Subscribing by RSS

Since I am going to be switching to a WordPress blog very soon, I thought I would show you an easy way to subscribe to your favorite blogs (and sites) that don’t have Google Connect. Sure you can subscribe by email, but you can also subscribe by RSS.

Did you ever wonder what this little symbol meant? Or maybe you knew what it meant, but not how to use it. Well, you can wonder no more because I am going to show you how to subscribe to RSS with Google Reader.

Yes, that little symbol stands for RSS feed. Any site that has this means you can subscribe to there posts and feed through another means so you can keep up with their content and site. Most people use a reader to keep and organize all the feeds they are subscribed to. I don’t know much about any of the other readers, but google reader is the most popular and (I think) easiest to use.

So how do you use google reader to keep up with all your favorite blogs? Here it is in 6 easy steps!

1. Sign up for a google account.
This is different than a gmail account. Although you can use your gmail account with google reader if you want. If you do not have a gmail account then you can sign up with any email. For example my google reader and blog stuff is all under my palmtreegirl24(at)yahoo(dot)com email. If you don’t already have a google or gmail account you can click google.com/reader and sign up

2. Sign into your reader.
This part is pretty explanatory. Go to google.com/reader and sign in. I keep my info saved so I don’t have to sign in every time. I also keep a window with my reader open most of the day so I can read blogs when I have time.

3. Add blogs and websites.
When you are signed into google reader, at the top of the page in the left-hand corner there is a button that says “Add a Subscription” (see photo below for example). You can manually enter the web address there or you can do it from the site or blog by hitting the button with the RSS symbol on it. After hitting that button you will then be asked what you want to subscribe with. Pick google reader and it will be added to your subscriptions.

5. Organize and categorize 
As you can see from the picture below, I have all my blog and website subscriptions organized into categories. You can do the same, by clicking on “manage subscriptions” in the left bottom corner (it’s not shown on the picture below). The cool thing is you can read them in order by the most recent (as shown below) or you can read by category. The numbers show you how many new posts in each category. You can also click on the posts and be taken to the site to comment or read further.

6. Read and check often!
The only next step is to read, read, read! And don’t forget to click and comment! This is a really great way to keep up with your favorite sites and blogs. It’s easy, and it’s organized too! Have fun!

Click to see larger picture.