RSS Feeds Made Simple

Is your inbox flooded with notifications of blog updates? 

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the idea of visiting all of your favorite blogs, especially when your time is limited as it is?

Do you sometimes get frustrated by the volume of your unread email- sometimes even hitting "Clear All"?

If you answered yes to either of those questions, it might be time to look into getting a blog "reader". When I mentioned RSS feeds in a post not too long ago, I got a few emails asking what I was talking about.

RSS (Real Simple Syndication), according to Wikipedia,  is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format

OK, so what does that really mean?

It simply means you have another option to receiving updates via email, or each and every blog on your bookmark list to check for updates.

Have you ever listened to the Weekly Top 40 on Sunday? Rick Dees doesn't work for your local radio station, but rather his show is Syndicated to play on multiple channels across the country. You don't have to go find his show, it comes to YOU.

Same with RSS feeds, but this is for the content you want to read/listen to/watch on the web.

You can get really technical, but this blog is all about keeping it simple, right?

The first thing you need is a "Reader". There are a few options here, but for the sake of keeping it simple, let's talk about the "Google Reader". If anyone is super curious, we can expand on this in the future.

When you go to a blog, instead of clicking "Subscribe via Email", look for the little orange tab pictured above. That is where you can subscribe via RSS. Once you click on it, it will send the updates to one simple place-the Reader.

When you hop online to see what's new, you go to this one place, scroll through all the recently updated titles until something grabs your attention, then either expand it inside the reader or visit the website, it's your choice.

Have you been wondering what that little orange button meant, anyway? Do you have a RSS feed for your blog? Consider getting one, and while you're at it, subscribe to my feed. :)