Blogging About Blogging

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Feed?

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• Author: The Blogsultant
• September 2, 2007
• Category: Do'in It, Hurdles, Tools

RSS Feed…what is it that scares so many away? You know who you are…you hear the term and maybe briefly recognize it as a “techie” word and then run in fear dismiss it, moving on through your list of blogs that you check every day. Once in awhile you notice that funny orange button with the white sound wave-looking things and maybe wonder what it all means, or maybe you think it’s just a neat design feature. Anyway… who has time to figure it out? You’re busy just trying to keep up with all the blogs you check every day and since trends on the internet come and go, you figure this one will “go” too.

But you know? There’s only so many hours in a day. Time Management matters. And there are a lot of quality sites out there…. wouldn’t it be nice to actually have a moment or two to go browse a few new ones? And if you discovered a new favorite, rather than add it to a cumbersome “favorites list”, what if new and updated material came to YOU rather than requiring you go and hunt around for it again?

When I first started asking this question, I turned first to Wiki…otherwise known, along with Google, as “the tool that keeps me from sounding stupid”. Don’t know something? It’s easy enough to go to Google and find the Wiki for an answer. And so, the day came when I typed in “RSS“.

This was only a partial solution. This particular Wiki is a bit cluttered. It made my eyes blur over the technobabble and history. But it answered a key question: “What do those letters stand for?” The answer? Real Simple Syndication. The persistent problem? This still didn’t make it feel relevant to my world. It did give me my next lead, the term, “feed reader”. Off to google I went.

Turns out there is a site for software called FeedReader. But I was still a neophyte who clung to the familiar. And oh-happy-day, google has a reader too. Not only do they have a reader, but they have a TOUR, in kind-to-beginners language and Real Simple Terms.

Baby steps. That’s what it felt like. My dark-and-stormy-night was now sans thunder and lightening and it looked like the rain was beginning to ease up a bit. I signed up, which gave me a reader home page.

Now I needed to go get some feeds!! This was FUN. I had about 25 blogs I already checked every day. True, true my internet connection is fast one but also true, true, it’s frustrating to visit sites every day that haven’t been updated. Now I clicked on the little orange button (or on the words RSS in their meta section) and it took me right to the google reader subscription page and signed me up.

I drug my reader page into my toolbar so it would be easy to one-click on it every day and then gushed about it (in Real Simple Terms) for a friend on my blog. Suddenly I had lots of extra time every morning because the updated blogs were highlighted and I didn’t waste time waiting for stagnant pages to load. This broadened my world because I devoted a little more time to reading and looking for new things. I could even argue that getting over Feed Fear was instrumental in starting my business. At any rate, a threshold had been broken…and it’s a whole new world.

Feeds are fantastic things. A subscribed reader will read ALL of your content. After they are hooked, your design may not matter much, where your ads are placed can be irrelevant, and your sidebar clutter becomes invisible. What matters most is that what you have to say is relevant and interesting. You’ve earned the most loyal kind of traffic there is but beware…it is not complicated to unsubscribe from a blog that no longer interests, compels, or posts. I would imagine this is kind of like Walmart though…once they have you in the store, they know you are most likely going to buy something. Unusual indeed is the shopper who leaves empty handed (ask me how I know).

And it’s wide world out there! Not only can posts be subscribed to but so can comments. You can offer email subscriptions to your feed. Feedburner has nifty ways to track your stats; as they put it, all the “izes”….publicize, optimize, analyze, and monetize. Yah, I know, new words and you aren’t quite sure how they work. Baby steps. But that scary storm is over and the sun is shining….. get going.

Tia Graham, blogsultant, builds, manages, and empowers business blogs that can help you generate income, improve publicity, and interact with your audience. See bloggingwithflair.com for more information.

Want more? Find out How To ToughenUp Online, Work Smarter, Not Harder, or subscribe to my feed!

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