Comments on: Use A Startpage to Blog More Efficiently

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 22:31:58 +0000

I love this post!

It’s sooo important to have a start page…as a matter of fact all my blogs not only rank in the first 10 in the search engines, they all have start pages too!

If used correctly you can use this not only to educate your visitors, but to have them join your opt list willingly!

From there ethically speaking, you should really have their best interest in mind.

Daniel

http://www.blogi360.com/

By: redwall_hp

redwall_hp — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:28:11 +0000

What I do, is I have a bunch of folders on Firefox’s Bookmarks Toolbar for each of my sites. For example, for my blog Webmaster-Source (http://www.webmaster-source.com/), I have a folder marked “WSC”. I stuff bookmarks in there (a bookmark for the site itself, one for Google Analytics, etc). For RSS, I use a feed reader I wrote myself. It’s called MyNT (http://my.ntugo.com). I have a bookmark that lets me jump-in and read my feeds in MyNT with a single click (that’s one of MyNT’s strong points: You don’t need to log-in to browse your feeds).

By: The Ultimate Guide to Productivity - eMoms at Home - Blogging and Internet Marketing for Home Based Entrepreneurs

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:31:12 +0000

[...] – If you’re visual, keep tasks in a place that you can see them (either on your desk or on a start page as Glen suggests). If you are auditory, create sound cues as reminders or play music to keep you [...]

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:40:02 +0000

Very useful post! I’m doing something similar and thought you might like to hear about it.

I’m am currently working on several sites that will lauch at the same time. Being the more technical type and a seasoned internet programmer by trade, I have created *my own* startpage that gives me access to almost everything I need.

This not only helps me during my research, but also helps by conglomerating alot of the metadata details of my content into more manageable (cross-site) chunks… chunks that can be shared, searched and added to. It would also increase productivity for sites with more than one primary contributer.

I would recommend using a custom startpage to anyone serious about blogging sites across different areas of focus and platforms.

By: Use a startpage to blog more efficiently « Web Writer

Use a startpage to blog more efficiently « Web Writer — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 21:53:36 +0000

[...] March 24, 2007 at 9:46 pm · Filed under Weblog Use A Startpage to Blog More Efficiently [...]

By: Larry Keiler

Larry Keiler — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 21:48:32 +0000

Hey, I’m beginning to think I’m catching on to how to do this! I began my own Netvibes start page a couple of weeks ago. ie. I figured out independently that I needed this sort of thing! Hooray for me, eh?

However, I’m actually using 3 start pages: Google, Yahoo and Netvibes. Kind of defeats the purpose. I’m still experimenting with how best to organize it all.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 21:17:42 +0000

I use a combination of Google Homepage with a specialized page on one of my sites with everything I visit regularly.

By: Volkan Özçelik

Volkan Özçelik — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 17:09:13 +0000

I use a start page (netvibes)

On the other hand I use a traditional feed reader (feedreader 3.0x)

Just as Dave has mentioned I use netvibes to jot down ideas,
do multi-facto searches (wikipedia / google / yahoo…)

But a traditional feed reader enables me to read feads offline, this way I can also read, think about what to write and even create a first draft of a blog post without needing to connect to the internet.

Of course fine-tuning a quality post requires an additional 2-3 hours of online connectivity, but why should I waste my time if the angel of muse has just come while I’m on a boat or a train and I have my lovely laptop on the top of my lap.

Additional benefits of traditional readers to me are:
- The allow more advanced filtering than start page counterparts
- I can define smart feeds (based on AND / OR / NOT query combinations and aggagate several blogs into a customized funnel to my liking)

May be it’s just because I’m a archive-minded obsessive geek who believes that everything I browser that is interested should be stored off-line on my hard drive, else I may lose it forever.

However I cannot deny the necessity and usefulness of start pages
(Netvibes is a “permanent tab” (search for this extension — it is really useful) in my Firefox (do you still use M$IE ? )

Cheers.

By: marcus

marcus — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 16:33:25 +0000

good info…will have to experiment with this. tried it once with another with no good results…river of feeds link is not worknig but will check it back over the weekend…hopefully it is up..netvibes is lovely

By: Andy Merrett

Andy Merrett — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:32:52 +0000

OK, now I’m thinking the Google start page might cut it – logical really that it would integrate Reader. I might have to adjust my viewpoint :)

By: Mike Panic

Mike Panic — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:16:29 +0000

I’ve been using the Google hompage since the first week it was announced, I couldn’t live without it. This past week I started to play around with the Firefox extension, Sage. While it is nice, it is not dynamic, since I tend to add feeds on a regular basis while I am on my work computer, home computer and laptop, I need them to sync. No matter where I login at, Google always has my stuff.

By: Clark

Clark — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:15:41 +0000

Start pages are so 1997

By: Rangga

Rangga — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:08:50 +0000

I’m too, big Netvibes fan — love it!!!

By: TourPro

TourPro — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:08:22 +0000

The last blog I setup will be a collaborative effort. Modding the Dashboard (Angusman’s Dashboard Hack is a great starting point) has been the best thing I’ve ever done! Got rid of the Wordpress feeds, added the functionality of the Our Todo List Plugin. Changed some of the default links to include: link to blogroll management, Our ToDo List, Blog Search, News Search, and to each authors own blogs. A group Flickr from which we could pluck pictures would be sweet.

Sort of a private group synergy startpage.

By: Roberta Rosenberg, The Copywriting Maven

Roberta Rosenberg, The Copywriting Maven — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:40:00 +0000

I’m a big Netvibes fan … with blog and email sort capabilities, plus whatever else I need like news, weather and my collection of James Spader images all on one page. Life, unquestionably, is better now.

By: Jesse Petersen

Jesse Petersen — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 12:56:41 +0000

I go to Netvibes several times per day to check to see if my favorite bloggers have had muliple post days, such as yourself. It’s invaluable in keeping my screen clear of clutter when I’m going from one story to another.

One of my most adored abilities when using Netvibes is weeding out posts that do not have catchy titles. If a post doesn’t have a title good enough to make me click it, I probably don’t want to read it.

By: Andy Merrett

Andy Merrett — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 10:43:08 +0000

Personally I find a startpage too cumbersome for the amount of feeds I need to consume. Google Reader wins every time for its functionality and features. I couldn’t go without its categorisation, ability to star and share features, flip through articles with a single key presses, and so on.

I tried setting up a tab for one of my blogs in Pageflakes but I’d be forever opening and closing boxed individual feeds with my mouse – just would take far too long. However, most of my feeds are very text-intensive (not much rich media involved) so I need a system that helps me cut through many headlines quickly.

By: Thilak

Thilak — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 08:14:38 +0000

Great Write-up Glem, I surely agree that Startpage can be quite handy in time management. I didn’t try a startpage yet, but Netvibes sounds promising.

By: HART (1-800-HART)

HART (1-800-HART) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 06:40:02 +0000

Until I can figure out a way to transfer the “keep new” entries from my Bloglines to another reader, there’s no reason for me to event think about creating a new start page. My Bloglines is, at last count, at 1852 feeds including search queries. I have it organized into about 25 folders related to different topics of my sites. There’s about 10 folders strictly for surfing, like amusing sites, video sites, podcasts, local provincial & city sites, etc. Maybe about 70 folders by “blog network” and their feeds that I may or may not read but follow in general how many posts they make a week or watching specific writers. There’s about 5 folders of people or groups of people sorted, regardless of topic or network .. that whenever it seems there is a new site created, I add the new sites! (like this one! i.e.22 feeds under a Problogger folder) .. Oh ..I’ve got one folder I call WTF that’s NSFW or feeds for stuff in progress that I do not want public yet, and One for my Daily “Must Reads” that I tend to read first, so I don’t accidentally click on the folder and mark all the other ones I’ll eventually read or not, as read.

I find this way quite efficient when I’m actually blogging, because I just go to the folder/topic/niche that I’m working on and all the related feeds are there. But, when I’m not blogging it’s quite inefficient, because by the time you reach the bottom the list – the feeds at the top of the list have all refreshed and its a viscious cycle. So, usually I end up picking my ‘lot’ and surfing sidebars instead of going off on tangents.

For general news, I do have a bookmark at My.Msn.com for general news, stock quotes, comics, movie trailers, etc – created before I started blogging, but easier to see the headlines. I usually get my horoscope emailed to me once a week, and remember to browse on the weekends. It doesn’t help me with my blogging whatsoever.

By: Samsara

Samsara — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 05:31:03 +0000

I use Google homepage and based on responses I am going to have to see about NetVibes [Steve!].

Some of you are making it sound like the alpha/omega of essential tools for the serious blogger. Well, I plan on becoming a serious force to be reckoned with one day – so get to know me now while I’m still humbly unknown. :)

I also appreciate Jen’s idea on multi-tabbing by topic. Unfortunately I have probably 20 feeds per tab and with one tab…that too with my GMail, calendar, and various modules. No good for a speedy “get to.”

Great ideas and comments in this post.