Top 10 Stars of the Week, May 5
This is my normal weekend link love list from my starred items in my rss feed reader. There were way to many to list this week but a few stood out and I have them listed below. Thanks for a good week of reading to those below.
There were to many to dial it down to 10, so here are the top 15 for you.
Top 10 15 Stars of the Week, April 29 - May 5
May 1st is RSS Feed Awareness Day
So, today seems to be deemed RSS Feed awareness day (or RSS Day) and I had been contacted several times about trying to do a quick post on rss (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. It seems that many people are unaware of the importance, or usefulness of an rss feed, so now is your chance to see what it is all about.
As far as a blog goes, it is probably the single most important feature of your blog, and as a reader, it saves time and effort. Each time a favorite blog of yours updates their content, it sends out a rss feed, which can be read through a free program like Google Reader.
Almost all blogs utilize an rss feed, and now you can generally pull a feed from just about anywhere. There are feeds for news sites, blogs, hobbies, just about anything with active content. This is probably the best video out there on RSS Feeds, so give it quick look, it can explain a feed better than I can.
Don’t forget to sign up for my rss feeds, located at the top right corner of the menu at the top. As you look at the drop down, you will have a link to each blog I author, each with its own separate rss feed. In order to read the content of each post, you will need to subscribe to each blog individually.
Top 10 Stars of the Week, April 28
I am going to try to get back to doing this post once a week like I use to do, but for now, here is the latest version of this past weeks starred items from my Google Reader. A complete list is shown on the sidebar to the far right, but these are some posts from the previous week that caught my eye.
It is really amazing how many quality blogs there are now. I now have 686 feeds in my reader. Yes, not all are quite the premium material, but with so many good articles to choose from it is hard to narrow it down to 10, but, here they are.
Top 10 Stars of the week of April 21st
image by Jeff Bauche
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Is Twitter Really a Useful Tool?
With all the hype surrounding Twitter I had to give it a go a few months ago. The big question for me at the time was, is Twitter a useful tool or another avenue that eats time on the Internet?
I am not sure that question has really been answered in my mind yet, but I have made some observations over its use the last month, and if nothing else at all it has connected me to some people in business and blogging that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. At this point, I only wish more of my existing friends were using Twitter.
So Does Twitter Have Usefulness
What caught my eye and got me using Twitter was all the blog posts about its usefulness in business applications, and of course blogging. A few good posts I came across are:
- 12 Ways to Be a More Interactive and Accessible Blogger, It was #8 on Problogger
- How to use Twitter to increase traffic to your blog or website
- Is Twitter a useful tool for technical authors?
- Most Useful Twitter Services That Can Help Your Business Grow
Since most of these posts go into how Twitter functions I won’t try to repeat that here, but I have found a few good applications for its use. Blogging is all about networking of sorts, and Twitter is a social networking agent, so put the two together with a Wordpress Twitter Tools Plugin and you have a great match.
Twitter Tools Plugin & Twhirl
This is a great plugin (and another great one by Alex King, whom I am starting to think is the king of Wordpress plugins) that will automatically post a tweet when you post a new blog article. It is simple to use, and is loaded with options. This is the area on my sidebar that says “What I’m doing…” and it updates with blog posts and also @replies and regular tweet posts.
Then there is Twhirl. This is a standalone program that runs on Adobe’s Air platform that will allow you to use Twitter similar to an IM window on your desktop. They also just came out with a new version, info is on their blog at twhirl 0.8 released - adding friendfeed support. This and support through iPhone and other mobile devises make using Twitter easy.
Interacting is Networking
I found out that you really don’t want to call an automatic blog post entry the end of your Twitter use though. This is not quite the best etiquette to be used on Twitter. Like most things. To make them truly useful you really need to use and interact with them.
This is the case on Twitter as well. I learned how to use the @replies and general updates through a fellow user on Twitter and it expanded it use and productivity, at least as far as traffic goes, ten fold. I would highly recommend using Twitter for more than just blog post entries.
What has your experience been with Twitter? Do you find it a useful tool to use in business applications?
If you are so inclined, you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/islandzephyr
Timesnapper Can Assist Your Blogging
I don’t usually promote or recommend a specific product or service, but in this case, I wanted to post a quick note about Timesnapper. [authors note: this is not a paid review or promotion]
If you are not familiar with Timesnapper it is a method of recording what is shown on your screen, and the programs used throughout the day. I found it last year when looking for a program that would record keystrokes and found this program (I have yet to find the other).
There are three main features of this program that I like and use all the time, but this is not an exhaustive list, just my top three. (1) Screen Shots, (2) Productivity, and (3) Movie Play. One I didn’t list because I haven’t put it into use yet is the time card feature. This one I would like to use and would be quite helpful, I just haven’t set it up yet.
Screen Shots Will Save You Time
The first time I had to actually go back and find a screen shot I was thrilled. Since then, every time I managed to have a program crash or loose some text that I spent the last 15 minutes writing (and apparently not saved), I know I can go back and find the screen shot and my text will be shown where I can at least recreate the lost material.
This one feature is enough for me to recommend this program, since there are those of us who are saving impaired and can’t seem to remember to save our work, it has saved me from having to completed start over again. Of course you can’t copy and paste text, but it is enough to remember the context and re-write something if you need to do so.
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