Help on Subscribing
Subscribe? What does that mean??
Many sites now allow you to subscribe to their content. This simple technology allows you to use software called a ‘feed reader’ or ‘aggregator’ to read content from sites instead of visiting the site itself. Don’t be put off by the acronyms like XML or RSS - this is genuinely easy to do.
Why would I want to do it?
If you like to keep up to date with a number of sites, you can now do so more easily with a feed reader. You no longer have to go from site to site checking for new content. This technology allows you to keep up to date with the content from a large number of sites. Using a feed reader you can subscribe to a site’s content, so you’ll know as soon as there’s anything new.
OK, so how do I do all this?
Probably the easiest way, if you use Google, MSN or Yahoo regularly, is to customize your homepage with them (called ‘personalized home’, or ‘myyahoo’ etc). Then whenever you open the google homepage, there’s a list of all your favourite websites or blogs which have fresh content. Alternatively, you can use a feed reader, or ‘aggregator’. You can install a feed reader on your computer so that you have access to it on your desktop, or if you prefer you can use an online feed reader like ‘newsgator‘.
The following three feed readers are also popular:
FeedDemon for Windows
NetNewsWire for Mac OS X
Bloglines which is Web based
Wikipedia has a list of news aggregators if you would like to explore some more options.
With most feed readers, if you enter a website address, the reader will attempt to discover where that site’s feed is and subscribe you to it. If the feed reader cannot find the feed you will have to enter the feed manually.
How do I know where a site’s feed is?
A lot of sites include a text link or button which leads to their feed. The trouble is there are many different names and acronyms in use to alert you to a site’s feed. This is partly to do with the different technologies being used to offer feeds, but we won’t worry about that now. The fact is you have probably seen these links or buttons but you may not have known what they were. A common button is a small orange button with white writing on it which might say one of the following:
RSS
XML
Webfeed
Feed
Subscribe
These buttons are usually links to the url (web address) of the feed for that site or blog. That is the url you need to give to your ‘feed reader’ or ‘aggregator’ in order to subscribe.
That’s it?
Well, in a nutshell, yes:
1. Choose a feed reader
2. Tell your feed reader where the feeds you like are
3. Read all your favourite sites in one fell swoop
These are the basics, if you don’t feel comfortable with the concepts yet, have a look at these:
What is RSS - RSS explained
About.com’s Top 10 Windows RSS Feed Readers / News Aggregator
So where is the feed for this site?
The feed for this site is at:
http://www.brighteyecounselling/alcohol-drugs/feed/rss/
