Here's a little secret that pro writers and bloggers won't always share with you.

It's called Google Alerts and to be honest, it saves my butt more times than I care to go on about.

Here's how it works. You set up an alert at the Google Alerts site by entering a search term, the type of alert you wish to receive, and the frequency.

Then, let Google do its magic. If you enter a term like "Clayton NC Real Estate" you'll get websites blogs, press releases and more sent to your inbox at the frequency you asked for that relate to that phrase. I use it to keep an eye on the local real estate market as well as a source of info for blog posts, and as a way to keep an eye on my clients' competition. And MY competition for that matter. Quite often, I'll know when a new competitive threat is at hand before my clients thanks to Google Alerts. And guess who looks like a hero? Me. And now - you can too.

I have no less than 20 alerts set up. When I'm working on a special project, I may have as many as 100 set up for my own use and client purposes.

Give it a try. It's not perfect...you'll see some spam blog posts with your search term in them but 90% of the results are relevant.

Email me if you have any questions.

Jason Pedley