Household 6 Diva : Army Wife, Busy Mom, Balance Seeker: What does "RSS Subscribe" mean?

When I first started blogging, I kept track of my favorite blogs in a sidebar Blogroll widget.

And then I started finding LOTS of lovely blogs...

and the Blogroll got longer and longer...

And then a friend of mine told me I could Subscribe to their RSS blog feed.

What is THAT?

Ok - its ok - I'll just google "RSS blog feed"....

yeeeaaahh... Wikipedia lost me...

"Really Simple Syndication"

ummm... what???

After much reading and questioning my dear friend Monica over at Daily Dwelling (she is just a wonderful teacher and SO patient!!), here is my simplified explanation I wish I'd had 6 months ago.

One way to describe a blog "feed" is it's the "information created" or "new posts" on a blog. For example: when someone clicks on this button in my sidebar, they can subscribe to Household 6 Diva's feed. You select your "reader" (I'll come back to that in a minute) and then whenever I publish a post, it will be sent to you. POOF. Magically collected in ONE place! Oh and FYI - Some blogs have multiple feeds, so be sure to subscribe to the "Full RSS" meaning you will get all the new posted information. (Found this out when I tried to subscribe to Pioneer Woman -- I was only getting photography posts for about a week...)

Sooooo... What is a "Reader"?

I have a yahoo account. I've had it for 10 years. So I added blogs to the "My Yahoo" page. Each blog has a little window, and whenever they update (something new is posted) it was visible in each window.

Recently I switched ~~dragging my feet kicking and screaming~~ over to gmail, which has its own reader. I WISH, I had done it sooner! The reader is organized all on one page, much like an email acct. I simply went to each of my favorite blogs, clicked subscribe, and selected Google. Some of them I had to right click on the Feed link, copy the link, and then paste it into my reader. My computer still thinks I want it sent to my Yahoo acct. (Anyone know how to fix this?) I guess my computer doesn't like change either... ahem... don't know where it gets that from...

If any of this totally freaks you out (because trying new things sometimes gives me goosebumps!) another option is to subscribe to blogs via email. Many blogs have either a text link (like in my signature), or a link button, or a form window you can type your email into - this will send blog updates or posts to your email inbox. (You can then set up a few folders with filters so all the new posts don't clutter your main inbox.)

Another way to keep track of your favorite blogs is on Facebook! Blogs who have created a Facebook Fanpage usually have a button like mine or a badge with the words "Become a Fan on Facebook". When you become a fan of a website or blog, the updates/new posts will show up on your "HOME" page in the live feed on Facebook. (So if Facebook is your primary social network, this might be your best option!) If you'd like to set up your own Facebook Fanpage, check out my Blogging page under "Grow your Blog" for a tutorial!

One of my favorite methods of staying up to date with my favorite blogs (and bloggers!) is through twitter! Much like facebook, this social media creates a wonderful venue to share your personality and your blog at the same time. I find there is more of a community atmosphere to twitter as you can "re-tweet" or re-post someone's comments thereby passing on great information and posts! For further explanations about twitter and how to use twitter, check out my Blogging page under "to Blog? or not to Blog".

Sometimes these buttons are called "Social Media Icons" or "Social Media Buttons". There are also various other methods of sharing/networking your information (Tumblr, Stumble, etc) but the four I explained here are the most common.

Oh and JUST so you know - I'm not a professional/techy type person...

This is just how I've come to understand what all these buttons mean...

SO if you have ANY questions or information to add, please leave me a comment or just email me

household6diva (at) gmail (dot) com

I'll be happy to try to help you follow your favorite blogs!