How To Subscribe To RSS Feeds Using A Newsfeed Reader

Why You'd Want To Subscribe To An RSS Feed
In this day & age, most people visit a LOT of websites on a regular basis. It's nearly impossible to keep them all straight, let alone to remember to check each and every one of them each and every day!

Yet, if they're really your favorite sites, then you will WANT to be kept in the loop of what's going on at those sites. Most importantly: You want to know whenever they've added a new article on the site.

RSS Feeds eliminate your need to "remember" to check all of your favorite websites.

The best part: Even if you're a brand-spanking new computer user and things like HTML and downloading software intimidate you, this will be a breeze... There's no HTML required, and nothing to download!

What You'll See When You Subscribe To An RSS Feed:

• A headline (for 1-10 of the most recent articles at any given website)


• A brief description under each headline (which describes what each article is about)


• A link (so you can click and go directly to the titles that interest you most)

Where You'll See It:
---> On one single page within the newsfeed reader of your choice! (see below)

A newsfeed reader simply compiles all of the above info from your favorite sites that have enabled RSS (such as blogs and other sites with content that changes regularly) and streams them for you all on one page.

The first thing you need to do is to select a newsfeed reader...

Free RSS News Readers To Consider
These rank among the best RSS readers:

• Amphetadesk (seen here)
• News Gator (multi-featured)
• News Monster (seen here)
• Bloglines (fairly easy)
• NewzCrawler (seen here)
• Firefox ("live bookmarks" seen here)
• my.Yahoo (my personal favorite -- great for beginners)

YAHOO BONUS: If you have a free Yahoo e-mail account, then you also have access to a free MyYahoo homepage. With MyYahoo, the process of subscribing to RSS feeds is even easier because you've got a built-in news reader/aggregator... Simply copy the URL of the RSS feed you wish to subscribe to in MyYahoo ("Add Content" - then "Add RSS by URL") ...and the news feed is immediately added to your MyYahoo homepage!

Where To Find The RSS Feeds For Different Websites
Once you've settled on a news reader, then go to your favorite websites and look for the following: XML, RSS or Atom somewhere on the page. Sometimes it's hidden under the phrase "Syndicate This Site".

Here are examples of RSS feeds from...

...CNN
...the New York Times
...USA Today
...Reuters
...U.S. Government

Then, there are catch-all sites which feature RSS feeds for virtually every topic under the sun -- like Topix (pick a category, then you'll see the XML button).

Here are the Top 100 most subscribed to RSS Feeds.

In addition to major news & information sites like these, just about every website on the Internet today has an RSS feed. Many provide RSS feeds for the headlines from particular sub-categories within their site, while most simply provide the feed for their main homepage headlines.

How To Subscribe To An RSS Feed
When you click on the RSS button/link, you will see a bunch of jibberish... Don't worry, it only makes sense to RSS news reader programs. All you're interested in is the URL address up at the top. Copy that http address and then paste it into your RSS news reader.

Exactly where you'll paste the URL varies from newsreader to news
reader, but generally it's under "Add a Site" or "Subscribe" or something like that.

Then, as often as you wish, you can check the newsfeed reader for new
articles which have been posted to your favorite websites.

Many check their RSS newsreader as often as they check e-mail. Others
simply check the newsreader once a day.

YAHOO BONUS: If you use MyYahoo (and you have tabbed browsing -- like with Mozilla's Firefox or Maxthon's MyIE), then your RSS feeds are at your fingertips the entire time you're at the computer -- and a simple "refresh" shows the very latest articles for all your favorite sites at any given time.