Some folks have a habit of bookmarking feeds each time they read a post they enjoy. Soon they have hundred of feeds lined in their reader in no specific order.
If they don’t watch out, their feeds could turn into that plant in the Little Shop of Horrors. “Feed Me!” it says and it eats the time we have to write.
I suggest another approach to this overwhelming problem. Here’s how you might go about taming that hungry Shop of Horrors Plant down to a manageable size.
- Visit five feeds a day — feed already in your reader.
- Read back 20 posts or more to really get to know the blog and the blog writer.
- When you’ve read that far, decide for yourself what the blog is about.
- Place each blog into one of three categories:
A+++ BLOGS — These are blogs that inspire you with ideas, have superior writing, and are on topics that are near what you write about;
BB BLOGS — These are blogs that are fun to read and offer you a diversion, have great writing and are on topics that might interest your readers now and then.
C BLOGS — These are a rare few blogs, less than 20 that you think you should check on every few weeks to see what they are doing. - Drop any blog that doesn’t fit.
- Each day as you add your five blogs to the categories, rank what’s there in order with those you most value at the top of each list.
- When you have been through all of your blogs, imagine that your feedreader is a physical bookcase that only has so much space. Decide on a limited number of blogs that you will allow in each category as a masimum number. Do this without looking at the lists.
- Then go back in and cut the lists. Keep the lists to your magic number from that point on.
We don’t try to read every book in the library. We don’t try to see every movie. There’s no reason to try to read every blog.
Don’t let that Little Shop of Horrors Feed Reading Plant eat up the time you have to write your blog.
Liz Strauss