Setting Up Your Online Daily Paper Using RSS - Part 3

So hopefully you've had a chance to download a feed reader. Well now that you have, let's get you some articles for your online daily paper.

The first blog I mentioned in my previous post was Seth Godin. Not only is he a marketing wiz, but you need a feed reader to keep up with him on most days. The posts are incredibly short, but incredibly insightful.

Now here are the following blogs I'd highly recommend:

Ben Martin - Ben is the main page. He posts very frequently and odds are if it's of interest to association professionals Ben's a part of the conversation or has at least heard of it and put it on his blog. Ben in and of himself is the RSS of Associations.

ASAE and The Center's Acronym - The best part about this blog is there are many contributors and if one post comes off as insincere or wrong or ill-informed the commenters are sure to jump in. This is a great industry page and has a lot of great views.

Diary of a Reluctant Blogger - Maddie is a new blogger, but I think she's one to keep an eye on. She covers a variety of topics and does a great job of covering the variety of conversations on the blogoclump, giving meaningful perspectives to the conversation.

Membership Marketing - Tony has a lot of great insights into membership and marketing - and we are in the membership business, whether you're in the membership department.

I think for the most part these blogs are a great starting point for any daily paper. There are a variety of other blogs that focus on a variety of other things, and I think the four blogs above list them all out very well. I've read alot of the blogs in the association sphere and there are definitely some to keep an eye out for, but most tend to be more focused. And if I gave you all the links, what fun would that be?

But remember, whether you use my recommendations or find your own, using RSS helps you to efficiently learn about a variety of topics. And while initially you may need to spend a bit of time finding the initial blogs, once you've set it up, you can allocate some time in the morning or evening and just flip through the feeds of your online daily paper. I've had many ideas, insights and conversations within my own organziation thanks to reading my daily feeds.

So enjoy your feeds and if you find any blogs that are worth focusing in on, by all means let me know,

Thanks for reading,
Bob

Setting Up Your Online Daily Paper Using RSS - Part 2

I could explain what RSS is, but I don't think I can do any better than this video put together by CommonCraft Show:



I think this is one of the most simplistic explanations of RSS. Next step - pick your feedreader.

I'm playing with google reader right now, but there are a ton of different readers including yahoo and others. If you want to set up your feedreader using google go to http://www.google.com/reader and sign up. The great part about this (in my 24 hours of review) is that you can access it anytime you're online. This means:

*No worries if you're harddrive crashes/get a new computer (which I learned the hardway)
*No worries if you set up all your feeds at work but only have time to read them at home

Windows Vista also has a feedreader built in, but again it's on your hard drive so there's limited flexibility.

So set up your google or yahoo or Vista feed. And if you want to start subscribing and more importantly seeing how it works, subscribe to Seth Godin's blog. Not only is he a marketing genius (and everyone markets), but he also posts 2-4 times a day on a typical day. His feed is feeds.feedburner.com/typepad/sethsmainblog

In the next day or so I'll give you the top association blogs you'll want to subscribe to to help you get your online daily paper started.

Thanks for reading,
Bob

P.S. Need more help? Email me at rawolfejr@yahoo.com

Setting Up Your Online Daily Paper Using RSS - Part 1

If you don't have a feed reader yet, you should. Why - because it allows you to subscribe to blogs. And the best thing I've done for my professional development is quite simply setting up my Online Daily Paper (ODP) comprised of various blog feeds.

My ODP is my RSS feed filled with the best of the blogoclump's blog posts (and those outside of the association world). And because it's not in email, you can quickly skim your blogs like you would the daily paper. Read the tips and opinions that interest you, pass on those that don't.

Unfortunately though, I learned the hard way that you do not want to use a feed reader that is saved on your computer. The reason - if you're harddrive crashes or you get a new computer, all your feeds are lost.

Well over this week I am going to set up my ODP again, so join along. I'll walk you through setting up your own ODP (made up of what I think are the Must Read Blogs for Young Associaiton Professionals, or any Association Professional for that matter) as I rebuild my own online daily paper.

So don't worry if you don't know what a feed reader really is or what RSS means, I'm going to walk you through the various steps to set up your daily papers over the next few days and introduce you to the world of RSS.

Thanks for reading,
Bob