RSS For Writers

If you’re like me, much of what some call Web 2.0 is a mystery. Social Media is fine, but who has time? Trying to keep up with blogs is impossible.

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 them 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. That is, if you bookmark this site all you’ve got is a link to whatever page you bookmark; you don’t have any idea what, if anything, is going on here.

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 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. I think of it as sort of a news feed. 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 wants me to read 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.

Subscriptions are Free and Easy

In order to get the headlines in your reader you simply use your reader to subscribe. Usually this is simply a matter of either clicking on the RSS symbol (the picture here is a blue one, and the color makes no difference at all) or copying 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 purple RSS button sort of hidden above the gold pencil (yeah, I’m going to change that some day) or paste the web address in and you’re all set.

Told you it was easy!

Write well and often,

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