Denise Howell’s recent post, “Link Blog Love,” (especially Brandy Karl’s quote) captures some of my recent feelings about using the Google Reader Shared Items feature and running an RSS feed off of it to create a linkblog and feed. Lately, Denise’s link blog feed is one of my favorite things to do in RSS-land. I learn new things and enjoy when we spot the same items.
I’ve long wanted to do a linkblog and, even though I’ve considered a few approaches, nothing has worked as well as this one.
Why a linkblog for me? Or, better, why would you be interested in my linkblog and feed?
Well, I started out in 1995 with my first web page and it was a collection of links. I’ve always enjoyed the whole notion of links and pointing people to useful, interesting information. My belief is that you help people on the Internet equally as much by pointing them to places that might answer their questions as you do by providing answers.
My linkblog serves several purposes. It lets me capture posts and feed items that interest me and collect them in one place where I might return to them later. I might grab items that relate to an upcoming article or presentation (expect to see more items on personal knowledge management in the linkblog in the near future) or examples of great writing, useful tips, and, most often, stuff that makes me think. Although some of the items might one day lead to a blog post, the idea of the linkblog is like ripping and reading articles from publications – good to read now, but potentially useful in the future. It’s not all stuff that I agree with (and, in some cases, it’s just the opposite). It also gives you a taste of the blogs I read regularly and deliver that to you in the form of a feed.
Will that interest you? I don’t know, but I suspect that it will if you are a regular reader of this blog and use a newsreader. The linkblog definitely supplements this blog and you can think of it as a “for further reading” section. Because I use it for my own purposes (and as a substitute for a bookmarks/favorites tool), I’ll warn you that you might see a large volume – 50 or more items – on some days and my choices have been described by more than one person as “eclectic,” but that shouldn’t surprise you. However, there’s no need to read all the items. Just sample what interests you and follow where they lead. If you find something that helps you every now and then, then I’m doing a good job with it.
Give my linkblog and linkblog feed a try and let me know what you think. If you are doing a similar linkblog, let me know and I’ll give it a try.
I’ve also been thinking that a simple linkblog and feed might be a good way for someone who is hesitant about committing to writing a blog to dabble in blogging in an easy way and still create a valuable resource.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
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