Deal with information overload

As the amount of information flowing into the blogosphere grow, there is also a growing need for tools and principles that help bloggers focus their attention on what should be the most relevant information for them. In this post I would like to share my own ways of dealing with information overload as a problogger.

Hack Google

Google

Google is one of the most effective tool to filter information. I use it effectively for my blogging Google requirements. I command my blogging with iGoogle, and create my own blogging archive with Google Notebook. If I need to share some documents with my blogging buddies, I use Google Documents. Both Google and Google Blog Search are quite useful for my blogging.

Links for bloggers

• Read this insightful post by Seth Godin How to make money using the Internet
• Take a look at this treasure, maybe you can find a suitable WordPress plugin for your blog 130 WordPress Plugins You Could Ever Need: The Best Of : Part 1
• Do you want to increase your RSS readers? They you may take a look at this amazing post 50 Simple Ways to Gain RSS Subscribers
• Looking for Adsense optimized WordPress themes? Take a look at 18 Adsense Optimized WordPress Themes to Maximize your Contextual Ad Earnings
• A great recap by Darren Rowse 10 Innovative Blog Business Models

Today I spent a few hours on re-organizing my blog. Since very long time I could not do this due to heavy workload. As you can easily notice from the top menu, I added Contact, and Recommended Resources pages. I also updated Articles page with my latest posts.

The most difficult part was to find a good and reliable contact form plugin for WordPress. Luckily I found cForms plugin, which I am going to post about it soon. You can see how the form generated by cForms look on my Contact page.

Stay tuned! There will be some more changes this week.

Blog Blazers Book

If you are looking for a gift to send your blogging buddies, you should consider the Blog Blazers, which brings you blogging secrets from 40 top bloggers including Seth Godin, Yaro Starak, and Aaron Wall.

You may find below the list of bloggers who were interviewed in Blog Blazers. You can also read the full bios of the bloggers.

Even the most popular bloggers face with the writer’s block due to lack of inspiration and creativity. They still keep writing every day because they persist on some proven techniques.  Hub & Spokes is one technique you can apply for writing better blog posts. This technique can not only help you persuade your reader, but also distinguish you among thousands of bloggers.

Why Do Bloggers Need to Be Creative on Writing?

• Personal branding
• Increasing incoming traffic
• Standing out from the crowd
• Increasing the productivity
• Succeeding in persuasive marketing

How To Apply Hub & Spokes Technique into Your Daily Blogging?

Actually it is no different than creating a mind map with some minor differences. I suggest you to sign up an online mind mapping tool like Bubbl.us before you start.

• Start with drawing a circle, and jotting down a summary of your objective. This is going to be your hub, or title of your blog post. In the above example I summarized my objective as “creative writing ideas for bloggers”.
• Draw a few spokes with the ideas related to your hub or add mind maps at Bubbl.us. You need to stop when you run out of ideas.
• You should always remember that readers usually keen on benefits, rather than features. You better focus on highlighting their benefits while mapping your ideas. That is why I mentioned the benefits of creative writing for bloggers on the above mind map.
• Pick the spoke that interests you, draw a circle around it, draw some spokes from it, and repeat the process.
• Keep on going until you finish jotting down all the relevant ideas related to your hub.
• Now decide which is your best point. This should be the starting point of your blog post.
• Usually first level of spokes which are linked directly to your hub are going to be your paragraphs or sections.

You need to use this technique at least for a few weeks so that it becomes a habit for you. When the writer’s block hits you next time, use this proven technique to stimulate your mind.

Today I came across Seth Godin’s one of the most recent posts titled Leadership is now the strongest marketing strategy. I took below part from his post:

“It’s enough if the tribe you lead knows about you and cares about you and wants to follow you. It’s enough if your leadership changes things, galvanizes the audience and puts the status quo under stress. And it’s enough if the leadership you provide makes a difference.

Go down the list of online success stories. The big winners are organizations that give tribes of people a platform to connect. Go down the list of fashion businesses or business to business organizations. Same thing. Charities, too. Churches, certainly.

People want to connect. They want you to do the connecting.”

While I am reading Seth’s post, I realized that what we are doing with the new Bloghology Social Network is connecting bloggers and marketers in one platform. We are building Bloghology Tribe with it. It has potential to become big. The first two weeks results are very promising for the future.

P.S. : You may download a free copy of Seth Godin’s audio book Tribes from Audible. They are using the audio book as a freebie promotion. All you need is to register a free account.