How to stay up to date and out of the sun

Montreal marketing guru Mitch Joel has just started writing a column for in the Montreal Gazette. His inaugural column reveals how to get started in digital media.

“Without a doubt, my answer is always the same,” he says. “Get yourself a news reader (also known as a RSS reader). I prefer Google Reader, but you can use iGoogle, My Yahoo!, Netvibes or any other Web-based tool that enables you to subscribe to websites.”

Here's the benefit of a news reader: When you find content information you like on the Web, the Internet will notify you when the website or blog has been updated. No more searching for the news: it comes to you!

Joel also recommends you start reading up: some of the world’s best marketers share their expertise freely on their blogs, so why not take advantage of these gifts? His seven favourites:

- Chris Brogan blogs about how business can better build communities.
- Seth Godin “The best-selling marketing author… Godin's posts are short, pithy and brilliant.” (Seth is also a favorite here at Canadian Entrepreneur.)
- GrokDotCom is the corporate blog from Future Now Inc. It focuses on “the human reactions to marketing, sales, PR and media.”
- How to Change the World - the personal blog of Guy Kawasaki, for entrepreneurs and start-ups. (I love this one too.)
- ReadWriteWeb – “If something cool is happening on the Web and it affects business, it's on ReadWriteWeb.”
- TechCrunch – “It's about all things geeky, but in an understandable context.”
- Web Strategy - By Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. “The latest and greatest on what companies are (and should be) doing in business today.”

More summer reading to keep you out of the sun!

You can read Joel’s column here, or visit his blog here.