OK it’s time to talk about the Big Orange Button that you see at the top of blogs everywhere (see down in the right sidebar for my button). That’s the International symbol for RSS or Really Simple Syndication.
But why should I care? you ask.
Most of us try to keep track of what’s going on across a growing number of blogs each day. Popping in and out in case there’s been an update is time consuming and often frustrating.
You can simplify your blog-reading life enormously by signing up to a free account with one of the free feedreading aggregators. Bloglines and Google Reader are probably the two most popular. I prefer Bloglines because that shows graphics as well as text in the feed. Click on that Orange Button on the right of my banner and choose one of the popular feedreaders add Scraps of Mind to your account and easily keep track of all the new posts.
And then what?
Then for each of your favourite blogs that you want to keep track of, you just click on the RSS button on their page and add it to your feedreader account. If the blog doesn’t have an RSS button just use the Add function on your account and copy/paste the URL address of the home page (eg. http://www.scrapsofmind.com) of the blog into the box provided and the feed will be picked up by your feedreader.
You can go to your feedreader account as frequently as you like and it will highlight all the blogs that have been updated and show you the last few posts that have been added since the last time you visited them. Voila! No more frustrating visits to blogs that haven’t been updated.
And on your own blog, make it easy for your readers to subscribe to your feed by installing your own RSS button or feed aggregator button in a prominent place in your sidebar.
Prefer an email delivery?
You can have the latest Scraps of Mind posts delivered directly into your email box. Simply click on the Orange Button and choose the ‘get Scraps of Mind delivered by email’ option. And you will receive an email each day containing any new posts on Scrap of Mind. Easy peasy.
So if you want to easily keep up to date with posts on Scraps of Mind and any of your other favourite blogs, open up a Bloglines or Google Reader account and make it easy on yourself. Or sign up to the Scraps of Mind email delivery option.
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Bloglines saves me time
GReat post – I love Google Reader – it has simplified checking the blogs I read every day – anything that saves us all time is a GOOD THING!
I love Bloglines
Janine, Kayla, Hannah great to hear you’re already switched on to RSS feeds. I have to say that Bloglines has made my life so much easier too.
Oh! Thanks for explaining how to use RSS! I had tried unsuccessfully a couple of times. I’ll follow your instructions and get it figured out now! Excellent and informative information! I like that you had the headline bold and upfront for us to find it easily too!
Glad it made things easier for you Jimtown.
Thank you for the information and instructions. I’ve added you on my links. =) God bless you!
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