Broke? You Can Pay Attention

I've been just taking it easy lately for lack of anything constructive to do.  I would like to have this much free time with a large bank account, however, since my current situation doesn't dictate that I've come to learn that being broke definitely causes me to pay attention.

I find myself reading more in-depth into blogs, articles, and news reports as to what is going on.   One of the most interesting things I find which I never really found very interesting before where the Google Alerts I receive.  At one time I only had the alerts set up to alert me on "real estate" topics and news.  I've since expanded my alerts reach to include my name "Lynne Ruffin", my computer-related services business name "Web Styles", and now I'm thinking about alerting my "Natural Blackness" for updates.  I checked my inbox on my NaturalBlackness.com today and I have not personally given the email to anyone but I was overloaded with 133 emails.

Now getting back on topic, virtual alerts can give you new insight!  I set Google Alerts a while back but never really paid much attention to them.  Now I find some of them down right hilarious.  It is amazing what some other people with "Lynne Ruffin" are up to.  I feel good when I see my "Lynne Ruffin" show up when I make a change to my website and it must resonate somewhere at the top of the alerts because I receive an alert.  I see some gibberish some days because it seems some people set up pages just to capture all the days alerts.  Not too bad of an idea if you have that kind of time because I sure the website ends up getting hits from the Google Alert users like me.



The real estate alerts are very interesting.  Alerts in regards to what is happening in real estate markets all over the world.    My efforts lately have focused on trying to set myself up to capture more of an online market for my computer related services company.  When someone is looking for Lynne Ruffin I want them to find me.  As more people look to establish their website presence online I want them to come across one of my websites to purchase their domain name, hosting account, website design, database development and troubleshooting, "Yes!", I want them to find me!  I feel it is very important to keep abreast of what is going on that may impact you, your business, or the goods or services you provide.

I can imagine companies in the past paid handsomely for strategic planners, market research analysts, etc. to do some of the work setting up a simple alert will do.  I can even set up alerts to monitor what competing businesses are doing and what new initiatives they are undertaking.  Hey of course I don't want the competition offering something (especially online) I don't offer.  It's all in the planning and thanks to the alerts I can do more strategically.  I can monitor what the tops in the field are doing in my strive to make as much money monthly online as they are making.  I would say more but in all honesty just a pinch will do there are a lot of high rollers in the online world.

I can even set up an alert to help keep up with what is happening with the businesses for the websites I set up so I can offer new products to coincide with what is happening in their market.  Kitchen cabinets and see what the competitors are doing and how the market is in his side of the world.

The thing I love about it is the alert information is in my inbox for me to read at my leisure.  I can spend the morning keeping up-to-date on what is happening with "web styles".  I can spend the afternoon looking to see what's happening with my name.  I can spend evenings and nights looking at social and cultural stuff.  It seems similar to having a image coach, marketing assistant, and personal adviser all rolled into one.

The best part Google Alerts are easy to set up.  All you have to do is go to www.Google.com/Alerts and flow from there.  The alerts will start flowing in as they come up.  You can choose the frequency as to how often you want to receive them.  I receive my alerts "daily".