Each Sunday night for the past nine weeks I've created a post filled with 33 quotes, links, and other intriguing bits I discovered in the blogosphere. Finding 33 items every week may sound daunting but I've found that it has become one of the easiest posts to write. The reason is that I'm able to combine my RSS reader and my email account into a powerful blogging tool. The following explains how you too can combine these items in a way that will increase your effectiveness as a blogger while decreasing the amount of time you waste searching for something new to say.
[Note: I'm a Google-phile so the example that I'll be using combines Google Reader (GR) and GMail. Although I can't imagine why anyone would choose to use any other kind of feedreader or email account, this process can be modified to fit almost any system.]
1. Set up your RSS Reader -- If you don't already have one, create an account for Google Reader.
2. Add Feeds -- GR makes it easy to add a subscription. Simply fill in the URL of the blog or site you want to add.
Some blogs have more than one option for viewing the blog feed. My site, for example, has four different types including a way to view the full post and/or comments. (Unfortunately, typing in the blog URL for my site only provides a partial view and requires you to click through to my blog to read the full post. To read the entire post from your reader, use this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/evangelicaloutpost/okAx.)
3. Add Feeds to Folders -- Folders are particularly useful for those times when you don't have time to read every feed or when you need information about a specific topic. Rather than classifying blogs by overly broad descriptive terms (i.e., Christian Blogs; Philosophy Blogs), group them in folders with titles that reflect how you use them (i.e., Political news -- Presidential Election; Resources for Yak Shaving Razor posts).
You can always change these folders later so don’t worry about putting blogs in the wrong place.
4. Star Posts for Further Review -- The next step is to weed through the posts, separating the wheat from the chaff. Quickly skim each blog post to determine if it is worthy of further attention. If so, add a star in the upper left hand corner.
Using this method you should be able to skim hundreds of post in less than an hour.
5. Establish Your Filing System -- Before we move on to the next step, let's set up a filing system in Gmail. Each week I write two "link" posts (Thirty Three Things and Yak Shaving Razor) so I've set up labels for each of those areas.
I also have a label for articles that I plan to read later and for material that can be used for future blog posts.
6. Set Up Email Filing -- Once we have the labels for our filing system in place, we need to email the articles to our Gmail account. Rather than have to file them manually, we'll take advantage of Gmail's "filters" to handle that task automatically. You can create a unique email address by adding the plus sign between the end of your email and the @ sign. For example, I could modify my email address (joe.p.carter@gmail.com) to create a unique email address for my label (joe.p.carter+33@gmail.com). To make it easier to use the auto-fill function, I create a username for the address like this that I email to myself. Now whenever I start typing "33" into the "To" the address appears automatically. Once you have the address set up, click on the "create a filter" link and add it to the "To" section.
Click on "next step" and check the boxes like this:
From now on when you send an email to that address it will automatically be filed under the proper label.
7. File Your Starred Post -- Once our filing system is in place, we can email these posts to our files. Click on the "Email" link under the post and fill in the address for the label you want to file it under.
Make notes for later use and hit send.
8. Plunder Your Files for Links and Post Ideas -- Work your system regularly and you should find that you are never at a loss for intriguing blog material.
"To read the entire post from your reader, use..." Okay. I now rescind my previous comment. Wish I had known this from the get-go though.
As for the rest... wow. You are serious about this stuff, aren't you? I had no idea a person could be so organized. I'm going to have to try some of this, now that Google Reader has had its mailing options reformatted.
Great ideas, Joe! I use Bloglines, but I see I could be more organized there. And I love your "33 Things" feature.
Thanks for the tutorial, I am a Googlephile so I learn something new and useful. BTW, I am glad that Google Reader finally changed it's email feature, that makes emailing posts easier than ever.
I have been using gmail ... forever (2004) and reader for almost as long and never thought to do this.
You ... are my hero today.
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