Updates via Email
So what is this RSS thing, anyway? Do you know what it means? Yes, No, Repeat the Question? The answer is it stands for Really Simple Syndication, and it really is simple. Maybe you’ve never heard of it, or maybe you have. Either way it’s okay because you can recieve an email the morning after I’ve written a new post. Sound Good? Just enter your email in the box below and follow the instructions to recieve email updates. You will not be spammed!
Once you’ve signed up and you’ve recieved the A-Ok from FeedBlitz saying everything’s working, you’ll recieve an email whenever I write a new post or something that may be worthy of your attention span. If you don’t like the amount of emails you’re recieving, I suggest checking out the RSS feed option below.
Updates via RSS Feed
So then there’s this way you can subscribe. It is a little more complicated, but I’ll try to make it as easy as possible. The email method above is somewhat like getting the newpaper to your front door each morning (or in this case, your inbox). Getting upadtes via RSS Feed is like having the atricles clipped from the newpaper and having them delivered to you as soon as they’re published. Sound cool? Well here’s a few simple incstructions to help you get started with RSS:
Number One: Pick a feed reader or an aggregator. This is where you will manage all your subscriptions. Here’s a nice list of feed readers for you to peruse and take your pick. Two of my favourites would certainly have to be Google Reader and Bloglines. It’s all a matter of preference, so it’s totally up to you.
Number Two: Now you’re all setup with a feed reader, it’s time to scour the web (or your favourite sites) for the RSS button / RSS link. Some will say subscribe, some will say Feedburner, some will say XML, others will give you a preference of which news reader you would like to subscribe in. In the interest of keeping things simple, here’s a few options to subscribe my RSS feed in your favourite reader (click the button itself to go straight to my RSS feed or click the small arrow on the right to see a list of subscription options):
Sometimes when you click the RSS button on a website, you may be greeted with a page full of jibberish. Don’t be alarmed, this is just a raw RSS feed. Simply go to the address bar, copy the location (eg: www.somesite.com/blog/rss.xml), open your feed reader, find out how to add a feed/location, and paste in that address. Now you’ll recieve RSS updates for that site. Gone are the days of bookmarking sites and visiting them each day to find an update, they’re all in one spot for you to read and be happy knowing you’ve saved yourself countless amounts of time.
If you’re looking for some other interesting things you can do with RSS, check out this post by Steve Rubel.
Got a question, a suggestion or just want to say hello? Drop me a line using the contact form.
