Can yahoo pipes actually HELP your blogging?
March 10, 2008
Recently, I discovered a cool API that Yahoo had set up called ‘Yahoo Pipes’. Basically, what it does is ‘pipe’ feeds together into one ‘uber feed’, like connecting up a lot of little pipes to the main line.
It then spits that main line out in order of posts, into one feed, over however many blogs you’ve added to it.
The beauty of it is I can add any RSS based feed to it, and then republish it on ANY website I choose - so, any blog, free article site that I publish my work on, forum that allows me to grab feeds and more - and et voila, I’m able to combine it all into one constantly updating and evolving data stream that lets people see what I’m writing, where, and how its going.
My ‘uber feed’ updates around three times a day, as I post content to my blogs, but even if you’re not as profilic online as I am, Yahoo Pipes CAN make things easier for your readers to keep up with you.
For example - I blog on a shared blog called ‘Mama needs a book contract’ - and the articles I post on that blog (with the exception of a very few) don’t get published elsewhere. When I add it to my ‘uber feed’ people can read what I’ve written on a static webpage that updates constantly, AND grab an email of everything I’ve done that day, if they so choose.
So it provides convenience for your readers. Even if you’re an occasional guest on a blog, if you can set up the feed to recognise ONLY your posts, you’re able to create another stream of information to review.
Amalgamating my blogs has also given me a couple of extra bonuses - because I’ve got a huge feed, that runs into the dozens of posts weekly, I’ve increased my readership - and remained in front of them - daily. It might not seem all that important to others, but authors especially can use this to make sure that thier readers are tracking everything they are doing, and where possible, following them without having to be ‘reminded’.
We live in an information age that requires people’s constant attention. Make it effortless to keep thier attention, and you’ll find that its ‘effortless’ to blog for people. Blog once a week on one blog, and you’re blogging once a week - but blog on one blog, guest on two others, write columns for another site…and that’s four posts a week. Stick them all in the one place, and you’ll find that your traffic goes up consistently - if people are reading one blog post - then, people will probably read more of your posts.
In the coming days, I’ll write up some tutorials and screenshots to do with Yahoo Pipes, but for the moment, enjoy it ;).
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