Photography: On the platform, reading by moriza

A webmaster or blogger’s feed collection should be quite different to the kind of collection readers will build. If you’re reading only (or mainly) sites in your niche, subscribing to only your favorite content, and spending more time writing than you are reading, then you’re simply not getting the most out of your feeds.

This post contains 10 steps you can follow quickly and easily that will leave you with an enviable (and incredibly useful) feed collection.

Why are my feeds important?

The obvious answer is that they’re enjoyable to read. We create web content because we like web content — including content created by others. For the blogger or webmaster, however, there are a few other solid advantages to having a great feed collection.

• Keep up with your niche
• Never miss important news
• Find conversations to contribute to
• Find examples of great content and learn from it
• Get a different perspective on your niche
• Get ideas

Robert Scoble is subscribed to 622 feeds. Last I heard, Darren Rowse was tracking 666. This is obviously not just for their own personal enjoyment, but for the benefit of their web creation efforts.

I’m not suggesting you have to read hundreds of feeds a day, but increasing the number of quality, interesting and unique feeds you’re subscribed to (inside and outside your niche) will help to widen your vision and scope.

10 Steps to a Great Collection

1. Subscribe to every good site you share a niche with
Even if you already think you have all the answers. Doing this will allow you to have the combined creative work of your niche at your fingertips each day. You’ll be able to develop a holistic view of trends, innovation, and identify the current buzz.

You’ll also make sure you don’t accidentally steal anyone else’s ideas. A few days ago I had planned to write a post on not burying the lead in your content — only to find out a certain prolific and talented writer had already explored the topic… on the morning I was going to write it! If I hadn’t seen the post I would have written one myself — on the same day — and undoubtedly been accused of idea theft.

2. Subscribe to every bad site you share a niche with
It might be tempting to think that only high quality content sources in your niche are worth subscribing too, but I don’t think that’s the case. Usually we deem content sub-standard when it doesn’t conform to what we expect: the writing is unusual, the tips are a little off-center, the ideas are a way-out.

The truth is, though, that it’s all a form of innovation (albeit bad innovation). You might find, however, that one of those strange, unheard-of ideas can actually be put to good use.

Another benefit is that while great sites provide lessons in what to do, bad sites provide equally valuable lessons in what not to do.

3. Subscribe to quality sites linked to your niche, but not directly part of it
It’s important to keep track of the best content sources in topics that influence your own but are not directly part of it. Search engine optimization has an influence on blogging, but it’s not directly in your niche if you write about blogging. It’s still important to keep up with related topics because there are times they’ll have a direct influence on your niche.

4. Subscribe to good lifehack and productivity blogs
I’m not going to plug my favorites but I think it’s an important topic to keep up with for the sake of your own organization and self-improvement. There are a lot of great tips out there on how to increase the quality of your work and produce it faster. There’s also a lot of advice on getting organized and efficient. As webmasters and bloggers we’re all engaged in production (of content) and can become better at what we do with the help of some of these tips and ideas.

5. Subscribe to good blogs about writing
I do believe what you write is more important than how you write it, but the ‘how’ part is still very important. There are plenty of great sites which offer tips on how to write better, spell better, have better grammar, and so on. It’s important to keep track of these because they have the potential to increase the quality and clarity of what we produce.

6. Subscribe to content way out of your niche
I think this can be even more valuable than tracking the sites in your own niche. Exposing yourself only to content written on the same topics by the same people is bound to encourage the development of an echo chamber and will hamstring your creativity.

Each topic tends to have vastly different types of content that is produced and bringing these new forms to your own niche can help to set you apart. Subscribing to just one site from a collection of very different niches (cooking, sport, music, web development, etc.) can be enough to help you rethink what kinds of content you create and how. If something works elsewhere, chances are you could make it work for you.

7. Subscribe to sources of great writing
The topic doesn’t really matter — as long as the site is producing writing you admire. Though you should already be subscribed to a few good writing blogs, seeing great writing in action can impart lessons that a tutorial or list of tips can’t.

8. Subscribe to relevant search results in Digg and del.icio.us
Run a search for a keyword on either of those social bookmarking services and you’re able to subscribe to a feed for either popular or recent results. Popular results show you the content currently making a splash in your niche. You can analyze what made it successful and try to adapt the principles to your own writing.

9. Subscribe to the Digg front page
I’d suggest subscribing to the ‘Top in 24 Hours’ feed. The content might not always be what you’re interested in but they’re all items currently generating huge amounts of traffic and interest. It’s important to be aware of the different ways people do this. The longer you observe this feed the better you’ll get at assembling the traits that tend to get content popular on Digg. You might be able to use what you’ve learned to tweak your own content for that kind of success.

10. Subscribe to your own feed
I think this is something of a requirement. Your feed is an integral part of your site and this gives you an opportunity to see how it looks to others. Sometimes formatting which looks great nestled inside your design can come out looking pretty horrible in your feed. This is also important for making sure that any feed plug-ins you’ve installed are working correctly.

Some general tips on reading feeds:

• Scan headlines first
• Look at the whole piece second, scanning for key words
• Is your interest piqued? If not, move on
• If yes, scan the piece
• If you think it has the potential to be useful, deep-read the item