One of the easiest and most effective writing techniques you can bring to your blog is to blog about news and topical events. Sometimes referred to as Newsjacking, your blog should regularly include posts that talk about something that’s happening right now, and how it applies to your readers. You don’t have to be the first to “break the news” as long as you bring something to the story that is unique. The major challenge though is how, as a blogger, you make sure you know what’s going on and have a chance to write your blog post as close in time to the news event as possible.
This is where Newsify becomes your secret weapon.
Newsify is a mobile app that logs into your Google Reader account. We have talked before about how you can use Google Reader to check for new ads on Craigslist, and we have mentioned loading it up with RSS feeds from news sources. To review, Google Reader allows you to subscribe to an RSS feed from any other website. The RSS feed will automatically push out any new stories and content that website publishes. You can create folders within your Google Reader to organize your feeds as needed. With Newsify, you can quickly check your sources on your smart phone and flag (star) those you want to save for later reading.
In my case, I have subscribed to RSS feeds from the blogs of all the major providers in my industry, like Facebook, Google, Twitter and others. I have also subscribed to the major news sites for my industry like Social Media Today or Mashable. All of these feeds are placed within a News folder so that I can quickly see if there are new stories that I should check out.
Today, Newsify released an update for their app making it even more powerful.
The update now gives you the ability to search through the articles in your feed. Many of the articles I star for later reading are not news – they’re informative articles for my industry. These are articles that I may want to read for my own benefit, or use as research for articles I plan to write myself. The new search can help me find all of the articles I’ve starred on a particular topic without having to scroll through screen after screen of article title. When looking at your folder view, simply swipe down to reveal the search bar.
Take the time to set this system up for yourself today. Log into your Google account and open Google Reader (you’ll find it under the More drop down). Begin subscribing to RSS feeds from the news sources and providers in your industry. Then, download Newsify to your iPhone and log into your Google account. Each time you open Newsify, it will automatically sync all of your feeds.