Are you like me…do you hate when you open up a magazine to have 25 subscription postcards drop out? Or even worse when they DON”T fall out and make turning or staying on a page more difficult? It’s most annoying, I find, in magazine to which I already subscribe!

Well, blogs are different. While I’ve written about blog readers in the past, I’ve been wanting to improve and make easier the blog subscription process (so that when audio’connell’s voiceover blog on! has a new post, you’ll be notified you’ll see it in your reader or feed service and can read it when you like…really simple). RSS (Really Simple Syndication) can be secured through a variety of services…maybe “a ton of services” would better describe it. Being a good marketer, I want to be all things to all people so I needed to try and find a service or a plug in (if you don’t know, don’t ask) or something that would allow me to provide this great subscription service. “We write, you read!” I call “trademark” on that phrase!

Well anyway I have two options: first, a service called addthis.com and another service called Social Bookmarks plugin. Both pretty much do the same thing: allow people to subscribe or bookmark using their preferred service (which, as I mention, include a whole lot of choices).

The next question is: if they both pretty much do the same thing, which one do I choose to feature on the blog? Add This is featured under the “rss feeds” header in the upper left hand column of this page. And at the bottom of each post right now are the icons featured in the social book marketing plug in.

My first thought was having both would be subscription over kill (akin to the 25 subscription postcards falling from a magazine). But I now think it should be up to the consumers to decide (btw, if you’re reading this, YOU are the consumer….just wanted to clear that up). I do not expect a flood of voting but I do welcome your opinions.

And if your reading this sometime long after I’ve posted it and you can’t find one or the other of what I’ve just written about…you’ll either know how the vote turned out or that technology has changed again and we’re all subscribing via the computer chips the government has implanted in our ear lobes. Whether it’s the right ear lobe or the left ear lobe will determine the “tribe” you’ll be assigned to….stop freaking out, I made up that chip/ear lobe thing.

Tags: blogs, commentary, internet, marketing, media, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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There are like 6.7 billion people in our world (need an update, click here) and I think there may be 12 billion blogs*.

RSS (really simple syndication) helps (like in the upper left corner of this blog). You click on the link and you can subscribe (or bookmark) to a blog on your browser (I use Internet Explorer 7.0 ) under the heading “Feeds” which is on your “Favorites” tab and is positioned right next to all your web site book marks (if you are now saying “ooooh, thaaaat’s what that heading is for!” don’t worry, I did too). When a new post on a blog you’ve subscribed to comes up, your subscription link title in the “Feeds” is bolded so you’ll know if you click it, you’re likely find some new content. At least that’s the way mine works.

Want to see a REALLY cool (because its soooo simple) explaination? Click here!

Lately a tool I’ve been using is a RSS “reader”. Now trust me when I say when it comes to stuff like “readers” and other tools of the internet, my knowledge based is firmly entrenched in the 19th Century (did you know that they make phones that are actually portable!)

But I very much like this reader tool. There are likely a ton out there (most I am assuming are free); the one I am using is Google Reader. The reason I like the reader more than a browser feed listing because the reader can present portions of the posts content for me to skim. If I want to read the whole post (if it is an especially long post) I can click on the headline and be taken directly to the blog.

It’s been a helpful way for me to review and control the information I want to get, I hope it can to the same for you.

* This number may be a slight exaggeration 🙂

Tags: blogs, media, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
1 Comment »

There are many good reasons to subscribe to blogs. One of the reasons I like to subscribe to certain blogs is that I feel fairly confident I’m going to find hard, useful information or the “Cliff Notes” version of same as a subscribee (this may be a new word cause I just thought it up in my head as I was writing and if it is I am copyrighting it right now subscribee©).

Sometimes I come across great writing in my on going searches and sometimes I met individuals at conferences whose presentations and general knowledge (nay, disposition) impress me so much that I want to see if their blogs convey that positive impression. Usually they do.

Such was the case when I met Mitch Joel of Twist Image at Podcamp Toronto. As much as I took away from that experience regarding podcasting and blogging, in Mitch I also came across a savvy marketing thinker (and because there are so few of us…oh to finish that sentence would just be bragging}kidding). Point is he’s a sharp marketing guy.

Like me, on a constant search for good, summary data, Mitch got a heads up on the Digital Fact Pack Guide To The Digital Marketing World, produced by Ad Age. I’ve finished going through it once (and I imagine I’ll be culling more data from it soon) but it would be worth your time to visit Mitch’s site and see for yourself.

Thanks Mitch.

Tags: advertising, blogs, internet, marketing, media, podcasting, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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