Taking Screenshots on Your Mac with Paparazzi!...

Stay Current with an RSS Feed Reader...

In order to go above and beyond for your clients, it’s important to stay up-to-date with what is happening in their industry.  To do so, it’s best to follow a bunch of blogs that are on target for each of your client’s industry.  Since many of us manage more than one client, this process could be daunting without the proper setup.

I use Google Reader and Feedly to organize my blog feeds into a newspaper-style interface.  It makes sharing the posts easy and reading them less overwhelming than traditional blog readers.  This post is a how-to that explains how I’ve setup my RSS feeds.

Step One: Setup Your Google Reader Account

To do this, go to http://www.google.com/reader/.  Here, you want to login with your existing Google account or setup a new Google account.  It’s a good idea to use the same login that you use for Gmail, Google Calendar, etc. if you do already use the services because it makes it a whole lot easier to remember!  Once you’ve logged in, you don’t need to do anything else inside of Google Reader.

Step Two: Go to www.feedly.com and Download the Extension for Safari

Now, this part is a little bit complex.  First, you need to make sure you are running at least Safari 5.0.  Then, you need to go to your Preferences -> Advanced tab and make sure that the “Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar” option is checked.

Once you’ve done that, click on the extension plug-in link (option #4) at http://blog.feedly.com/2010/06/10/feedly-for-safari-5/.  They have the steps outlined nicely here for you as well.

Your extension will install onto Safari and you will have to restart your browser.  Once the browser re-opens, you can navigate to http://www.feedly.com/home to pull up your feed center.

Step Three: Setup Feedly

Here is where the power of Feedly starts to form.  Using “pages”, you can setup mini-newspaper feeds of specific categories that you choose.  For my own reader, I’ve setup a few categories including: social media, marketing and business, clients and tech.  This will allow me to keep up-to-date with blogs in these specific categories.  To add a page, first click on “organize sources” and then click on “add a source.”  Both of these options appear at the very top of Feedly.

In the “add a source” box, you can put the URL of any blog or RSS feed that you wish to track.  Once it is added here, it will appear in the grouping of uncategorized sources.  To create a “category” or a “page”, drag and drop the source into the shaded box where it says “new page.”

Once you add a source, it will prompt you to add a name to this new page.  Go ahead and categorize your source.  Now you can click the little pen beside new sources (or existing sources inside of your account) and add them to specific categories / pages.  These new pages will appear on the right-hand side navigation.

The Beauty of Feedly

The reason that I love Feedly so far is that it creates a newspaper feel to my feeds.  Here is a screenshot of an aggregate of posts in the social media category I setup.

It also allows me to easily share content to many different platforms.

There are many, many more reasons why I am digging Feedly which I’ll explore in an upcoming blog post.  For now, I’ll leave you with the idea that you should get yourself setup this way if you aren’t already!

Any Virtual Assistants Out There on a Mac?...

I bought a new iMac a few months back and I haven’t really used it exclusively for business. I’ve pretty much stuck to my PC laptop and used my iMac for things like creating videos and creating audios (primarily of me singing to instrumental backing tracks!)

It got me thinking, how many VAs out there are on a Mac? Are you?

There are a lot of differences of course between the two but I must say, I really, really do love my Mac. I love that I can pop on over to it and it feels like a brand new start. Not slowed down by my thousand PC applications and my hundreds of folders of client work. Instead, my Mac feels pristine and fun. My media computer.

I’m going to try something. I’m going to use my iMac exclusively for all things related to The VA Coach. I am not going to do anything for The VA Coach on my PC. I’ll see how easy that is and what challenges I encounter. Of course, I’ll blog about those challenges (if any) and I’ll keep you updated on how that goes.

Also – let me know if you’re on a Mac and if you find it hard to work with PC based clients.