Do you understand RSS Feeds? We see them all over the place but the whole concept can be somewhat confusing.
Today’s article will take a look at understanding and working with RSS Feeds: what Feeds are, what you can do with them, and why you should use them.
What Feeds Are
Feeds are usually RSS Feeds which stand for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. What does this mean, in plain terms? Feeds allow transference of text between applications on the Internet.
What You Can Do With RSS Feeds
- Feeds allow you to keep up with your favorite articles, blogs, or webpages without having to return to those articles or to the actual sites.
- Instead of bookmarking the page that the information appears on and then having to wade through the listing of everything you’ve saved, you simply subscribe to the Feed to keep abreast of all the latest articles, blog posts, and discussion threads as they are published.
- You can even subscribe to “Comment Feeds” on blogs such as Blogger, so that if you are following a blog discussion, you can keep apprised of the latest comments. On Blogger, this appears as “All Comments” or “Atom.”
The information is delivered either into your Inbox or, if you have subscribed via a Feed reader, the content is aggregated or collected in one handy spot, which means you can read at your leisure. You can choose from a variety of free Feed readers, such as Yahoo or Google. Some browsers such as Modzilla or Internet Explorer 7 have Feed readers built right in.
Why You Should Use RSS Feeds
Another neat use for Feeds is how you can use them to show a number of your articles + blurbs across Internet sites. I discuss How to Add Your Triond Article Feed to Your HubPages, as a method of traffic generation. Naturally, you can use this same methodology to include your article Feeds in other places.
No doubt about it, RSS Feeds are handy tools and demystifying them means that more people will use them to their advantage.
September 10th, 2009 at 5:14 am
I personally thank you for this article that is very informative and understandable on the RSS mystery. I had no idea what or how it works, until reading this article. Thank you.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Hi Oh Sugar,
Thank you for your kind comments. Yes, RSS Feeds are handy but many people aren’t sure how to use them. I particularly like that you can add your article Feed url to other sites, thus displaying a number of articles with a description.
September 10th, 2009 at 11:47 am
RSS feeds are dead useful and personally I don’t use them very much but for the sites that I do, they are quite useful, the way I see it. I do agree with you though, not very many people know how to use them and so they just don’t bother but I’d reccommed RSS Feeds to anyone and everyone if they have a true favourite.
September 10th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Thanks for taking the time to explain RSS feeds. I have been puzzled by this topic.
September 11th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Nice one! a very interesting and informative article..Thank you
September 11th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Wow! thanks everyone. I’m glad to help others to an understanding of RSS feeds.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Thanks Athlyn! I am still learning and your article is very helpful
September 18th, 2009 at 6:38 am
Hi Athlyn,
As always, an incredibly useful article. I wish I’d found such information when I was starting out with blogging. I had to use hit and trial and learn from a variety of sources, Thanks for consolidating it all in a really nice articles.
Best wishes
September 19th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Great information. This is interesting and useful stuff. I’m going to click on another article.
September 24th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I wonder if I can put one in my blog.
September 24th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Yes, you can include article feeds at your blog.
October 26th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Hi Athlyn,
Just revisiting for purposes of feed understanding and marketing.
Bless you,
Chris
November 24th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Thanks. My first encounter with RSS instruction/definition.
November 27th, 2009 at 1:27 am
Thanks everyone!