New to the blogosphere?

This is going to be the first post in a series of tech tips written by me. I'm not a programmer by any means, but I use the internet extensively and would like to pass on some infomation about things that I've learned and currently using.

First off, quick shout out to my buddy Nate Koechley (Nate's blog), who got me started. At a party last December he told me to sign up with bloglines (along with a few other tips that I'll be passing along) and it has completely changed the way that I use the internet.

Today's subject is Blogs or Weblogs

Weblogs, or blogs for short, are big parts in the evolution of the internet. Through linking, blogs form a sort of ecosystem, called the Blogosphere

The first thing you need is a news aggregator

Aggregators improve upon the time and effort needed to regularly check websites of interest for updates, creating a unique information space or "personal newspaper." An aggregator is able to subscribe to a feed, check for new content at user-determined intervals, and retrieve the content.

I use bloglines as my aggregator. Bloglines is web based, so you can log in on any computer that's connected to the internet & you'll be able to read your feeds through your personalized interface.

To sign up with bloglines, click on this link

Once you're registered, on the top left corner under "my feeds" click on Add.

Type in: myeastbayagentblog.com & click on subscribe

On the next page, you'll occasionally have multiple feeds to choose from. I usually preview a couple & pick the one that I like best. Then hit subscribe again.

Congratulations, you're now subscribed to my blog's feed. Whenever I make a new post, bloglines will automatically notify you that there's a new post to read.

Next subscribe to a few others. Here is a good diverse sample of real estate blogs to start with. Add these feeds and let it grow from there.

Inman Blog: http://www.inman.com/blogger/bradinman.aspx

Real Estate Blog Squad: http://therealtygram.typepad.com/real_estate_blog_squad/

Bankrate: Mortgage Blog Headlines: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/archiveMortgageBlog.asp?link=2

Growabrian: http://growabrain.typepad.com/growabrain/

Rain City Guide: http://www.raincityguide.com/

When you read blogs, you'll follow links to other blogs. Soon you'll be adding feeds of blogs that you come across that you like.

Try this out and let me know how it goes.

Technorati: myeastbayagent, tutorial, realestate, blogsquad, education, blogging, rss