RSS And The “Aggregator” Alligator
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the amount of content you’re reading every day then you should look into RSS readers.
They’ll save you a lot of time, and it’s easier than you think.
The “Aggregator” Alligator
They’re also called “aggregators” because that’s what they do. An aggregator or “RSS reader” gathers all your favorite blogs and presents all of the headlines in list form so you can see what’s happening in real time.
In one place!
Some RSS readers, like Google Reader, even let you read content without clicking through to the actual blog.
Obviously, this saves you a lot of time. I read so many blogs, there’s no way to visit them all every day, so this is a HUGE convenience that gives me an extra hour every day to write a little more.
It’s Crucial If You’re Marketing With Comments
Bloggers who market through comments often use RSS readers to stay ahead of the comment rush. They’re consistently ranked in the first few comments on this blog and probably most of the blogs they read.
Believe it or not, these people are driving a lot of traffic from JasonBetter.com directly to their own blogs! I know, I’ve been looking at my stats, and I see where the traffic is heading.
What RSS Reader do I recommend?
While I haven’t had time to look into all of the readers out there, I’m satisfied with Google Reader because it’s brain dead easy to use. I also use iGoogle for my browser home page – so first thing every morning I can see what people have been up to on their blogs.
If you’re interested in Google Reader then here’s the link.
What Other Blogs Do You Read?
I think it would be cool to see what blogs everybody is reading these days. I won’t hold it against you if you don’t mention mine. 
Hint: Don’t use full links or my spam filter (Akismet) will knock you into the abyss. For instance, write JasonBetter instead of JasonBetter.com
See you soon,
Jason The “Better Networker”
Related posts:
40 Comments
Tracey Hausel on February 9th, 2010
Hey Jason,
One of my favorite blogs to keep an eye (besides yours of course)is Frank Kern. He’s a genius marketer and entertaining as all get out!
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Tracey,
I keep my eye on him too.
I love his laid back approach.
[Reply]
Michael Cole on February 9th, 2010
Great advice Jason, thanks,
At the moment this is the only blog I’m following although after the rest of the comments I should have a lot more to look into.
Michael
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Michael,
I’m excited to see what people are
reading too.
[Reply]
Mitcehll Dillman on February 9th, 2010
Hello this morning Jason,
There’s something to be said for not having all the years of experience with all this IM stuff…
I’m familiar with RSS readers, Aggregators (let’s just say I’ve heard of these), heck I’ve even signed up for Google Reader…I still don’t know what it is I’m supposed to do with it or how it works
See, I can use my inexperience to keep the drive alive…Ther’re simply so many things I’m still unclear about and so many things I just don’t understand; It’ll be years before I can truly say “I get it”…
Shoot, by then there’ll probably be so many new advancements, the learning curve will never end…
I just hope we can start bending some of that curve out of the learning before too much longer.
Make it a great day Jason,
I know I will !
Mitchell Dillman
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 11:48 am
Mitchell,
You’re probably right!
The learning curve is only going to
get steeper, but at least you’ll be up the
side of it while everybody else is at the
foot of the mountain. 
[Reply]
Mitcehll Dillman on February 9th, 2010
Hey there J,
Me again, just wanted to thank you for the follow up…
Sometimes my eyes don’t work like they used to.
We’ll visit some more soon.
MD
[Reply]
Derek Alvarez on February 9th, 2010
Hi Jason,
I like this one, of course
I also like Seth Godin, Better Networker, Copyblogger, ProBlogger, Dwayne Huggins…
And there are several more I read sporadically — mainly because they only seem to update once in a blue moon.
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 11:50 am
Derek,
Good picks.
Coppyblogger and Seth are a few
of my faves too.
[Reply]
David Wilcoxson on February 9th, 2010
Hey Jason, Thanks for the tip on aggregators. I read Copyblogger, Chris Brogan, NetworkMarketingPro, JonathanBudd and obviously JasonBetter.
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 11:51 am
David,
Another killer list.
I have to say, I’m not surprised by the
recommendations…
A savvy bunch of networkers here.
[Reply]
Wayne Vassell on February 9th, 2010
Hey Jason,
I have also tried out Bloglines, it is pretty cool as a Google Reader alternative.
I naturally check out JasonBetter.com everyday as you usually come with useful and quality posts regularly.
Cheers.
Wayne Vassell, signing out…
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Hey Wayne,
I’ll have to check that out.
Sometimes it seems like there’s so much
going on that I don’t have time to compare.
[Reply]
JOHNNY on February 9th, 2010
EVERY THING BY JASSONBETTER, JERRY CHECN, MAGNETIC SPONSERING (MIKE DILLARD)PARENTING OR PERSONAL FINANCES LOVE ALL THE CONTENT YOU REALLY GIVE ME ALOT OF CLARITY. JUST WHEN I START TO FIGURE OUT SOMETHING AND WONDER NOW WHAT?HERE COMES ANOTHER IDEA FROM JASON ON HOW TO WORK MORE MAGIC THANX
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Hey Johnny,
Good recommendations but all caps
is a little strong.
[Reply]
Chris Owen on February 9th, 2010
Hey Jason,
I follow yours of course, but I am usually reading it at 2 in the morning so I don’t get the traffic you are speaking of.
Here are the daily blogs I read.
Jason Better
Ferny Ceballos
Raymond Fong
infowars
Copyblogger
Ben Settle
Problogger
SEOmoz
Mike Dillard
techcrunch
Direct Sales Domination
Wayne Vassel
daily bloggr
and of course I have to recommend
Chris Owen Academy
if nothing else, my headlines are interesting.
I think one of the biggest compliments you can get on your copy is to check to go check your readers blogs and see your own style in their text and headlines. I think I started a story telling craze with mine.
Another thing you can do is check the Google Dance (search “Google Dance”) and see how many people are putting teasers to your blog in their websites. It’s pretty cool to see how many people are linking to you with your headlines.
I think the coolest thing about the Jason Better Blog is how you made your blog into a conversation that people look forward to getting in on. That is quite an accomplishment with a blog.
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Whoa Chris,
That’s quite the list.
I try to keep the dialog flowing.
[Reply]
Ilka Flood on February 9th, 2010
Good Morning Jason,
Great suggestion about the RSS Reader. Have heard about it, but didn’t know what it actually was.
So now I know why some folks are always early to respond … and I thought they just get up earlier than me
I follow your blog, obviously and a few other people here, like Dwayne Huggins, Derek Alvarez, Josh Garcia and Mitchell Dillman. I’m sure I’ll add more as time goes on. I also follow Todd Falcone.
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Hey Ilka,
Yeah, sometimes I have a comment or two
seconds after I post… I always wondered how
that was possible… now I know.
RSS
[Reply]
Hani on February 9th, 2010
Thanks Jason. I always learn something new from you…I just love it. I usually wait for a newsletter to come to my email from the people I subscribe to. This reminds me to visit their site and read the latest articles.
Another great Google tool for people who market by commenting is Google Alerts. It allows you to enter a key word related to your topic of interest and it will email a list of related blogs/websites daily, weekly, or as-it-happens. This is also a great research tool to see what’s out there, who’s doing it, and how often.
Cheers,
Hani
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Hani,
I need to look into that.
I’m always looking for new ways to
research the market. Now, it seems
you can do it by e-mail.
I had to stop subscribing to so many through
e-mail… it was tough to communicate with
my team. So RSS is a life saver there.
[Reply]
Felicisimo Villamor on February 9th, 2010
Hi Jason,
I am a new learner who have been following your blog for sometime now. For me your posts are pure golden nuggets of internet wisdom. I am deligently gathering them and stashing them in the wisdom vault in my brain and applying them at every opportunity.
This is another preciuos one you have cast upon us.
Thanks for your super generosity.
Fil
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Hey Felicisimo,
Flattery is my greatest weakness.
Although, I have to confess, I learn
every bit as much from readers here.
[Reply]
Peter Grimes on February 10th, 2010
Jason,
Some may say I am a slow learner, but there you go I wud love to hear more about “comment marketing” Is that really a term? at some future time. Cheers
[Reply]
February 10th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Hey Peter,
That would be a great article… I briefly touched
on it before… but I think it`s time to revisit it.
[Reply]
Marcus Baker on February 10th, 2010
Hi Jason,
I only got into serious blog reading recently but I enjoy it so much I have to impose a strict time limit on myself! Thanks for the Google Reader idea. This will save me some time so I can read more blogs! Ha ha. It’s usually the last thing I do on a day but the only problem with that is I usually get to comment on yours close to the end since being in Australia there’s the whole time difference issue. Be that as it may, your posts are always crisp and fresh no matter when I read them.
Cheers
Marcus
[Reply]
February 10th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Hey Marcus,
I don`t know why, but “Aussies” seem to
have network marketing down pat.
I think that one of the biggest adjustments to
working online is the whole time zone thing…
I remember a project a while back where only new
zealanders were commenting. It was totally about
the time everything was posted.
[Reply]
Yo Le on February 10th, 2010
Hey Jason,
I’m always picking up new tips, tricks or golden nuggets from visiting your blog as well as these:
MichelFortin, ToddFalcone, WritetoDone, WakeUpCloud, CopyBlogger, Ben Settle, JonathanBudd, KatieFreiling, MLMisEasyOnline
Keep on Rocking!
- Yo
[Reply]
February 10th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Yo Le,
Your list made me smile.
There’s a few in there that I haven’t visited
yet, but you know how to find the diamonds.
I like Todd’s take no prisoners attitude.
[Reply]
Rebecca Geiger on February 11th, 2010
When life isn’t so busy in the morning the first one I read is yours. Then If there are some interesting comments on your blog then I use their links to check out their sites.
I also used to Read Jim Yaghi’s (he hasn’t blogged as much as he used to) but for refreshers I still go there.
I have also been Reading Dan Nickerson’s.. he’s a cool dude and super helpful (I have even asked questions and he answered them)…
For the most part.. yours.. but then you know that already
[Reply]
Rebecca Geiger on February 11th, 2010
This is excellent as this is something that has been a mystery for me.
Amongst the million and 13 things I need to learn this will move to the top of my priority list..
Does this mean in an RSS feed you can comment on the blogs too?
[Reply]
Rebecca Geiger on February 11th, 2010
Wow! Is Cris’ comment ever eye opening.. will have to check out his stuff too!
[Reply]
Matt Cassity on February 12th, 2010
Hey jason,
My two biggest blog resources is yours Jason better and Todd Falcone.
Matt
[Reply]
February 12th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
hey Matt,
Todd is incredible.
He’s been posting some great content
on BN too.
[Reply]
Michaelé Harrington on February 14th, 2010
Hey Jason,
Thanks for the reminder on Google Reader as I’ve never really looked into it properly and we all need ways to stay on top of the deluge of information coming in these days.
I tend to use Hootsuite as my RSS feed. I have tabs set up for Network Marketing-Social Media-Authors and a host of other things. Then I have columns or lists for people under each category. So I have you under Network Marketing and Mashable under Social Media, Tim Ferriss under Authors etc etc. (So there’s an indication of some of the blogs I follow!)
I’m trying to leverage my time by minimizing the amount of sites I need to log into so I’m finding that since I spend a reasonable amount of time on Twitter, I can kinda use Hootsuite as my RSS. Not to mention I can also now check my Facebook feed from there as well without logging in!
Hey this is totally off topic but I’ve noticed the same funky thing happening with your blog comments that was happening with mine. That being, when you reply to someone, they don’t ‘nest’ properly. E.g you set some time aside to reply to comments and suddenly end up with “Hi Mary, Hi Bob, Hi Tom” all in a row instead of nesting properly under that persons comment.
Well talk about hot plugin of the month but after reading a friends blog the other day, (Kary Rogney) I found there’s an awesome solution that I think you are going to love!
It’s called ‘Wordpress Thread Comment’. I won’t put a link to the plugin here as I don’t want the ever efficient Akismet to knock me into the abyss lol.
My first question was, will it fix up all of my ‘old’ comments and the answer is yep, it sure did! I’ve gone from having 20 replies from ‘Michaelé’ all in a row to them all nesting where they should be. Yay!
Let me know if you like it
[Reply]
February 15th, 2010 at 8:53 am
Hey Michaele,
Awesome,
I’m going to look into that.
I’ve noticed the same thing, but I didn’t think
there was an easy solution.
Turns out, I learn as much from my readers as they
learn from me…
Thank you! 
[Reply]
Derek Fobert on February 14th, 2010
Hi, J! Thanks for the great tips and tools. I am on the same boat as Mitcehll… So much to learn, Man! talk about overwhelming! I WILL get there, though.
[Reply]
February 15th, 2010 at 8:57 am
Derek,
Totally.
You know, I have a list of apps a mile long
that I’m looking into.
But every once in a while I find one that saves me
time too.
It’s a give and take relationship with technology.
[Reply]
Hey Jason,
Thanks for sharing this! You have great readers who provide great content on their blogs. Sometimes I don’t get to check out a lot of their blogs because of time. Using RSS will help…
On my top list is this blog ‘JasonBetter’. However, there are a handful of blogs with great information.
Have a great day.
Josh
[Reply]
February 9th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Hey Josh,
Sure do.
You guys rock.
[Reply]