Its 2010 and some of you cats still dont know how to use the net.

Every day, new applications are being created that have the ability to revolutionize the way you do business both online and in the real world, but if you dont use them or understand whats going on, you will be left behind.

So before you get frustrated and throw your computer out the window understand that theres more to the internet than facebook and pac man, and if you want to stay ahead of the power curve, you need to be able to harness this information use it to the best of your ability.

Heres what being able to control the internet’s information flow will do for you:

• If you sell products, you will be able to reach more customers from all across the globe
• You can save time by outsourcing your bitchwork
• You can knock out some basic college courses FOR FREE
• You will have access to inside information that relates to your company and industry
• You will be able to hand off work you cant or dont want to do to people who would be happy to do it for pennies on the dollar
• You will be able to get the word out about current events that matter to the people you care about (like the Genarlow Wislon situation that happened a while back)

When I started out, it took me a long time to figure out what RSS feeds, widgets, and social bookmarks were.  Educating myself has made me so much more efficient, and if you hope to truly take over your workd, then its time for you to do the same.

Social Bookmarks: Finding Content Online

Ok, so youre interested in the Bengals, technology, or blue eyed Pit Bulls. Lets say you read something online that you like (for instance  Moneyball with The Golden State Warriors: the power of Doo-Doo Economics) and you want to come back to it later. You copy the web address go to a social bookmarking site and you bookmark that site. The thing that makes social bookmarking different from your browser bookmark (the one all the way at the top of your screen that says “Bookmarks”) is that other people can see what you have bookmarked, so they know what you like and they can find some new sites (because if you like it and other bookmarkers like you, they will probably like what you have bookmarked. The best way to learn how to social bookmark is to go do it yourself. . Instead of just going to Google, you can go to a social bookmarking service to find websites that you might not have been able to find using google alone.

Here are some good sites to use to find whatever youre interested in:

Stumbleupon is a social bookmarking site that pretty much lets you bookmark and stumble upon new websites by just clicking a button. People give sites thumbs up or down,  Stumbleupon tracks the votes and then uses that  information to help you discover some of the most popular content related to the tags you searched for (the more thumbs up a site gets, the higher its rank). The stumble button in Stumble toolbar doesn’t actually randomly take you to a webpage, it uses your interests, the interests of your friends, what kind of websites your are stumbling (tags are important), and the behavior of your friends to make sure that it offers you sites that you will actually be interested in.

Digg is one of the most popular bookmarking sites. Its a social news website made for people to discover and share news content from anywhere on the Internet by submitting links and stories, and voting (aka Digging) for the content you like. Again, the best way to get a feel for Digg is to go check it out.

Technorati is Google for blogs. You can find blogs on every topic that you can imagine. The whole site is kinda hard to use, but it does make it easy to find quality sites, like mine. Also, f you own a site, you can list it on Technorati and see a pretty good increase in traffic and Alexa ranking.

RSS: Using Feedreaders

Dont get too caught up in the name. RSS (really simple syndication) is like having a newspaper that you can customize. It allows you to be automatically updated whenever your favorite sites are updated with new content by getting the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually, but you will need a “feed reader” to receive and organize all those feeds.

So with all that being said, if you find a site that you feelin and you want to keep up with future postings, you can subscribe to that site if the site produces a feed (you will know if the site produces a feed because it will have a symbol like this somewhere on the site or next to the website address). You can find mine in the upper right hand corner of my site, right under the ad for my new eBook. You are going to need a service to read these feeds. The three best ones are Bloglines, Google Reader, and Feed Demon.

This is the feed reader that I use, and I check it first thing in the morning and sometimes before I log off at night. Bloglines is FREE, there is no software to download, and you can access your account at any time.  Once you register and set bloglines as your default, any time you click the button, you will automatically be taken to your Bloglines account where you can organize and manage the feed.

Im noticing that people either like Bloglines or Google Reader. I guess its just a matter of preference. Google reader is different from bloglines in that you can view your feeds in list form instead of having to go through them one by one, you can share your content, and theres a huge community of developers that create new and better ways to use the reader. The best way to figure out which one is right for you is to try them both for a few days and pick.

FeedDemon gets honorable mention only because it shows a list of RSS feeds in your subscriptions that are not updated in the last 2-3 months so you can unsubscribe from them, you can get desktop alerts, and you can also read your feeds when you are offline. You have to download FeedDemon from the Newsgator website here, so try it and tell the other readers what you think in the comments section.

The best way to learn is to experiment. Sign up with one or all of these, come back here and subscribe to my site, and every time I post something new you can get it via your feed reader instead of trying to remember how to spell my name. This is convenient for you if youre following more than 5 sites (I subscribe to 73).

Outsource Your Bitchwork

If you want to successfully run any kind of blog, website, or business then you need to be familiar with outsourcing. Outsourcing means you pay off somebody to do the things you dont have the time or will to do yourself. If you are really serious about making major moves, you dont need to be wasting time cooking for yourself or sorting envelopes. You can outsource all that and more, including:

• Pickup and drop off of your dry cleaning
• Cooking
• Shopping – Did you know Bloomingdales personal shoppers will bring whole clothes lines to your office for you to check out?
• Errands and Chores, like cleaning your bathroom
• Website building/design/customization
• Direct mail campaigns and almost all your marketing activities
• Outsourcing was one of the major themes behind Tim Ferriss

Companies have been outsourcing for years. Most of the time when you call a customer service line, you’re either talking to somebody in India or somebody sitting at home in their underwear. Its cheaper and more effecient for them that way.For a better example of how to outsource your life, check out this article my man Sid wrote.

Here are some of the best sites for outsourcing that you can find on the internet to get your sh*t done.

Craigslist – Just post an ad and see how many responses you get for whatever you need done. Craigslist is the ultimate list to hit up for whatever youre looking for; car parts, doctors, advice, a brand new ipod, diamonds, tickets, EVERY THING!

Do My Stuff – you can pay somebody to do damn near anything via this site, as long as its legal.

Wordpress Freelance – This is what I used to outsource building of this site and other ones that I own. If you are planning on launching a blog or an online store to sell your products or services, you will need help.

Outsource2India can create prototypes for product ideas that you might have. For instance, if you wanted to create a
Rabbit Heated Pad, you can send the design idea off to India and they will make what you describe, send it to you, and then you can carry it around to petshops. If a shop owner agrees to sell your item, you can go back to Outsource2India and have them make however many you need at wholesale price.

At TutorVista.com, you can actually outsource your homework for $5 per assignment if youre in school. That will give you more time to watch the Bengals, because everybody is a Bengals fan, right?

Wrap

Ok, so thats how to take control of the massive amounts of information flying around on the internet, pick out the info that you want, and make your life a little easier. I dont write these blogs to spend time writing, I write them for you to use! Get savvy and get in the game or be left behind. As always, reading is fundamental, so check out some great books on how to really take your internet activity to the next level. THESE BOOKS ARE CHEAP, SO BYPASS A FEW BEERS AND PICK UP SOMETHING THAT CAN BENEFIT YOU FOR DECADES! COP ONE!

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