RSS Demystified

 

Hi everyone,

First off, my apologies that this post is a few days late. I had a very busy end of the week last week and it held me up somewhat.

So, without further ado, I shall jump straight into the subject of this week’s (last week’s!) post…

 

Just What is RSS and Why Should You Care as a Blogger?

 

I decided to cover this subject in response to a question left for me in the comments for my last post. It was from Linda Schrier and she asked:

“What is an RSS feed and how do you use it?“

As it happens, I had actually planned to cover the subject at some point, but Linda’s question prompted me to pick that subject for my next post.

Now, I must emphasise, that I am NOT an RSS expert, by any means. Just like so many people, I found it to be confusing to begin with and I just couldn’t ‘get’ it. But once I learned how to make use of it and found a good RSS reader, a lot of the mystery disappeared.

So, I have made a video that briefly outlines just what is RSS, why you would use it as a blogger and how you can use it.

There’s nothing fancy, I only explain things in the simplest of ways, but hopefully you will be able to go on to at least get started using RSS yourself if you have struggled to get your head around it up until now.

 

 

I hope that you found that video useful. I’m sure that there is a lot more to learn about RSS and there are likely to be many more applications, but for a blogger this is a quick and easy way to make good use of RSS and save yourself some time and also make your blog-hopping a lot more quick and convenient.

*EDIT: As I mentioned, I am not an expert in RSS. In the comments below, Chris DeeWaard very kindly pointed out that the browser and button methods may not work in Chrome, as it appears that Google, in their infinite wisdom (note sarcasm), have seen fit to not auto-discover RSS feeds. So if you are using Chrome (and the same may apply in other browser – I don’t know) and the RSS feeds don’t auto detect from within your browser, you can still add the feed manually in your client as demonstrated in the video.

Also, there are browser extensions for Chrome that enable auto-discovery, so just have a look for one that works best for you.*

I mentioned a few of my blogging friends in the video and I would like to give them a shout-out here as they all have great content on their blogs and I’m sure that you will get tons of value by visiting them:

 

Adrienne Smith – Adrienne is often referred to as the “Engagement Superstar” and with good reason. Her blog is an absolute goldmine, so be sure to check it out and don’t forget to bookmark it or, indeed, add it to your RSS reader! 😉

 

Donna Merrill – Like Adrienne, Donna’s blog is overflowing with tons of great, helpful info. Aside from that, her posts are always insightful, thoughtful and entertaining. She is another of my recommended ‘go-to’ bloggers.

 

Ben Solomon – Ben is a good, helpful chap and very knowledgeable to boot. In fact, he wrote a guest post on my blog a while back all about WordPress security. He hasn’t updated his blog for about a month, but I think that this is probably due to his currently engaging in the Gary Halbert Copywriting Challenge. I’m sure he’ll be back blogging soon, so be sure to note down his blog and, in the mean time, check out some of his excellent past posts.

 

Richard Seaton – Last, but by no means least, we have Richard Seaton. Richard has only been involved with making money online for about a year and is prime example of an action-taker. You could learn a lot by following him.

 

So please don’t forget to check out those blogs and be sure to share the content and leave some nice comments for these wonderful people.

Also, if you want to get hold of the RSS reader that I use, you can get that for free by clicking here.

I hope you found this post useful. If you have any additional information with regards to RSS then please let me know in the comments below. I am always happy to learn and, as I said, my knowledge of the subject is only very basic. But hopefully it will have been enough to enable some of you to get started with RSS who were struggling before.

Although I’m posting this a few days late and it is only two days until my next post is due, I still aim to get a post out on Thursday as usual. So don’t forget to check back then and, if you are using RSS, don’t forget to add my blog’s feed to your RSS reader!

See you soon!