After analyizing my reading behavior in the last couple of weeks I finally got around to organizing my feeds into groups. I did this mainly, because it became almost impossible to read all 260+ feeds all the time. Therefore, I wanted to have an easy mechanism when time was tight. Nicole Simon e.g. and Herr Ner @webseeings are using similar priorization to get through their feeds.
The question then became what do I read all the time and which feeds not, and why. Here are my findings (I am not going to list all the blogs, just look at the blogroll) and please note, my reading habits have nothing to do with a-, b-, c-lists (at least I don’t think of it as such), they just reflect my habits.
The blogs marked in groups with ‘A’ I try to read all the time, and since I work in PR I have a tough time putting PR-blogs in ‘B’-groups, but there is just too much content out there. In addition, feeds I have freshly discovered will go into ‘B’-first. Now to the interesting stuff. I noticed, that there are not many German blogs in the A-category. Those listed in ‘A_Deutsche Blogs’ I really have an interest in, feel that they are must-read or know the author. Many of the blogs in ‘B_Deutsche Blogs’ are there because I liked the style at first, but they don’t do much more than link to stuff they found in English blogs. And since I am also reading a load of English blogs I have seen much of the stuff they refer to. The value-add is their commenting. (The funny part is of course the cycle from an English blog, to a German blog, to an e-mail from a friend, saying “have you seen this?”)
This “insight”, many serious German bloggers mainly linking to content that is “everything blogosphere”, brings me back of course to my own blog-objective. It should make me think, “should I link to Steve Rubel more often? And if so, what would be the motivation? To get traffic? Because I think, he HAS to notice me? Because I think what he says is important?
Well, I do think many of his posts are important to me, that’s why I subscribed to his feed in the first place. But secondly, I will not get traffic by repeating what he says.
Until now, I have tried to keep the posts that make a link-blog few and I intend to keep it that way. I’d like to provide readers with my reflection of things that are not already posted everywhere. Granted, that keeps the number of subscribers low (very low), but I am not in it for the money anyway. I like family, e. g. like there is over at For Immediate Release.
As for the German blogosphere, I am sure there is more out there, but maybe it hasn’t scratched my horizon yet. Of course, German blogging is still behind American blogging, but there really are few independent blogs, driven by a certain topic, like “PowerPoint” or “DIY with wood”, or “Zen for bicycle maintainance” in Germany. Most German blogs blog about blogging or blogging related news which is fine, but not what stimulates me or quenches my thirst.
So, if you know good German blogs I am not yet reading, let me know, I can take another 260+ feeds, I am sure.