5 Steps to Finding News Feeds and Blogs Worth Following

After writing 5 Steps to Organizing the Blogs You Follow, I received many questions on how to go about finding relevant, high-quality blogs. Thank you for your questions and feedback!

Influential Thought Leaders tend to embrace others’ ideas and soak up information like sponges. They can’t get enough of peoples’ knowledge and live to build on it and share it with others. Does the same hold true for you? Think about it. Some of the best ideas, breakthroughs and “aha’s” you’ve had can likely be attributed to an article, book or publication you’ve read.

Adding online news feeds and blogs to your mix of content can round out your information sources and improve your influence online. To top it off, leaving comments on other blogs is also one of the quickest ways to build traffic to your own.

But with over 141 million blogs out there, where do you start?

1. Identify some people who have influenced YOU. Perhaps they’re famous, perhaps not. Maybe they authored a book you recently read or spoke at an event. Make a list. Then, search on Google for “Their Name + blog” or go to Google’s Blogsearch and search for them there. Go with your gut. Don’t feel that you must only follow “known” leaders. If someone’s content strikes you as valuable, add them to your list.
2. List your top interests. These may not even be directly related to your business. For example, I’m a productivity fanatic, so I follow several blogs specializing in productivity and efficiency. I run across plenty of helpful content that I use for my own business and pass along to my clients.
3. Search blog “top” listings. Sites like PostRank, Alltop and Technorati list the top blogs and content sites by topic. Try out some relevant keywords and start exploring.
4. Pay attention to Twitter – The more targeted your “Following” list becomes on Twitter, the more interesting the people and content become! As you follow links to blog posts, pay attention to those you like.
5. Subscribe and organize! – Once you’ve landed on a “keeper” blog or news site, make it easy to follow new content by subscribing to the site’s feed. For more information, check out 5 Steps to Organizing the Blogs You Follow.

After you begin following a “base” list of blogs, simply add or subtract blogs from your News Reader based on how often you find yourself “enthralled” in each blog’s content. After some practice, you’ll learn to take charge of your reading and create a customized content news list perfect for you and your business.

Your Turn

As Thought Leaders with busy schedules, it’s easy to get caught up in producing our own content and forget to feed ours brain with other people’s ideas and thinking!

How do you stay on top of your industry and share your findings with others?

Deana Goldasich

Deana Goldasich, CEO and founder of Well Planned Web, plans and implements Content Marketing to help clients nurture leads, market their expertise and create an impactful presence online.

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