We know we're supposed to be connected, right? Yesterday we talked about having a website in addition to a blog. And I bet many of you were thinking--wow, another thing to keep track of. I know that thought has crossed my mind on more than on occasion. So today I thought I'd share a few of the things that are helping me streamline my online commitments.
First is Google Reader. I know many of you are probably already using this, but just in case you aren't, I thought I'd mention it. Up until a month or so ago, I stuck to using blogger's dashboard to go through my blog roll. But as my followers increased, the number of blogs I followed also increased. I'm now following about 300, which is a bit overwhelming. This means that if I stick to using the dashboard, I only really hit the blogs that happen to be in my viewing window and catch my eye. Obviously, that means I miss a lot of the ones that I would really like to read daily just because they are not right in front of me.
So, I have started using Google Reader (there is a link to it in the bottom right on your dashboard screen). This allows me to sort blogs into folders. Therefore, I now have folders for the following:
Daily Must Reads
Industry Blogs (agents, publishers, etc.)
Book Review Blogs
Other (ones that I'll hit if I have time or if the topic catches my interest)
This has helped me a lot so far. Organization is good. :) The only drawback is that in order to comment (or see others comments) on the blog, you do have to click over to the blog itself.
Alright, my next tool, which I have to give a shout out to Natalie Bahm for recommending to me a while back is TweetDeck. Tweetdeck is a tool that allows you to follow your twitter account (both your friends tweets and any @ mentions you receive), your Facebook, and your Myspace all in one handy dandy screen! It also allows you to update all these through the same interface without having to go to each individual site. So you can change your status on Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace all in one click. How awesome is that? Here's what it looks like:
It's very easy to download and set up. I highly recommend it. It's made everything so much easier to stay on top of.
Alright, those are my tips for the day. What are some of your tips? What do you do to keep on top of these things while still finding time to write?
