Simply put... "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" by David Meerman Scott is an absolutely fantastic read. And, I'm not just saying that because the man gifted me an advanced, autographed copy, or because he was courteous enough to credit me and my blog in the acknowledgements section of the book. As much as I really do appreciate it all... that's not how I roll. Instead, I state that David's book is a "fantastic read" because I truly and deeply feel that it is.

What about it, exactly, did I find so worthwhile? Well, aside from being way under-priced (currently $16.47 at Amazon), I find this book to be a great starting point for anyone new to online marketing, as well as those that would like a "refresher" course on how to effectively sell products and services by way of website promotion. Scott provides readers with an understanding of how to leverage the internet, how to break through the clutter, and how to let go of old-school PR techniques in favor of new tactics, such as writing and publishing news releases specifically tailored to your target audiences instead of reporters, blogging, podcasting, and viral marketing, that reflect the new ways consumers and customers get information.

Personally, I've learned a lot from this book and I've been involved with internet marketing for nearly 5 years now. In fact, the very few instances where I didn't pick up anything new actually served as reinforcement for ideas that David and I shared... which was kind of rewarding in its own right.

The following is and excerpt from the book's sleeve:

"The Internet has profoundly changed the way people communicate and interact with each other. It has also changed the way businesses communicate with current and potential customers. In the old days, marketers could only communicate through the filter of expensive advertising or media ink placed by a PR firm. Today, the rules have changed entirely."

"The New Rules of Marketing and PR shows you how to leverage the potential that web-based communication offers large and small companies, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, political organizations, consultants, even rock bands and churches. Finally, you can speak directly to customers and buyers, establishing a personal link with those who make your business work. You can reach niche buyers with targeted messages that cost a fraction of you bid-budget advertising campaign. Rather than bombard them with advertising they'll likely ignore, you can focus on getting the right message to the right people at the right time."

It's a completely new ball game out their folks... and David has just presented us all with the new rule book. "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" is easy-to-read, chock full of good examples, and sequenced in a way that makes tremendous sense. This book needs to be a well-used part of your business library.

In the first part of this 2-part post, I alluded to the idea that I wasn't getting as much in return - in terms of quality and relevant industry information - from the large amounts of blog / newsletter reading I do on a weekly basis... at least not to the point that I once was. After spending some time last week analyzing statistics on what I read, how I read, and for how long I read my feeds (courtesy of Google Reader), I decided that the best course of action for solving this problem was to essentially remove those blog / newsletter subscriptions that weren't doing much for me... a pretty simple solution if I do say so myself.

I spent the greater portion of this week "trimming the fat", if you will, from my Google reader account. I started this process off with 104 feeds and eventually ended up with a final count of 58. Now, that's a lot of fat! Anyone that manages feeds like this on a daily basis understands full-well how big of a cut 46 feeds is.

Well, now the question becomes how did I determine which of my 104 feeds to cut? As much as I would like to say that this was an easy step for me, it was actually quite the opposite. I started with removing my dormant feeds - these are the feeds that for whatever reason aren't being updated. Typically these are blogs in which the author has either given up on, or has become so preoccupied with work that he or she no longer has time to update them. Almost instantly, I was able to cut my list from 104 feeds down to 81. While this sizable cut didn't really help to solve my "time / quality" problem any, I felt that it was worth the effort just to "clean house" a little bit.

Next, I spent a little time reviewing over my Del.icio.us account. Why Del.icio.us? Well, in my opinion the two go hand-in-hand. Should I come across something of value in my reading, I immediately bookmark it using Del.icio.us for future use - as explained in a previous post. I found that by analyzing these bookmarks, I was able to better understand which feeds were worth keeping. Moving forward, I was able to cut feeds one-by-one until I was confident that I had a list of quality, relevant industry reading.

Here's a look at my Google Reader account now, 46 feeds skinnier:

The first screen-shot here is a snap-shot of my feed subscriptions. See how nice and organized they are. Previously, I had my search feeds broken up into 3 different folders: "Daily News", "Daily Reads", and "Weekly Reads". I used this system as a way to properly allocate my time when reading feeds, but needless to say it didn't work out. Now, as you can see, I've simplified my feeds and organized them by topics.

The second screen-shot is a snap-shot of my "cigar" feeds. Smoking cigars is a huge hobby of mine, and like all hobbies, I like to educate myself through reading.

The third screen-shot is a snap-shot of my "Yahoo! Store" feeds. Even though I mostly dabble in search marketing, I do try and keep up-to-date on any new Yahoo! Store announcements, advancements, and the like.

The forth screen-shot is a snap-shot of my "Search Marketing" feeds. These feeds are the meat and potatoes of my industry reading and these are the feeds in which I get nearly 100% of my industry information from.

In conclusion, I want to go on record and say that yes I understand that there are several hundred other industry related blogs and newsletters currently in circulation, many of which I'm sure offer a lot of value to their readers, but these are the blogs that I choose to read at this point in my career. Obviously, as my needs change and my thirst for more industry reading spanning different topics grows, I will be adjusting this list again. However, for now, I think I have everything just as I should.

Every morning when I first enter my office, I sit down at my desk and begin to carry out what seems to be my morning routine. First I'll review over my phone messages, than I'll check and respond to email, and once I am in the clear I'll pop open my Google Reader and begin to digest the mountains upon mountains of blog subscriptions I manage... mainly industry related reading that provides its fair share of news, updates, and happenings.

However, over the past few months now I've noticed that the time I've allowed for such reading has increased, and well, the level of quality reading had decreased. Maybe you've experienced this as well? What does this mean exactly? Well, I think it means that while I am beginning to spend more of my overall valuable time reading blogs and other resources, I don't believe that I'm getting much, in terms of value, in return for that time... or at least to the extent that I once was. This is an obvious problem for me as I am one that values the time I put into my work, as well as my efforts with staying up-to-date in an industry as fast-paced as search marketing is.

Like with any problem, the first step to finding an appropriate solution is to first analyze the situation right down to the very core. Lucky for me, I use Google reader which just so happens to provide a series of statistical trends of the very information that I'll need in order to analyze my problem. Let's have a look, shall we:

The first screen-shot highlights the number of items (blogs and newsletters) read day by day over the past 30 days. According to this graph, of the 104 feeds that I am currently subscribed to, I was able to read just over 5,300 items. Amazing, isn't it! To think that I read through 5,300 different blog posts in 30 days is incredible. However, for the record, I must admit that I didn't completely read each of these 5,300 items as much of this "reading" is in fact title surfing - a process where I'll skim the titles of each item and determine whether or not to read. In any event, 5,300 is still a lot.

The second screen-shot highlights the number of items read by time of day. According to this graph, of the 5,300 items read over the past 30 days, 3,000 of them were read between the hours 8 - 9am... which is to be expected seeing how I purposely try and make reading my feeds apart of my everyday morning routine.

The third screen-shot highlights the number of items read by day of the week. According to this graph, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays are my heavy reading days... which again, is something to be expected. Mondays and Tuesdays are heavy due to the weekend, and Fridays are as well because bloggers tend to publish on Thursdays in order to get their information out before the weekend... much like my thought was with this post. :).

However, what does catch my eye is that this graph shows very little reading having taken place on Saturday and Sunday for the past 30 days. This is a tad misleading as I happen to do quite a bit of my reading on the weekends. Why the discrepancy? Well, it is most likely due to a completely separate web project that I have been spending my weekend hours working on... thus explaining the odd occurrence.

The forth screen-shot highlights the top 20 feeds (of my 104 subscriptions) according to the number of items I've been able to read from each source in the past 30 days. Personally, I find this to be key information which will help me to better understand how effectively my time is being spent. Using this list, as well as my understanding of the quality of information I am getting from my feeds, I will be able to determine how exactly to trim the fat, sort of speak, from my Google reader.

The firth screen-shot highlights the top 20 feeds (of my 104 subscriptions) according to the average number of items each feed produces daily. While this information alone doesn't provide me with much, it, combined with my understanding of the quality of information I am getting from my feeds, will also help to determine which of my subscriptions are a bust.

The last screen-shot highlights the top 20 feeds (of my 104 subscriptions) that have been inactive the longest. If nothing else, this list will serve as a starting point for where I can make my cuts... let's face it, 104 feeds is way too many for me to be managing.

And that's, that. After further analyzing the statistics and trends associated with my Google Reader account, I've concluded that I do have somewhat of a time / quality problem on my hands. It is very clear to me that I am spending too much of my valuable time reading industry stories, and getting very little in return for it - this is of course referring to the quality of new information I'm getting out of what I read - which brings me to my next step.

To solve my time / quality problem, I will spend the next week or so evaluating my subscriptions as well as determining which feeds still provide me with value, and which can be cut. I am hoping that with my next post, I will be able show you exactly how I was able to "trim the fat" from my 104 subscriptions and at the same time provide great value to future industry reading.

Until next time, peace.