I had several people who were disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to subscribe to my new blog because WordPress.org doesn’t work quite the same way as WordPress.com. I have, however, found a decent substitute plugin that will allow you to subscribe to posts at the new blog via email! It’ll be on the right sidebar of A Sense of Natural Wonder, as well as each individual blog post (I just posted one today, BTW).
I’m still looking for a workaround that will let you subscribe to the blog via your WordPress.com account; if anyone has any good ideas there, please do let me know. And thank you!
Therioshamanism 
I think the Jetpack plugin has an option to allow for that; I’m pretty sure that’s how it works on my blog, anyway.
The Jetpack one didn’t like my theme, but I found a similar plugin that played well with it.
I was able to subscribe “using” my wordpress.com account by entering the same email I use for my WP.com login.
I added your new blog my adding your site to my Feedly. The RSS seems slow to update, but it does seem to work.
Fantastic, thanks for letting me know!
You could also try a monthly newsletter for those who still prefer email. MailChimp is free up to 2,000 subscribers and has tons of great options and features.
Hi there.
If you are using WordPress as your CMS for the new site, WordPress is capable of using Open-ID for sign-ins, etc. I was thinking of incorporating it on my personal website(s).
WordPress.org should have a posted topic on the subject, as well as an “FAQ”.
You can also make a mirror blog at WordPress.org that your .com site can crosspost to.
I do that with my blog. It works great.
Thank you for the tip! I may see how that jives with my theme here.