Web Marketing all-in-one for Dummies®

Chapter 4. Tracking Other Blogs

In This Chapter

• Understanding RSS and feed readers

• Setting up Google Reader or Netvibes

• Reviewing your feeds fast with hotkeys

• Getting organized with folders and tags

Two things power the blogging world: writers and the community in which they function. In earlier chapters of this minibook, I talk about you, the writer. But that's only half the equation.

Somehow, you need to get involved with the larger community: that is, the many bloggers and readers out there already talking about your subject. That involvement leads to links and references to you by other, more influential bloggers. If you want that kind of involvement, want to be noticed, and want to become a respected member of the community, you need to do one of the following:

• Leave a pithy comment on an influential blog.

• Reference another blogger's post in one of your own and link to that post.

• Write something highly relevant to current events.

All these methods require that you know what's going on in your industry or community, as well as related news. To that end, you need to know how to track blogs. With that knowledge, you can then "listen" to the conversation that's going on amongst related blogs and join in with useful information in the form of blog posts of your own. That's what this chapter holds.

Note: This chapter is very similar to Book VII, Chapter 2. If you've already read that chapter, you can skim through this one. This chapter might also seem similar to Chapter 1 of this minibook, ...