As the title suggests, I hear from alot of people that they aren’t using RSS because either they do not know what it is, and what to do with it.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” which over time has been evolved from RSS 0.9 (which was called: RDF Site Summary back then) to RSS 2.0 of today. To summarize RSS in short: It is a web format (technology) which keeps you updated on your favorite sites.

Back in that time you would have to bookmark every website you liked. And it was really time consuming to go through all the sites to see if they were updated.

Now this was a good opportunity for sites like Feedburner (as for nowadays they are working together with Google and you can export your feedburner accounts to Google instead, see this link here), Bloglines and Newsgator to shine. They presented us with a solution and so it came that they are popular.

How To Use RSS?

To make use of it you would need a RSS Reader. I suggest Google Reader or Bloglines, both of them work a little bit like an E-mail provider because you see how many new (unread) updates you have per site you have subscribed to at any time you want.

After that, start looking for an Icon like this on any website you find, mostly blogs have it for example. After that you can sign up for the RSS and there you go :)

Why Use RSS?

I’ve been asking around Twitter and came back with some answers from bloggers which are in the scheme for a while:

@bryancheung from ByZone said: Well, I use RSS for keeping up to date with blogs, and an easy way to find the posts that I want to read, and usually the posts I like, I tweet about, and of course, comment on it.

@Naerin from CycLys said: I use RSS so that I don’t have to weave my way through 50 websites to read the content I want to see.

@DanTanner from Index Options Trading said: RSS feeds create backlinks and backlinks create pageranks and traffic…

@Gertmellak from Gert Mellak said: I’m using RSS to keep track of changes on a huge number of websites relevant to my business areas.

@Slavingia from Pixel Jig said: Because then I can read the news when it comes through, rather than checking and being disappointed with no new content. also great for sites that aren’t updated often (so you get alerted to a post months later immediately) with superb content.

Still Don’t Want To Use RSS?

If the above video and explanation still doubt your mind. Many sites often give you the option to subscribe to E-mail instead, which should be a lot more trusted medium for providing information to you. Of course you can unsubscribe any time you want, and your e-mail address will be kept private. There is really nothing you can lose, you should just try it out and if you don’t like it just stop using it

Subscribe to our Blog!

Our RSS feed

Now that you know what are RSS is you probably want to know how you can subscribe to our blog. That’s actually pretty easy have a look on the picture. On our right sidebar we have an image “Subscribe to RSS”. Just click that image and you will be forwarded to our feed.

On the page you were forwarded to you can select the program you would like to use to read our feed. We made the best experience with the “Google Reader” and “Netvibes” and recommend you to use them as well. Neither netvibes nor the Google Reader need to be installed on your computer, you just need an account on their website and you can start reading your feeds everywhere on the world.

You could also use the email feature which sends our updates directly to your email. No, we will not use your email to send you annoying newsletters – you will only receive our updates from which you can unsubscribe whenever you like.

Alternatively you can check out our hompeage and enter your email address in the box on the top right directly. That would instantly subscribe you to all our updates.

Our favorite readers

Both of us have been using RSS for quite some time now and are really satisfied with it. We are able to stay up to date on all subjects that interest and are important for us.

That’s especially important when you are blogging because you always need new ideas for your blog and you need to stay ahead of others.

Thanks a lot for subscribing and we hope that you will enjoy our fresh content!