In the 2008 State of the Blogosphere, Technorati estimated that bloggers are "creating close to one million posts every day." The report also mentions that "77% of active Internet users read blogs" which represents more than 350 million people worldwide.

So how do you reach this huge pool of potential readers? Writing quality content with great SEO is certainly a big part of the equation, but there's also something really simple ... Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

What Is RSS?

Wikipedia defines RSS as "a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video."

People subscribe to RSS feeds via feed readers or aggregators, which lets them read the content online, offline or on mobile devices. Think of it as a way to filter the immense volume of digital content into just the items that you want to see.

Still a little unclear? This video from Lee LeFever at CommonCraft explains RSS in Plain English.

Syndicate Your RSS Feed

Ready to get your ActiveRain blog the attention it deserves? First, let's find your RSS feed address. Look at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar of your blog, just below the Archives, and you'll see the RSS 2.0 button that looks like this:

Click that button and the address for your RSS feed will show in your browser's address bar. For example, my feed address is http://activerain.com/blogs/jnovak/rss.

Now it's time to get the word out! Here's a list of over 200 blog and RSS syndication sites from TopRank® Blog. Think of each one of these as a 'virtual open house sign' for your blog. A few minutes of your time to add your site to these directories could lead to your next big client!

Using Really Simple Syndication is one the fastest, easiest, and most effective ways to leverage technology to build readership for your blog. For all of the time and effort that you put into researching and writing quality posts, you deserve to have a loyal, worldwide audience. Over 350 million people are hungry for great web content. Feed them with RSS!

About the Feed Me! fox: I first learned about the this collection of RSS icons in this post from Rita Burke. If you'd like even more options, here's a list of 1500+ RSS icons from Creative Nerds. Before using any of these on your blog, be sure the creator of the icons allows commercial use.