What Does A Red Box Beside A Following Blog Mean

When you follow a blog on WordPress.com, the new posts from that site will appear in your Reader, where you can view the latest posts published across the blogs you follow. You'll also receive notifications of new posts by email.

A screenshot showing the WordPress.com Reader

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How to Follow Blogs

If you have a WordPress.com account, when you are logged in, click the Follow button that appears in the bottom right-hand corner of all WordPress.com sites:

The follow button for a WordPress.com account

All new posts published on that blog will now show up in your Reader. You will also receive email notifications of new posts. You can change your settings to Immediate, Daily, or Weekly delivery, or opt-out of email notifications.

Note: The follow button only appears for sites with two or more published blog posts.

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Without a WordPress.com Account

After clicking on the Follow button, a dialog box will pop up asking for the email address where new blog posts should be sent.

When Follow is clicked, a pop-up shows to enter your email address in a text field, if you are not already logged into a WordPress.com account.

Be sure to click on the confirmation link in the email that we send you. Until you've confirmed your subscription request, you won't receive email notifications for new posts and updates.

You can also follow a blog using a subscription form if the site owner has added one:

The Follow Blog widget has the same text field to enter your email address to follow posts by email.

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Follow a Blog Not on WordPress.com

To add a blog from Tumblr, Blogger, or any other service to your Reader, click on Manage:

In the text box at the top of the page, enter the URL of the site you'd like to follow:

The field below the heading Manage Followed Sites allows you to enter the URL of any site you want to follow. Click the follow link below to begin following that site.

Click Enter on your keyboard or click the Follow button and future posts published on that blog will appear in your Reader. The last site followed appears at the top of your list of followed sites:

The new site that you are following will show up at the top of your following list.

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Change Email Notification Settings

Go to Profile → Notification Settings → Reader Subscriptions to change your default email delivery methods for all the blogs you follow:

The Subscriptions Delivery section has a series of options, including how often email notifications are received, the email format, and when the emails are sent. At the bottom is a checkbox to block all email updates from followed blogs, then a button to save the changes.

If you have set up a WordPress.com Jabber account, you can get new posts instantly pushed to you via instant messenger (IM) by checking the box next to "Default delivery via Jabber instant message".

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Email Settings for Specific Blogs

To change your email preferences on a per-blog basis, click Manage in your Reader and click the settings icon below the Following link next to the title of a specific blog you follow. Select the frequency of email notifications for each blog.

The settings option next to each blog you are following will let you set the frequency in which you receive updates from that blog.

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How to Unfollow a Blog

First, make sure you're logged in. Then visit the site you want to Unfollow and click the button that says Following in the bottom right-hand corner.

The Following floating button that appears on WordPress sites you are following.

You can also click Edit List in your Reader to display the list of blogs you follow. Find the blog you no longer wish to follow, then click the green word Following next to the name of the site to stop receiving notifications of new posts from that blog.

If you are not a WordPress.com user, visit the Subscription Management page and click the Unfollow link next to the blog title. Changes to these settings will be immediate.

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