One of the advantages of RSS is that it lets you skim through big amounts of content. To make it even easier, you can insert visual cues to the names of content sources. That way, your eye will identify the source of the headline even before you start reading it.
Continue reading “Use Visual Cues to Identify Non-Interesting Content in Your RSS Stream”»
Google reader is probably the best RSS reader available today. Here are some tips and practices for power users (hopefully, you) to help you better manage your RSS reading time and leverage it, tweak Google Reader to use first and second level categorization, and optimize you RSS subscription list.
At a certain point you've probably realize that it is just not possible to read all of the new items you get. One possible solution is to use folders to categorize your feeds. Once you categorized all your feeds, you can read prioritize your reading by urgency level. For example, I use a folder called 'Immediate' where I put feeds that I want to read the moment they publish something new because it is important for me to know about them as soon as possible. These could be work related or new trends, usually things that if no read within day or two (sometimes less), they became irrelevant. Other folders I use are 'friends', 'Podcasts', 'Premier Blogs', and some more. I also use a 'must read' folder for things that I want to read sometime, but it doesn't really matter when (such as family blogs or new WordPress plugins).
Continue reading “Google Reader Tips and Practices for Power Users”»
Two weeks a go I gave a lecture in a social media seminar. Now I’ve translated the presentation I used into English and made it easier to understand without seeing the actual lecture.
The presentation describes 20 social media practices that will help you in your daily life. It includes tools to monitor your web presence, ways to track interesting topics and conversations, methods to find people and to get answers, and more.
It revolves around the following seven categories:
I’ll be glad to get your feedback and thoughts about it.
Since RSS was introduced, the number of sites people are able to read increased substantially. Try these six methods to find more sites to subscribe to and fill in the reading gap.
Let’s say someone you followed on twitter, or a coworker from work sent a link to a useful article in PDF format. PDF documents on the web are disconnected from the site they are published on. That is, there is no navigation menu to put you in context. When you get this kind of document, remove the end of that document’s URL and visit the site that published it. Usually, you will find more interesting things in there.
For example – I got to a document called “Best Practices for Political Advertising Online” while I was reading a post through my RSS reader. That was its original URL:
http://www.ipdi.org/UploadedFiles/BannerAdReport4.pdf
I removed all the right part and stayed with http://www.ipdi.org , where I found more great publications.
Continue reading “6 Ways to Find More Sites worth Subscribing to”»
in this post you will learn how to save time and get the most out of your RSS subscription list in Google reader. the method presented here include 4 steps and is easy to implement right away. it is based on finding the sources that fit you best and unsubscribing to those that do not. just to get some perspective, take a look at my Google Reader stats. I stay on top of 1,043 subscriptions using that method.
My google reader stats
the first thing you should do is to star items you like.
Do it whenever you find something that you would define as worth reading; thing you would like to see more of (Star an item by clicking the star next to it in the reading list or by pressing ‘S’ in the keyboard). Continue reading “4 Steps to Optimize Your RSS Subscription List in Google Reader”»
If you’re lost into the clutter of web 2.0 buzz words and definitions, CCH’s recently published survey report might come in handy. The objective of the report is “to gauge the effects that Web 2.0 and user-generated content are having on the way professionals access, absorb, and disseminate information”. It offers short and clear definitions for “Web 2.0″, “Blog”, “Wiki”, “RSS”, “Social Bookmarking”, and “Social Network”. What’s more, it presents paragraph-long scenarios for using each of them in professional settings (starting page 9), which can be useful if you’re looking to make a case for these kind of tools in your organization.
Continue reading “Report: What is Web 2.0 and how do Professionals Use it?”»