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What is RSS?
You probably have seen this three-letter acronym in the course of your internet surfing. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication; syndicating means republishing an article that comes from another source such as a website.
RSS allows you to keep track of updates of your favorite websites. It is essentially a “news feed” that you subscribe to. The RSS feed usually contains the title of the update originating from the website and the link to the website source.
What are the benefits of RSS?
1. It gives you the latest updates.
2. It saves on surfing time.
3. It gives you the power of subscription. You are given a free-hand on which websites to subscribe to in your RSS reader which you can change at any time.
4. It lessens the clutter in your inbox. Although your email address will be required to enjoy the services of online RSS feeders, RSS does not use your email address to send the updates.
5. It is spam free. Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates thus your privacy is kept safe from spam mails.
6. Unsubscribing is hassle-free. Unlike email subscriptions where you are asked questions on why you are unsubscribing, all you have to do is delete the RSS feed from your feed reader.
How to start using RSS?
1. The first thing you need to do is choose an RSS feeder to use. There are many feed readers going around with a variety of approaches and features - however a good place to start is with a couple of free and easy to use web based ones like Google Reader and Bloglines. Either one will do if you’re starting out (I use Bloglines) and are fairly easy to use.
Both of these feed readers work a little like email. As you subscribe to feeds you’ll see that unread entries from the sites you’re tracking will be marked as bold. As you click on them you’ll see the latest update and can read it right there in the feed reader. You are given the option to click through to the actual site or move onto the next unread item - marking the last one as “read.”
2. Next, find some feeds to subscribe to. There are two places to look for site feeds: on the site or in your browser.
- On Site Subscription
You may have noticed a lot of little buttons and widgets appearing on your favorite sites and blogs. Little orange buttons, counters with how many readers a blog has, links called RSS, XML, ATOM and many more. Any time you see any of these buttons or anything like them it means that the site you are viewing almost certainly has a feed that you can subscribe to. In most cases it’s as simple as either copying and pasting the link associated with the button into your RSS Reader or clicking the button and following the instructions to subscribe using the feed reader of your choice.
- Browser Subscription
Many internet browsers now have the ability to find and subscribe to RSS feeds built right into them. When you surf to a site you can usually tell if it has an RSS feed by looking in the right hand side of the address bar where you type in the site’s URL.
See the little orange icon on the right hand side in the address bar of this site? Click that and you’ll be locating the GetRidOfEyeWrinkles RSS feed.
To quickly and easily subscribe by clicking these icons you’ll want to set up your browser to do it with your feed reader of choice as by default they will probably subscribe you using the in-browser reader. You can do this by going to the “preferences” of your browser and choosing “Google Reader,” “Bloglines” or your selected feed reader.
After you have done these two easy steps, you can start reading the RSS feeds coming from your selected websites, like GetRidOfEyeWrinkles.com. New postings appear as they are published real time at the source website.
Don’t want to Use an RSS Reader? Email is an Option.
If the above explanation all just seems a little too complicated for you then please don’t worry. Many sites also enable you to subscribe to RSS feeds via a more familiar medium - Email.
Here at GetRidOfEyeWrinkles.com, we know that not everyone is into the RSS thing so when you click on the RSS button in your browser or just above each article, you have the option to receive our updates by email. You can unsubscribe at any time and your email will be kept private and not used for any other purposes than to send these updates.
