Recently, I asked if you were spending enough time learning. While learning about things outside your niche is always encouraged too, you should always be on the look out for new strategies and trends that pertain to yours. This will be incredibly beneficial to you for staying competitive.
Following are a few tools you should be using to do just that.
1. StumbleUpon
StumbeUpon is an incredible social tool, and you should use that aspect of it, but my favorite thing about it is the search feature. This is not like searching Google or Yahoo looking for relevant results pertaining to a specific query. Searching with StumbleUpon's search tool is a fantastic way to find new resources, articles, and tools related to a topic.
Because of the social aspect of StumbleUpon, you are going to get good results because others have already gave them the thumbs up. So not only are you finding things that other people who are interested in a given niche have enjoyed, you are quite possibly finding new ideas that can help your own business.
2. Blog Search
Technorati or BlogPulse or other blog search engines are great places to find more sources you should be keeping up with when it comes to views about your niche. The more blogs you are able to read, the more insight you are likely to come away with and ultimately use to your gain.
Check them out often, because new blogs are created and submitted everyday. Your new favorite blog could be created tomorrow.
3. News Search Sites
These may not be the places you want to go to find regular sites to keep up with (although they could), but they are great places to search for keywords related to your niche and find current relevant news articles.
Visiting sites like Google News, Yahoo News, or even our own WebProWire should be part of your daily routine to stay as up to date as possible on what is going on in your niche. These sites index new articles constantly.
4. Feed Reader
I have discussed at length why using feed readers is in your best interest. All of the aforementioned blogs and news sites you would like to read on a regular basis all come right to you in one place as they are updated.
There is really no more convenient way to get up to the minute news and articles about the things you are interested in. You can organize them, bookmark posts to read later, and skim through headlines with the greatest of ease. The feed reader is one of the greatest time savers that I know of. There are plenty out there to choose from. I use Google Reader, which is even more convenient to someone that already has a Google account.
5. Online Communities
When I say online communities, I'm referring to both social networks and forums (which are really the original social networks as far as I'm concerned). Not only are they great places to network, you can simply read what others are talking about and get a feel for current trends and concerns regarding your niche.
You can help others or receive help from them. Best of all, you can stay "in the know".
When you have downtime, try these things if you aren't already. They are good ways to help you achieve and maintain some level of expert status in your field. At the very least, it's more productive than playing solitaire.
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Following your Niche
Maybe you've talked about it before. But Google Alerts is another great source. You enter various search strings that people would use for your Niche and on a daily basis you will get updated News Alerts, Blog Alerts, and Web Alerts. It has been very helpful.
RE: Following Your Niche
Keeping on top of it helps to gain credibility
Again another great post Chris: I spend a lot of time researching my topics for certain niches and I think it's a must to check out related blogs and forums, as the info I have obtained through books and or web sites is sometimes if not often misleading or incorrect on some facts due to not being updated regularly, truths getting stretched sometimes or the source had the facts wrong in the first place. Which is what I have again experienced just recently in researching a certain subject, only to find some technical data (which due to my own experience just didn't sit right) being quoted on web pages from a supposedly repudiable author. Now by going to a related forum I found a previous discussion on the subject that told me the book in question had recently been revised and the data I wanted was a little closer to what I had expected it to be. This is why I strongly agree with you Chris, by using forums and or blogs like Stumbleupon and others as you mentioned you can keep on top of your niche and avoid the embarrassment and possible loss of credibility by having to go back and correct misinformation on your web pages or blog posts.
PS, I appolgize for the lengthy post but thought it may help reinforce the importance of maintaining credibility by keeping on top of your niche.
RE: Keeping on top of it helps to gain credibility
For blogs, musn't forget
RE: for blogs, musn't forget
Comment Policy Question?
Btw, Chris: Is this site/forum/blog dofollow? And are keyword based names allowed?
Lead me to your comment policy, por favor.
RE: Comment Policy Question
We don't exactly have a comment policy section for the site, but I did write an article on it a while back.
keeping abreast of developments
Thanks for the advice which I certainly intend to follow. It is very important to keep abreast of developments and trends in your own market and every small business should be making the time to take your advice
backlinking on blogs and forums
Should I post to forums with high index page but the actual page for putting links has no PR at all? Will google still consider this as a boost to my PR?
thanks in advance.
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