Are you subscribed to too many blogs?
by June 21st, 2008 Patrick Greer
It recently occurred to me that I am subscribed to too many blogs in my newsreader (Newsfire). I’ve started noticing that they are some feeds I though I should stay subscribed to but instead I never leave comments on them, much less read them. If I have left a comment on one of your blogs I can guarantee you are safe and I will continue reading and/or commenting. However I have noticed they are several categories of blog or information I receive via RSS they I quickly glance at but never read. If you blog fits under these categories be warned I may not be subscribed to your blog however I probably wasn’t paying much attention anyway and thus my requests won’t be hitting your server. Here is a list of blogs or other information feeds types I will probably be deleting from my RSS feed reader;
- Posts the are nothing but a compilation of links and where the title usually has a very un-compelling title like - “Links for 6-20-08″
- Feeds from sources that are nothing more than services that link to other blog and news sources
- Categories that don’t help or something you can just do a search on when you need it. For instance I have a “humor” category in my feed reader. I’m taking it out. When I need a laugh I think I can find something just as quick when I need it.
- feeds that basically repeat when is found in other sources you are also subscribed
Your time is valuable and it’s amazing how much information we can skim though in such a short period of time but when it get to the point the “skimming” becomes the talk and not the reading then you need to look at cutting back on some stuff. Last Saturday I got rid of a bunch of coffee mugs in my kitchen cabinet that were taking up space. This Sat. I am looking over my RSS feeds to determine how I can save time and focus more on quality reading in the future. This same idea can apply to browser bookmarks, e-mail newsletter subscriptions and in the print world, magazines. What sources of information do you think you should cut back on?
June 21st, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Weird thing is, I was about to blog about this very thing. I use Bloglines for my RSS feeds, and I found that I was opening some folders just to remove the “unread” tags from the lists. I have multiple NPR feeds and multiple Yahoo News feeds - some of those are redundant, I’m sure.
June 21st, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Must be a trend or something because I have seen some others allude to similar things recently. BTW, Thanks for reading mine AND commenting!
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:37 am
I subscribe to several Apple-related blogs, with many of them specific to certain products such as Apple TV or the iPhone, yet I still seem to be seeing the same stories over and over. Perhaps it’s time for some purging.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:59 am
It’s always a good exercise to audit your daily activity. However I don’t immediate cull everything down to one source. Sometimes it is good to keep some sources that repeat news. If more than one source is talking about a product or online service in a positive way it generally gets my attention more and eventually causes me to say, “OK, OK! I’ll check it out!” It’s valuable for spotting trends however I am cutting back on feeds that are essentially “feeds of feeds.”