Blogging Tips

Everyone has their own way of gathering and sharing information. It differs a great deal from person to person how you collect and use the information to your advantage. With more and more people taking up blogging full-time or otherwise, the quality and the frequency of the content is improving by the day.

I think, a blogger should be a supreme absorber, conductor and disseminator of information. Finding the right information is something we should all spend time doing. Following is the list of resources I use to find the information that keeps me updated in my field of interest and helps me write better.

RSSFeeds:

In my opinion you can’t really claim to be a blogger unless you have a bunch of nicely categorized RSS feeds coming from different sites.

No matter what kind of blog you run it is important to know what your fellow bloggers are blogging about, not only does it keep you updated with what is being written about on the internet but also lets you draw your own topic from them.

I use iGoogle for collection of feeds. I can share these feeds with you, shoot me an e-mail at abbas@tnerd.com

Social Media: Digg/Stumbleupon/Twitter/Sphinn/MIxx/Reddit/Facebook Groups/FriendFeed

Social Media sites have very interesting stories to offer. These information hubs offer the latest and the best content. Being active on these services will not only help you write but will help bring more users to your site through the contacts you make here.

There is a lot of content on these sites, finding what you need is something you will have to work at. For example if I am a music lover and my blog talks about music, then I would join the top Music groups on Facebook, Subscribe to Music section on Stumbleupon and Digg, etc.. to create my own stream of information.

Do add me to Digg, Twitter, FriendFeed or Stumbleupon.

Print Media: News Papers/Magazines/Bestseller Books

Spend some time reading a news paper every morning; it’s a very good source of information especially if you are running a local blog. Reading a news paper early morning with a cup of coffee in hand is the best way to start the day, that’s one reason I think e-news sites can never replace traditional news papers.

Magazines and bestselling books, depending on the nature of blog you own these could be a very good source of information.

News Websites:

Subscribe to services like Google News, Yahoo News, BBC, CNN, etc. and get the latest. Writing about the latest in news can help you attract a lot of traffic from the search engines.  As news sites cover a range of topics you can subscribe to the feeds which are of your interest. This way you don’t really have to visit these sites often.

Television

One of the best sources of information is Television. It offers a huge number of ideas and leads for content on your blog. Television offers a great deal on various topics, just be observant and mindful and before you know you will have a lot to be researched, written and shared about.

Others:

I also use some very specific tools like the “Discovery” mode in “PicLens” (a FF plug-in), TwitterVision to see what people are twittering about, you will be surprised to see the kind of information it offers.

I also keep a check on what people are mostly searching for through Google Trends. As I mostly write about technology on my blog, it’s not always easy to find tech related stuff on Trends as mostly people are only searching for Movies, Music, Celebrities, etc..

So these were my sources of information. What are yours?