What is RSS?

RSS is a simple technology that delivers changing web-content (e.g. blog articles), so it can be downloaded and presented to users. RSS really is global. You don’t need a computer to access a RSS feed, you can access a RSS feed on a iPhone, a regular Sony Ericsson cellphone. Email newsletters can easily be automated with RSS feeds.

For Whom?

How can you benefit from using RSS? RSS kinda solves a problem. It makes it much more easier to follow lots of blogs. So when using RSS you are getting a lot more productive. You save your time, because you don’t need to visit each blog manually, you can just subscribe to their feed.

What You Need to Read a RSS Feed

A feed reader software allow you to read various rss feeds, by subscribing to a feed the software will be able to display the content of the blog, even if you do not visit it.

There is lots of feed readers on the Internet. Some as desktop application some as web applications. For a desktop application I recommend Amphetadesk, it’s easy to use and manage. For a web-based application I (as many others) recommend Google Reader. It’s probably the most used web-based application.

Once you have a feed reader, you can start finding blogs that syndicate their content through RSS feeds. Almost every single blog, has a RSS feed. Every Blogpost, WordPress, TypePad (almost every platform) is capable of delivering content through RSS. Also my blog, you can subscribe to my blog with this link.

How do You Set up Your RSS Feed?

So if your blog is a WordPress blog, no worries. You already have a RSS feed. You can go to your RSS feed by adding /feed/ to your domain name.

So mine will be http://daneblogger.com/feed/. Yours will be http://yourdomain.com/feed/.

In May 2007 Google bought a service called “FeedBurner.” It’s a service that gives your feed another location+you can watch how many subscribers you’ve got. The best part of FeedBurner is, if you want to move your blog to another location (new domain etc.) you can change your Feedburner feed to take content from another RSS feed.

So you can track your subscribers and easily move your blog location and still not lose all your RSS subscribers. I highly recommend setting up FeedBurner.

Actually it is not that hard as it sounds, just log in to Feedburner using a Google ID (something@gmail.com) then add your site. To get as many subscribers as possible, you need a WordPress plugin to redirect the old RSS feed url to Feedburner. Done easily get the Feedburner plugin from here.

How to Install Feedburner Plugin

1. Dowload the plugin (from the link above) and place file, “FeedBurner_FeedSmith_Plugin.php” into the plugin directory “wp-content/plugins/” (using FTP)
2. Activate the plugin, from the plugin tab.
3. To start the configuration of the plugin click on Setting (tab) and then FeedBurner .
4. Fill out the forms and then click Save

This really will help you track how many readers you have, included those who are subscribing. Anyway, you can subscribe to my feed by clicking the link or on the image.