It's hard to believe, but I've been writing this column for two years. To celebrate, I've decided to let you in on a few of my trade secrets. This week's column is a how-to guide explaining how and where I get my information. If you're interested in journalism and technology, follow some or all of these steps.

Breathing is the most important aspect of a broadcast voice because breathing is the energy for speech. If there's anything wrong with your energy source, you know that everything will suffer. Imagine trying to make a call on your cell phone when the battery is dead. No way, right? Well the same is true for speech. Without the energy of the breath, nothing performs as it should.

Are you a journalist-entrepreneur, with a new business to launch? Whether you're planning a new mobile application or starting a consulting company, we have a list of free, must-use tools.

A while back, I introduced you to a few online tools for crowdsourcing. "Crowdsourcing" refers to relying on the wisdom of a crowd to help answer a question or learn more about a particular topic. Typically, a user of a social network will "crowdsource" a subject by asking all of his/her friends and then responding to replies.