Believe it or not, I keep up-to-date with over 65 websites every single day and I do it in less than 15 minutes. How? I’m glad you asked.

The facts are, a lot of your friends, family or even coworkers have created their own website(s) and they are posting information on this site that you would be interested in reading. However, the tedious task of visiting these sites on a regular basis, one by one, to see if anything has been posted can be time consuming and often disappointing; in effect, you lose interest and stop checking because it’s wasting your time.

Enter RSS feeds and readers.

A few years ago, web developers started realizing that this was an issue and came up with a solution. They call it an “RSS feed.” RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” The whole point of inventing an RSS feed was to make “it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.” (Wikipedia) Sounds like a relief huh!

So how does it work?

It’s actually very easy. Every time you go to a site and you see the acronym “RSS” and/or this icon , it means that this site has made it possible for you to automate their content through an RSS feed. You’ll need a RSS reader software to take advantage of this technology. You can find out more about them here, or you can do as I do and use Google Reader. I like the Google Reader program because it’s web based so no matter where I am or what computer I’m using, I have access to my account and can get caught up virtually anywhere. All you need is a Google account and you’re good-to-go.

Once you have your RSS Reader software setup, your next step is to begin “subscribing” to the RSS feeds on the websites you visit regularly. Here’s how to do this using Firefox and Google Reader (assuming you now have a Google Reader account). Keep in mind, I am on a Mac.

1. Open your preferences in Firefox (Preferences > Applications > Highlight “Web Feed” and select “Google” from the drop down menu)
2. Go to www.kyleandkristy.com/kyle and click on the orange icon in the address bar
3. When the Google Reader pages comes up, you’ll have two buttons to choose from: “Add to Google Homepage” or “Add to Google Reader” > Select “Add to Google Reader”

You’ve now added your first feed to Google Reader! From this point on, all you need to do is log into Google Reader and it’ll tell you if I’ve updated my blog. In fact, if I’ve updated it several times since you last visited, there will be a number inside a parentheses indicating the number of posts you have to read to catch up. So simple and a very productive way to keep up-to-date with all those websites you’re interested in.

Have questions? Leave a comment and I’ll respond to you. If you’d like further instruction, just post your request in the comment section and I’ll do my best to post on this subject again.

I hope this was helpful for you.
Kyle

If you sell and need an easy way to handle contracts electronically, look no further. Echosign.com is your answer.

From time to time, I come across technology that’s not new, but it is for Mac users. If you’re rocking a PDA phone, like my Treo 700p and are ready to wirelessly sync your contacts, calendar and emails, contact me about my new favorite product: Kerio Mail Server.

You’ve read about Michael Hyatt before and you’ll read about him again. I still want to be like Mike.

He posted a great CEO perspective article on “coaching your boss,” a feat that I’d put money on that most people aren’t willing to tackle. I’d also put money on the theory that most bosses don’t want to be coached by their staff even if they say they want to be. Ouch. Here’s a snapshot of what you’ll get if you click here:

The problem is that most people are scared to correct their boss or offer advice. They are afraid they will be punished or, at the very least, given a cold shoulder. But that’s not always true. The best bosses welcome criticism, knowing that the shortest distance between where they are and where they want to go is the truth. They create a “safe environment,” where people can freely speak their mind.—Michael Hyatt

By the way, don’t be the boss who says that you’ll offer a “safe environment” and turn around and use the information against your employee. That just makes you an…well, you know.

If you’re an allergy suffer…or you have sinus problems in general, I introduce to you, SinuCleanse.

After just one use, my sinuses are clear and I’m loving it. Seriously, this isn’t a joke. If you’re used to buying nasal decongestant on a regular basis, this is well worth the $15.

Try it and tell me what you think!
Kyle

How in the world can someone use over 100gig of hard drive space? I don’t do design (creators of large files) and I don’t do video (creators of really large files). The culprit? iTunes. My music collection has grown a lot in the past year and before I knew it, I had over 40 gigs of media just for my own entertainment. So here’s the trick. Most likely, your iTunes is importing your music as Apple Lossless Encoder which converts files at 4-5 times the size that you really need, unless you’re a music savant and need absolutely no compression. Here’s how you seriously decrease your iTunes library hard drive space: (just follow the click progression)

• Open iTunes
• From the top menu bar: iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Importing
• “Import using:” > MP3 Encoder
• “Setting:” > High Quality (160 kbps) — so you don’t lose the quality of the recording
• Click “OK” to get out

Next we’re going to create a smart play list to find all of the files over 10MB

• File > New Smart Playlist > Choose “Size” > “Is greater than” > “10″

This will create a new play list that contains all of the songs/files that you want to convert

• Label your playlist “Songs > 10MB”
• Locate the playlist > select all the songs (Apple-S)
• Review your list and make sure there aren’t any Video, TV or Movies in there; unselect them if there are (Apple-click)
• Advanced > Convert Selection to MP3. Depending on how big your song collection is, this could take awhile (like hours)
• After it’s converted all of the files: go back to your main Music Library and follow these instructions: > View > Show Duplicates > Delete the larger duplicate file

If you don’t have the “Size” column set up in your column view, simply go to right-click (Control-click for apple users) on the light gray header bar that has “name,” “artist,” etc and choose “size” from the menu.

After you’re done, you’ll have a significantly smaller iTunes library and more hard drive space!