The internet is changing so much, so fast, that it’s very hard to wrap your mind around. That said, there are some relatively simple tools you can use to begin engaging in the new, social web. In order to get you started, I’m offering a standard, introductory package of customized resources described below. Each part of the package is explained first in introductory terms and then in a few lines of more technical explanation for advanced users. If you’re interested in my other services, please see this page.

The tools in this starter kit will do 3 basic things:

1. bring pertinent information, from several parts of the web, to you quickly, efficiently and automatically
2. automatically deliver your or your company’s news to the computers of your new subscribers
3. provide high-value search to answer questions about new developments in your industry, whatever it might be.

These are powerful applications that you’ll be able to use immediately. They will also grow with you as your sophistication grows. (Specifically, the package includes an OPML file, RSS/email subscription code, a custom search engine and two personal conversations.)

Most of the services I’ll use to compile these resources are free or low-cost. You’ll learn how to use them yourself as a result of our work together and you’ll get a starter package of particularly well assembled resources right away. If you’d prefer to put all this together yourself at no cost, just ask and I’ll tell you what tools I use to do it. I highly recommend paying for my expertise, however, to kick start your learning and make these tools useful right away.

What I’ll need from you to get started

In order to put together the following resources, I’ll ask you to:

• describe your work to me in a few sentences
• provide a list of your 10 favorite websites to read about this work
• list 10 key search terms you want to monitor.

This introductory package costs $1000 and will generally be completed within 48 hours of receipt of payment by PayPal or bank transfer. (Discounts available for nonprofits.) There are two telephone conversations included in this package and we should have both within the same 7 day period.

That’s an incredible value; these tools will change your working life. I want to make sure they get put to use far and wide and I believe they will lead to requests for more advanced services once you get your feet wet in this very exciting new world.

What’s included

Introductory and concluding conversations. As part of the work below, we will have two conversations on the telephone (presuming you aren’t local), each up to one hour in length. The first will be just after I give you the resources described, to talk through the use of them, and the second will be after a few days of use – in order to answer questions that come up and make sure you’re getting as much as possible out of these resources. The tangible resources below are very powerful and these conversations will help make your use of them all the more so.

The deliverables

1. “Top sources” web-page to monitor your industry

Introductory explanation
I will customize a “reading list” service that will automatically display any updates available each time you look at your personal monitoring page. Those updates will be pulled in from:

• your favorite websites
• top blogs in your industry
• key-word news searches and inbound links to your website

This tool will save you lots of time, keep you wonderfully up to date on news and introduce you to a whole new world of innovation online. Along with your reading list itself, I’ll send you some basic instructions on how to use and edit it.

(Click on image below to see an example of one simple monitoring page in full size)

Advanced explanation

I’ll build you an OPML file made up of RSS feeds gathered from the list of sites you provide and topical blog directories. I’ll scrape feeds from sites that don’t provide them and turn email lists into RSS. I’ll build search feeds by splicing together feeds for each query from multiple news search engines, Ask.com’s spam-free blogsearch, Live.com websearch feeds (if desired) and filtering for duplicates. Finally, I’ll provide a short description of the pros and cons of various feed readers and instructions on how to import and export your OPML file from them.

I also offer more extensive RSS consulting, including the creation of larger reading lists, more extensive feed discovery, in-depth use-training and high-level RSS publishing strategy.

2. Making your website subscribable

Introductory explanation

Just as you’ll have updates delivered to you automatically using the tool described above, I’ll provide you an easy way to offer subscription to your website’s news updates to your site visitors. I’ll also provide you a way to offer email subscription. You’ll be able to see how many subscribers you have and what they click through. Subscription means:

• more return visitors to your site
• making the most of the new content you put on your site
• ongoing relationships built more easily with stakeholders.

Advanced explanation

Lots of websites have news sections but no feeds. I’ll build a feed, run it through FeedBurner and optimize the settings there. I’ll provide you the account information, email subscription code snippet, RSS icon and link code and instructions on where to put your RSS URL in order to facilitate autodiscovery of your feed by browsers. If you’ve already got an RSS feed, we can make sure it’s optimized and discuss advanced options for feed publishing.

3. Custom Search Engine

Introductory explanation

I’ll put together a Google custom search engine that searches only the top news and reference sites in your industry. By limiting the breadth of your search, it’s often much easier to find pertinent, high-value information about particular companies and trends.

I’ve put a link to my personal custom search engine in the toolbar of my browser and I use it multiple times every day to quickly find out what the top sites in my field have written about particular items of interest to me. Your custom search engine will be very easy to use and make changes to if you want to add or delete sites from the index.

There’s no advanced explanation needed here, this is a simple and powerful resource.

Conclusion

These are tools that will prove incredibly useful for anyone who does any work on the internet. If you are interested in me putting together one of these packages for you, please email me at marshall@marshallk.com to let me know.