Have you ever wished you could get the most up to date information from several of your favorite websites, all in one place? With RSS, websites are able to publish their content in a standardized format which can be delivered into one place through RSS readers. The benefit to readers: many sources of information condensed into one location.
RSS readers come in many formats, from software you can use on your local machine, to online based readers. For those of who travel from one machine to the next between work and home, it makes the most amount of sense to use an online based RSS reader. My choice has been Google Reader. Because I have a Google account, I can access my RSS reader, Gmail, Adsense, Calendar, and other Google products all with one login.
When it comes down to it, one of the primary reasons blogs exist is to gain readership. There are many obvious reasons why a blogger wants to bring in visitors: to share information, to build a community, to make money, and so on. Once the visitor is on their site, most bloggers want to make sure they coming back for more.
But what happens when the number of subscribers starts to drop? A few readers here and there may remain unnoticed on sites with 10,000+ subscribers, but on small to medium sites, a drop of five to ten subscribers can feel like a major setback.
One thing I have noticed in my first few months of blogging is that I receive a lot of feedback, in terms of commenting, bookmarking, and subscribing, from people who also blog. But not so much from people I know in real life who do not. The more information provided to visitors about the features of your website, the better response you will receive from them.
