Blogroll Archives - Christopher S. Penn - Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

How to share your blog reading list

One of the most powerful aspects of Google Reader that almost no one knows about is its ability to create reading lists, or bundles, that other people can share and enjoy. Today, we’re going to look at how to share the best of the best with your friends.

First and foremost, there’s no obvious way to do this. It’s completely hidden in the interface, one of the many cool things that Google has hidden in favor of promoting Google+ everywhere. Look under Browse for Stuff, then choose Create a Bundle:

Next, create a name for your bundle and start scrolling through your list of blogs. Drag and drop all of the blogs that you want to share with friends into your bundle:

Finally, hit save and you’re presented with a series of options for sharing:

Email, unsurprisingly, sends an email with a link back to Google Reader. Adding links or widgets to your blog does exactly that. The real gem here is the OPML file, which is a downloadable file that you can send to friends for use in many other applications, rather than just Google Reader. Google Reader can import OPML files, of course. But other users of other blog reading platforms can import OPML files as well – it’s the universal standard for sharing blogs.

Those of you who are premium subscribers to my newsletter, you’ll get a chance to download my recommended marketing blog reads in this week’s newsletter.

What bundles will you share, now that you know how to?

How I blog

Mitch Joel asked me yesterday to take a few moments and add to his “how do you blog” meme, so I thought I’d share what I do. Blogging for me occurs as part of a larger content creation and curation process. Here’s the rough outline.

Idea Collection

I use Evernote nearly religiously for collecting bits and pieces of ideas. When I’m driving, when I’m at my desk, whenever, I jot things down, little fragments of ideas, words, phrases, etc. These can stay in Evernote for days or weeks until they start to coalesce and form more than just hooks. On any given day, one or more of these will leap out at me, asking to be written about. Today, for example, this post was top of mind, but there was another post on platforms and a martial arts kata that are going to see the light of day relatively soon.

Creation

Once I’ve decided on what that idea is going to be for the day – an analytics post, a concept, a cooking recipe, whatever – I head over to MarsEdit for the Mac, which is my favorite blog editor. Why? It’s dirt simple, the interface is spartan and stays out of my way, and it posts quickly and efficiently.

As I blog, I start thinking about ideas and themes. I typically try to match up the theme with some kind of imagery, either from my own photo catalog or from Flickr. Because I do make money off of this blog, I restrict myself to Creative Commons By Attribution photos that permit commercial use. While I’m not selling other people’s content, I am indirectly using it to earn revenue, so I use the strictest interpretation of that license.

Once the post is done – after many rewrites – I’ll publish it. But that’s not the end of the blogging process for me.

Distribution

Next, I head over into my feed reader and pull out the remaining articles that will fill out #the5. I assemble this in Evernote as well, creating the list, writing the introductions, writing the article summaries, and formatting for the different social network platforms.

These get shared out in different formats to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. After distribution is done, I respond to comments as I can and move onto the fourth and final stage of blogging.

Curation

Much of the material I share during the week is valuable enough to make it into my weekly newsletter. The pieces that were shared get sliced up, categorized, and archived for publication each day after the distribution is done.

So there it is, the relatively short process of blogging for me.

Who are you reading?

I’m always on the lookout for new sources, new points of interest, new things to research, new ideas. I would imagine you are, too. I’d like you to leave suggestions for who you’re reading in the comments below. Here’s the criteria for who I’m looking for you to share:

The original content test. As much as I love Techcrunch, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, etc., I’d much rather subscribe to the sources they read. Who is writing original stuff? Share them below!
The first test. When you open your blog reader, whose blog do you go to first? Share them below!
The blind retweet test. Who are some people who are so worth reading that you automatically retweet their stuff first, then read it, because you know they are always providing ridiculously good value? Share them below!
The dark horse test. There are some folks who are pretty well known, like Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel, Avinash Kaushik, Jason Falls, etc. that most people know. Who don’t we know but is writing at the same level of value and quality? Share them below!

If you include a link (please do), there’s a good chance the comment will be moderated by Disqus, so I’ll approve it manually – thus, don’t hit submit comment a whole bunch of times if nothing appears. I’m out of the office today, so come back at the end of the day to see all the comments, or if you folks leave a phenomenal list, I may take the time to publish it as an OPML file for everyone.

Other places I write

It’s useful from time to time to remind people where else you participate. For those who believe that I provide additional value to your work or your life, thank you. There’s more than just what’s here on my blog, though certainly this is the place I like to call home.

Here are other places I contribute:

Blue Sky Factory Blog: I write weekly, usually on Mondays, about email marketing.
Marketing Over Coffee: The weekly marketing podcast I do with John Wall.
Twitter: brain droppings, 140 characters at a time
The Marketing Over Coffee LinkedIn Group: I occasionally stop by and administer the banhammer to spammers.
Knights of Ancient War: If you’re a Warcrafter, some additional writings and game-specific content.

The more important lesson here for you is that people don’t necessarily know where you’re active online. Yes, we see stuff on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., but that’s all transient. Remind people where to find you and what you publish there from time to time; some of your Twitter followers may not be connections on LinkedIn. Some of your Warcraft friends may not know about Twitter. Take a minute every other month or so to remind people where you are, and help sync up your friends.

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Get this and other great articles from the source at www.ChristopherSPenn.com! Want to take your conference or event to the next level? Book me to speak and get the same quality information on stage as you do on this blog.

August 3, 2010

Thanks for being a participant on my blog!

As I did over at the work blog, a quick thanks to everyone who participated by leaving comments on my blog in 2007. Here’s the roll call!

Thanks again, everyone!

January 26, 2008

I have FIOS and you don't, but John Wall does

Tune into this week’s Marketing Over Coffee, the best marketing podcast ever recorded in a doughnut shop with co-host John Wall. We discuss all manners of things, including what you can use FIOS for (and what you can but probably shouldn’t), along with how my show, the Financial Aid Podcast, tripled email subscribers.

October 11, 2007

Blog Day: 5 blogs you probably don't read, but should

Blog Day: 5 blogs you probably don’t read, but should

John Wall, host of the M Show and co-host of the best marketing podcast ever made in a Dunkin Donuts, tagged me for Jeff Pulver’s blog day. Since it’s been weighing on my mind lately, here are 5 finance and economics blogs that you should read:

1. Calculated Risk. A blog talking about economics and what’s going on behind the scenes of the world’s economy.

2. Financial Armageddon. Naysayers and pessimism prevail, but if you aren’t reading, you aren’t getting the whole story behind derivatives and hedge funds. These guys pegged The Street for major upheaval way before CNBC.

3. Housing Panic. Keep up on the latest housing bubble news, snark included.

4. The Oil Drum. Thinking about oil? Worried about energy? Thinking about the future? Start here.

5. Freakonomics, the Blog. Economists outside economics makes for fun reading.

I’d also recommend strongly that you plug Bloomberg on the Economy into your MP3 player of choice as soon as possible. And if you can watch Jim Cramer, you should.

Five Bloggers to participate:

Jon Rudy
Donna Papacosta
Bryan Person
Julien Smith
Julia Roy

Tag: blogday2007

August 13, 2007

Pay Per Action : Podcasting's Payday is Arriving

John Wall, Ronin Marketeer extraordinaire, published a blog post talking about the advent and rise of pay per action advertising in the Googleverse, and what it means for marketing online. His conclusions: CPM (cost per impressions) and PPC (pay per click) models are on the way out for the most part, because CPA (cost per action or conversion) will be at the forefront of advertisers’ demands.

From the perspective of a CTO at an Internet company, CPA is a godsend, because we’ll be able to accurately measure the true results of our advertising campaigns. Ultimately, CPA *is* the bottom line – for the Student Loan Network, signed applications are currency. Clicks on an ad are an expense.

From the perspective of a podcaster, CPA is going to be a gold mine for podcasters. Why? Because podcasters generally speaking have niche audiences, highly focused, highly engaged. Few podcasters have mega-media reach; if Nielsens were available for podcasters, compared to TV, the ratings for any one podcast show wouldn’t even be a rounding error.

However, if the advertising model changes from CPM/PPC to CPA, podcasting is going to be a wealth-building business, because the close relationship podcasters have with their audiences will make CPA a home run. No need to run banner ads, no need to relentlessly flog a web site to build clicks – simply mention a sponsor or advertiser in a relevant, high quality way, and even just a few conversions will be the payday that podcasting has been looking for.

Why? Because most advertisers, including the Student Loan Network, are willing to pay significantly more for a conversion. Example: the Student Loan Network pays $100 per completed, signed student loan consolidation application via the StudentATM program. When was the last time you saw any advertiser paying $100 per click?

Podcasters: get ready. It’s payday.

March 28, 2007

Your show is you. You are not your show.

In a conversation with Bryan Person last night, we were discussing why I was even setting up this web site, since I already devote a large amount of time to the Financial Aid Podcast. The essence of discussion was simply this:

Your show is you. You are not your show.

Your show is you. Unless you’re podcasting with someone else or a team, as in the case of the many couplecasts out there, or shows like Scriggity that have a team behind them, your show is you. You provide the visual, verbal, and textual personality behind your show, and without you, there really wouldn’t be a show, or certainly, the community that currently enjoys your show might have their appreciation be altered or decline without you. Some shows have made the transition successfully to new personalities, such as Rocketboom, but for the most part, if a host discontinues podcasting, the show simply fades away.

You are not your show. There are a multitude of topics I’d love to be able to bring to the Financial Aid Podcast if it were a personal show, but it’s not. I refrain, because of the divisiveness of it, from discussing politics in any great depth. Religion, taxes, belief systems of any kind, food, recipes, and so forth – all have little or nothing to do with financial aid except as analogies and metaphors, and all are things that at one point or another, I’ve wished I could post something about, but couldn’t because the Financial Aid Podcast wasn’t the right forum for it.

That’s what this site is. Don’t get me wrong – the Financial Aid Podcast will continue to be my flagship media focus in virtually every way, but when I want to go off topic, here is where I’ll be. For example, I think the George Foreman Grill is a lousy grill. It really is. What it’s good at is making grilled sandwiches, panini, etc., but as a grill, it has a hard time with anything thicker than a slice of bread.

The idea behind this site came from two sources – Mitch Joel for encouraging me to create a digital identity independent of the podcast, and C.C. Chapman, who already manages several distinct digital identities, and whose template I’m more or less copying.

March 2, 2007

Second Life Furnishings

I had an interesting thought today while attending Coffee with Crayon. If you haven’t gotten it already, I strongly recommend picking up a copy of The Timeless Way of Building, by Christopher Alexander. It’s a fantastic book, nearly legendary in some circles. It is to architecture what Gavin de Becker’s Gift of Fear is to self defense books, a landmark piece of work. One of the central tenets of Timeless Way of Building is this: space is defined by how it’s used. The patterns of human behavior are remarkably consistent across cultures, across languages, across boundaries of every kind. A space is defined by how we use it, which is in turn driven by how it makes us feel. A sunny window evokes a different emotion than a featureless wall.

Here’s the funny thing in Second Life. A lot of the conventions of design don’t necessarily apply, or are at least not optimized for the virtual world, but are still necessary. For example, couches and chairs aren’t necessarily required because avatars’ legs don’t get tired like our flesh and bone counterparts. Doors and walls actually impede flight.

So here’s the thought of the moment. Why put these things in? Because they’re First Life cues to help us understand what the space we’re in is supposed to do. For example, in this morning’s chat, we were discussing different spaces in-world, and why some spaces were more conducive to conversation than others. One of the immediate takeaways, architecturally speaking, is that big, open spaces where people can not only fly in, but see from a distance a gathering crowd, makes a difference for sociability. Visual cues from First Life, like sofas, couches, and chairs arranged in a pattern that is representative of what you’d find in a similar First Life space almost hijack our minds into believing that a space is less or more conducive to conversation. Crayon has done this brilliantly in the lobby of their headquarters.

If you’re in-world, what First Life cues combined with Second Life functionality have you created to maximize the familiarity and comfort of your space in-world?

March 2, 2007

Category: Blogroll

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