More tips for using Google Reader as a blogging machine

[Tim Dixon]

I meant to post these extra Google Reader tips and tricks a while back but didn't get round to it. Some of these came from questions raised in the previous 2 threads and some are just ideas I meant to share.

Keeping track of what you've read and not read:

The default setup of Google Reader will be that as you view each item, it marks it as read. (You can change that behaviour from the 'Settings' tab).

At the top of the window displying all the feed item, it says:
'Show: xx New Items - All Items'

If you click on 'New Items' it will only display the new items, not the ones you have read.

Unfortunately there is no way to actually delete items you don't want in your reader.

You can also (once you have everything you want from the feed) 'Mark all as read', then use the above tactic to just view the new stuff (useful for when you first subscribe to a feed).

You can also, if you're not sure whether or not you will use an item, select 'Keep as unread' (on the menu along the bottom of the item) so that it will still show up in your 'unread' item list.

Another way to mark items to look at later is to use the 'Star' option (clicking the little start next to the item), then you can find it easily later on by going to 'Starred items' on the left hand menu. You can 'un-star' these as well once you're finished with them.

A better Google Reader experience:

I'm afraid this one is only for FireFox users.

There is a FireFox add-in that in my opinion improves the Google Reader interface tremendously.
Colour coded feeds, better use of space, improved auto add to Reader, different skins and more. Find it here:
Exclusive Lifehacker Download: Trick out Google Reader with Better GReader

Changing your profile name:
You may of noticed that when you add a note to an item and you then publish that through your feed to your blog, you get a 'Shared by xxx' message which is fine, but you may want to change that to say 'Shared by Admin' or 'Shared by Editor'.

Here's what you do. Select 'My Account' at the top right of the Google Reader window.

At the top of the left hand column is your profile information, click on 'Edit your personal info' (assuming you haven't created a Google profile) and then change the 'Nickname' to be Admin, Editor or whatever.

Then save it and you're done. I don't create a Google profile but if you do, I think you would just change the nickname on that as well for the same effect.

A quick way to add in your own items:

Click on 'Your stuff' in the left hand menu.

There is a box that appears on the right with the words 'Have some thoughts to share?' in it. This is where you can add your own stuff and you can use HTML tags in there as well.

Also, click on 'Show options' just underneath it to display a title box and a box to add your Google Reader tags in.

When you've added this, it will appear as a regular item in the RSS feed for the tag you gave it.

Hope you find these extras useful. Happy Google Reader blogging!
Tim

[Gary M.]

This is some really interesting information. I never thought to use Google reader to help with blogging.

Thanks for sharing!

[Tim Dixon]

Originally Posted by Gary M.

This is some really interesting information. I never thought to use Google reader to help with blogging.

Thanks for sharing!

Glad you found it useful, be sure to check out the other two Google Reader threads for more information:

Turn Google Reader into a semi-automated blogging machine! - Part 1

PART 2 - Turn Google Reader into a semi-automated blogging machine!

Tim

[Tim Dixon]

One question I've also been asked is 'how do I just display a snippet of the feed item on my blog instead of the whole thing?'

As you may know, all the autoblogging tools basically post whatever you feed it, so you would need to turn the item into a snippet within Google Reader first.

You can do this from within the 'Share with note' feature.

Just open the item as you normally would do, click on 'Share with note' and then click in the box where the actual item text is displayed.

You will be able to edit the text so what you would want to do in this case is highlight and delete any of the text you don't need.

Then write a nice piece in the notes box so that effectively you're writing a post about that particular news item and just providing a snippet of the item for reference and of course attribution by linking back to the source.

Then add your tag as normal.

This way, you are using Google Reader to provide you with loads of ideas to blog about (the RSS news items), and most of what you post will be unique content in the form of your own opinion or commentary on a news item.

I find it difficult to believe (and from personal experience, that has proven to be the case) that anyone will have a problem with you using RSS news items in that way. It's basic blogging 101 really when you do it this way.

The beauty of it all of course is that you can do all this from within Google Reader without ever having to touch your blog once it's set up!

Tim

[Tim Dixon]

I had an email question from someone that I thought would be relevant to post here:
>>>>
Hey Tim,

I would just first like to say your Google reader method is amazing! I never knew Google reader could be so powerful. The question I want to ask is to see if we should social bookmark all the posts we make in our blogs?
>>>>

If you're creating newsworthy and interesting content, why wouldn't you want to social bookmark them?
Not sure I would do every single post though.

Of course hopefully visitors will find your content compelling enough to bookmark it themselves anyway, to which end it makes sense to add an easy means of doing so to your blogs.

Plenty of plugins available for that, just do a search on Google.

Tim

[WebScript]

Tim,

Thanks for all this great information.

I have just skimmed the three threads but I will definitely get back to them in the next day or so, and I'll be sure to read everything and take notes. Then I will be seeing how this all fits together with Keith Kogane's system.

My biggest problem is analysis paralysis so I am going to try to just get two or three blogs going before stepping back and analyzing everything.

Kevin

[Flyingpig7]

Hello Tim,
Thanks Tim for your sterling work
Am new to blogs so am trying to get my head around all your 3 threads will be putting them into action as another great resource for relevant content for my site.

Guess I should'nt ask how it works, just do it!!
many thanks.

Keren