What is RSS and How Do I Use It?

At the bottom of just about every post I make, you have probably seen the line that says, “If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed.”

So what is RSS and how do you use it? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. This probably doesn’t tell you much. RSS is really a simple way for you to get content or recent posts from a website or blog, or more specifically, my blog, from one central place. You can use an e-mail package like Microsoft Outlook or use the online RSS reader from Google.com. This will allow you to keep up with the most recent posts on your favorite blogs as easily as checking your email.

Google Reader constantly checks your favorite websites and blogs for new content. All automatically. It is much like e-mail package because it automatically polls the RSS accounts that you have set up and downloads all of the articles. All without you having to go to a blog and look at the new content yourself. This is a big time saver for me, since I need to keep up to date with my subject and see what other bloggers are writing about.

Until I started blogging, I didn’t see or understand what RSS was or how it could benefit me. When I started blogging I found out that there wasn’t an easy way for people to tell what posts they had read and which ones were new. Enter the RSS reader. When you look at the reader is it like looking at an e-mail package. The articles you have not read yet are in bold black text and the ones you have read are not in bold text format. So you can easily see which ones you have read and which ones are new.

I really like the reader that Google has. (1) It is free. (2) It ties to my e-mail account that I have set up for my blog. (3) I can access it from anyplace where there is a computer and an internet connection. So I am not tied to my PC. I can check my RSS articles or e-mail from any place. This was a real benefit when I was on my cruise and had not brought my laptop. (I was supposed to be relaxing and taking it easy away from the computer.)

If you take a look at the main page of my blog, you will see a bright orange square and above it, “Subscribe Here” in bold letters and next to it “Subscribe in a reader”. If you click on the orange button, it will take you to: my Feedburner Account feed. From here you can subscribe to my feed using Google and other popular readers.

First you’ll need an RSS reader account. Let’s use Google since that is the one I use and with which I am most familiar. Go the Google reader page. This will bring you to the Google Reader main page. If you have a Google e-mail account, you can use that account to sign in. If not you can create a new account.

Setting up a new account in Google is pretty easy and it is free. Nice huh? Click the button that says Create an Account from the Google reader page and it will take you to the sign up page. Enter your current e-mail address. Choose a password and enter it again. Put in your location and type in the characters you see for Word Verification. This lets the program know you are a person and not software trying to get an account to SPAM or whatever. Read the Terms of Service and click the create an account button.

Now you have a Google RSS reader account. Congratulations! Go back to my Feedburner Account feed, and click the button that says Google. This will bring you back to the Google reader account that you just set up and then click the button to add the feed to the reader. This will populate your reader with the most recent posts to my blog. Now intead of going to the blog, you can go to your reader and read all of the most recent posts in one easy place.

You can add other subscriptions if you like. If you have any questions, leave me a comment and I will answer you as soon as I can.

TER

Jeremiah John

If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed.