What is RSS and How Do I Use It

Are you new to the world of blogging? Do you have a bookmark list a mile long of your favorite blogs? Do you want to know an easier way to keep up to date with the latest posts on your favorite blogs?Good…because that’s what this article is about. If you are new to the world of RSS Feeds or if you are a seasoned blogger who never thought of writing this kind of post then maybe you can find something below.

Seasoned bloggers take note….I am going to be putting a link to this post up under my RSS icon. I have a theory that a number of newbie bloggers don’t understand how RSS works.

I will experiment over the next month or so to see if I notice a measurable difference in RSS subscribers. I will share my findings in approximately 30 days. Let’s get to it.

What is RSS?

In the past you have likely used a “bookmark” or a “favorite” to save the sites you enjoy reading. If you wanted to visit one of these sites then you had to manually select it out of your list and return to the site to see what had been updated, if anything. Very inefficient and time consuming, even if you don’t realize it yet.

RSS is short for “Really Simple Syndication” and it is used to keep up with sites that update their content frequently. A blog definitely fits that description and that is why it is much more common to see it used for blogs than regular websites. It really is a basic technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to stay up to date with their favorite sites.

RSS is basically a “signal” or a “broadcast” that your site transmits to the world. Anyone who knows how to access it can view and/or subscribe to it and keep up with your content simply and easily.

RSS Changes Everything

RSS is a much more efficient than using bookmarks and their is no question using RSS and a reader will save you a ton of time if you follow a lot of sites. This is time you could better spend writing your own content or some other endeavor.

If you only have a couple of sites that you try to keep track of then it may not be that big of a deal although I will expect that once you see how easy a reader is then you will start adding far more sites than you have now.

Let’s get to it.

As I said before RSS broadcasts your content to the web where it can be subscribed to by readers all over the globe. It is always there waiting to be read at their leisure. I think the term ’subscription’ is helpful because you can relate it to subscribing to a magazine or a newspaper. Like either of those, it will be delivered to you periodically; but rather than coming to your physical mail box, it will be delivered to your ‘RSS Reader’ every time your favorite website updates.

You don’t have to go to the mountain, the mountain will come to you.

Sign Up for a Reader

There are a number of feed readers out there on the net but a great place to start is with one of the two most common ones. Google Reader and Bloglines are two free, web based readers that are easy to set up, easy to use and great for beginners. I use Bloglines and see no reason to change, it works great for me.

As you subscribe to feeds you’ll see that unread entries from the sites you’re tracking will be marked as bold. As you click on them you’ll see the latest update and can read it right there in the feed reader. You are given the option to click through to the actual site or move onto the next unread item.

You can literally skim the content of 20 or 30 sites in just a few minutes without ever having to visit the actual page, type in a URL or hit a bookmark in your browser.

The best way to learn how to use either Google Reader or Bloglines is to simply subscribe to some feeds and give it a go. Both have helpful help sections to get you up and running and honestly both are pretty simple. I have dabbled a bit with Google but I have used Bloglines extensively and it is pretty easy.

How to Subscribe

The best way to get familiar with a reader is to simply use it. Go subscribe to all your favorite sites. This will give you a quick working feel for how the reader works and although it is pretty simple, keep reading.

On Site Subscription
Over the last few years you may have noticed a lot of little buttons and widgets appearing on your favorite sites and blogs. Little orange buttons, ‘counters’ with how many ‘readers a blog has, links called RSS, XML, ATOM and many more.

They come in all shapes and sizes but the Mack Daddy of them all is the venerable RSS button:

This is only one example of an RSS button and their are thousands of variations but they all will bear some semblance to this. You will see it referred to as RSS or a Feed more often than not. Any time you see anything resembling one of these buttons then it means that the site you are viewing almost certainly has a feed that you can subscribe to.

In most cases it’s as simple as either copying and pasting the link associated with the button into your RSS Reader or clicking the button and following the instructions to subscribe using the feed reader of your choice. That’s right…most of these buttons are hyperlinked to the feed. Couldn’t be much easier..but you need your reader to be set up first.

When you click on the icon it will be common for a box to pop up that looks something like this:

Once you see this box then you can either click on your reader if the icon is listed there or hit the drop down box that says Choose Your Reader. Bloglines or Google are almost always listed under the icons as they are so common. If you’ve set up your reader then all you have to do is confirm the subscription and it’s done.

Once you are subscribed to your feeds then you just log into bloglines and you will see your feeds to the far left. Any that are bold faced are feeds that you have not yet read. New content.

Email Subscription:
If a feed reader just isn’t your think and/or you are not ready to try that then you still will usually able to be subscribe to a feed via good old email. This is a much more familiar medium for most new bloggers. It will dramatically increase your emails every day but it couldn’t be much simpler than this.

Conclusion:

Here at TBE we know that not everyone understands RSS so at the top of our right hand sidebar I have made it very easy for you to subscribe. You have one icon marked Subscribe and one icon marked Email. Whichever you prefer just click the appropriate icon.

If you choose email then it will prompt you for your address and you can unsubscribe at any time. Your email will be kept private and not used for any other purposes than to send these daily post updates. I promise.

Easy stuff so get started today. Let me know if this article was helpful to you.