Keeping Up with the Blogs

I finally get it! I may not understand it completely, but I get it!

Did you know that when you publish a blog, you automatically have a feed? You are syndicated!

I bet you've heard of RSS (RSS - Rich Site Summary. Check out this quick explanation of RSS. It's actually in plain English!), Feedburner, Bloglines, Stumble, Digg, and Technorati, to name a few. I have a Technorati account, but I don't use it much.

What I have found that is going to benefit me so much more is Bloglines! I've checked into Feedburner, too, and I'm sure it's great, but I chose Bloglines before I knew about Feedburner, just like I chose Blogger before I knew that Wordpress or Typepad existed, so I'm going to stick with it.

Bloglines, like Feedburner, is a web-based aggregated feed reader used for reading and browsing syndicated news or weblog feeds. Fancy definition. Let me simplify for those of you who are just getting in the game like me.

What is Bloglines doing for me? I have had my account set up for a while, and I had a few blogs listed in my feeds, but what I didn't realize is that you can add ANY blog or website, not just those that have the RSS, Feed, Atom, or Subscribe button. Any blog! That means all of you! Yes! I can finally keep up with all of your new posts (you can even add yourself).

I can go to Bloglines (from any computer with Internet access) and it will show me my feeds (the websites I have subscribed to or added manually) and it will show me any new posts from each site. If I want to comment, I just click the link and go directly to that site. It is so cool!

You can view your subscriptions, modify your display preferences, search, share, and even receive email notifications.

You don't have to know html or any type of code. It's just like putting a button on your blog. You copy the code from Bloglines, and there you have a subscribe button on your blog.

It's free! I don't like to pay for things I don't have to pay for, and it is absolutely free! And no, I'm not getting paid to write this (but they should pay me, don't you think?)

I'm sure some of you are saying, "Duh! You're just now using this?" I'm catching up with technology as fast as I can, and I bet some of you are saying, "Sign me up, too!" I am so excited that I can go to ONE website and see ALL of my blogs and websites that I like to keep up with and any new posts that they have. No more spending unnecessary time clicking over to see if there's anything new. Bloglines tells me all in one place! (Just in case you don't know, I am "all about" anything that helps me stay organized and productive.)