Quick & Dirty Social Media For Writers: RSS & RSS Readers

RSS. Need I say more? Yes?

Okay. Let’s get started. I am not a tech god of any sort, so this is going to be quick and dirty. If you have suggestions, ideas, favourites, links, or corrections, feel free to jump on that in the comments section.

Why you might need an RSS Reader

If you are like me, you have a pile of tabs open on your browser (currently only 26! Woot, woot!). Some are sites you go to frequently (for me: weather, AQC, Twitter), some are ones you want to keep on top of (those lovely folks who had me over on their blogs last week, agent or publisher blogs, news), others are ones you really should read (articles, links sent by others to check out) and some may be links you don’t want to lose (I’ll talk about how to keep on top of those later in the week).

However, sometimes you may find you have so many tabs open your browser bogs down or you just can’t find things anymore. What to do?

In comes RSS and RSS readers.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. You may have seen the chicklet on blogs and websites. Basically, RSS is the magic of the geekiest part of the internet working behind the scenes to notify you that new content has been uploaded to the sites you stalk, or wish you could stalk if only you were more organized.

RSS Chicklet and its buddies
(If, for example, you were using a RSS reader by Newsgator, you would click on the newsgator button to add the RSS feed to your reader.)

So, say you want to read all of the latest posts for JeanOram.com, but darn that Jean, her blog posts are posted so randomly! (You will notice 3 chicklets on my blog–top corner is blog, the others by the Twitter feeds are so you can RSS my Twitter feeds. Handy, eh?) How on earth do you know when to go and check to see if there is something new? This is part of the magic of RSS. The other part are…

RSS Readers (also called Aggregators and Feed Readers)

Before you start clicking on RSS chicklets, you need an aggregator. An aggregator gathers all those blogs feeds (RSS for those sites you want to stalk/follow) and puts them in one nice little organized spot for you.

Essentially you have three options. You can use a web-based reader (handy if you want to use more than one computer to check feeds), software you download onto your computer, or a mobile device based do hickey.

Keeping this quick and dirty, let’s stick to the most basic and common–the web-based RSS reader. (You can Google the others if you are interested or tell us a bit about them in the comment section if you so desire.)

The top two to hit my radar are Google Reader which I used to use, and Yahoo! Reader which I have now switched to. Why? Because Yahoo is pretty and it is simple. It does not overwhelm me. I found the ‘new’ layout of Google Reader a bit like a laundry list (that looks a lot like my inbox) of things I had to read. Frankly, it was overwhelming having all those blog post titles lined up, bolded because I hadn’t read them, and shouting at me. It felt like too much to read. The old Google layout, and the one I’m using for Yahoo! Reader are a bunch of lovely boxes–one for each RSS feed–and contain the latest three feeds (you can tweak that), as well as ‘candy feeds’ like my horoscope. You can also click and drag all your RSS feed bits around. For example, the blogs I really don’t want to miss out on are pinned at the top of my Yahoo! Reader webpage.

My Yahoo! Reader Page

The use of both of these readers are free as long as you have an account–also free. (Free because there are ads, of course.)

There are a TON of other readers out there. Do a little snooping and see what meets your needs and strikes your fancy.

Have Reader, Now What?: Putting it All Together

You’ve got your RSS reader set up and ready to go. Find those sites you want to follow and look on their page for the RSS chicklet shown above. (It may be tiny or different coloured. It can also be completely different. But usually, it is that chicklet in some form.) Click on the chicklet. It will give you an URL (usually ending with ‘feed’) to copy. Copy it. Pop over to your reader. There should be a button that says something like, “Add content.” Paste the link in the box that shows up when you click on it. Voila. It is THAT easy!

You should now start getting feed from that site. Now, each time there is a new post on that site, it will show up as a link in your reader. (Some readers download all the content (whole post) so you don’t have to leave the reader. On the other hand, some sites don’t allow the whole article to be sent via RSS so you do have to visit the site. However, you now know when to go over there and often have enough info in your reader to decide whether it is something that interests you and is worth popping over to read.)

I Want To Use RSS for My Blog! How Do I Do It?

This depends on your site. If you are using Blogger, it is a lovely little gadget right in Blogger. Same with most other blogging applications such as WordPress. A couple of clicks and you have a chicklet on your blog for people to click on.

Enjoy!

Questions? Comments? Tips to share? Go for it… over to you.

(Join me next Social Media Monday for information on Social Bookmarking!)