« A few early morning thoughts... | Main | Scrooge Me: Commercialism at its best »

RSS for Dummies

December 06, 2007 // 2 Comments  // Add yours »

I'm finding that many people out there don't understand what an RSS feed is, and that's not good.  Now this is important, so listen up.

Think about all the websites you check on a daily basis.  If you're a frequent user of the internet, chances are you check anywhere from 5-20 websites a day to see if there's anything new.  This can be time consuming, and many times you'll go to a website and find out it's the same old content.  Then there's the website you that you found to be very informative & interesting but you rarely think to actually go there.  It's in your favorites, but how often to you actually check those?  There's a ton of information out there that you're probably missing out on. 

RSS simplifies things.  Instead of you going to each individual website that you want to check, the website sends the update directly to you, via an RSS feed.

There's two parts that make this work.  First, you need to subscribe to a reader.  This is the tool you use to read the content of an unlimited number of websites all in one place.  I prefer to use Google Reader, but there are many options available that you can chose from.

Second, you need to go to a website that you enjoy reading, like SeanHenri.com, and subscribe to their feed.  You'll usually be able to find it by locating the bright orange symbol that looks like this: .  If you don't see it anywhere on the website, look at the URL toolbar in your browser, and you'll likely see it on the right-hand side.

Click on that icon, and you'll be brought to a new page asking you which reader you would like to use to subscribe to the feed.  Chose the reader that you prefer, such as Google Reader, and you're done. 

Now instead of visiting  each of your favorite websites on a daily basis, you can simply open up your reader and instantly see anything new that's been posted.  You spend much less time browsing and end up far more informed.  You'll find it becomes extremely addictive.  If you're still confused, watch this video from Common Craft. It'll make everything I just attempted to explain nice and simple.

Posted in:  Blogging, Tutorials | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook |Comments (2)

Comments:

I'm not sure how I ever survived without a reader. A few weeks ago I wrote about a dilemma that RSS created. The post can be found at http://bradnolden.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/rss-and-intelligence/

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

All the best

Brad

Posted on: Dec 7, 2007 4:30:32 PM

I wouldn't say there's a maximum number of feeds you should subscribe to. It all depends on how much time you have/want to spend reading them.

I'm subscribed to a lot of feeds myself. I try to keep things organized by grouping them into folders by the theme of their content - Marketing, Small Business, SEO, Productivity, Photography, News, Friends etc. Eventually you figure out which feeds are worth reading and which ones aren't. You can take a look at the Trends option if you look at Google reader to help you figure out which ones you read and which ones you don't. Ditch the ones you're skipping over frequently.

Also, many popular blogs/websites have a second feed that only displays the their most popular posts. This can help you skip over the less valuable information.

Posted on: Dec 17, 2007 8:43:57 PM

Post a comment

What others are saying:
Listed below are links to blogs that reference RSS for Dummies:

» "pursuingdirection" from
For the longest time, Ive always said that unless someone has a very specific idea of what they want to do for a career, people just kind of figure it out as they go along.  Get a feel for what theyre good at, what they like, what they d... [Read More]

Tracked on Dec 7, 2007 5:22:52 PM

TrackBack

If you wish to link to this entry, please ping the following URL:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/345446/24005262