What is a BLOG READER (RSS Service)?

NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION

Every morning when I get up, I go out to the driveway to get my newspaper and most of the time it is there. I have subscribed to it and so it comes every day. I pay for this service.



BLOG SUBSCRIPTION

Blogs are different.  A blog writer may write twice a day or once a week or once a month.  How is a person who reads blogs supposed to keep track of when new posts appear? What if you want to read more than one blog and don't want to keep going back and checking if there is something new?

That is what Blog Readers (or RSS Services) do!  They collect notices of your favorite blogs all in one place so that you can look at one place online and the unread posts from favorite blogs will be listed. You can read the ones that sound interesting to you and skip the other ones. It is free.

You may have seen this symbol.  The letters RSS stand for Really Simple Syndication (or easy subscription!) It means that a blog, or a newspaper column can be added to your Blog Reader. The blog with that symbol has a feed.  A feed is code that allows it to show up in a way that you can read it each time there is something new. Sometimes you can click that symbol to get the blog into your reader and sometimes blogs have a link to "subscribe" and you click that. Below I will walk you step by step into how to subscribe to this blog.

So, if you want to SUBSCRIBE to my blog so that it is easy to check in your Blog Reader to see if a new post was written here are the steps:

1.  Choose a Blog Reader. I decided to use Feedly. Google is retiring Google Reader, so many people are just transferring their "feeds" or subscriptions to Feedly. There are a lot of programs out there that will do this for you. I have made a list below. Find one that looks inviting to you and give it a try. You can change to a different one later if you decide it doesn't work for you.  See below for a list of Blog Readers to try.

2.  Sign up for the service by following the directions on their site. You will have to have a username and password like you do for most sites.

3.  Click to open a new tab or a new window in your browser and come to the "Help I'm not a Geek" blog http://helpimnotageek.blogspot.com.

4.  Look for the words "Subscribe" on the left side.

5. When you click on the button below "Subscribe" with the word Posts you will be given several choices. I am using Feedly and it is not listed, so I will have to click the one that says Atom and copy the URL (the web address that starts with html://)

6.  Then go to Feedly and click on "+ website" paste the address into the window that shows up and it will find the blog and you can click on it to subscribe. If you just click + website you can also type just a word into it (I typed in "recipes") and the program will go out and find lots of websites about that topic. You can then look at them and click on the ones you are interested in subscribing to.

As I was going through these steps it was difficult to show you all that was happening. Feedly does a lot automatically. You will have to try it to see.  In Chrome, Feedly shows up on the main screen after I scroll it to the right when I go to a new tab.

If you have not started reading some blogs you really should give it a try. There are great ones on every subject. I will list a few at the end of this post. Feel free to comment and ask if you are looking for a blog or information about a certain topic!  I will look for it!

Great Blogs to try out
The Huffington Post     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
The Pioneer Woman Cooks      http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/
The Laughing Squid Interesting Art    http://laughingsquid.com/
PopWatch (Celebrity Info)    http://popwatch.ew.com 
Arts Beat-Art Section of the New York Times  http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com 
Mental Floss     http://www.mentalfloss.com/
Golf     http://www.hookedongolfblog.com/
All Things Dog     http://www.allthingsdogblog.com/
Obsessed with Scrapbooking  http://www.obsessedwithscrapbooking.com/

RSS Services (Blog Readers)
http://feedly.com
http://netvibes.com
http://newsgator.com
http://myyahoo.com
http://bloglines.com

All About Blogs

Since you are reading this I assume that you know what a blog is, but you may wonder how people make them or how they add videos, links or photos to them. In a way I hate to write this post because it will show you how easy this is and you will not be amazed at what I can do anymore.

I comfort myself with the thought that you will now be able to make your own blog and impress your friends and family.

STEP 1
Decide 
You should have an idea that you would like to write about and choose a title.  This is probably the hardest part! Think about who your audience will be and the purpose for the blog. It could be to share a life event or vacation or to talk about something you are interested in and want to share.

STEP 2
Sign up
There are several places that you can go to right now to sign up for your own FREE blog. These are online programs that provide you with an easy way to create a blog and store them for you. Remember "the cloud"? Well all of the blogs that you write will be stored on the cloud somewhere. Here are some links to places where you can go to start your own blog:


BLOGGER - This is the one that I am using. It is owned by Google, so you sign up with your Google account if you have one.

WEEBLY - You can make a website or a blog with Weebly and it is all done by drag and drop.

WORDPRESS -  This is another easy place that you can go to sign up for a blog.


There are many other places that you can make a blog. To find them type blog creators into a google search. You will have to look at them to find the one you like.

STEP 3
Design
Blog programs all have built in editors that help you to choose what you want your blog to look like. Each of them has templates that are already designed that you can choose from. If you want to do your own design you can do that also.

STEP 4

Write 

You can write as often or as little as you would like. The more often you write the more readers you will be likely to have. If your blog does not change much people can easily forget about it. Some people write often and have discussions with their readers in the comment section at the end of the blog. Other people write for themselves or to tell about a specific thing like a trip. They do not expect comments and the blog becomes a log of something to remember.

More in this series:

• How to put pictures, video and links into blogs
• How to find blogs you would like to read and subscribe to them
• How to add comments to blogs