InteractiveWoo

Watch this video first: “RSS in Plain English”

What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of new content on their favorite websites. In the old days of the web to keep track of updates on a website you had to “bookmark” websites in your browser and manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added. RSS flips things around a little and is a technology that provides you with a method of “subscribing to” new and relevant information (feeds) that is sent to an “aggregator” of your choice, for you to read in your own time. It saves you time and helps you to get the information you want quickly after it was published. As a blogger, allowing your readers to subscribe to your content via RSS helps build longer viewership and lasting relationships.

Is there a way to track who is subscribing to your feed or content?

Yes. Feedburner is the most popular free tool that provides statistics on who is reading your blog through RSS feeds. The Google company also allows readers to subscribe to new content via email updates (important if your reader has not been introduced to RSS yet).

Aggregators or Readers

I recommend Google Reader (google.com/reader) and Bloglines (bloglines.com) as aggregators of RSS feeds. If you like other readers, please feel free to include them in the comments.

If you want more content like this delivered to you, get free Email Updates or subscribe via RSS