What is RSS?
You may see the three letters “RSS” on many websites and wonder, “What is RSS?” Well, I hope I can shed some light on it for the people that are new to it. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. That probably doesn’t clear up anything, so I’ll try to explain it in more detail. RSS content can be read in a feed reader, such as Google Reader. It is much like the way you read email. When you read a feed item, it is marked read. You are also notified of new items in your feed reader just like you would be with email.

How do I start subscribing to RSS?
Well, I’d start by signing up for a Google Reader account. If you already have an account on some other Google service, such as GMail or Google Docs, then you already have a Google Reader account so you just need to log in. Once you are signed up with Google Reader, you can then start subscribing to RSS feeds. Take for example my feed. If you click on the “Subscribe to JJJunk via RSS” link over in my sidebar, it will take you to my RSS feed page. At the very top of the page it will say “Subscribe to this feed using” and it will have a drop down list where you can select the feed reader that you use. If you signed up for a Google Reader account, then you can just select Google from the drop down list. Now, Google might ask you whether you want to add the feed to your iGoogle page or to Google Reader. If it does ask that, then for the purposes of this tutorial choose Google Reader.

Congratulations! You are now subscribed to my RSS feed. Whenever you want to check my new posts, you can just login to your Google Reader account and see the what new things I’ve written. An RSS reader really comes in handy when you subscribe to multiple RSS feeds. There are many other blogs out there, and you can most likely subscribe to any one of them via RSS. That way you can check all of your subscriptions in one place.

Now, of course I want you to still visit my website and comment on my articles every once and a while, but subscribing to my RSS feed is there for your convenience. If you have any questions about the process mentioned above, please don’t hesitate to send me an email!