Written on April 15th, 2009 at 09:04 pm by Darren Rowse

Set Up ‘Alerts’ to Monitor What is Happening in Your Niche [Day 10 - 31DBBB]

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 183 comments

This post is an excerpt from the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook

AlertI’m often asked by friends, family and readers how I spend my time on an average day of blogging.

Those asking are often surprised to hear that while ‘writing‘ is one definitely one activity that I do a fair bit of that there are quite a number of other activities that take up quite a bit of my focus.

One such important activity that I spend considerable time on as a blogger is ‘watching’, ‘monitoring’, ‘listening to’ and ‘reading’ what others are writing on their blogs or social media accounts.

Reasons to Be Aware of What Others are Talking About in Your Niche

There are quite a few reasons that bloggers monitor what’s being said on other blogs and in the news on certain topics. These include:

1. Ideas for Posts – one of the main challenges that bloggers face at different times is running out of things to blog about. Keeping abreast of what others are writing about gives you an almost unlimited supply of ideas and helps you to keep your posts on topic with what is buzzing in your niche at any given point of time.

2. Awareness of Breaking News - this is more relevant for some niches than others but sometimes knowing when a story is breaking in your industry can be very important. Being unaware of such stories can make your blog look out of touch to readers wanting to know the latest.

3. Profile Building and Perceived Expertise - bloggers who are obviously aware of what else is happening in their niche are often seen as experts and authorities in their industry. I know of a number of bloggers and twitter users who’ve built profiles for themselves simply by having their finger on the pulse of their niche and linking to interesting and useful content on other sites.

4. Networking – using some of the ‘alert’ tools below enables you to know who is talking about issues relevant to your niche within a short time of them doing so. This enables you to make connections and build relationships with these people.

5. Reputation Management - knowing quickly when others are talking about you, your company, your brands and your blog is valuable information as it enables you to not only build relationships with those who are saying positive things about you but also manage negative talk.

There are other reasons to be aware of what people are saying in your niche – but lets move on to some of the ‘how to do it’.

Today your task is to set up a variety of ‘alerts’ or ‘watch lists’ for your blog’s niche.

There are many services around to help you keep track of what people are writing. I’d love you to suggest those that you use in comments below – but here are a handful that I regularly use:

Google-Alerts

  • Google News and Blog Alerts - Google’s alerts will show you any mention of keywords in only ‘news’ sources (for example newspapers), on blogs, in videos, on the ‘web’ or even in their ‘groups’. You can choose to be alerted about different categories or for them all. It gives you the opportunity to get alerts via an email or RSS feed at different intervals.
  • Technorati Watchlists – Very similar to Google Alerts as it’ll feed you mentions of certain words on blogs.
  • Twitter Alerts – there are a lot of tools to help you monitor what is being said on Twitter. Some are built into twitter clients (for example TweetDeck has a great one) but others include Monitter (allows live monitoring but also gives you an RSS feed for words), Twendz, Twitter’s Search (you can set up an RSS feed for any keyword) and Twitter Hawk (a paid service that allows you not only to monitor but respond to tweets on keywords). Again, there are many others that you can use – feel free to suggest others below.

As mentioned above – there are many tools around to do this type of monitoring. The key is to find one or two that fit with your style and rhythm of blogging and to regularly check them.

Types of ‘alerts’ to set up:

Lastly – let me outline a few types of alerts to set up. These are the two that I most commonly set up:

1. Industry Words - these are words relevant to your blog’s niche. For example if you blog about the wedding industry you might like to monitor words like ‘wedding dress’. If you blog about Britney Spears – you’ll want to be watching for any use of her name. The key is to find keywords that highlight when stories are breaking about your industry but ones that don’t overwhelm you with results.

2. Vanity Alerts – these are keywords that are specifically relevant to you. They include your personal name, your blog’s name, company name, brand names and even URLs.

Warning – Monitor in Moderation

Let me finish with a word of warning. Don’t become obsessed with monitoring what OTHERS are saying.

While I do believe it can significantly enhance a blog to be aware of what others are doing online in that space – it can also become a distraction (if not an obsession). The key with all tasks of blogging is to do them in a balanced way. Set up some ‘alerts’ today – keep an eye upon them – but don’t forget to actually do some writing yourself instead of just watching what others write!

Update: See what others are saying at the Day 10 – Set up Alerts to Monitor Your Blogs Niche forum thread!

Want More?

This task is a sample of one of the tasks in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook – a downloadable resource designed to reinvigorate and revitalize blogs.

Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Get your Copy Today.

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183 Responses to “Set Up ‘Alerts’ to Monitor What is Happening in Your Niche [Day 10 - 31DBBB]” - Add Yours

  • Joel

    April 15th, 2009 9:28 pm

    How cool! I just singed up and began using HitTail to monitor the keyword activity to my blog this past weekend. It has already helped me by giving me suggestions for topics to write about. Now I think I need to go today and set up some of these alerts so I can keep better tabs on the EduBlog community.

    I’ve honestly never heard this idea recommended. Thanks!

  • Michael Cowen

    April 15th, 2009 9:31 pm

    Thanks Darren — I had the google alerts (to many of them so i hooked them into my RSS feed) but the twitter alerts and new Technorati Watchlists is new to me.

    Time to go learn more new stuff. But moderation really is the watchword.

  • Bradford Shimp

    April 15th, 2009 9:35 pm

    I have been using Google Alerts for some time. One idea I got from this post is to add some of my tags and categories, along with important keywords, from my posts and track those. This can help build depth in certain areas that I cover, as well as provide possible link out destinations.

    One thing that I recommend is to create a separate folder for alerts and filter them into it so they don’t appear in your inbox. In Gmail, you simply create a label and then a filter that has Google Alerts assigned to that label automatically and also has them skip the inbox. If you don’t do this, you can overwhelm your inbox pretty quickly.

  • Baker @ ManVsDebt

    April 15th, 2009 9:36 pm

    This is an absolutely fantastic idea. I need to do a much better job at breaking financial news on my blog, especially those which relate to getting out of debt.

    I do a decent job of following the other blogs and networking, but could benefit greatly, especially on twitter, from being quicker to talk about news items!

  • Eric Hamm | Motivate Thyself

    April 15th, 2009 9:38 pm

    What an amazing coincidence. I was just thinking about how I need to spend more time looking at OTHER bloggers’ writing so I can stay up-to-date on what’s going on in my niche. I thought of you, Darren, and how you do this so well. So I popped over to PB and BAM! Great post! Eric

  • Chetan

    April 15th, 2009 9:39 pm

    I agree with you. Setting up alerts is profitable for any blogger since it helps get in touch with the latest news, and this is where viral -memes- originate from.

  • Alison

    April 15th, 2009 9:39 pm

    I’ve already started doing this for my wedding blog, but to be hoest I need to modify the, and the content coming back is not always worthwhile.

    Thanks for the kick in the ass to get this done

  • Nicolas Prudhon

    April 15th, 2009 9:40 pm

    I’m using Google Alert and technorati regularly however I didn’t know about the ones on twitter (as I’m fairly new to it), so I really appreciate the links!

  • Girish

    April 15th, 2009 9:45 pm

    Darren,

    I use google alerts to see what “world” is talking about me
    even alerts help me to write some good articles on the latest news.

    Yes it works well for me

    thanks

  • Jacob Duchaine

    April 15th, 2009 9:46 pm

    Hey, great idea. I’ve had a Google Alert for my name for a while, but I hadn’t though much about using it to find content.

    I guess if you tried to monitor the wrong keywords though you might find it easy to get buried under a landslide of messages, so moderation would be key.

    Thank you so much for running this challenge. It’s really helping me get my blog heading in the right direction.

  • Sjay

    April 15th, 2009 9:47 pm

    I was trying to figure out what I am going to write next in my blog. This is a good hack. great!!!

  • Sunil Pathak

    April 15th, 2009 9:48 pm

    Excellent tip Darren,

    I have been using Google alert some time now, but never thought of using it this way,

    I like your suggestion Bradford Shimp tracking tags and categories will surely help link to useful and relevant post.

  • Rachel

    April 15th, 2009 9:54 pm

    Thanks Darren, this is all very new to me. I’m off to get myself all set up and organised – whoever thought blogging was just about writing about your cat is totally off the money!

    I’m actually really enjoying the time I’m spending doing all of these activities and getting to know other food bloggers (and other bloggers generally).

    So thanks again – even if my blog traffic comes to a giant screaming halt tomorrow I’ve discovered some fabulous websites and even better people.

  • Dominique

    April 15th, 2009 10:00 pm

    I haven’t been really active using google alerts. Really should try out some of the tips you listed.

  • Sheryl Loch

    April 15th, 2009 10:01 pm

    I have used Google Alerts in my reader for a good while. I have also had to revamp what I watch for until I found the best terms. I was going way to broad and had way to many returns.

    I also use a search in Tweetdeck to watch twitter.

    I am one that will spend hours reading and forget to write. I have so many notes that I should probably take some of them and make them into post.

  • Tim

    April 15th, 2009 10:03 pm

    This is a great idea, and I glanced at Google alerts once, but for some reason, didn’t set any up.

    I have a regular morning routine of checking RSS feeds, so I’ve set up some alerts as feeds and just put them in my feed reader, and I’ll check it every morning.

  • johan

    April 15th, 2009 10:06 pm

    Like the last ‘warning’ very much. It is so easy to get trapped!

  • Phillip Gibb

    April 15th, 2009 10:07 pm

    Brilliant.
    Watching and monitoring what is happening and what people have to say in your field of interest is fun. It is the best way I get to engage with other people in my field of interest.
    As for alerts, very cool idea – I have one on my blog site name – ver interesting. But I did not know it’s use could be extended like you have detailed.

    tks

    Phill

  • The Visible Dentist

    April 15th, 2009 10:12 pm

    Wow talk about dedication to their work — few people can match Darren’s simple to follow strategies. This is but a tiny example of this man’s ability. One can only wonder if he is forced to work more efficiently on orders from his wife! :)

    I say that jokingly, but anyone who spends a lot of time online (including myself) is taking heat from the little woman. Whatever you do, never ever miss her birthday or any other occasions these strange creatures adore!

    John Barremore
    Houston, TX USA

  • HazardousPaste

    April 15th, 2009 10:14 pm

    Didn’t know about Google Alerts at all, will have to check it out.

  • venkat

    April 15th, 2009 10:16 pm

    Till now I traced about queries for my blgo through Google alerts,I have not yet knwon how to get info of other blogs going ,I will appley for google alerts for what other blgos are doing

  • thom singer

    April 15th, 2009 10:19 pm

    Great piece of advice. I have used “Google Alerts” for years on my own name (luckily it is unique… although I do get things for pop star “Sandy Thom, singer” quite often). Also for the titles of my books, and then on key phases and causes that I care about.

    I am surprised how few people still know about “Google Alerts”. If you are reading this post, do not just “think about it”…. DO IT.

    thom
    http://www.thomsinger.blogspot.com

  • Midwest Guest

    April 15th, 2009 10:22 pm

    I’ve had a few Google Alerts for quite some time. I originally had one with my name so that I could monitor when something with my byline appeared on the Web (and as part of an effort to guard against unauthorized use of my work). Over time, I’ve added a few other terms to monitor my topic, clients I’ve worked with and major subjects I cover.

  • Katherine

    April 15th, 2009 10:25 pm

    I’ve used google alerts for quite some time now, but thanks for sharing monitter and twendz. I think twendz will fit me better, but I can definitely see how it can be obsessive. Since I work with restaurants often, I can see how it would open me up to some new marketing ideas.

  • Barry Wright, III

    April 15th, 2009 10:31 pm

    Great idea, this is something I actually haven’t been doing yet. Google reader is always a bit slow in letting me know when some story hits the blogosphere. This is the way to do things.

  • Cath Oehlman

    April 15th, 2009 10:35 pm

    Learning, learning. Always learning something new here. I’ve now set up Google Alerts (industry and vanity). It’s all helping to make me a better blogger, and to make http://mysquiggles.com a better blog for mums!

  • Kevin

    April 15th, 2009 10:35 pm

    This is beginning to become almost depressing in that there is so much I am being taught because I know so very little about the services available out there :-(

    The sunny, flip side of the coin is that being here is teaching me so much that it is more than worth participating in this tutorial :-)

    http://kevincumbria.wordpress.com

  • Kris

    April 15th, 2009 10:39 pm

    Great idea! Thanks.

  • Avon Blake

    April 15th, 2009 10:42 pm

    I know, why not just regurgitate the same old posts, over and over and over and over again? Come on Darren, come up with something original, please! You’re turning into John Chow!

  • ChristiaanH

    April 15th, 2009 10:42 pm

    This is exactly the reason why I started using twitter, Digg, Delicious, facebook and technorati..

    To get on top of things and act fast on any new developments.

    The advice in this post will certainly further that development and help me get on top even more.

    That’s MY mountain… !

  • Joe Smith

    April 15th, 2009 10:43 pm

    I’ve never used Google Alerts. It looks like it’s about time to start.

    I’ve primarily focused on other blogs and twitter – good sources, but I’m missing a HUGE part of the picture.

    Google to the rescue once again…

  • Harsh Agrawal

    April 15th, 2009 10:46 pm

    My is a tech and wordpress theme blog, so its very important for me to keep track of all the latest updates and post about it on my blog.
    My strategy is different, I have almost all the big fish feeds in my feeddemon (RSS reader), and I keep track of that.

    Other effective strategy is using Twitter, I added all the possible big names in my twitter list and I try my best to keep track of all the updates…

  • Jen

    April 15th, 2009 10:46 pm

    Thanks for the great information. I use Tweet Deck but haven’t really explored the keyword search monitoring function. I’m definitely going to check out the Google alerts.

  • Opinionated Ant

    April 15th, 2009 10:50 pm

    I’ve been using Google Alerts for awhile but not very effectively (i was using vague words).

    Thanks for the ideas, I’ll be adding Technorati’s Watchlists today.

  • Lisa

    April 15th, 2009 10:57 pm

    This is PERFECT! Thank you for this Darren. My personal blogging task for today was consolidating all of the blogs I visit into Google Reader. As it is, it’s very time consuming traveling from one blog to the next trying to see if anything new has been posted. I decided yesterday that getting feeds in my email was a little too overwhelming to track with all of my other emails. So this task is right in line, but more well defined, with what I wanted to do.

    Currently I have Tweetdeck, but have not been using it that much. I really didn’t understand the full functionality of it. Thanks for the wonderful tips.

  • Guillermo

    April 15th, 2009 10:58 pm

    I have a Vanity Folder setup in my Google Reader for both my name and my blog’s name. It’s interesting to see what people say about you. (here a link to an explanation of how i did it in case u are interested)

    I will try GA and Twitter for keywords in my niche and see how it goes.

    On the other hand, a good source of info is to be subscribed to as many blog sin your niche as you can. that will give you an insight of what the others are talking about.

  • Claudia Meydrech

    April 15th, 2009 11:00 pm

    Thanks, Darren, I look forward to each new lesson that will be in my “inbox” each day.

    I’ve been using google alerts, to help manage the large number of them that are coming in, I’ve set up folders and mail/message filters to sort them as they come into the inbox.

    Now to get to some blogging.

    Have a great day,

    Claudia L. Meydrech, CN

  • Heidi

    April 15th, 2009 11:00 pm

    What a great tip! I had an alert for links back to me, but I never though about using it for content.

  • Anurag Bansal

    April 15th, 2009 11:00 pm

    Excellent tip Darren,
    In fact I have been using Google Alerts for over 2 years or so. And I would like to highlight one other benefit of using Google Alert:
    When you create an alert with your blog’s name e.g. Knowliz in my case. Whenever there is any mention of Knowliz anywhere on the web, I get an alert.
    What it does basically, tells me who is blogging about my blog, who is using my content and at the same time who is just stealing your content.
    I have got so many people scrapping content from my articles and thankfully with Technorati and Google Alert I got to know about them. Sometimes I was even successful to get the scrapped articles removed from other people blogs.

    This is definitely a MUST to use Google Alert and Technorati. I haven’t used Twitter Alerts yet. Thanks to you for showing me that option as well.

    Thanks
    Anurag Bansal
    @knowliz

  • Eric Miltsch

    April 15th, 2009 11:01 pm

    I also use http://www.TweetBeep.com & http://www.TweetLater.com for twitter alerts.

    For full scale corporate social media tracking, check out http://www.Techrigy.com

  • Mrs Green

    April 15th, 2009 11:03 pm

    Thanks Darren – I get google alert sent to my RSS so I can track things easily.

    I’ve also faced my fear of Twitter and have started using it a little. Downloading Tweetdeck was one of the best things I did.

    I’m now going to browse some of the other tools you suggested and see if there is anything else that could help me.

    I love your final point – maintaining balance is so important; otherwise we can be online 24/7 and never switch off.

    Thanks for another fantastic day on the challenge!

  • Aidil TipsGoda

    April 15th, 2009 11:06 pm

    i use Tweetdecks to monitor things and just now just trying out Google Alerts. Thanks Darren for this tip.wow,ive been learning a lot of things from Darren and it feels good!!

  • Chris

    April 15th, 2009 11:07 pm

    I can’t believe I didn’t know about this. Thanks for the tip!

  • Gabe Diaz

    April 15th, 2009 11:20 pm

    Google Alerts is a great way to keep an eye on what is being mentioned and getting it sent straight to your email address.

    Another thing I’ve done in the past is to setup Google News, Google Blogs, Technorati etc. searches. Any search you do comes with an RSS feed which you can easily add to your reader or incorporate into a page on your blog to monitor mentions.

  • Lee Ka Hoong

    April 15th, 2009 11:23 pm

    I did use Google Alert before but didn’t know the power of this tool, so I stopped using it. Seems that I’ve to use it again. Thanks for telling us about this Darren! :)

    Regards,
    Lee

  • David (Marketing Integrity)

    April 15th, 2009 11:32 pm

    I started using these tools you suggest in Google Alerts and Twitter (through Tweetdeck) about 6 months ago and all the benefits you point out are genuine. It certainly has helped me stay on the cutting edge of my niche (church marketing).

  • Richard

    April 15th, 2009 11:43 pm

    What about using Alltop? Other mashables? Customizing Alltop? or similar?

  • Eight Women Dream

    April 15th, 2009 11:49 pm

    While the alerts do help, do you ever change your post after you’ve published it to catch a trend you are seeing, or fix something like your second paragraph, or do you leave your posts alone?

  • ITrush

    April 15th, 2009 11:53 pm

    Perfect, another useful tool.. keeping updated with what is going on around your niche is really very important at the same time it’s a great way of getting at least idea on what to post next.

  • Sandra

    April 15th, 2009 11:55 pm

    I’ve been using Google Alerts for awhile and it is a great way to manage a lot of information. I am going to do some fine tuning based on your suggestions too. I haven’t used Technorati or Twitter much so today I’ll add Technorati.

    I am a few weeks away from really marketing my blog – I have some content I want up first – and then I’ll dive into Twitter and all the stuff that goes along with it!

    Thanks Darren – great stuff, again!

  • Angela Mills

    April 16th, 2009 12:00 am

    I must admit, I had never heard of this before! Thanks, I will definitely have to check out alerts, what a great idea!

  • Tommy

    April 16th, 2009 12:10 am

    Way ahead of you here, been using Google Alerts since they opened the service. Read more about it here 31DBBB Day 10: Moniter your Niche

  • Sudeep

    April 16th, 2009 12:27 am

    Thanks Darren ,
    Google alert was not new to me , have been using this idea for a while and have helped me a lot in getting new information to me .But technocrat wish list and twitter are defiantly new to me , so would soon join them for my niche .. thanks

  • Kelly

    April 16th, 2009 12:29 am

    I just set up Google Alerts last week, but the idea of using keywords and my name never occurred to me!
    Thanks!
    Keep the great advice coming.

  • Kayla

    April 16th, 2009 12:29 am

    Good tip today! I’m looking forward to starting on this one.

  • Glen

    April 16th, 2009 12:47 am

    This is a tip that I have used often in the past and for some reason I stopped. I have set up alerts again and look forward to what they inspire me to write about. Thanks again!

  • Adrian

    April 16th, 2009 12:49 am

    This is great! I just started to use Google alerts for about a week! :)

  • pavoldi

    April 16th, 2009 12:50 am

    For broadcast video, ClipSyndicate’s ‘advanced search’ accommodates complex boolean logic that can be saved / output as RSS for monitoring or to be published as a live channel using an embeddable flash player.

    Here’s a sample search used to create a “Natural Disaster Response” alert, with RSS output for monitoring / publishing:

    title:(tornado OR hurricane OR flooding) AND (police OR fire OR rescue)

    =

    http://www.clipsyndicate.com/rss/feed/11339?rel=2&wpid=1260

  • Rakesh Kumar

    April 16th, 2009 12:57 am

    I have used Google’s Alert but Technorati Watchlists and Twitter Alert is new for me. I would definitely like to try them.

  • Susan Petracco

    April 16th, 2009 1:08 am

    While I love this series of posts, I keep finding days where I’ve already BTDT. I have all kinds of alerts coming my way every day. Well at least I can check this one done :)

  • Blog Expert

    April 16th, 2009 1:10 am

    I watch other users a lot. They will show you the information they are looking for.

  • Robert Bravery

    April 16th, 2009 1:15 am

    I have always though this to be a waste of time. Not that it would be useless information, but literally take up all my time.
    What I do at the moment is browse through the various different news and blog sources for content.

    But I will give it a try, and see what transpires.

  • The Scrub

    April 16th, 2009 1:16 am

    This is a wonderful tip to increase your productivity. Instead of looking for news, it comes to you.

  • Philip Nowak

    April 16th, 2009 1:18 am

    It helps if you are a naturally curious person. I love to read anything and everything, but I do need to use filters if I want to learn a lot about one specific topic. Otherwise, I would never find up to date information in a timely manner.

  • Sharon Hurley Hall

    April 16th, 2009 1:22 am

    I’ve used Google alerts for a while and also Twitter alerts, though for some keywords I find it’s better to do an occasional online search to avoid inbox overload. I have a couple of key search terms saved in Hootsuite and check those out at least once a week.

  • Gayle

    April 16th, 2009 1:32 am

    I alread do the google alert and technorati. I’ll be looking more into tweetdeck and other twitter services soon. Thanks so much for the information. This has been a great challenge, and I’m learning so much.

  • Dee Wilcox

    April 16th, 2009 1:46 am

    Great tip! I signed up for seven different Google Alerts using the search terms Apple, artist, creativity, graffiti, guerilla art, public art, and technology. I set them as comprehensive, one email a day. I’m sure I’ll need to revise this as time goes on, but I’m already pleased – just received a summary for the “artist” alert, and it had some great news that I can utilize in my blog. This will really help me keep a tap on what’s going on in my niche, especially since my physical community can be somewhat culturally closed off.

    I do use the Twitter search RSS function, but receive thousands of hits and find them hard to utilize well. I’m looking forward to trying some of the other tools you mentioned to better leverage that function. I’ll be setting up a Technorati watchlist, as well.

    Thanks for a great tip, Darren!

  • Vlad

    April 16th, 2009 1:50 am

    I was using Google Reader for news mostly and the only alert i was having was about my own site so I could check where it appears. It’s a very good idea to use this for monitoring what others are saying in a specific matter.

  • Vikki Flawith

    April 16th, 2009 2:06 am

    I already have some alerts set up for ‘Vanity’, and a few for subjects of interest.

    But I didn’t think of setting up alerts for my typical keywords. Good thinking!

  • Vikki Flawith

    April 16th, 2009 2:09 am

    By the way, I downloaded Tweetdeck and tried it, then removed it. I didn’t like the idea that it could access my system.

  • miss thrifty

    April 16th, 2009 2:23 am

    Bravo, well said, love reading your hints and tips. I think more bloggers should. I already linked back to ya!

  • LaTosha Johnson

    April 16th, 2009 2:30 am

    I use Google alert but was not aware that Technorati. Thanks again for the awesome ideas!

  • dcgrrl

    April 16th, 2009 2:32 am

    Wow, my last post topic came from Twitter! I think Twitter is a great place to monitor trends in your industry, and even to find some cohorts to bounce ideas off of.

    http://dcgrrl.blogspot.com/
    http://twitter.com/dcgrrl

  • Jeff Korhan

    April 16th, 2009 2:37 am

    Darren – One tip I haven’t seen mentioned here that is valuable is to set a Google Alert for your twitter address – using the @ symbol. For me its @jeffkorhan.

    Jeff

  • jan

    April 16th, 2009 2:48 am

    Cool. I’m done with this assignment three months ago. I’ve set up alerts in Google, Technorati, Twitter search for my name, my blog, my twitter username, my niche topics and keywords.

    But then again, I’ve been reading Chris Brogan aside from obsessing with Darren’s posts.

    The downside to this is my reader is close to bursting. With practice though scanning through these alerts become a cinch.

    Now, back to reading. lol

  • Joshua Elliot

    April 16th, 2009 2:55 am

    I did used the Google Alert to find out who is talking about me.

    This is also a very good way to put yourself in the cutting edge in your niche as well.

    Go ahead with the alert things, they are good, just don’t focus too much on them, maybe set the report at once a week.

    http://www.WebsiteMakerNovice.com

  • Wayne John

    April 16th, 2009 3:19 am

    I’ve been doing this for some time now, and it’s probably the number one thing that I do that will make others say “how do you find all this stuff?!?!!”. Once I tell them, they totally get it, but funny how it isn’t an obvious idea.

    Whenever I launch a website, the first alert I set for it is the domain name (without the www). This can also be used as an indication that Google is aware of the domain, and indexing should follow shortly thereafter. So it isn’t necessarily a vanity thing all the time. Sometimes you just want to know that Google has seen your content or links on other sites.

    So, for my blog, I have “waynejohn.com” as the keyword. Whenever Google alerts me and it’s found in a comment, like this one, I know that my link has been counted as a vote towards my site. (at least, that’s how I’m viewing it, the secret Google sauce on how it all really happens is still a secret).

    Cheers Darren!

  • Shantanu

    April 16th, 2009 3:23 am

    Hi all,

    Must say this is pretty new for me. I haven’t used alerts before. I rely on links and tweets on my twitter friends network to stay up to date with tech news.

    But this must be tried. Nice tip Darren.

    Best.

    Shantanu.
    http://www.threetipsaday.com
    @threetips(twitter)

  • Kristin

    April 16th, 2009 3:24 am

    I’ve been doing this with myself, and with a few competitors, but have realized that I never read the google alerts that come through for competitors. I’ve modified this to include product lines, and a few keywords.

  • Lorraine Ball

    April 16th, 2009 3:33 am

    Google alerts has been a tremendous asset. We use it to monitor clients we are doing PR for. I need to apply more of these strategies to my own brand.

  • Enemy of Debt

    April 16th, 2009 3:34 am

    I love this post! One of the reasons I have been a VERY part time blogger is because of the fact that I do not know what to write about. Most of the time if not all of the time, my articles are inspired by a conversation with friends, or from a financial peace class where someone has specific questions.

    I just utilized Google Alerts for three keywords, and am about to check out the Twitter tool since Twitter has become such a powerful news agent.

    GREAT CHALLENGE!

  • Brigitte

    April 16th, 2009 3:45 am

    Woohoo! Finally something I already do :)

  • frank

    April 16th, 2009 3:47 am

    Great post! Listening is very powerful and seems to be an area where we (I) always need to grow. I’ve been playing with the tools for months now and it’s definitely helped. One of the greatest things i’ve learned overall is that Listening is KEY to being successful with social media.

    Here’s some of my thoughts: http://budurl.com/twitterlistening

    @franswaa

  • Enemy of Debt

    April 16th, 2009 3:59 am

    The Twitter tools are amazing!!!! Where have I been???? This has opened up a whole new world to me!!

  • Robin

    April 16th, 2009 4:08 am

    Thanks,
    I’d never thought of this. I think some of the business bloggers are already up on this, but it is also a great asset for informational bloggers. Newswires just don’t cover topics in this way. I put in a few terms already & will be adding more later.

  • PShankar

    April 16th, 2009 4:09 am

    I used google for other alerts and I thought I can only monitor news. Thanks for the tip, now I can learn what new ideas available to make money.

  • Luke

    April 16th, 2009 4:13 am

    Alerts are quite useful for monitoring what’s happening in your niche. The hard part is finding terms that don’t wind up bombarding you with alerts constantly. For instance, the broader term “real estate” would overwhelm, but “private mortgage insurance” would not.

  • Stephanie

    April 16th, 2009 4:16 am

    Yes, Something I already started doing. I am only monitoring with google alerts right now but I’ll have try the others you suggested as well. It’s been a great help to see what other are talking about and to find topics to write about.

    I’ll set up a technorati alert today.

    I’m all caught up. Yippie

  • Claudia Gonella

    April 16th, 2009 4:23 am

    Alerts are a great tool. It’s surprizing how much spam gets picked up though – especially in the blog search. The news search alert in google tends to pick up more authoritative information – although some spammy press-release sites seem to feed in here too.

  • Nikhil

    April 16th, 2009 4:26 am

    Thanks for the article again.

    It is a very important task to be alerted about the niche. The use of alerts can be seen in the blog contents.

    Being alerted helps to confirm the right contents in the blog & also provide the new contents.

  • Claus D Jensen

    April 16th, 2009 4:32 am

    Hi Darren,

    I have used Google Alerts for some time.

    But you have just reminded me to be even more specific in the Alerts I create. To think it more wide…

    Thank you for that!

    Greetings,
    Claus,
    http://www.clausdjensen.com

  • mike A

    April 16th, 2009 4:36 am

    I was doing this but never got relevent results back this post got me off my butt to revise my Keywords hopefully I will get back more relevent results instead of a story about a women who had her Mountain Bike Stolen because of a Hooka Bar in her Neigborhood (actually that would have made a good post)

  • Val Nelson

    April 16th, 2009 4:42 am

    I have found TweetBeeps (www.tweetbeeps.com) to be an invaluable Twitter alert tool because I can restrict alerts by a mileage radius to my area.

    In other words, I get email alerts from TweetBeeps only for Twitter posts from people in a certain area. Those are the people I most want to interact with.

    Also the searches can be more customized than other alert services I’ve tried.

    Even if you’re not using Twitter, you can use Twitter alerts to learn what people are saying. But it’s even more valuable if you jump into the conversation on Twitter and those people will end up checking out your blog.

    Using alerts has made my use of Twitter highly relevant and valuable.

  • Emily Geizer

    April 16th, 2009 4:44 am

    This is super helpful! I spend a lot of time (relatively speaking) surfing the web trying to find what parenting experts are discussing.

    BUT, I didn’t know there is an automatic alert system in place, which will free up some of my time or at least make it more focused and purposeful!

  • Andi

    April 16th, 2009 4:47 am

    Thanks, you went easy on us on tax day for us Americans. Great tip! http://budurl.com/5yge

  • Ben Licher

    April 16th, 2009 4:52 am

    I use alerts on Twitter and Google. Will startTechnorati!

  • Darcy

    April 16th, 2009 5:10 am

    Hi Darren,

    I user Biznar.com Alerts in addition to Google. Biznar.com catches a lot of things that Google doesn’t. It searches 5 different blog sites, including Google and Technorati- makes it really easy to just have one set of alerts!

    Thanks for the great post!

  • Patricia C

    April 16th, 2009 5:10 am

    You warn against becoming obsessed with this yet how can one do otherwise when one has to at least scan what’s coming in, in order to ignore what’s not relevant.

    I’m also leery of adding yet another utility to my machine.

    And, I have to admit, I’m a child of the command line and I dislike all these black boxes.

    Well, I’ll take a look anyway. At least paying atention to what folks might be saying about you is useful. ;)

  • Patricia C

    April 16th, 2009 5:19 am

    I’m assuming that in the Google alerts, “comprehensive” means blogs, web, video, etc.

    The mechanics are easy. Choosing key phrases to include (or not) is less so. I can think of few or many and I’m not sure which are actually worthwhile.

    BTW, I got my newsletter out today. That’s 3 in a row. Now I can think about my blog.

  • Jon Reid

    April 16th, 2009 5:23 am

    Note that for Twitter, you can simply do a search on http://search.twitter.com/ and the results includes an RSS feed.

    Can anyone recommend a way to track tweet links? I looked at twitturly.com but it is missing important retweets I know happened.

  • Ryan Bickett

    April 16th, 2009 5:45 am

    I agree with the others that this can be a great resource, but agree that you need to schedule time to review and make sure you don’t get caught up spending too much time reviewing your different alerts. I’d love to hear feedback on how others organize their different alerts, rss feeds, etc. I am organizing my content, but sometimes feel like I get caught up with “tag” syndrome where I use to many closely related keywords which in turn messes up my organization. I need to remember to keep it simple!

  • cb

    April 16th, 2009 5:55 am

    Great stuff. I use google alerts but had almost forgotten about technorati and just checking it out today, have found masses of ideas.

  • darya

    April 16th, 2009 6:02 am

    Google Alerts are my favorite. Especially for monitoring web mentions about myself or my brand.

  • Carolyn

    April 16th, 2009 6:13 am

    Funny, the Food Blog Alliance had that yesterday, and here it is today on 31DBBB! So, I started to do it yesterday, and will add some more with your great ideas!

    Thanks.

  • Clara Mathews

    April 16th, 2009 6:16 am

    I have been using Google Alerts for quite a while, but I added a few today. I will also try alerts on Technorati.

    The great thing about the 31DBBB is that these task from Darren spark so many other ideas. This task gave me another idea…I changed one of the tabs on my Google page to read “Movie Blogs”. I then set up RSS feeds for blogs in my niche. Now when I recieve an alert about a blog that talks about movies, I will add thier feed to that page. And I will have all my competitors’ blogs on 1 page.

    I will do the same thing with my Concierge blog.

  • desireefawn

    April 16th, 2009 6:36 am

    Oh neat! I have heard about this before but never thought about using them in this way.

    I have now set some up, though I’m sure they’ll need tweaking since I suspect a few of them are a little too broad.

  • Matt Cheuvront

    April 16th, 2009 6:49 am

    Great advice again Darren – always important to know what topics are being discussed within your niche.

    http://www.lifewithoutpants.com

  • Make Money Online

    April 16th, 2009 6:52 am

    I used Google Alerts before. Though they did a good job but they used to send the same blogs mostly. I will check out technorati though.

  • Donna Hull

    April 16th, 2009 7:07 am

    I’m a big fan of Google Alerts. Not only do I use them as idea starters, they also make great conversation starters on twitter, allowing me to provide followers information that isn’t all about me.

    Off to set Technorati alerts, which I did not know about. Thanks, Darren.

  • Larry Donahue

    April 16th, 2009 7:08 am

    Great article!

    My company (http://www.deepwebtech.com/) has been offering a deep web alerts for individuals (free of charge), through our http://www.mednar.com/ and http://www.biznar.com/ properties.

    Anyone who wants to include social networks, deep web content, as well as google, should check this out.

    Larry.

  • Rita

    April 16th, 2009 7:13 am

    Hi Darren,

    This workshop is really great. I’ve visited your Web site from time to time, but have been overwhelmed by all the things that you recommend bloggers do.

    The workshop gives you a worthwhile piece to do every day. Thank you.

    On monitoring, some bloggers use RSS feeds to to get headlines. I get headlines from Twitter. Which is best?

    I write for baby boomer consumers at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide.

    I’m still getting a lot of hits from two of the list blogs I wrote: “Top 10 Boomer Challenges” and “Top 10 Reasons for Boomers to Be Optimistic.”

    Rita

    P.S. How much does that e-book cost that you advertise about making money on your blog? The one about most bloggers aren’t making enough money to pay for their coffee?

  • Stephanie - Green SAHM

    April 16th, 2009 7:43 am

    I’ve been doing this one for a while. It really can be helpful, although I tend to be kind of off and on about it.

    I have my Google Alerts go to my GMail account, and have a filter set up for them. This way I can go through them at my leisure, and they aren’t in the way of my email the rest of the time.

  • Bella Signature Design

    April 16th, 2009 8:34 am

    I have been doing google alerts for some time too, and love these additional ideas for twitter (Which I just started using) – off I go to alert away…

  • Gina

    April 16th, 2009 9:54 am

    I’ve been doing this for a while but recently added some alerts to let me know who was covering a certain grocery store’s deal. That way, when I cover a big promo, I know who to email to promote my post. I did it today with success. Thanks, Darren, for this great series.

  • elizof

    April 16th, 2009 10:25 am

    Brilliant post as always!
    I have newsfeeds, Twitterfeeds and google reader. Today, I sent up Google alerts… Very easy; a breeze to set up! I have created an inbox folder for it in my gmail account and will check out the Technorati watchlist you mentioned shortly.
    I am learning so much from this 31 Day Challenge; every day I pick up something new to help me with my blogs. I even overhauled two of them last night… adding widgets and making minor changes I have picked up here.
    Yes, I even added another blog (#3) to my repetoire. Three is my lucky number. lol!
    Thank you!

  • Amber @ Classic Housewife

    April 16th, 2009 10:51 am

    Thanks once again! I just set up several google alerts. I’ve never used this before. I managed to think of a few keywords that I think will be helpful for me. I’m looking forward to seeing how this goes. :)

  • Michael @ theFatLossAuthority

    April 16th, 2009 11:09 am

    Hmmm…. never thought about this one. With an alert, I could be ahead of the pack on key health related issues that surface. Another solid idea. Thanks Darren!

    P.S. Thanks for the warning as well. I could see how we could get obsessive over new alerts.

  • Tony

    April 16th, 2009 11:31 am

    Hi Darren,

    As usual great articles. I wanted to put my blog link here, right now it’s not much since I just started the other day. Also anyone on here who thinks I need help, which I know I do…lol…please let me know in my comments section…Thank You!! If i Wasn’t allowed to put my blog page on here Darren, I am really sorry.

  • CGabriel

    April 16th, 2009 11:45 am

    Great idea – one I’ve been late to the dance on. I’ve always known about alerts but simply have dropped the ball. Actually, I wasn’t even carrying the ball. To be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t know quite how they worked…or were suppose to work. Now I do.

    I went ahead and set up three: Industry, vanity and sports teams. I’m looking forward to seeing how the information is disseminated in the emails I receive.

    Christopher

  • Angela

    April 16th, 2009 11:53 am

    Hi Darren,

    I’ve been following your blog just recently and I can’t believe how useful it is. I look forward to every post you make!!! I love this tip, I’ve never even considered setting up alerts to keep me updated on the latest news, genius!! Keep up the wonderful work!!

    Take care,
    Angela
    http://www.jiggaroo.com

  • Alease Michelle

    April 16th, 2009 12:21 pm

    Great ideal. I used Google alerts for vanity reasons, but using it to keep up to date within my niche. Was just wonderful. Since adding more to my google alerts I have great ideas for future post.

    Even since joining this challenge I have had many people following me on twitter. Not sure how, but they have.

    Alease Michelle

  • Meredith

    April 16th, 2009 12:46 pm

    Alright, I’ve set up a few…now I’m nervous about my inbox being slammed with monsterous emails packed with the keywords I picked.

  • Heidi Richards Mooney

    April 16th, 2009 12:48 pm

    Google Alerts are the “bomb” and I use them every day for several keywords and key phrases. When I am writing an article on a specifiic topic I will set up a google alert to find out what’s already been said on the topic. This saves me time so I don’t have to scour the web and read through hundreds of irrelevant posts.

    Thanks for the heads up about setting up twitter alerts. I am having fun on twitter diving in recently. I am learning so much and meeting great people. Now I can monitor subjects I am most interested in.

    Love the 31 day challenge! Looking forward to tomorrow’s lesson.

    Have a great day,

    Heidi Richards Mooney, Author, Entrepreneur, Business Coach

  • Foodie

    April 16th, 2009 1:18 pm

    Wow Darren, you just told me about something I was completely unaware of! It’s rather rare that I learn a super cool new online trick which is also useful. Keep on bloggin Bro!

  • Ching Ya

    April 16th, 2009 1:57 pm

    I was advised to use Google Alerts to detect scrappers for blog contents. Good to know I need to set up more Alerts for the sake of content-enhancement & writing ideas. Now why didn’t I think of that before… thanks for this golden tip. (although slow to the act, but it’s better than never, right?) ^^

  • Jon Reid

    April 16th, 2009 2:52 pm

    Just found a service that does URL search on Twitter, expanding the shortened links: http://backtweets.com/
    You can save a search as an RSS feed.

  • hamed

    April 16th, 2009 2:54 pm

    I did this step but I didn’t do it properly. But I will learn and learn again.

    Great resource

  • Carol

    April 16th, 2009 3:54 pm

    Hey Darren,
    Thank you so much, I was trying to set the alert but now I have done it.Its lovely post.

  • L. Mohan Arun

    April 16th, 2009 5:04 pm

    I have been trying to find a good alternative to google alerts, and here are my findings

    Yotify
    Trackle
    AlertRank
    Google alerts (Indigo stream)

    None of them fulfill my needs – provide a web based interface for managing alerts, where all alerts come together and I choose when to login and check, ignore some “words or phrases”, ignore specific domains, provide RSS feed, track pictures, track twitter & social networks also, track PPC ads (who is advertising about keywords I track)

  • Kate Foy

    April 16th, 2009 5:13 pm

    Google Alerts are a terrific service, but I’m using Twitter more and more these days and topic hashtags are doing a lot of the work of alerting me to stories and comment.

  • Alex Brooks

    April 16th, 2009 6:45 pm

    I came to pro blogger, just subscribed to the RSS feed to monitor your blog, to get some ideas for blog posts on my blog ( http://www.alexbrooks.net ) and found a article about it, I’m going to follow your methods as well, thanks a lot for this great article!

  • eBlogTip

    April 16th, 2009 7:29 pm

    Great, I have to apply this immediately as I have never tried this before. Thanks so much

  • titan

    April 16th, 2009 8:23 pm

    ehm. its needed to setup our alert. If not, we losing something from our niche.

  • Andrea Swiedler

    April 16th, 2009 9:02 pm

    I had done this a while back. Most interesting thing was that yesterday I got an alert for my name, someone had copied a post of mine and credited me as the writer at the end of the post. I had given the option of reblogging on activerain, however this was not on AR. Person is a member of AR however. So that is the most interesting thing I got out of that so far!

  • Keith Jenkins

    April 16th, 2009 9:28 pm

    As with everything, a balanced approached is always the best. I’m subscribed to Google Alerts but will check out Technorati as well. I’ve heard about it many times but this is exactly the ‘push’ I need to look it up.

    Thanks Darren!

  • Jody

    April 16th, 2009 9:37 pm

    I am failing miserably… Apparently I shouldn’t have tried to do this while packing to move half way across the country! So I’ll be saving the daily emails and picking up when I get home. Thanks for all the great tips!

  • kosmo @ The Casual Observer

    April 16th, 2009 10:39 pm

    I’m a fan of 4info.net – text messages about news, sports and a bunch of other stuff.

    I reviewed them a while ago on my blog. I have no affiliation with them, I just enjoy the (free) product.

    Here’s my review:
    http://www.observingcasually.com/4infonet-review/

  • lm

    April 16th, 2009 11:54 pm

    hi Dareen,

    thanks for the task… I think it is a great way to know what is latest…
    One question: Would some “automatic blog” software pick the latest article into your blog too ?
    I just installed this software in my new blog
    http://all4tqm.com/blogging_money

    cheers
    Dr. L M Foong

  • Trish @ Another Piece of the Puzzle

    April 17th, 2009 1:57 am

    Thanks for the tips. I had alerts set up for links to my blogs, of course, but wasn’t following my niche topic that way. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes up to spark my writing.

    Love TweetDeck – just opened it this morning and saw that you can now follow your Facebook Friends Status there. Pretty cool!

  • johnG

    April 17th, 2009 2:14 am

    I believe as a blogger you should 100% check out other blogs on the daily of what you are interested in. Sometimes it can flutter your creativity but sometimes it will INSPIRE!

  • Suzanna B. Stinnett

    April 17th, 2009 2:49 am

    Darren & all,
    Twitter has become my default filter for current news. I am just starting to use TweetDeck, it’s great but has been too buggy lately so I’ve spent my minutes following links from people I follow on Twitter who constantly turn up relevant and interesting material.

    As I write posts, I mentally sweep all the “keywords” away so that I can generate something original. The relevance remains because I’m steeped in the current conversation. For example, I had been journaling about collaboration for some time, preparing a post, when the Outsourcing Conspiracy came out. My post “The Collaboration Code” fit together with Brian & Jon’s launch of their report perfectly (and they seem to agree).

    The challenge then becomes to write highly original pieces while keeping them well connected to posts by others. Let the conversation trends and threads inform you, then be bold about your own viewpoint. Even for seasoned writers, journalists and bloggers, it is still a kind of surprise pleasure to unfold an article with fresh insight. And this is the kind of connected innovation that will bring about the most productive changes in our world.

    Suzanna

  • Louis

    April 17th, 2009 3:26 am

    Google Alerts are a terrific service, but I’m using Twitter more and more these days and topic hashtags are doing a lot of the work of alerting me to stories and comment.

  • Jennifer

    April 17th, 2009 3:33 am

    Now this is something new! (Crawling out from under rock) I’ve never heard of such a thing! Sheesh!

    I’m off set this up!

  • Ani Long

    April 17th, 2009 6:55 am

    I just started using Google Alerts and I love it! I have found so many ideas on what to write about. I have so many RSS feeds stored on my Flock Browser and it’s difficult to find what to write about. There’s just so much video game news and so little anime news. With Google Alerts, I have found blogs on anime and video games that I have found interesting to read! Put the RSS feeds into Flock and I am up-to-the-minute in ideas.

  • Robin Taylor Roth

    April 17th, 2009 7:51 am

    Interesting assignment. I have been using Google Alerts, for awhile, to monitor my online “reputation.” So, I created a new alert for a key topic of mine, real estate coaching.

    The first alert arrived almost instantly, and the very first entry looked interesting. That, in turn, led me to another site, where I felt compelled to leave comments on several examples. (Naturally, each comment is linked to my site.)

    Is that an appropriate response?

  • Rajib Miah

    April 17th, 2009 8:41 am

    Another use that I’ve found for Google alerts is to catch content thieves. I recently stumbled upon a blog from google alerts that had reprinted my article word for word.

  • Palma | Buddha Trance

    April 17th, 2009 8:55 am

    I’ve been using Google Alerts only to check for links to my site. I will now expand the alerts to include what you suggest.

    I want to try to use Google Reader consistently too. So much to learn and do, thank you!

  • Adam Green

    April 17th, 2009 8:58 am

    The biggest mistake you can make with Google Alerts is casting too wide a net. Google tries not to flood your mailbox, although that can happen anyway, so it limits the number of alerts it will send on a single subject. If you just search for a single phrase, like “clean energy”, you’ll get the most general results. You can get much more relevant results by thinking about WHERE you want you results from. If you want academic research, look for pages on college sites:
    “clean energy” site:edu

    If you want to see what US government agencies have to say, look on .gov sites:
    “clean energy” site:gov

    If you just want a financial perspective, search the Wall Street Journal:
    “clean energy” site:wsj.com

    I’ve collected hundreds of these tips in a free Google Alerts tutorial:
    http://www.alertrank.com/google-alerts-tutorial.html

  • enjoygame

    April 17th, 2009 11:26 am

    hi Dareen,

    thanks for the task… I think it is a great way to know what is latest…
    One question: Would some “automatic blog” software pick the latest article into your blog too ?
    I just installed this software in my new blog

    http://www.max-sky.com
    cheers
    Dr. L M Foong

  • Mohammad Afaq

    April 17th, 2009 2:20 pm

    Thanks Darren,

    I really loved this post and I would like to use it. Thank you very much for this tip.

    Mohammad Afaq
    Free Website Traffic

  • denbagus

    April 17th, 2009 4:06 pm

    i have been use that tools… amazing i have a lot of benefit by using that tools

  • madafan

    April 17th, 2009 7:11 pm

    I guess this is only a first step but I did the following: created all sorts of RSS feeds for some keywords (madagascar, malagasy, madafan, travel) and put them on newsgator RSS reader (I prefere this one as newsgator client for blackberry is better than Google reader IMHO). alerts set for:
    - google alerts
    - technorati watchlist
    - search.twitter.com
    - tripadvisor.com Madagascar forums

  • Marj Galangco

    April 17th, 2009 11:01 pm

    This is really helpful. I do keep a tab on what’s happening mostly by reading other blogs, but the tools you’ve laid out here makes research a lot more easy.
    Thanks!

  • Mistress B

    April 18th, 2009 12:10 am

    I wouldn’t know where to start. I don’t know that personal blogging is a niche that lends itself to the kinds of monitoring you are talking about here.

  • John Hoff - WpBlogHost

    April 18th, 2009 3:11 am

    Hi Darren, excellent post. I have used Twitter search to find conversations as well as Google Alerts. Google Alerts is a fabulous tool, isn’t it?

    Not that this other tool is an alert, but I’ve also used Yahoo! Answers to find conversations and questions floating around others might have.

  • Sulaiman Alhasawi

    April 18th, 2009 8:20 am

    Thanks for The google alert tip

  • Brook Lenox

    April 18th, 2009 8:52 am

    I personally love Google Alerts. I actually get a lot of traffic to my blog for companies that have Google Alerts set up for their company names. This post encouraged me to set up a couple more alerts. Thanks.

  • Patrik

    April 18th, 2009 9:28 am

    Thanks Darren,

    I was not aware of these tools except Google alerts. I will start to look into these other tools right away.

  • Diana from Guerrero Ink

    April 18th, 2009 2:48 pm

    I use the alerts that you suggested and have done so for some time. In addition, I watch certain colleagues or competitors and have discovered some cool social media sites or new resources because of that strategy.

    I also find my RSS Reader to be a valuable source for keeping an eye on the pulse of things–you can put Google Alerts right into that feed which makes it a bit interesting and easier to scan.

  • ExcitedByLife

    April 18th, 2009 7:25 pm

    Getting The Scoop

    We found that Tweetdeck is the way to go for searching twitter. You can setup multiple keyword phrase searches in tweetdeck. The extra benefit of having this on your desktop is that you can be the first to retweet great tweets and get the retweet scoop.

    Another great tool to get scoops is the google desktop trends gadget. It’s great for getting the scoop on what the general population are searching for in google at any given moment. A topic in your niche may appear one day.

    Another idea we implemented was to setup an RSS feed monitoring the latest releases of books in our niche in Amazon. You can be the first to blog about a new book in your niche. To do this go to Amazon and just go to the book category covering your niche and subscribe to the RSS feed.

    Example

    Hot New Releases in Books
    Any Category > Books > Health, Mind & Body
    gives http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/books/10/ref=pd_nr_b_nav
    RSS is http://www.amazon.com/rss/new-releases/books/10/ref%5Cx3dpd_nr_rss_link

    You could also use Amazon RSS feeds monitor for new products or hot products in your niche not only books.

  • cyza

    April 19th, 2009 3:17 am

    I’ve practiced this alert for quit some time now and I love this function very much. It keeps me up to date with everything that I want.

    Sometime my friends wonder how come I always know what’s happening all the time…haha….

    Now, I’m also into sciencedirect.com alert and scopus.com alert.

  • blog4movie

    April 19th, 2009 11:32 pm

    I like the warning !!! Sometimes I just trapped in searching what people talk about my niche, till I forget to write on my own blog :P

  • Meikah Delid

    April 20th, 2009 3:59 pm

    Yes, I use the Google Alerts, and also subscribe via RSS and put them on Google Homepage. I prefer putting them on Google Homepage so that I will see them right away when I sign on to my Gmail. :)

    I have Twitter alerts too. I have yet to check out Technorati Checklist, though. Will let you know when I do.

    Haven’t tried also the vanity alert. LOL. Hmm, maybe I should!

    Thanks for this helpful tip, as always. :)

  • Miguel Wickert

    April 21st, 2009 12:19 am

    Hi Folks,

    Don’t underestimate the power of alerts but like Darren says be careful with monitoring those alerts, in the past I became distracted and other aspects of my blogging suffered. Never cool, find balance but content creation is essential for ones growth and success.

    -Mig

  • Coolwired

    April 21st, 2009 3:58 am

    Hi Darren,
    Thanks for this great tip! I am going to set this up asap.
    I also have yet to check out Technorati . Thanks, too, for the warning. ;-)
    Much appreciated!

  • Sam sall

    April 21st, 2009 4:58 am

    great
    new thing to learn
    thank you Darren

  • Jaye L

    April 21st, 2009 12:50 pm

    My blog can be found at http://artquiltmaker.com/blog. It is about creativity and design using fabric and quilts.

    I set up Tweetdeck today in order to monitor those I follow more consistently. I found a couple of tweets I had missed that were really helpful in updating my Creative Prompts page.

  • Robyn

    April 21st, 2009 11:06 pm

    well I another new tip, it will be interesting to see what happens next : )

  • Inchirieri Masini

    April 22nd, 2009 12:18 am

    Hi this is a good article and very usefull.Keep doing the good job.
    Thanks again.

  • dawnaurora

    April 23rd, 2009 4:44 am

    I have been monitoring for about 6 mos now. This article helps me refine my monitoring a bit better. I have added a couple more things to monitor in my niche.

  • Joan Kremer

    April 25th, 2009 2:31 pm

    In addition to Google alerts, I use these two services, which send me similar kinds of alerts, but from Twitter entries:
    http://www.twilert.com/ and http://tweetbeep.com/
    I’ve had more success with Twilert, but I like both of them.

  • Chris Somers

    April 25th, 2009 11:06 pm

    For tasks 10, 11 and 12 wrote a blog post about our experiences:

    http://activerain.com/blogsview/1049739/Building-a-Better-Blog-Challenge-Update-on-3-Tasks

  • Soulpowr

    April 27th, 2009 10:06 am

    Already using Google Alerts for key words and Google Reader for blog and new service contact within my area of intrest. The Google Alerts can get overwhelming particularly if you’re looking for names. For instance if I set up an alert for LeBron James I can get content for the Cavs star, plus content for Lebron Johnson or Jesse James so the alert has to be worded pretty tightly.

  • أطياف مصر

    April 27th, 2009 5:53 pm

    what other writing just a source of more Ideas not to be copied .. so you have to let your personal touch..

  • The Business Web Design Man

    April 28th, 2009 8:01 am

    Hey Darren

    Thanks for the tips. Been using Google alerts for a while now and Tweetdeck as well.

    I also watch some relevant blogs on my blogger watchlist and I have started using FeedDemon which I find really good.

    That just about keeps me out of trouble for monitoring.

  • Kimberley Payne

    May 2nd, 2009 6:13 am

    I’ve been using Google Alerts for my own name and blog name, but you’ve reminded me to add other industry words like “Christian Fitness.”

  • Michael Nielsen

    May 4th, 2009 7:38 am

    Hey Darren,

    Great with the Google Alerts, I wasn’t aware of that service. Im using it extensively now – With RSS feeds its great!

    Michael
    http://www.photofolio.dk/ – http://www.photofolio.dk/blog/

  • Elizabeth Kaylene

    May 10th, 2009 2:10 am

    Something to chew on: If you participate in a blog that is relevant to your niche and possibly your blog’s competition, is that potentially harmful (since you’re sort of helping build their community)?

  • Callie

    May 11th, 2009 12:58 pm

    Well, at least this is one thing I’ve been proactively doing right.

  • Jeannette

    May 14th, 2009 10:35 pm

    This was great — I had never done this before and wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been ‘assigned’ to me. It’s amazing how much info is out there…. Just waiting for us.

  • Chloe Alice Wilson

    May 28th, 2009 8:37 pm

    Hi,

    I’ve been using Google Alerts for about 6 months now and they have been very useful. I first used them to allow me to find new or interesting things to Twitter about. Since starting this course I now use them to (i) summarise in a weekly link post, (ii) find relevant blog posts to comment on and subscribe to and (iii) for ideas for new posts.

    I subscribe to the RSS feed for Twitter mentions on my keyword but find the quantity overwhelming so am using it less and less.

    I’ve not heard of Technorati Watchlists so will go and check this out now.

    Cheers, Chloe

  • Patricia

    May 29th, 2009 12:26 am

    Unlike most everyone else, I am not finding these to be very useful at all. Mostly they are a distraction. Blogging is not my life. Rather it is an adjunct to my life as a self-representing, independent artist. I don’t want to spend my time reading a gazillion blogs no matter how appropos all of them may be. And lets face it, with the size of the pool of bloggers, there are a lot of opportunities to encounter interesting and relevant blogs!

    One must find other criteria or one will be at the computer reading forever… ;)

  • abercrombie and fitch

    July 4th, 2009 5:25 pm

    Google Alerts are my favorite. Especially for monitoring web mentions about myself or my brand.


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