title="blogarithm email updates"><span style="color:#336">blog</span><span style="color:#693">arithm</span></a>"
How can I find out how many subscribers I have?
You can find this and lots of other interesting and useful information on your blog's "info" page. If you subscribe to your blog using Blogarithm (and we suggest that you do), the easiest way to get to your blog's info page is to click the "info" link next to your blog's title in your Blogmail. You can also just click discover at the top of any blogarithm page and search for your blog. When you find it, click the "info" link.
How do I get a list of the email addresses of my subscribers?
To protect subscribers' privacy, Blogarithm has a strict policy of not sharing subscriber email addresses.
How can I contact Blogarithm?
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at blogarithm@blogarithm.com.