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Stay Informed with Google Reader
In order for you to achieve long-term success you have to know what’s going on in your market and industry. It doesn’t matter what you are attempting to promote, sell, or advertise. You need to know what’s changing so you can react to the change. You need to know what other people are saying so you can strategize. You need to know so you will know…know what I’m saying?
The cool thing about the web is that staying informed is extremely easy and effortless. My tool of choice is Google Reader for a couple of reasons.
- It’s made by Google and I’m a fan of Google. They do things right (most of the time).
- There are tons of apps available that I can download to my iPhone so I can remain informed anywhere and anytime.
One caveat is that you need a Google account in order to use Google Reader. In all reality though, you should have a Google account. Google offers a ton of resources and tools so setup an account, if you haven’t already, and take advantage of them. Once you’ve setup an account the first thing you need to do stay informed is go to www.google.com and search for “Google Blog Search”, or click here.
Once you’ve reached the Google Blog Search page you are in business. The next step is to simply search. If you want to remain informed about home repairs then search for home repairs. If you want to stay informed about fashion, simply search for fashion. In this example I searched for iPhone apps.
You will see results similar to what you would see in the Google search engine when you submit your search. The difference is that the results are based on other blogs that are writing articles that match your search.
At the bottom-left of the screen you will an RSS link. Place your mouse over this link and right-click your mouse. Then click the “copy link address” option.
Now open your Google Reader page. This is going to be your one-stop shop. At the top-left of your Google Reader page you will find an “Add a subscription” button. Click this button and then paste the URL you copied from the RSS link. Now, click the “Add” button.
You will now see your new subscription in the bottom-left subscription section of your Google Reader page. Now, you can go back to the Google Blog Search page, perform more searches, and add more subscriptions. You can add subscriptions that pertain to hobbies, business interests, and so much more. We have even added subscriptions to our Google Reader page that let us know when our articles have been retweeted or when we have been mentioned on Twitter. How awesome is that?
That’s all there is to it. It is extremely easy. There is no excuse people for not staying informed. What tools have you used to help you remain informed?
