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?

One of my biggest pet peeves in both new and old media is seeing the same thing or formula day after day. Soap Operas have often been a target of many a joke with people saying they could watch one episode a year and not really miss anything. Several radio talk show hosts are guilty of this as well. I’ve all but stopped listening to certain radio shows not because of their political or philosophical stance but rather I feel it’s a waste of time hearing the same thing over and over again. I’m probably going to get into deep water and offend some people by saying this but one radio show that is guilty of this is the Dave Ramsey Show. Before I say anything critical I love and deeply appreciate Dave’s stance and principle of being debt free. I also appreciate how is confronts callers who try to make excuses for their debt behavior however as a listen I have noticed the show does get into a formula of sorts and while kind of “cute and funny” in the beginning playing the “FREEDOM!!!” sound clip from the movie, Braveheart gets extremely old to the point I want to shout, “Enough Already! I get it!”

In the 90’s The Ken Hamblin show was on the local talk radio station in my city. Ken’s referred to himself as the “Black Avenger” and in my opinion he tried to bring home the point he was black (or African American if you prefer that term but he said “black) and conservative. I “got it” the first few times listening but hearing anything over and over and over again can be a big turn off. Maybe the mindset in radio is repetition because they are expecting turnover ever so often but in the past few years I have had the opportunity to listen to many more hosts and read writers either in the new media through blogs and podcasts or in the old media of print journalism or broadcast media and I have enjoyed and stayed a long time reader. listener or viewer as a result of the hosts or writers “keeping it fresh.” Here are some of the things I have noticed that have kept things fresh for content producers;

• A catch phrase at the beginning or end of the show is fine but don’t let such stuff “hog up” the whole presentation
• Respond and comment on current events - people are often in “shock” during times of change. Help them cope with your unique product or service
• Avoid stereotypes, cliches and out of style terms
• Dare to be eclectic - a local auto repair shop has a radio show hosted by the owner who also loves classical music which he uses for bumper music. Definitely not a stereotype and the unique mix doesn’t get old. BTW, The show is know as the Driving Line and is now available as a podcast. I highly recommend it.
• Be known for consistently surprising your audience in a good way.

How do you keep it fresh and what experiences have you had with encountering things that “got old” way too quick?

One of our core business slogan and commitments is, “Committed to creating, organizing and delivering compelling content.” However I’m learning more and more that a better strategy is to not say everything or as the poker players say, “Lay all your cards on the table.”

Sometimes the greatest impact in a piece of music is the rest right before the big notes. Anyone remember the time of silence right before the movie Star Wars started? Before you heard the loud majestic notes of the theme song as the title scrolled across the screen you were presented with a still frame with the words, “A Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far, Far, Away…. ” and then Boom! To me that we an excellent transition from the “real world” and the fantasy world of Star Wars.

If you look at this web page you will see a significant amount of white space. Without it it would be hard to digest the words you are reading.

Think about photographs you view. What has greater impact? A scene where you see a lot of stuff or a focused subject and a blurred background?

In conversation with clients we may know a lot of technical facts but more often than not it’s best to keep our mouths shut and our ears open. What are some examples you have encounter in media and working with companies where receiving too much information was a problem? I’d love to hear your stories.

One of my very first paying gigs for doing Internet work was a project a co-worker called Internet Resources for Christian Growth. This site combined an e-mail newsletter and an archive of the newsletters. This was in the very early days of the World Wide Web and some of the original features and aspects included;

• It was on free service without it’s own domain
• each archived issue was created as a static page using the formatting in the original e-mail
• Their was no search feature
• The images were not original or ideal for the job

If I could change things today I would definitely make sure that the project had;

• It’s on domain name - the shorter the better
• I would set up the site primarily as a blog so that each issue could be sent by RSS and e-mail
• Include a search feature and also categories
• Take custom photos to get the message across better

In a lot of ways I have learned from these experiences over the years. Of course I have always been an advocate of having your own domain but at the time (about 10 years ago) I wasn’t aware of how one could have been redirected to another space. I see a lot of bloggers registering a domain name and redirecting it to a free blog service and at that time for that particular project that may have been ideal. I mentioned custom photos and I have set up a set on my flickr account dedicated to this project I was working on way back then. I hope to continually post new versions of the photo I wish I could have posted on the site way back then.

to spur innovation it’s always good to look back on past projects. Can you think if things you would have said differently? Different images you would have used or different technologies you would have used? Sometimes we want to kick ourselves when we wish we could have done something a different way but how often have you gone back and looked at past work and developed new strategies and workflows? We’re you ever afraid of investing in a new technology because you were worried about the cost only to look back and wish you had taken the leap to explore and use the technology? What will change today?

Phil Gerbyshak has a great interview with Dan Roam, author of the Back of the Napkin. The interview give a great idea and sample of a book that helps you literally “think different” or rather the way we thought when we very young in order to tackle problems, boost innovation and see things in a new light.