Let’s take a break today from niche network marketing.  It’s been fun and I’ll continue this topic again next week.

Here’s a little tip for you on how to subscribe to blogs.

Got a blog you really like? Well did you know that you can subscribe to it!?

ALL Blog’s have something called a newsfeed or rss feed. (learn more about rss feeds at wikipedia)

Often you’ll see an icon like the one to the right. It won’t always look like the icon but this is the new standard icon so more and more blogs will have an icon like this, or maybe one that says something XML.

If you click on that you’ll see a bunch of gobbledygook.  That’s techy stuff.  It’s called XML and what it does is it allows you to get updates everytime a blog is updated WITHOUT having to visit the web site.

Let me repeat that.  You can subscribe to a blog and never have to go back to the blog again.  Every time it is updated you’ll get the latest  updates.

Pretty cool right?  You can even use services like bloglines which are web sites that allow you to subscribe to a bunch of blogs and get all your updates in one place.

So one of the reasons I suggest YOU start a blog is that YOU can build a big subscriber base.  That’s why blogs are more powerful than regular web sites.  If I bookmark your regular web site I have to go back to visit your site over and over.  However if you subscribe to a blog’s rss feed you can get updates without actually visiting the blog.

So here’s a tip for you.  There is a cool free newsreader.  It is called Sharpreader.  It is software that you install on your computer.  You then put in your favorite blogs and it automatically keeps track of all your favorites for you.  You don’t have to go visit them every day it will download the updates for you.

Sharpreader is an awesome little software package that you can download and install on your Windows PC for free. (looking for a paid software with customer support? Try Feeddemon.)

Basically you go to your favorite blogs (or you can use their software to search for blogs on particular topics.)  Then you subscribe to the blog.  To do that simply find that rss icon like the one above.  Right click on it with your mouse.  Then “save link” or “save link as” or “copy link location”.  That’s going to copy the address of their rss feed.  Then you simply paste that into Sharpreader or Feeddemon.  Feeddemon since it is paid software doesn’t even need the rss feed. It just needs the address of the blog and it is smart enough to find the rss feed for you!

Wha-la!

Now you’re subscribed to the blog’s newsfeed.  Next time the author posts to the blog you’ll be notified and your Sharpreader or Feeddemon will download the new article for you.

So that’s how you can subscribe to blogs and save yourself a lot of time.  You don’t have to check all the blogs for updates you can simply read them in your newsreader.  If the blog hasn’t been updated you don’t have to waste any time “checking” for updates.

Got questions?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

- Ben Fitts

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