What is RSS ?
When I first started learning about rss feeds and what they could do I was totally confused just like lots of other people who are just starting out with their blog. This post will try and help you better understand what an rss feed is, why you should be using rss feeds and what you need to do to read rss feeds…
What Is An RSS Feed ?
An rss feed in its simplest form is a format for delivering regular changing content. Rss feeds allow the end user to easily retrieve simple summaries of the latest content they are interested in. Once the information of a new post is in rss format an rss program (feed reader) can display the contents in the appropriate way…
Why Use RSS Feeds ?
By using rss feeds you can save yourself a great deal of time by retrieving just the latest summaries of content that your interested in. For instance, instead of individually visiting your favorite top 10 websites or blogs to see if they have any updated content to read, you can simply use a feed reader program (i will get to that in a moment) to see whether any of the sites have updated their content since the last time you visited. Therefore saving you from visiting each site individually…
What Do I Need to Do to Read an RSS Feed ?
You need to get a free feed reader. I personally use Netvibes to read all the feeds that I like and enjoy, but there are many other feed readers you can use. Before I give you a list of feed readers that you can use I thought I'd show you a screenshot for you to look at of the feed reader I use Netvibes
Before you actually visit the screenshot I want to explain what you'll see. All the headings that you'll see like "Copyblogger" are the feeds that I read on a daily basis and the subheadings that are in bold (that i'm pointing to in red) are fresh blog posts for that site since the last time I looked. The subheadings that are not in bold are the posts that I've read already..
Here's the screenshot so you'll understand what I mean: Netvibes Screenshot
Ok…
Here's a quick list of some good free feedreader programs to use. Any of these are ok:
1. Netvibes
2. Bloglines
How Can You Get My RSS Feed ?
Simply use one of the feedreaders above and import my feed url which is:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/WebBusinessBlog
Now once you have my rss feed url imported into your feedreader the next time I update my blog you'll automatically receive the content in your feed reader…
In conclusion…
The above points should give you a better understanding of what rss feeds are and how you can use them. New technology doesn't have to be difficult it just needs explaining in the proper way. Hopefully i've done that bit for you…
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