DISQUS

Marketing: Prioritizing and Organizing Feeds in Google Reader

  • dherman76 · 11 months ago
    Eric, very similar. I've also gotten the tiers broken down by topic. Without this, it's all clutter and I can't find anything worth reading (even though it's all the same content)
  • EricFriedman · 11 months ago
    Exactly. This way you do not play favorites to topics\authors either - I
    find that chronological order presents a great way to have certain things
    appear first.
  • Rutger Blom · 11 months ago
    This seems a bit static to me. How do you manage blogs that are getting more or less interesting for you. Do you manually move them from one tier to another? That seems like something that is hard to keep track of with this system.
  • EricFriedman · 11 months ago
    Its hard to get to tier 1 and I leave a high bar. Moving feeds around is easy and they can even live in multiple folders (which some of my feeds do) as its really just a check box in GR as folders are just categories.

    The system may not work for everyone but has done very well for me.

    What do you use?
  • Rutger Blom · 11 months ago
    I'm using topics instead, but I'm not really satisfied with that system and I am looking for another way to organize feeds. I might give your system a try. It's a shame one can't have multiple levels in Google Reader or can you?. I would like to have topics as the top level and tiers under there.
  • EricFriedman · 11 months ago
    I would love this feature as well. I actually tried it too, and could not figure it out. There is technically no reason as everything is treated as a "label" but I am not sure why we cannot do this in Google Reader.
  • smilbandit · 11 months ago
    What google reader really needs is something to either make use of an rss items categories as tags or some form of saveable search feature. That way you can create a folder that has all the items about one topic no matter what feed it's from. I've been dinking around with this for a few years and it works out great for me.
  • EricFriedman · 11 months ago
    I think that is why they have the ability to put multiple items within
    different categories. Do you use Google Reader now? If something else, what
    works best for you?
  • smilbandit · 11 months ago
    I used Newsgator for a long while but started to get overwhelmed and annoyed at reading the same news across multiple feeds. So, I built my own and annotated the development on this blog, http://www.tubejumper.com/. The app isn't pretty but I'm not a graphics person, just a coder. I've been wanting to move what i've built to python/php/mysql and open source it but just haven't had the time.
  • michelle kostya · 11 months ago
    hi eric - I recently went through a major reorganization of Reader (when I found myself with 1000+ unread items). I divided by a tier structure - Must Reads and then a secondary folder. I also used PostRank (formerly AideRSS) to limit the number of posts from some of the blogs in the secondary folder. This way I just get the "best" posts for those blogs. I wrote a post on my reorganization in December - and since then I have kept my Reader under 100 unread items!
  • EricFriedman · 11 months ago
    I like the PostRank tip - I will have to try it out. Keeping things under 100 is a goal of mine as well.
  • Michael Karnjanaprakorn · 11 months ago
    I reorganized my entire Google Reader along this method. Thanks Eric!
  • EricFriedman · 11 months ago
    Awesome. Let me know how it goes.
  • John Milner · 11 months ago
    Thanks for the post! I've giving this a try and am really liking this new org structure. Its much better than my 75 haphazard folders. Have you tried the post rank yet? i'm wondering how people use it and how they like using it.
  • EricFriedman · 11 months ago
    Not yet other than just trying it out with my own feed. I heard its a good way to lower feeds quantity as I feel I am always adding without taking away. Glad the system is working for you too.
  • Barnabas Nagy · 11 months ago
    Good read. I was wondering how to manage all the stuff I've been into by RSS. That's a way for sure. For me the question still remains: why RSS is good? I love to visit sites, and see visually if something changes. RSS gives you the latest news but it does not update you if the blogger changes WordPress theme, design scheme etc. Anyway, it is still unsolved how do I manage those tons of sites I want to be informed of. I wrote about this problem on my site here: http://barnabasnagy.net/2008/12/25/im-checking-... - got no response yet. Thanks for the topic update.
  • EricFriedman · 11 months ago
    I think in a world where content is king - context is important but RSS delivers the meat of why you visit a site. It continues to be a great delivery vehicle and I would be lost without it. Its also a great equalizer as presenting just text is a great way to distill down what is important without distractions.
  • cordor91 · 11 months ago
    Hey Eric --

    I subscribe to dozens of RSS feeds in my Google Reader. I don’t know about you, but it gets a little overwhelming for me when Google Reader tells me I have 1000+ unread items. Google Reader is like a second inbox…no one needs another overflowed inbox to manage.

    I've been brainstorming a solution -- a social feed reader (social computing). RSS subscribes me to content. I want to subscribe to information / an engaging conversation on the web.

    I'd love to hear your thoughts. What would you want in a social feed reader / reader 2.0? Do you find that people are frustrated with their inability to effectively manage overloaded feed readers?
  • EricFriedman · 11 months ago
    I definitely agree. It would be great to see an aggregate view of what
    everyone is reading - something only Google Reader or Newsgator has the data
    to do. I am happy to brainstorm this further - you can reach me at eric
    (AT) marketing .fm
  • james · 11 months ago
    That makes a great deal of sense. helps me to prioritize what I am doing as well. If I am looking for ideas I go to the folder for that. If I just want to check in or find out what is going on in one of my niches I am following I get straight too it. I was just plowing through it before. Thanks for saving me about an hour a day.

    creative artistic nomad
  • EricFriedman · 11 months ago
    No problem. I hope it does save that much time for me too.