How to keep up with the best of the ‘net

Posted by Doug on January 8, 2009

I love Google Reader, and most weeks I like to spend at least two or three hours perusing the hundreds of articles that seem to pile up there much more quickly than I can read them.  I really like Google Reader’s “top recommendations” feature, which suggests sites that I might want to read, based on what’s already in my subscription list.  But recently I found a site that has helped me discover stuff I might not have found otherwise–it is apparently the brainchild of Guy Kawasaki, and it’s called AllTop.

AllTop is a site that aggregates the best of the Web–blog articles, Web sites, all sorts of stuff, all categorized and searchable by keyword and topic.  For example, if your interest is Web design, you can click on “W” in the alphabetic index strip and find “Web Design” in the list that appears–click on that and you’ll be taken to a page that lists up to five of the latest articles on more than fifty of the top Web design blogs and sites on the ‘net.

After just a short time of exploring AllTop, I was pretty impressed.  But the site acknowledges that the inspiration for AllTop comes from another similar site called PopURLS, which is also worth checking out.  PopURLS aggregates a whole slew of the most popular stuff on the Web, including the latest and greatest from sites like Digg, Reddit, Flickr, YouTube, Delicious, Slashdot, BoingBoing, Fark, Lifehacker, and many others.

With so much information available each and every day, tools like these can make it a little bit easier to keep abreast with what’s going on, what people are saying, what’s new and interesting–if you need an idea, or some inspiration, or if you’re looking for something specific, or if you’re just wanting to be entertained for a while, check these sites out.

The blogs you read every week

Posted by Doug on September 29, 2008

I’ll bet you don’t have nearly as much time to read blogs as you’d like–me, neither.  I probably read less (much less) than 10% of what I’m subscribed to in Google Reader, and honestly, I don’t read them every day.  But there are a few that I keep coming back to again and again, the ones I try to get to regularly, because they’re usually well-written, very often insightful, and nearly always relevant to the kinds of things you and I do, working in our home offices.

Freelance Switch

Many of us who work at home are freelancers–if that’s you, you probably already know about Freelance Switch, and if you don’t, you owe it to yourself to read it, and avail yourself of the useful information and services you’ll find there.  If you’re looking for freelance work, there’s a job board where you’ll find hundreds of potential jobs.  For $7/month, you get access to apply for any of them.

Zen Habits

Good habits are essential to success in virtually any area of life, and Leo’s blog is a great place to get ideas and inspiration to help you change the way you think, work, play and live.  This blog is enormously popular and successful, and if you haven’t read it yet, get into the Zen Habits habit.

LifeDev

LifeDev is one of the first blogs I began reading regularly, because the author is a good friend of mine, but I would probably be reading LifeDev anyway, because it is consistently creative, interesting, well-written, and fun.  With a recent shift in focus, LifeDev has hit a great stride.  This one should definitely be in your reader.

Dumb Little Man

My lovely wife actually turned me on to Dumb Little Man, and I’m glad she did.  Most of the writing is done by guest-posters, but somehow the content always seems to be (for lack of a better word) wise.   And who couldn’t use some wisdom in their life?

Unclutterer

Oh, do I know clutter.  For years I’ve lived a very cluttered life, both literally and figuratively, and one of the things I like about this blog is that it approaches the issue of clutter from all sorts of angles–not just the problem of a messy room or a cluttered desk, but issues related to having a life that is cluttered in many other ways.  If you work at home, there’s a really good chance that you could profit greatly from reading this blog.

Get Rich Slowly

I edited an ebook by the author of this blog, but again, it was my lovely wife who really began to dig into his blog and find gold there in the form of wise principles for managing money.  Those of us who have left the security of corporate day jobs to strike out on our own really need this kind of help and information.

SOHO Blog

This is one I’m watching–it seems to be relatively new (published since June 2008), but there is some creative and helpful content here for people who are trying to make it with their own home-based businesses, and I suspect it’s going to do well.

Those are mine.  What about yours?