“What the heck does RSS mean?”

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication; it’s a now-insanely-popular way of distributing and collecting blog posts.

“So what? I’m not a geek or high-tech kinda guy/gal. What can RSS do for me?”

It can simplify your life by delivering the blogs that interest you to your doorstep — just like the neighborhood newspaperboy. (Only it won’t toss them in your petunias and wreck your garden.)

The RSS reader I use is called Bloglines. If you’ve used iTunes, Bloglines is a lot like that, only for blogs instead of songs. Once you create your own Bloglines account (it’s free at www.bloglines.com), you simply add whatever blogs you like to your personal collection of “feeds.” Bloglines will keep track of whatever blogs you specify, and collect new posts every time they show up. When you want to see what’s new, you just log into your Bloglines account, and it has conveniently collected all the stuff you want to read and laid it out for you.

Think of it as a really good butler who brings you your blog posts every morning. (You have to get your own coffee.)

There are literally thousands of blogs. Who has time? Nobody. But there are probably three or four really fascinating ones that YOU would love to read every day, or every few days. And you can UNsubscribe any time you want, too. Here are just three among the half-dozen I keep in my bloglines:

Seth Godin’s blog – Fascinating insights into marketing and the way ideas spread.

Neil Gaiman’s blog – The amazing novelist keeps one of the most popular blogs on the planet.

The “TED” blog – The world’s leading opinion-leaders on the state of the world and the future.

It’s a whole lot more interesting than watching network news or reading the paper!

JDM

P.S. If you have any difficulties figuring this out or getting it to work for you, let me know, and I’ll do my best to help. It’s worth it — there are some excellent blogs out there.

P.P.S. And check out this treasure trove of explanation and clarity on how to set up RSS, from the RSSmeister himself, Seth Godin.