Adding your blog to tablet reader apps.

[Harold Mansfield]

I was wondering if any of you have thought about directing your readers to add your blog to their mobile apps.
Apps like Google Current allow you to add your favorite publications in one place. And there are many others.
They install with a number of popular options available, but you can also add your favorite websites and blogs.
Google Currents (http://www.google.com/producer/currents)

I've found that sometimes if you just provide a little instruction to people, you can get them to do something that they may not have thought of on their own.
Something like "Add our blog to your Google Current app" and providing simple step by step instructions.

And there are publishers tools as well. Here's a video that shows you how:


http://youtu.be/Uz0SNPLo5P0

Has anyone done anything like this?

[vangogh]

So it's an rss reader? I'm not exactly following what Google Currents is or why you would use it. What does this offer that publishing an rss feed doesn't?

[tmerrill]

Is Google Current made for mobile while Google Reader is for normal computers? Is that the difference?

[Harold Mansfield]

I've never used Google Reader but, just looking at it, that seems to be the main difference.


So it's an rss reader? I'm not exactly following what Google Currents is or why you would use it. What does this offer that publishing an rss feed doesn't?

I guess it works on RSS, but it basically runs as an app that has all of your blogs and magazines in one place. You hit the icon of what ever publication you want to read out of what you've entered into it, and it displays the latest stories like a magazine layout.

Kind of like Kindle does, but it doesn't do books, and Kindle doesn't do websites. So I guess it's like a Kindle for all of your favorite blogs.
I have mine loaded with a bunch of Android, PC, Tech, and Web magazines/blogs and every night I sit on the couch and browse through the lastest stories from each, within the app. I don't have to physically go to each one, or bookmark a bunch of individual pages.

[vangogh]

Ok, that makes sense. Can't say I'll add my site. If this requires site owners to add their sites to Google Current in order to be listed, then Current is going to have a hard time gaining users. Maybe I'm understanding wrong and you don't need to specifically add your site. Still I wouldn't direct people to a specific rss reader, since that's really all this is. I'd rather people use whatever rss reader they prefer.

[Harold Mansfield]

Added my blog to Google Currents last week and it's now published. I use the app everyday to catch up on what's happening, so it feels pretty awesome having my own blog along side all of the others that I read like Mashable, Tech Crunch, SEO Land, Marketing Land, Cnet, PC World, Salon, Android Community, Google Today, Fast Company. I probably subscribe to 60 blogs and magazines with it.

They have a requirement of 200 subscribers before they'll list your publication in the catalog, so here's the shameless plug if you want to check it out what mine looks like before doing it yourself.

https://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAowiZyUAQ/nhabit

[Harold Mansfield]

Since Amazon's Kindle is now claiming 22% of the tablet market and they are about to announce a new model, I figured why not publish to Kindle too: http://www.amazon.com/The-Small-Business-Owners-Blog/dp/B0095KJPRK/ref=cm_cmu_up_thanks_hdr

Amazon charges 99 cents for blogs, which it seems you get a cut.


Here's the link if anyone else is interested: https://kindlepublishing.amazon.com/gp/vendor/sign-in/

[vangogh]

Since Amazon's Kindle is now claiming 22% of the tablet market

Amazon will actually have to tell us how many tablets they've actually sold before they can make that claim, which at the moment are being pulled out of thin air and are unverifiable. That market share might be true, but there's no way to know.

That said it makes sense to let your content travel to as many different locations as possible so being on the Kindle does make sense. It's something I'd been meaning to do and keep forgetting to do. Thanks for the reminder.

Does the Kindle Fire have rss apps? If so can't people subscribe to your feed for free?

[Harold Mansfield]

Does the Kindle Fire have rss apps? If so can't people subscribe to your feed for free?

Yeah. That's the really weird thing. If Kindle is technically run on Android, why would anyone pay to subscribe to a blog, when you can get it for free by installing another reader app?

But if you look at the blogs published for Kindle, they are all .99 cents a month:
Amazon Kindle: Blogs (http://www.amazon.com/Blogs-Kindle-Sports-Industry-Internet-Technology/b?ie=UTF8&node=401358011)

[vangogh]

If paying 99 cents makes it more convenient it's not too hard to understand. That's how iTunes won out over Napster and Kazaa. People are willing to pay for things, even if they can get them for free. The value they receive is in the convenience.

I think at some point this all has to work without site owners needing to take the additional step to add their feed to all the possible services out there. That's why I'm not sold on the Google Currents thing. I know it wasn't difficult to set up, but it's more than I see most people doing and unless the content is there, consumers aren't going to be using the service. Where Amazon is concerned you're signing up for something a little different and you would get a cut of the price when someone buys your feed.

[KristineS]

Hmm, this is all interesting stuff. I've been out of the personal blogging game for a while, so I haven't really looked at any of this. Mostly I've always just relied in RSS feeds. Seems like there's more options out there now.

[Harold Mansfield]

I can understand why each app or platform doesn't add every possible feed. Cause every blog isn't formatted properly, any good, or may not be around long. The thing about Google Currents is, it's not about trying to get readers to download it just to follow you. It's about making your content available for the millions that already have it. It's pushing 5 million+ downloads on Android devices, I can't tell how many on iOS devices, but I'd assume something simular.

Where else can you publish your blog that gets you on an app that already has that many users?

[Harold Mansfield]

Hmm, this is all interesting stuff. I've been out of the personal blogging game for a while, so I haven't really looked at any of this. Mostly I've always just relied in RSS feeds. Seems like there's more options out there now.

RSS is dead to me. Long live RSS.

It's the cornerstone of syndication, but so many "non-tech" people still have no idea how to use a feed URL to subscribe. None of my clients get it. I used to end up saying, "Don't worry about it, web savvy people know what it is". (Which is the wrong answer. I don't say that anymore)

[vangogh]

Where else can you publish your blog that gets you on an app that already has that many users?

The internet.

If ultimately all you're doing is joining millions of other sites how do you stand out in Google Current? I'm not arguing against it. I think you should make your content available as far and wide as you can, but I doubt Google Current is going to be a Panacea for having people find your content. I still think something that requires blogs to do something before being included is putting up some roadblocks to having content. Current will have to first prove it has a large enough audience for it to be enticing enough to get people to add their blogs to it.

[Harold Mansfield]

I think it's already done that. Millions of people already have it installed and use it frequently. You can use ANY reader app you want. But this one does look good. It formats your content nicely, and it puts you along side a lot of well known publications. Sometimes just standing next to the right person, can open a door for you.

No one thing is going to be your holy grail. You still have to do the work and the marketing to promote the content. The app itself doesn't DO anything. It's not going to promote your content for you. The point of this is that, if you want to make your content easily available to people on the devices that they are now using, how they are using them...you can do that now. If you target the most popular distribution channels for Android, iPad and Kindle, odds are that you are going to hit quite a few tablet owners that have at least ONE of them already installed.

One of the points in another thread was how difficult it is to get people to install an app just for your company. I'm merely suggesting some easy ways to do that. As opposed to people that keep building apps, just to distribute content. The infrastructure to do it for mobile exists now. And it's free.

Technically, you don't have to do anything to your content to publish it.I was merely suggesting that you make sure that it is ready so that you look at least as good as the other available publications. I've subscribed to a few blogs that just don't look good in any app, because they haven't done anything to insure that they do.

For the casual user, the web is changing to mobile right now. Right in front of our face. More and more professionals are also moving from reading in front of a computer screen, to reading on a hand held device.

Amazon just announced another line of Kindle products (http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/06/amazon-announces-kindle-fire-hd/) that are priced very competitively. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that $200 tablets are creating a huge content distribution network around the world. It's happening. If you write a blog, you have content for these devices.

I personally think the days of people sitting at a computer and reading their favorite blogs and magazines are over. 100%. These are the final days of that. I'm so sure of it, that I'd stake my entire business on it.

I didn't feel this way about laptops. Those made WORK mobile. But this. Tablets? It's just way too easy, way too portable, and they are getting way too cheap. Until we start jacking content directly into people's brains or scrolling it across the inside of their glasses, I'm pretty sure this is going to take over as the way that people read books, magazines, documents, blogs, school books and everything else that used to be on paper or could previously only be accessed on a full computer.

All I'm saying is, if this is the avenue that you want to pursue, it's there. It's relatively easy. And it's free. And right now, there aren't a million periodicals doing a land grab. Even on Amazon, since the great blog rush of a few years ago, a lot of those blogs are dead now. There's room at the top.

[vangogh]

Oh I definitely think this is worthwhile. I hope I'm not implying that it isn't. Again anything you can do to help your content travel to the devices of people who might be interested in is a good thing. It didn't seem all that difficult to add your content so the few minutes would hardly be wasted time.

At the same time I wonder how much content Google Current will get if it requires site owners to first sign up. A few million people using the app isn't really a lot…yet. This is Google after all so a few million could easily become hundreds of millions. I just wonder why the effort is needed to be included if this is essentially just an rss app. Google certainly knows how to crawl the web and find rss feeds.


I personally think the days of people sitting at a computer and reading their favorite blogs and magazines are over. 100%.

I wouldn't say those days are over, but I do agree with your general idea. Most people are moving toward tablets. For the majority that's all they need and reading on a tablet is a more pleasurable experience for the majority. No one should be ignoring mobile devices of any kind any more. I do think there will still be people sitting behind computers. For some it will be necessary and for some it will be preferred. Until tablets can match what laptops or desktops can do the latter aren't going away. But I do agree we'll see a lot more people going mobile only very soon. The numbers are already showing the trend. I've seen predictions lately that point toward mobile browsing overtaking laptop/desktop by 2014 at the latest.

[Harold Mansfield]

I see your point. And yes, a user can add any RSS to the app, you aren't limited to just the ones that are promoted with a logo and description in the listings. But it displays better if you make the effort to add your feed directly to the app and create your own publisher's profile...which you already have access to with your Google account info or Gmail address, just like any other Google product.

It's a reader, but not exactly a search engine like Google blogs. Although, if you search inside the app for content to add it will come back with results of available feeds or articles. Not just website addresses.

You can also add additional RSS feeds to your published content like You Tube channels, Flickr, Google Docs and a few others, to add to your table of contents. Which is basically exactly what people spend thousands on to build an app for their content. So that actually impresses me a bit.

To your other point, you know how Google is. They want you to use all of their web products just to give your website more credibility and presence in their search results. When they suggested that having a G+ profile would help your position, that kind of pissed me off, but I created profile anyway.

Oh yeah, interesting limitation. Creating, accessing and maintaining your publishers account only works in Chrome.

[vangogh]

Again, I'm not knocking setting up your blog. It's nothing many of us having done before. A few minutes of time and maybe you get some additional promotion you weren't getting before.


you know how Google is. They want you to use all of their web products just to give your website more credibility and presence in their search results.

Yeah, I do know. It gets tiring. They could always try the strategy of making really good products that make us want to use them instead of connecting it to search results.


Oh yeah, interesting limitation. Creating, accessing and maintaining your publishers account only works in Chrome.

That is limiting and kind of stupid, but Chrome is now the most widely used browser, especially by the people most likely to be wanting to add their feed to Currents, so it's probably not as limiting as it first seems.