About RSS Feeds
Many people who read several blogs find that it is easier to keep up with new blog postings through programs known as RSS feeds. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication; and it is easy!
If you only read one or two blogs, RSS feeds may not save you much time. But if you follow more than a couple of blogs, you may want to consider subscribing to an RSS feed. An RSS feed lets you keep up with new postings on all the blogs that interest you, but you do not have to go to each separate blog site every time you want to see what's new. And, because you control when you look at your RSS feed, you won't clutter your in-box with email notifications about every new posting.
This post provides step-by-step instructions for subscribing to an RSS feed for Rural Matters.
1. Choose a Feed Reader. The first thing that you will need to do is choose a feed reader. A feed reader is a program that goes to the blog's RSS feed and grabs new postings to the blog. The feed reader holds them until you open the feed reader and read the new posts. In this way, you only open your feed reader when you are ready, and you don't have to go to each blog separately to keep up. There are a number of good FREE feed readers available. Some are computer-based. Some are internet-based. Some popular feed readers are BLOGLINES, My Yahoo!, NewsGator, Google Reader, My Aol, and many others. To learn more about each feed reader and decide which one is right for you, just run an internet search on feed readers or on any of the popular readers listed here.
For more information on feed readers, click the button: [What is RSS?] on the right side bar of the main Rural Matters page.
2. Review the features of your feed reader. Most feed readers give the user options about how to use the reader. For example, some readers allow the user to set the intervals at which the feed reader grabs new postings from blogs--hourly, daily, etc. Make sure you know whether your reader is based in your computer or is internet-based. If it is internet-based, you may wish to bookmark it, so that you can find it easily when you are ready to read new blog posts. Make sure that you know the terms of use for your reader.
3. Subscribe the blogs that interest you to your feed reader. You want your feed reader to go only to the blogs that interest you. The process of telling your feed reader which blogs to grab new postings from is called "subscribing." Most feed readers provide several options for subscribing blogs. Many simply require you to enter the URL (the internet address) of the blog or blogs that you wish to subscribe. Follow instructions for your feed reader and customize it as much as you wish. Some feed readers include some blogs or news sites that are already subscribed; in most cases you can remove any that do not interest you.
4. Subscribe Rural Matters. In order to find the appropriate URL for Rural Matters, (after you have chosen your feed reader), click the button, “Subscribe to this blog’s feed,” located on the right side bar of the Rural Matters main page. Please note: You will see HTML code in the body of the link. That’s okay and you can ignore the code that appears on your screen. What you want to do is put the URL from the address bar into your feed reader. You can do this simply by highlighting the URL and then pasting it into your feed reader in the appropriate place. If you follow this process, your feed reader will capture all new blog posts on Rural Matters. Most feed readers only capture comments on NEW blog posts. If you wish to follow a comment stream from an older post, you will probably need to find the particular blog post in your feed reader or on Rural Matters.
5. Topical Feeds. Rural Matters provides you the option of receiving RSS feeds only from the topics that are of particular interest to you. For example, you could choose to receive RSS feeds for the topics "Facilities" and "School Funding and Finance," but not NCLB. To subscribe to RSS for the specific topics that interest you, go to the list of topics on the RIGHT side bar in the RSS section of this blog and click on the one that interests you. Here again you will see HTML code in the window when you click the link. Ignore that code and enter the URL into your feed reader. Repeat this process until you have the specific topics that you want. Please note: if you want your feed reader to receive all new blog postings to Rural Matters, it is not necessary to enter each topic separately. Instead, click the line "Subscribe to this blog's feed," and enter that URL in your feed reader--in that way you will get all new postings to Rural Matters, regardless of topical category.
6. Visit your feed reader whenever you wish to see what's new on Rural Matters. When new entries on posted on Rural Matters, your feed reader will capture them. When there are no new posts, your feed reader will include no new material.