You might have read my last post, covering the depression currently affecting some people in media companies. You may not. Either way, I’m going to try and share some of the things that make me come back to my day job, my internet hobbies, and indeed this blog…
Last week, I was making a presentation to our advertising staff. Despite not being one of my best efforts, one of the questions at the end was about how I’d gained my knowledge about the web and what formal training I had.
The answer is no formal training at all. Here’s how I’ve learnt the little I know about the internet.
1. Have a passion for it. Actively be interested in it. Desire to find out how things work, or why something is successful.
2. Read everything you can. Use Live Bookmarks in Firefox, RSS feeds and aggregators to find out as much about the subject as you can.
3. Experiment. Don’t just talk about a social networking site like Myspace. Sign up and use the thing. That way you’ll be able to offer your own insights, and just as important, be able to spot when someone is talking rubbish. Want to learn about blogging? Start one. it doesn’t have to be about your day job, but if you try and make your blog the best it can be you’ll learn loads. This blog has a loooooong way to go, but every step pays me back with knowledge, if not cash.
4. Take an interest in marketing, search engine optimisation and particularly tracking. Finding out the best tracking systems for your blog and RSS feeds will inform you about what works best, and how to improve….
For starters, try www.downloadsquad.com, www.engadget.com, www.theregister.com for some info.
Try Firefox as your browser, or download RSSreader.
Blogger for blogs isn’t a bad place to start. For social networking, begin with Myspace, and start from there.
And for tracking Feedburner seems pretty good, and MyBlogLog offers good tracking and community aspects…
But I’m always hear to keen more suggestions, so make sure you leave a comment with a suggestion of at least one site or application for me to check out
