Good questions.  First, here’s why you should care.

Unlike getting website updates or ezines by email, RSS feeds give you absolute, 100% complete control over the situation.

You don’t have to reveal your email address.  If you want to stop receiving content, you don’t have to request to be "taken off the list."

One click, and poof! — the subscription is gone.

Plus, since there’s no email address involved, there’s no way a publisher can sell, rent or give away the means to contact you.

That’s right — no more spam, viruses, phishing, or identity theft.   You won’t need to suffer through the legalese in the privacy policy looking for loopholes that will send you deeper into inbox hell.  And, no more setting up dummy Hotmail accounts "just in case."

Again, if you don’t like the content, you can make it disappear as fast as you can change a TV channel.   With just one click.

Very handy, huh?

So, what the heck is RSS?

Besides being here to stay …. here’s the bottom line about RSS.

RSS is a simply an Internet technology standard that allows busy people to receive updates to web-based content of interest.  You might have figured that much out by now.  But basically, that’s the essence of an RSS feed.   You subscribe and then receive new content automatically in your feed reader.

If you actually want to know how RSS works, click here.

What the heck is a feed reader?

You may already be using a form of feed reader and not even realize it.  If you use personalized home page services like My Yahoo or My MSN, you’ve got RSS capabilities built in. That’s how syndicated content like news, weather and stock quotes appears on your personal page.  You can also add content from any blog or other site that uses RSS to provide updates.

Other web-based tools are primarily dedicated to feed reading only.  One of the most popular web-based feed readers at this point is Bloglines, and it’s also free and easy to get started with.

If you use the Firefox browser, you can also receive RSS feeds from your tool bar by using the Live Bookmarks function.  And the new version of Internet Explorer (Version 7.0) makes subscribing and reading your feeds as easy as can be.

Finally, there are desktop-based feed readers.  These function somewhat like an email program for feeds.  Examples include Newsgator and Feed Demon.  Some are free, others are not.

If it sounds complicated, it’s really not.  The bottom line is that with RSS, you have the same convenience that email subscriptions offered in the "old" days, but without any of the crummy consequences of giving out your email address to potentially unscrupulous characters.  With us, you have nothing to worry about — but you shouldn’t be that trusting with other publishers.

Sounds good.  So how do I subscribe to a Feed?

First of all, look for the subscription or feed options (some bloggers make this difficult for some odd reason).  You might see a variety of buttons (amusingly called chicklets).

This is the new standard RSS icon:

If the site you want to subscribe to uses FeedBurner to aid in the subscription process (that’s who we use), you’ll likely see the standard RSS icon which takes you to a page that will give you an array of the most popular feed readers so you can select yours.  From there, they make it pretty easy. 

Sometimes there will be a "chicklet" for your particular reader right on the blog.  You’ll see that we offer that feature on our blog.   When you click on one of the "chicklets," you’ll be taken to the appropriate subscription page.  You may see these (among others):

Finally, you may also see little rectangular orange buttons that say XML or RSS.  Often these icons will take you to a page that looks like  HTML code gibberish   Don’t cry or throw your hands up in frustration (as we did).  In this case, simply copy and paste the URL for that page from your browser window and manually paste it into your feed reader’s subscription function.  With any luck at all, this last method will go the way of the dinosaur, sooner than later. 

In summary:  RSS solves BIG problems.

That’s the long and short of it –  RSS is being adopted at such a phenomenal rate because it’s a good thing for everyone involved.

The benefit to feed readers is obvious.  And it’s good for publishers too because we want to make sure that people feel comfortable subscribing and that our message is not being nuked by overzealous spam filters.

Final Thoughts

If there’s anything here that is confusing or you have a question, please contact us.  We’ll point you to a few other RSS resources (some with video tutorials).  Our best advice is to just adopt a spirit of internet fearlessness.  Keep practicing — subscribe to the RSS feed on websites and blogs you enjoy reading and where you want to stay in the loop.  That’s the single best way to cultivate a new comfort zone with RSS.

PS — Thanks to Brian at one of our favorite blogs (Copyblogger).  He played an important role in helping create this RSS tutorial.