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Choosing Your RSS Reader
If you want to be able to read RSS feeds then you are going to need an RSS reader. The types of RSS reader that are available to you come in two flavours. There is the desktop RSS reader and there are the online or web RSS readers. Choosing your RSS readers need not be a difficult task, to be quite honest most RSS reader software performs much the same task. It downloads the RSS file and parses it into a readable format for you. Rather than trying to ram this or that product down your throat I am going to tell you what to look for in an RSS reader and share my personal preference. Now I think the first and most important feature you will look for in your reader is price. Lets face it most of the software out there today is free so a fee based solution had better be outstanding. One free solution I did try but did not like, just my preference is Amphtadesk. This run from your desktop but displays the feeds as a webpage. This offering is open source and runs cross platform. Another feature you need to look for is ease of use. You don't want to spend hours trying to figure out how subscribe to a feed. Again this is going to be your own preference as everyone has their own abilities. I would suggest that if you can't subscribe to a feed after a few minutes then you are probably using the wrong software for you. A feature you will need in your RSS reader is the ability to import and export your OPML file. This is a file that holds all of your RSS feed subscription addresses, just like a list of email addresses. You will probably try several RSS readers over time before you settle on one you like. Without OPML you will have to manually subscribe to all of your feeds if you change your RSS reader. Speed is of the essence. The more feeds you subscribe to the longer it will take to download them. I have used one desktop based RSS reader that took fifteen minutes at each update to download and parse the feeds. If your RSS reader turns out to be slow, dump it, there are plenty more out there. I went through this process a while back and went through dozens of RSS readers. I finally settled on Bloglines, a web based RSS reader. There are other web based RSS readers out there, here is a list of RSS readers that I know of. I chose Bloglines as it was fast and easy to use and continues to work well for me. You can find out more about RSS at Newsniche and how it can help you.
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RELATED ARTICLES
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On Monday morning I issued a press release regarding the transformation of my blog to a book, as a test to measure interest. It's almost 4 a.m. Pacific time as I write this, and so far it has been read over 23,000 times, resulting in a distinct increase in general traffic, not to mention the best initial sales debut of any product at my site since this past summer. Just imagine what that kind of interest could do for your site - and how much money you may be leaving on the table right now. Making your blog available in other formats is worth a look. Why I Use Bloglines as My Default RSS Reader Choosing a decent RSS reader to browse and read your favourite RSS feeds was not a straight forward task. I tried and tested many different windows desktop readers but I ended up uninstalling them for one reason or another. Then I found Bloglines and I am pleased to say I have not yet been disappointed with it. How to Make Money from Your Blog Content Writing a blog can be fun and exciting, but it can also be rewarding. If you do not know how to make money from your blog content then you need to consider implementing the following suggestions in your blog. Small / Medium Business Blog Process Outsourcing as a Website Traffic Building Service You are a small or a medium business owner. You have a well designed business website. It is a Search Engine Optimized (SEO) website for a limited set of keywords. However, with changing rules of SEO and new competitors entering the market, your select keywords stand a slim chance of surviving the onslaught. What are the chances that your website will remain on the top when a potential customer searches those special keywords on a search engine? To make matters worse, Search engines change their algorithms without any notice and suddenly your site is no longer in top 10 results. So what is the solution? Blog Reflection I still consider myself to be a blog writing novice but as I've got a few entries under my belt I can tell you about an unexpected bonus of this journaling process. A lot of people think that blog writers are just people who are tooting their own horns blabbering on self-righteously about what they believe to be true in life. On the contrary, for me writing a blog has helped me to reflect on my experiences that I may have otherwise have forgotten if I hadn't written them down. It has become a process of self-actualization, whether others have read my thoughts has become less of a priority for me. When I read over my past entries I am surprised to hear about thoughts, ideas, and wisdom that is quite relevant to my present experiences. It's like I already knew some of the solutions to my problems in the present, but I still had to go through the experiences to actually have this knowledge become truly learnt. I also find it rewarding in both the respects that I get to 'relive' certain moments in my life, and I get to analyze my previous thoughts. This analysis often leads me to new ideas that I couldn't see clearly when I was in the original moment. 'Reliving' past experiences by reading old journal entries can be a powerful experience indeed. You can be transported to the moment in time you were writing about, as well as the moment and feelings you had when writing the blog entry. Experiencing these events and feelings again can be a really enlightening process, especially if the emotions you had were strong ones. An example of this from my blog www.thepowerofeverythingthatis.com is a recent upheaval of emotions I wrote about when a young lady I'd been dating and really started to like a lot told me she didn't want to kiss me anymore. Now when I read this entry I can feel those same painful feelings, but in a new light as the time has passed and I've moved on. It gives me hope in understanding that all feelings pass, and also in the knowledge that all things happen for a reason. This knowledge I couldn't see at the time as I was totally enveloped by my agony. These insights into past feelings and thoughts have been an eye opener for my self-introspection process. I think the blog can give you the chance to get to know yourself better, something all humans could find beneficial. All of us are on quests to find out who we are and why we are here on Earth. The blogging process might just be another avenue for people to find out who they truly are. Keep on writing my friends! Who Would Use RSS My previous two articles "What is RSS and Why use RSS" focused on how we can give our customers a better online experience while lessening the hassles for the online marketer. In this article I'm going to offer you another way to look at RSS ? from the standpoint of a new emerging profession: the channelmaster or newsmaster as Robin Good calls it. These are going to be the "Who's Who" of RSS in the coming months and years. I remember when email was the new thing for the average person; everyone was excited about the "new" technology. It had been around for awhile in the tech world but not with the average person. When we all started using email, it was so fascinating to be able to send out a message anywhere and get an answer back the same day! Details of Getting a Blog Blogs, the abbreviation of Web Logs (online journals), are becoming more and more popular all the time. People are starting new blogs at an astounding rate so it's safe to assume that there are constantly people out there who want to know how to get a blog going. Despite personal feelings about the actual quality of the majority of blogs out there on the Internet, that's what I hope to be able to help you do with this article.
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