Traditionally there are three ways to follow along with a blog. First, you can simply visit its webpage as frequently as you want and check for updates manually. The more common option is to use a feed reader. Basically you tell some program that you want it to follow a certain blog, or several blogs, and then all your blogs’ updates are shown in one place. The third method is to subscribe to a blog as email. We will go through each method step-by-step, with a slight explanation about pros and cons.
Manual
Every time you want to read my blog, you can simply go to samstrasser.com and see what I have added since you were last there. You can do this from any computer (or phone) without any software, passwords, or external dependencies. This method also gives you access to all the features of the blog. You can comment, and you can follow along with my shared items on the right-hand side.
On the other hand, you have to manually go to my site and remember the last thing you read there. This can be particularly difficult if I post frequently or if you keep track of more than 1 or 2 blogs.
Feed Reader
A feed reader takes the posts from many blogs and compiles them all in one place. For example, I follow about 60 or 70 blogs on a day-to-day basis. There is no way for me to remember each one’s web address, or which articles I have read, or to skip a whole bunch at a time. So I use Google Reader to follow the blogs. It keeps track of which posts I have read, skipped or liked a lot, and I can share posts with friends who I think might be interested.
There is a fairly new and well-reviewed piece of open source software for the desktop which is very similar in functionality called RSS bandit. I would check it out if you are interested.
I will stick to the application I use though. There are several good tutorials for Google Reader. Here are three I found to be fairly simple and complete.
- http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/how-to-get-started-with-google-reader.html
- http://www.thespinningdonut.com/google-reader-an-introduction/
- Video tutorial: http://www.ehow.com/video_4431636_how-use-google-reader-intro.html
As usual, if you have any questions, contact me.
For many of my readers, a new site or application is the last thing they can handle. For them, there are maybe two or three blogs that they want ot follow, and want those blogs to be a part of their current daily routine. Everyone checks their email fairly regularly, so what better way than to send an email when a blog is updated?
For my blog, I have made email subscription easy. If you look to the top right, you will see a link that says subscribe by email. Click that link and it is pretty obvious from there.
The best way to do this is by using a service called RSS Fwd which takes the same RSS you would put into Google Reader, reads it for you, then emails you every time that RSS is updated.
So for example, to subscribe to my site, you would simply click on:
Subscribe to SamStrasser.com via email!
Got it? Let me know if you don’t
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