Back in the 1998, it was quite acceptable to throw up a few HTML pages, set up a hit counter, and then sit for months with the same unchanging content. People would visit, people would read, more people would visit, more people would read…..the same content, over and over. In fact, I had quite a few websites set up that way. SEO (Search engine optimization) was no where near my vocabulary, Google was not a household name, and WordPress hadn’t even been invented.
As the years progressed, people started looking for more and more ways to make their site “Sticky”. Maps, games, forums, polls, syndicated content from major news outlets, (annoying) tickers, and even amatuer chatrooms were thrown up by well meaning site designers in hopes of making people want to visit their sites again and again. But what it all boiled down to was simple…original content.
Flashforward to 2008! Blogging has almost taken over the world, and there is a whole new meaning to “Content is King”. If you don’t blog regularly, chances are, your visitors will never return. Blogs (short for “web-log”) allow even the most novice of internet users to post their thoughts, ideas, recipes, life happenings, and advice online. Search engines allows people of like minded interests to find those sites (blogs) and gleam from them whatever it is they need to learn at the moment.
Because of the rapid growth of blogs, and the authors who write content that make people want to come back for more, a way was needed for people to keep up with their favorite blogs without having to actually return to the individual websites day after day.
Enter the RSS Feed!
IF you’re not using an RSS feed to read from your favorite blogs, then you’re missing out. And according to a recent survey I saw floating around, only 5% of blog readers even use the RSS feed feature!
A feed features the actual content of a site in an easy to read format. It strips away all of the ads, unecessary graphics, and even removes the need to visit individual sites. This comes in extremely handy when you find yourself falling in love with 10…20…200 different blogs.
There are many different reaways to read a feed out there, such as google, bloglines, yahoo, and aol, but I’m going to focus on the one I have found to be the easiest for me – Internet Explorer.
I know many people out there take issue with IE, but I have used it since 1993 and it really doesn’t bother me. I personally use IE 7.0 so I’m not sure if lower versions work in this same manner, so if you have a lower version, just compare my tutorial with it!
First of all, when you go to a site you’d like to read often, you should check to to see if it has a FEED. The common way to tell if someone has a feed available is by looking for a little orange and white square symbol. Some also have links that say “subscribe here”. At little Jack’s Corner, I offer many main ways to find our feed – a big square in the upper right hand corner, a little square beside the “Jack TV” menu, and a “Subscribe” link on every individual post. Since I use a feed service, www.FeedBurner.com, readers to this site can also subscribe by email to receive daily or weekly updates in their inbox.
There is no obligation, fee, or hassle in subscribing to any site. And it removes the need for visiting each site and ensures that you never miss any content!
If you don’t want to bother finding the site’s subscribe button (or if the web author forgot to add one!) Internet Explorer offers an easy way to see if the site you are viewing offers a Feed. Just look on your tool bar, and you’ll see the familiar little orange / white square. When it is grey, it means there are no feeds available for that site. When it is lit up “orange and white”, there is a feed available. You can click that tool button to subscribe!
If the site you are viewing uses FeedBurner to manage their subscriptions, you’ll be taken to a page that looks like this….
This page allows you to subscribe to a feed in many different ways. If you want to use Internet Explorer to manage feeds, you will need to click on “View Feed XML”.
When you do, you’ll be taken to a page that looks like this…
What you see on this page is the most current articles published on that particular blog – in our case it’s the post of “Baby Jack Weighs In”, published about an hour ago.
If you plan on using Internet explorer for feed reading, you will click the link that says “Subscribe to this Feed” in the yellow box at the top of the page!
Once you do that, your feed will then be stored in the “feed” section of your internest explorer favorites menu.
Here is what mine looks like….
When a blog is updated, the title of the blog turns a bold black. You then know that you should click on it to read the latest content available! Most blog feeds offer full content in the reader, but some blogs (such as the ever cute “Mommie Daze” blog, only offers a teaser, letting you only read the first paragraph before needing to go to the actual site to finish.
Using this method, I can easily catch up with all of my favorite blogs in less than 10 minutes, skimming over posts that aren’t quite that interesting, and really getting into those that are! 
Why not try it out? Go ahead and subscribe to Little Jack’s Corner and keep up with Jack as he grows up. We love making new bloggy friends.
