In this post, I am going to explain RSS to you without the jargon – this is what you re going to learn:

What does RSS mean?

What is an RSS feed and why is it important?

Call me slow on the uptake but it took me ages to really understand this thing called RSS. In principal I got it, but for all practical purposes somehow I was missing a link in the RSS feed chain and i could not grasp how to take best advantage of it.

I asked around and found that despite what most people were saying about RSS they could not fully explain it to me either. So, I went over to YouTube and Google, watched a bunch of videos and just kept getting the same information over and over…

…and like it or not all the techie experts were making assumptions that Blogging and Social Media newbies knew the basis of RSS so their explanations were out of context and incomplete.

GRRRRR.

Now I’m not ashamed to admit I’m no expert, but I have decided to try an explain how syndication works and how to use it without getting techie because in truth, once you get it, you will see that RSS feed is really simple and very important to you as a Blogger. Here goes:

RSS stands for “Rich Site Summary”

but most people like to say it stands for

“really simple syndication”.

In essence, RSS is one of the newest web formats to distribute information. Many websites -including MayaMendozaBlog.com- syndicate their content through RSS to whoever wants it.

So what’s useful about RSS ?

Well, how often do you use the web to catch up with friends and family and keep up to date with world and your industry events?

Doesn’t it just niggle at you a bit when you check out a favourite blog or website only to find nothing has changed – no updates since your last visit?

Ideally, you would want to stop wasting time checking sites for updates and focus on reading new information and articles wouldn’t you?

Well this is where RSS come in. It solves two very important problems with web content distribution because it lets you find out what fresh content and articles are being written, and when they are posted – all in one place – without visiting the website.

For example, say there were several online marketing weblogs that interested you. Rather than looking at each one everyday for new content, you can now subscribe to each websites new content, and you would get a list of the headlines of all new entries from all the sites to which you subscribe

RSS also protects you from spam because you don’t need give out your e-mail address to join each website’s newsletter. This is because the content doesn’t go to your email box, it goes to a news feeder.

There are two main ways through which people subscribe to RSS feeds:

FIRST: via a feed reader program that resides on their computer through an internet based RSS reader service. Feed readers are specialised applications designed solely for reading articles from lots of feeds.  Each time you run a feed reader they will check all your feeds for new articles and list all the new articles for you.

I asked around and it seems that popular feed readers include:

• NetNewsWire Lite - for the Mac
• Feed Demon – a free trial for the PC
• Bloglines.com – a web-based free newsfeed reader
• NewsGator

SECOND: via popular web browsers now have integrated feed reading capabilities.

• Microsoft IE
• FireFox
• Opera

If you know of others  that have an integrated feed reading capability please add to the list by leaving a comment below.

How to subscribe to the MayaMendozBlog.com RSS feed.

If you are new to RSS, I suggest that you try out the BlogLines service.

Click here to sign up for a free BlogLines account and add the mayamendozablog.com feed instantly. On the other hand, if you’re an avid RSS subscriber, just join using your favourite reader.

Well I hope this has been helpful. Do let me know and leave a comment below.

With enthusiasm for YOUR success

Maya Mendoza

P.S If you have not done so already, please join me on Facebook and Twitter and introduce yourself.

http://www.MayaMendozaBlog.com