RSS For Writers

If you’re like me, the first time you ran into the term, RSS, you had no clue. You know what I mean – you see RSS and variations of the symbol on the right on almost every blog.

There are so many blogs and I ended up with so many bookmarks I was in despair. Then a penny dropped.

RSS, aka Real Simple Syndication, to the rescue. Well, partially to the rescue.  RSS can give you a way to keep an eye on your favorite blogs, or any other sort of information actually, without the blog getting in your face or requiring you to do searches.

RSS Beats Often Bookmarking

It’s amazing how quickly a collection of bookmarks can get out of hand. Even if you’re diligent about sorting them into folders (I’m not), if you’re at all like me it may be ages before you get back to the sites you bookmarked. Bookmarks are static.

Blogs are, of course, anything but static. Although I still use bookmarks I find them a pretty sad way to keep track of my favorite bloggers.

RSS, on the other hand is far from static. In fact, RSS gives you a way to let websites let you know when something changes; after you add a site or blog to your RSS reader (I know… more about readers in a moment) you don’t have to do anything. It’s all automatic.

News Feed = RSS = News Feed

I don’t have a clue how the technology behind RSS works but I use it effectively. It’s like a newsfeed. Headlines from the blogs and other sites I want are fed into my RSS reader where I can scan them at my leisure (hah!). If a headline  makes me want more,  all I have to do is click on it and up pops the article (or music or video, etc.) in question.

First, a Reader

To make use of this marvelous service you need an RSS reader. I use FeedReader (http://feedreader.com/) which is free. If I were starting today I might use Google’s (http://www.google.com/reader) which is also free. There are others you can find quickly with a search for feed reader if you don’t like the looks of those.

Subscriptions are Free and Easy

In order to get the headlines in your reader you either click on the blog’s RSS symbol (the picture here is a blue one, and the color makes no difference at all) or copy the site’s URL into the reader. Subscriptions are free.


It really is that easy. And yes, as you collect feeds you can sort them into categories or folders. When you’re ready to see what’s going in with your favorite blogs open your reader and scan the headlines, clicking only on those that tickle your fancy at the moment.

I Still Use Bookmarks

Yes, I still use bookmarks, particularly for static pages that haven’t been memorized by my fingers. For example, I’ve bookmarked my log-in page for this and other blogs, and for bank accounts, and my Internet host. Those pages don’t change much and bookmarking makes perfect sense.

Incidentally, if you want to get the feed for this site, download a reader, then either click the orange RSS button sort of hidden above the gold pencil (yeah, I’m going to change that some day) or the larger one just below the ads on the outside right column. You’ll either get your own feed reader which will tell you what to subscribe or paste the web address into your  and you’re all set.

Told you it was easy!

Write well and often,

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