How to Manage Your Blog Addiction: a 5 Step Program
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Step 1: Admit you have a problem
Everyone has faced it. When you initially learned about blogs and blogging you were like a wide-eyed kid who had just entered a huge toy store. There were blogs about everything you’ve always wanted! Knitting? Check! Soccer? Check! Monster-Truck Driving-Extreme Ping-Pong Enthusiasts? Check.
Then, somewhere down the road your new found love became a monkey on your back. Before you knew it you became a blog junkie- checking your favorite sites several times a day just to get a fix. Minutes turned into hours, and hours into days.
Blog Addiction- it’s like all the fun of alcoholism but instead of hangovers you get really dry eyeballs. Now, lets figure out how to keep from losing your wife, your kids, your truck and dog to your new obsession (unless you want a career as a country music singer).
Step 2: Forget About Beating It
Let’s be serious. None of us wants to beat our blog addictions. I think I speak for all of us when I say “you can take my laptop when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.” But if you’re not going to stop reading blogs, how do you keep up with all that information?
Step 3: Get yourself a Feed Reader
What’s a feed reader, you ask? Feed readers collect information from your favorite sites into one place for you to check- much like you check your email. They’re like the blog-crack drug dealer. Will they help you curb your addiction? No. But they will make you functional again and that’s all you need. Want to know how to use these magical beasts? Read on…
I suggest Bloglines; It’s an online feed reader. There are programs you can install on your computer if you prefer, but trust me on this one. If you want access to your feadreader at work, at home or even on your phone while you use the restroom (not like I’d know) then you want an online solution.
Google Reader is another awesome online solution- if you use gmail you already have an account.
Step 4: Figure out how to collect all your feeds
See the icon to the left? That signals that a site can be read by a feed reader. The technology behind it and the name for it can vary, but it’s all basically the same thing- When you see this icon, you know you’re at a site your feed reader can read. Your feedreader will provide instructions on finding and adding feeds, plus there’s plenty of info out there if you search for it.
Just for your nerd trivia quotient for the day, it is called RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. It’s also associated with other magical abbreviations like XML, ATOM and by the time I finish this post there will probably be nine more. Don’t worry about it- just learn how your feedreader of choice works.
Step 5: Organize your Feeds
This is essential. Any seasoned blog-addict will tell you, organize your feeds. For a while I was actually keeping up with over 500 different sources of material on my feedreader. OK by “keeping up” I mean skimming the titles. And by “while” I mean until my wife threatened to leave me.
Everyone organizes their feeds differently- think about how you use them, how often they publish material, etc and go at it.
Now that you know how to manage your blog obsession with a feed reader, I’ll be back next week to help you keep feeding the addiction!
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Tags: ASK, Google, Marketing, The Web, Time Management
Posted in Search & Marketing
