It occurred to me that some of you might be reading this blog but haven’t yet subscribed. (that means you, Mom!) I love the convenience of reading all of my blogs with a feed reader. It lends organization to the massive amounts of info that we are exposed to on a daily basis. In short, I am a true believer in RSS. So I wrote this guide to turn all of you into true believers, as well.
What is RSS? RSS is basically a system that allows the content on a website to be easily syndicated. RSS actually stands for Really Simple Syndication. The first thing you need to do to take advantage of RSS is to choose a feed reader. What is a feed reader, you might be wondering? In very simple terms, it’s an application that collects a group of feeds of your choosing, and presents them to you in an organized manner. I use Google Reader and Bloglines. Either one is a great choice to start with.
To get started, pick out some blogs that you like. (Can’t think of any at the moment? You can always start with PixelRN.) Go to bloglines.com and create an account. Once you are logged in, make sure the tab that says “Feeds,” is active. Click on “Add.” Type in the blog URL and hit “Subscribe” It couldn’t be any easier. In some cases it might give you multiple feeds to choose from. I usually just choose the one with the most subscribers or the most recent date, but if you’re still not sure which one to pick, click on “Preview Feed” and you can make sure it is the right one.
Also you can find the feed link on any blog by looking for the RSS symbol, or looking for a link that says, subscribe. If you right click on the link, you can then paste it into the “Add” field in bloglines and you will be subscribed. Bloglines is great because you can just type in the blog address, rather than the feed address (which is different) and it automatically finds the feed for you. So that’s it! Every time one of your blogs or sites is updated, it pops up in your bloglines sidebar. You can then read the content directly from Bloglines, or click through to the blog to read it.
Still not convinced? Here’s the best reason to use feed readers: When you are at work during a very quiet, very boring night shift, it is so much easier to catch up on your nurse blogs if you are using Bloglines or Google Reader. I hope you have found this helpful. If any of this was confusing, please let me know in the comments section and I will try to clarify as much as I can for you.