I don’t know jack when it comes to RSS feeds. All I know is that it’s possible to subscribe to a feed which allows a subscriber to view the new content in a reader. Since I’ve only ever dealt with the BBC Feed built into Firefox, I have little idea of how to set my own feed up. So, I’ll write a little tutorial as I go. We’ll learn something together.
Let’s start out with what a feed is. According to wikipedia, feeding is syndication; a reader can subscribe to a blog or news services. Reading is either done through a dedicated feed reader. Firefox also has the ability to subscribe in the toolbar, acting like a continually updating bookmark. Consider a feed a newsflash or instant notification of new content.
Even though Wordpress, my blog engine, contains built in feeds, it does not have the ability to keep track of statistics associated with subscriptions. Feedburner solves that problem. After signing up with Feedburner, I told them the web address (URL) of the Wordpress feed. Feedburner then generated a whole new address for me, which is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/pchelprequest/GUJm Now subscribing is easy and you can see on the sidebar my subscription button: the orange RSS icon.
Well, it turned out to be easier than I thought. Thank goodness. So, go ahead and subscribe to my feed. Use Firefox, Google Reader, Live! reader, or whatever your choice is.
Thanks Wikipedia and Feedburner!
