Blog Tracking – SharpReader

This is the second in a series.

SharpReader is the first news aggregator I started using, maybe that’s why it’s my favorite. While others have more features, SharpReader is quick and it’s free.

When subscribing to a feed, I copy a shortcut of the feed (right mouse click over the feed link) and paste that in the address field. SharpReader has an auto-detect, but with more blogs offering multiple feeds, I find the copy+paste method easier.

So if I want to subscribe to Neville Hobson’s new blog at www.NevilleHobson.com, I right click and copy the shortcut, paste it into the address bar and click the Subscribe button (click on images to enlarge)

I then drag the feed into one of the folders I’ve created – we’ll put Neville’s stuff in Leadership.

Notice that when the feed name is bold, that means there are unread posts. By clicking on the feed, headlines of all posts not deleted appear in the top window, the feed in the bottom. Those in bold are unread. I can choose to read the feed (or not), and by double-clicking on the headline – the bottom pane turns into a browser.

For me, the best part of SharpReader is you can configure the frequency of notification and be notified when any new post appears with a pop-up:

Like you, I have neither the time or the desire (well, maybe the desire) to visit 100s of web sites multiple times each day to see if they’ve updated.

We can also agree that if anyone writes something about you or your company – you’d want to know about it immediately, so you can respond.

SharpReader is one of the tools that allow us to do that.

I’ve recommended it often, and some have had challenges with the install. Follow this tip from the site and there shouldn’t be a problem:

"Prior to running SharpReader, you will need to install the .NET Framework, version 1.1 SP1. If you do not currently have the .NET Framework installed, you can get it at windowsupdate, or here."

I use SharpReader as my blog reader. I’m probably not using it up to its full potential, but it suits my needs

FeedDemon is my choice for news and search feeds, both for my own business and that of clients. We’ll go over FeedDemon as soon as I get familiar with the newest version (in beta). How do you track blogs and feeds?

Related Posts here:
Blog Tracking – Bloglines

Technorati Tags: SharpReader, Feeds, Blog Monitoring, News Aggregator, Business Research

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