Blog Reading for Un-Dummies

It would take me hours and hours if I had them all saved as bookmarks and had to hit each site to read what was new.  So when I find a blog I like, I subscribe to it's RSS feed.

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication.  It has it's own cute little international symbols too.

Some even have color coordinated versions like this:

Most every blog also provides an RSS Feed.  How all this works is unimportant.  What you do with that feed is the important part.  You are going to want to send that feed to your Feed Reader.

I've tried a couple of different Feed Readers.  I started with my iGoogle home page.  That worked great for a while.  Then I .  In the interest of science I also tested the aptly named Bloglines, Feedreader, and SharpReader.  Then I tried Internet Explorer's own built in Feed Reader (you did you know IE had that, right?) I tried them all and settle on using the  Google Reader .

A Feed Reader, properly setup, can drastically reduce the workload of reading all these blogs.  I prefer to separate the various feeds into sections.  I'll read the most important sections first then as time permits move on to other less critical sections.

Once I have a section open, I'll skim each post quickly.  Dustin described his daily read of 421 subscriptions in a recent post.  He uses the Google Feed Reader too.  He showed the shortcut I like best - "J".  Using this approach I quickly go onto the next post inline marking that last post as "READ".

In reading Dustin's post I was struck by the fact he has 421 subscriptions.  I'd like to know who in the heck he is subscribed to...  EVERYONE?   The other day, I was talking to a local real estate agent.  He is new to the blogging phenom.  He wanted to know who I was reading.  I sent him an email containing the URLs of a couple of blogs I like.  Then I walked him through the way I grab the Feeds and send them to my Feed Reader. 

Today the light bulb went off.  There is an easier way to share my 116 subscriptions.  It's called the .xml file or more specifically my OPML.  Don't worry about that geek stuff, I'm going to make this really simple.

Here's a link to my daily blog subscriptions: LINK

Don't click on that!  It'll open up a window and just show you the html.  Instead,

• Right click on it and save the file to a folder on your computer.
• Now open your Feed Reader of choice.  

I'll use I.E. as for this example.

1. Under FILE > Import / Export - this will open up the Import Wizard.
2. NEXT > Import Feeds
3. Choose "Import from a file" and browse to find the file you just saved.  It'll look like this "mikes-favorite-reader-subscriptions.xml" > NEXT
4. Save it in the folder called Feeds. > NEXT
5. Congratulations!  You now have every feed I have - in your very own Feed Reader!

If you are not seeing the feeds make sure you are looking in the right place.  Click on the Big Yellow Star (Favorites) and make sure the "Feeds" button is selected.

So there's my 116 favorite Blogs.  Now that you have your very own feed reader setup and working you can subscribe to all your favorites here in ActiveRain and get them all in one place.  To comment you'll still need to visit the site but your feed reader makes that easy.  Just click on the title of the post and you'll be transported directly to the real post.  Cool, eh?

They say, "Sharing is Caring". Dustin, Todd, and some of you techie types know how to do this - Let's see yours!