Marcus Hamaker is The Sleepy Geek

Let’s face it! Google Reader was a pretty slick interface before they went and made any changes this week. I wasn’t expecting it (probably was mentioned on the reader blog RSS feed) but it is a welcome update.

I am a huge fan of clean looking interfaces. I supposed that is why I like OS X and some of the simpler applications out there. They have taken away some of the colouring that they had on the left side and replaced it with white backgrounds. The sections are separated with lines rather than a background colour difference which looks much nicer. My biggest pet peeve of the old version was the green background under the ‘add subscription’ button and now it’s gone.

Before:

After:

I have been using Google Reader for quite some time as my RSS reader. It’s a great way to read RSS feeds and I like the fact I can log in from anywhere with internets access to take a peak if I have time. It’s nice to know that Google is keeping an eye on their existing products and trying to find ways at making them better.

Some of the other cool features include the ability to collapse sections on the left side, the ability to turn off unread counts, updated friend sharing tools and they have added more bundles to their list.

I must say that I am happy with the graphical update and look forward to making use of the new features. If you don’t use Google Reader and are looking for a good web based RSS reader, give it a chance. You won’t be disappointed.

I have been poking around for some time looking for marketing tips for my blog while also trying to come up with my own ideas. I follow a ton of people and noticed a post on twitter the other day from Chris Brogan, 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media. Chris is definitely an expert in this area so I and going to work on trying to follow the majority of his ideas. Increased viability will for sure drive first time readers. Then all I have to do is keep them coming with my outstanding whit! Woohoo! Crap, this might be harder than I thought.

It looks like a lot of work. I am up for it, the only issue I have is the lack of sleep. I still work at a 9-5 job to pay the bills but it gets in the way of my progress online. The Sleepy Geek really comes from me being tired. Two small kids and my wife also works and we are always on the go.

I want to try and get my work out there. I have started to blog and really what I want is to develop a good sized readership. I thought it best to get some content on the site before I really started to push at branding my name. I intend to use some of Chris’ ideas such as reading other blogs and commenting as much as possible with intelligent information. I want to also concentrate on building a community.

So here goes Chris, a wealth of knowledge and nothing but time to get it done. Thank you for your help and if I apply it correctly I can’t see it NOT working.