RSS: Putting The "Simple" Back In Really Simple Syndication

I have a confession to make. I'm not nearly as technical minded as I sometimes pretend to be. Case in point: RSS. Believe it or not, I am just now wrapping my head around how great this thing is. Oh yeah, I put the little orange button on my blogs, hoping people would know what to do with it and praying that no one would ask me how it worked. Well, today I feel confident to share with you what RSS is and just how great it can make your life.



First, the basics. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." After today's post, I hope you agree with me just how appropriate the word simple in RSS really is.



If you're like me, you have hundreds of bookmarks filed in your browsers. If so, then they are probably pretty worthless. I have bookmarks that I haven't visited in over a year. I have them because I want to be able to find a site to keep up with it's content.



But how many times am I going to click on all my bookmarks to see if the site has any new info on it? Yep, zilch, nada, it ain't going to happen. Within a few weeks, that site is gone from my conscious memory until I start to look through my bookmarks again.



RSS came along to streamline the process of keeping up with new content on all those sites you find. Instead of you going out to check them every day, they come to you when there's an update. You don't have to do a thing except to check your reader to see if there is any new content from sites you follow.



Here's how it works:



1. A site (like my blog here) adds the little orange icon or any of the icons you see in the pic.



2. A visitor like you comes along and says, "Wow! I have to check this site out tomorrow to see what else this guy is saying!"



3. You choose a reader to display the RSS feed from that site. There are many, but one of my free favorites is the Google Reader. A quick search will help you find many more readers.



4. Come back to my site and click on the orange button (or any of the pics that link to your RSS feed reader). Go ahead, click it and see what happens next- hehe.



5. Confirm your feed reader.



6. Open or sign into your reader. There are all the posts from my feed. And every time I publish a new post, it will show up in your reader with an unread notification. It's kind of like having a subscription to my blog without having to give your e-mail address.



That's it! Really Simple, isn't it? Here are my take-aways for you as a blogger:



* RSS is easy to set up right through your blogging platform as a widget; you just supply your feed address. And if you have a feed like Feedburner, you can grab the HTML code from it and paste it into a widget on your blog. Either way will work.



* RSS subscriptions (the little orange button) gives your visitors another reason to come back to your blog, which makes your blog a whole lot more sticky. We bloggers like stickiness.



* As a reader, you can quickly manage all your feeds in a very easy to use reader. But be careful, once you start to use RSS subscriptions, you'll find it's very addictive.



* While RSS really is simple, you'll still want to give your visitors multiple ways to stay in touch with your new material. Many people love RSS, but many still prefer e-mail subscriptions (If that's you, then you can subscribe to this blog and have all my new posts delivered to your e-mail address. Just sign up right above the RSS orange button on the top right sidebar).



But wait, I have found one other other way to put the Simple back in RSS. For those like me who learn by watching, here's a cool video that explains RSS In Plain English in 3:45. If you are reading this post from a syndicated source, visit my blog to watch the video.









Related Posts:



* Blogs and RSS Feeds: Just the FAQs Blog Tour with MaAnna Stephenson (MaAnna has created her new blog, Blog Aid, where you can find more great info on blogging. Be sure to check it out.

* 5 Reasons Why Writers Should Mobilize Their Blogs By Piotr Kowalczyk

* Increasing Opt-In Conversions By Holding Your Subscriber's Hand To Completion

* What To Write About In Your Blog, Newsletter Or Ezine







 -------- Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect , an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests .