RSSBLOGS AND RSS
What in the world is a blog?
Blog is short for ‘weblog’. It’s just a website where someone talks about a certain topic. There are millions of blogs out there, about cooking, gardening, stay-at home moms, business, golf, cars, kayaking, running, finding cheap stuff, finding free stuff, tech gadgets, personal growth, the environment, diseases, health, and any topic that you have an interest or passion about. It’s a worldwide conversation with people who love what you do. Does it get better? Are you planning to miss out?
Why should I read them?
- Because you get to pick the topics and writers you like, unlike a newspaper where half of it is wasted.
- You can learn about anything and can ask any question or get in on great conversations, with anyone, anywhere. The incredible beauty of the WorldWideWeb – an open mind!! The best thing there is.
- Articles are added each day or so, so you get very current very fast and don’t have to go searching for the newest info on your topic.
How do I find blogs I like?
Google is a good place to start. Just type in “blog Toronto Maple Leafs” or “blog British royalty” or whatever interests you. As usual with Google, you’ll get 3 million choices. Do what you always do, just look at the first 10 or so.
What you really need is to start with one blog that is close to your liking. Start reading it regularly and you will see that the writer (or ‘blogger’) will often talk about other blogs on this subject, and you will find links in their articles that you can click to get to those other blogs. Soon enough, you will have a collection of great blogs to read.
What does RSS mean?
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. It is a method that computers use to receive information updates automatically from a website that adds material often. That could be a blog, a weather channel, a newspaper, or your favorite magazine. The updates are called “feeds”.
Why do I care about Feed Readers?
The service that collects the feeds you want to read and holds them till you want to read them is called a “feed reader”.
Since some folks read many blogs, they don’t want an Inbox jammed with articles every day. They subscribe using a Feed Reader or Feed Aggregator to collect and organize the feeds till they are ready to read them. There are many of these. Bloglines and GoogleReader are two popular feed readers.
Honestly, I no longer use a feed reader. I found that the personality of the blogger came through more strongly when I could visit the real site. I do subscribe by email to the blogs I like so that I don’t miss new material.
Why does RSS matter?
Writers write in the hope that people will read their words and find value in them. It is well accepted by novice and expert alike that the internet can be overwhelming. Finding great websites can be tough. If you’re the writer, getting your website found is even harder. The more people sign up for the writer’s RSS feed, the higher the site goes in the Search Engines and the easier it becomes for others to find.
Writers also hope to see their websites become an online community where people can support, teach, and interact with each other. Ultimately, this is the greatest thing about the WorldWibeWeb and will be the future of the Internet. This is why people are using Feed Readers at such a massive and growing rate.
The website that runs the RSS also collects numbers about the site like how many people are signed up, so the writer can see if readers like the content or changes that he/she makes.
Finally, sites with high RSS numbers also get more attention from industries or advertising which may be important to some bloggers who may try to earn money from their writing, or by promoting certain products on their blog.
How do I subscribe to a feed?
There is a universal RSS symbol though you’ll see many variations in its design. The symbol is an orange square with a rainbow pattern of lines radiating from the bottom left corner.
In A Greener Tea, the button is just under the header photo, in the light green (upper) horizontal bar, on the right side. Click on it and it will guide you through the sign up. If you want to receive email updates, click on the same orange square. You’ll see the option to get email delivery in the box that opens up.
