Today there are countless websites and within this sea of information, many people tend to navigate these waters by following a select few. Instead of fishing for our favorite websites every time we log onto the Internet, wouldn’t it be nice to automatically receive updates from your favorite sites? This is where RSS comes into play.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syn-di-cation.” Personally, I’m what you would consider, “technically declined.” So if this definition doesn’t help you any, don’t worry, it doesn’t do anything for me either. This is why I liked the definition for RSS found on Back in Skinny Jeans, “Ready for Some Stories.”
What I found – and what I am growing to love and appreciate – is that an RSS 
subscription to websites and blogs – such as Pre-em-i-nence (shameless plug) – provides the subscriber with automatic updates. Instead of having to remember website and blog addresses, bookmarking them, or manually typing in their address, you can subscribe to them via their RSS feed and receive updates. This way you save time sailing the expanse of the ocean in search of your favorite websites and blogs.
I know this is great and all, but how do you actually use RSS?
How do you use RSS?
If you want to utilize this great tool, the first thing you’ll have to do is obtain an RSS Feed Reader. RSS Feed Readers can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. Just like the cereal isle in your local grocer, there are many feed readers to choose from. Darren Rowse of Problogger recommends Google Reader and Bloglines, which are both free and easy to use.
For those of you new to RSS Feed Readers like myself, I found that the following advice from Darren worked best: subscribe to a few RSS feeds, such as Pre-em-i-nence (another shameless plug), register for one of these readers and try them out.
By the way, depending upon your computer’s Operating System and your Internet browser of choice will influence which RSS Feed Reader will work best for you. Since I’m technically declined I’ll not pretend to know what I’m talking about. Those that I’ve listed work fine for me, but if I were to have problems I would run a basic Google Search and go from there.
Here are a list of other RSS Feed Readers that I came across when researchingfor this post (Thank you Steph):
MyYahoo
MyMSN
MyAOL
MyGoogle
FeedDemon
NewsGator
NetVibes
PageFlakes
Shrook (For Mac users)
Lektora
Attensa
Don’t like RSS? Try subscribing by E-mail!
RSS Feeds will not be for everybody. In all honesty, I prefer e-mail based subscriptions and am still getting used to RSS. If you’re like me and would prefer to receive updates via e-mail, then you can do so here at Pre-em-i-nence (last shameless plug).
From the homepage our e-mail subscription is available in the right-hand sidebar at the top. In order to subscribe via e-mail, there are four simple steps to follow:
- Enter your e-mail address,
- Ensure the service that your not “spam”,
- Press submit, and then,
- Confirm your subscription from your e-mail inbox.
After subscribing via e-mail you will begin receiving updates when they’re made.
This subscription is free and you can cancel at anytime. Your e-mail address will be kept private and will beused by Pre-em-i-nence and Feedblitz only for providing you with updates.
I hope this post helps you to better understand RSS and RSS Feed Readers. For those of you more familiar with this than myself, is there anything that you would add?
Enjoy this post? Get more like them by subscribing to Pre-em-i-nence by E-mail or RSS.
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