Something Recently Herd

As many of you know, I use Google Reader to get blog feeds from my favorites.  Saves me time and keeps me abreast of what’s going on in the blogosphere.  I also get quite a few via email. I’ve trained myself to pay attention to trends and inclinations (my Economy and Sociology professors from college would be very proud of me). Here’s what I have observed:

There seems to be a subconscious connection between entrepreneurs who blog. More often than not, subject matter runs along similar tracks.  I find patterns all the time.  For instance, everybody was writing about optimizing websites for SEO, then about using teleseminars, then about using what you know and what you’ve learned to teach others. It’s kinda fun to watch.

My point is this: you can keep yourself on the cutting edge just by watching what everybody else is talking about in the blogosphere. Optimize your business. Use Self-Exploration-Optimization then write down everything you find. Keep up with what your competition is doing and take a step ahead.

One of the reasons I really like to use Google Reader is that only the title and synopses come across and I can quickly scan them all (average daily entries number 135) to get the trends and focus, then read the ones I have the most interest in first.

Here’s my process for those of you who would like to try it out.

1. Set up a Google Reader Account. This requires a Gmail account so if you don’t have one, get one, It’s easy and it’s free.
2. Pay attention to the blog trackbacks and permalinks and visit the links to see if there’s anything interesting first and foremost.  Subscribe using RSS and select Google Reader as the receiving reader.
3. Daily (or whatever schedule works for you), visit your Google Reader site and see what’s there.
4. Scan through the titles and open the ones that really excite your interest in another page to read the whole post.  Don’t worry, they’ll hang out patiently waiting for you.  The goal is to clear your Reader box.  Once you scroll down through the entries they disappear so if you don’t want that, you either need to mark them to keep as unread in the little box at the bottom of the entry or open them up in another window.  (By the way, opening them up in another window also allows you to make comments to the ones you want to.  Another bonus).
5. Now grab a favorite beverage and read your entries.  Take notes, make comments or whatever you do with a blog entry now.

This way you can get through required reading quickly and painlessly.  I have three blogs I look for religiously every day, Shannon Cherry’s Start Up Spark, Stepcase Lifehack, and Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities weblog (this one is great for keeping up on what’s new in the field). The others all have to do with supporting my business growth in one fashion or another.

So give that a try and see what happens. People always ask how I keep up with all that I do.  This is one of my secrets, but I share it with you, my friends.

So until next time,

Work well, play well, be well