A primer in RSS and Podcasts

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It seems de rigeur for almost every blog to have a “What is RSS” post, and I intend to be no different

What is RSS?

RSS stands for “Real Simple Syndication”. RSS is a technology that allows you to “subscribe” to a series of posts or entries on a website that interests you. This blog has an RSS “feed” as well.

If you like the content here, instead of checking back to see if the website has been updated you can have any updates automatically sent to your “feedreader” software such as Feedreader, RSS Reader or Google Reader. (These are all free.)

How do you access an RSS Feed?

First you need feedreader software (see above). Then you need to enter the name of the feed you want to get into your feedreader software.

For example, to subscribe to this blog, you would click on the link in the navigation bar, “Grab my RSS feed”.

You’ll be taken to a page with lots of options, but the simplest way to subscribe is just to copy the URL you see in your browser right into your feedreader program. In other words, copy this text into your feedreader program:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MarketingResultsBlog

Now whenever this blog is updated, the content will be sent directly to your feedreader. If you get sick of the content, just delete my feed address.

What are the advantages of RSS?

When I first started reading blogs, I wondered what the advantages of RSS were. Can’t you just check back at the websites you like to see if an update has been made? It only takes a second.

Well, you can do that - especially if you only follow a few blogs. But after a while you might find that you want to follow 10, 20 or even 100 RSS feeds, and some might only be updated infrequently. RSS plus your feedreader allows you to keep track of a number of information sources quickly and easily, saving you time and ensuring you don’t miss anything.

What is a Podcast?

A Podcast is an audio file (or series of audio files) that has been syndicated via RSS. Whenever a new audio file is posted, a notification will appear in your feedreader and you can choose whether or not to download the audio file.

Podcasts are a great way to access information quickly and easily, and they’re also a great way to communicate with your target audience if you’re in business.

That concludes my brief post about RSS. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

Will Swayne

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