In my last post, I encouraged you to “give in” to Google….. start embracing their services.
Here’s a great YouTube video about how Google’s mapping tool can improve your existence.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPgV6-gnQaE[/youtube]
Blog
How To Subscribe to a Blog’s RSS feed using Google….
This tutorial was written on January 29, 2008. It seems like yesterday but five years later – in 2013- Google announced they will no longer be supporting either the Google Reader nor iGoogle .
It’s important to note – RSS is not dead. Read more about it here.
Writing instructions on how to subscribe to an RSS feed is kind of like writing instructions on telling you how to get a life mate. I’m most familiar with my own experience, which may or may not be “right” for you and your situation. In other words…there are MANY different ways to subscribe to RSS feeds but for this post, I’ll cover my favorite way to subscribe which is by using iGoogle.
iGoogle used to be known as your “personalized home page”. If you’re already a user of Google services (such as gmail) then you too can have an iGoogle or personalized home page.
Stuart Maxwell and Rowan Simpson have both helped to remind me that not EVERYONE uses the Firefox web browser. You probably need to know that I am using the latest version of the Firefox browser . According to Life Hack’s post on how to get started with the Google Reader, MSIE 7+ also supports the Google Reader.
Below, I’ll share screenshots with you. To see the screen shot, just click on the image and it will open in a new window.
Here’s a screen shot in Internet Explore when you are not signed into your iGoogle account:
Notice the blue arrow is pointing to the text which is inviting you to JOIN the Google family. (It’s a lot like Invasion of the Body Snatchers…. just relax and go along with it. Donald Sutherland was much more miserable than the assimilated masses in the 1978 version of the movie.)
In Fire Fox, it’s much more sublte:
Click on the “iGoogle” link and you’ll see a similar screen to the one displayed in MSIE. Follow the instructions. Once you’ve been properly assimilated into the Google machine… it will be EASY to add RSS feeds, along with lots of Productivity Modules (thanks Mashable) to your iGoogle page! No thinking OR emotion is required!
Here’s a screen shot of my iGoogle page. On my page, I have selected several modules including my gmail account, the dictionary word of the day, the weather, my horoscope and some news sites. You can easily drag and drop each module to a place where it suits YOU and your preferences.
Micheal Sync has a post on the screen shots of the six different “themes” available to you to customize your iGoogle page . I’ve chosen the “bus stop” theme for this iGoogle page. (Ok, I have more than one.)
NOW that I have my iGoogle home page set up, I’m ready to easily subscribe to an RSS feed.
Here’s an interesting blog called The Thriving Writer.
See where the blue arrow is pointing? To the image in the address bar that looks like this, except tiny?
Click on that image…right there in the address bar. This symbols tells you that THIS site wants to stay in touch with you and offers an RSS feed!!! When you click on the image, you’ll see a screen like this:
This is the page that appears. See the arrow? It’s giving you a choice as to what tool you want to use to subscribe to this feed. The “default” here is Google which is good, because I’m basically lazy and love to pursue the softer easier way! The fewer clicks in my life the better… so I can just click the “subscribe now” button to proceed.
By the way, in the white box below “previews” what the feed looks like.
By clicking the “Subscribe Now” button, I’ll get this page:
I am offered a choice. I can add this “feed” to my iGoogle, so every time I log on, I see what’s new on the blogs and web sites I want to follow OR I can use my gmail account and get this information via email. I am choosing to add this page to my iGoogle, so I choose “Add to my Google homepage”. (Remember, not everyone chooses that option. If they choose email, they’ll get an EMAIL every time you update… which is why some people unsubscribe from feeds that post more than once per day!)
When I click on that choice, I am taken to my NEW iGoogle page where you’ll see an arrow pointing to my latest RSS feed
And THAT is how EASY it is to subscribe to an RSS Feed.
Andy Beard and I explored the subject of RSS feeds briefly and from my observation and Andy’s feedback, your RSS subscribers don’t have to share as deep a level of “trust” with you in order to subscribe to your feed. As you can see, I easily subscribed to the blog owner’s feed and unlike a traditional email newsletter subscription, she probably has no idea I did so. I didn’t have to share my email address with her and in order to “unsubscribe” from this feed, I merely click the little “x” in the corner of the box. VIOLA! I’ve unsubscribed with even less effort than it took to subscribe.
The lesson here is, act like everyone is an RSS subscriber. They’ll get bored easily if you don’t update your blog often. They’ll also get annoyed if you update TOO often. All they see is the titles of your blog posts, so make those winners every time!
And THAT is how to Subscribe to a blog’s RSS feed using Google.
The trouble with sanitized content…. or how BOLD can beautiful!
Let’s face facts… success either on the web or in business doesn’t come easily to the meek or the mild. Whether it’s blogging or writing marketing content…. bold is not only beautiful, it’s essential.
Take for example, the experience of a client of mine. This client had been “sanitizing” her blog posts… after all, the purpose of the blog is to ATTRACT potential clients to her practice…. so she HAD to make certain her posts weren’t offensive. However, one day last week… she “snapped”. She began writing from the heart and as a result, produced a very “unsanitary” post… and followed it with another…. and another! Once she started, it seems she couldn’t stop!
Turns out, that was a GOOD thing!
The results were immediately evident. Traffic rose sharply as did comments to her “unsanitary” posts. Some of the comments were positive, some negative but the point is… she had motivated her readers to take action by taking off the kidskin gloves and “getting real”.
Whether it’s a blog post or a radio ad, being bold is a great way to break out of the ever growing pack of the mundane. However, I don’t recommend being belligerent merely for the sake of being belligerent.
BOLD is different than belligerent. Bold is daring to stand up for what you think… while belligerent is merely picking a fight.
I passed on being bold the other day. I came across a blog post that was extolling the virtues of a certain plug in for Word Press from Microsoft that required disabling a popular Google Sitemap generator plug in. The comments on the blog were, “Hey! Great advice!” and “Thanks for letting me know!” Meanwhile, the voice in my head is screaming…. “YOU WHAT?!?! YOU DISABLED A PLUG IN THAT AUTOMATICALLY CREATES AN XML SITE MAP FOR YOUR BLOG FOR SOME GARBAGE FROM MICROSOFT?!?!?”
I should have been bold. I should have been daring and I could have done so without being belligerent. I missed an opportunity to attract more readers to my blog had I done so. Instead… I put my head down and got back to work. My opportunity to be bold passed as quickly as it presented itself. The opportunity to remain a part of the ” crowd of the mundane” is relentlessly persistent.
Liz Strauss would NOT be proud!
io9.com created 700 posts before launch….
Just an FYI for my blogging clients… Wired News has a story on a new blog that launched today…. Io9.com
Annalee Newitz is quoted as saying:
“For blogland, it was a long process; we (first) started talking (about the idea) in March, and got serious a few months later. We’ve been full-board blogging for three months, which is why there are more than 700 posts on the site already.”
I’ve had more than a few clients flip out when I tell them that in my experience, it takes over 100 posts for your blog to “find” it’s voice… and that you can’t expect your blog to do well BEFORE you’ve found your voice.
So often, new blog site owners want the instant “rush” of success. But it takes time. Gawker Media (who launched io9.com) knows that you don’t send invitations out to see a blog with few if any posts. Annalee admits in the Wired article:
“At first, I was like, “We should go live right now,” and now I’m actually glad that we waited and honed the posts. “
As you blog along keeping in mind the magic 100 number, keep in mind that io9.com had posted 700 posts before they launched. Now, I’m going to have to keep track of my blog posting numbers and see if there’s even more magic down the road!
If I knew then what I know now….
The first day of the year is a great time to reflect upon the past and plan for the future.
Cory on the “Internet Wonders” blog writes…
If we had only known that niche marketing would become so infectiously popular, then we would have concentrated on this approach rather than waste time with MLM. If only we had known that Google was going to shift algorithms and AdWords would establish new rules, we could have…
Cory’s right to admonish the reader (as well as himself) to stop right there.
It’s hard to predict what the , though many try to do just that. Usually, good predictions are remembered while the bad just seem to fade away!
Ten years ago, things were quite different on the web than they are today. Web sites were almost universally coded in HTML. Connections were slow…. interactivity was minimal… and if you wanted to watch a video, you’d click on a link to download it to your PC and then go to bed. If you were lucky, when you woke up 8 hours later, the download MIGHT be finished.
Today, the internet is filled with web sites trying to find favor with the Google gods. For those who weren’t on the web a decade ago, the masses used to dance, sing and sway trying to find favor with deities of the day named Yahoo, Alta Vista and Lycos.
From Hyperpeople: Mob Rules: Chaos
“The world has changed. The world is changing. The world will change a whole lot more.”
One thing of which I’m certain is that ten years from now, things will be a lot different than they are now. We’ll look back at 2007 and say, “Who knew?” Will it be some current upstart dethroning Google? Will it be the implosion of “social networking”?
I can’t predict the future and I won’t even try. All I can do is share what has worked in the past for me and my clients is to create web sites (whether they be blogs or static sites) is to create a web presence with the VISITOR in mind. No matter who sits atop the search engine throne, the one thing all search engines have in common is seeking out the BEST content for their visitor.
As my 2008 gift, I share with you a philosophy which has served me very well over the past decade:
- Create your web presence with the search engines in mind.
- Make it easy for the search engines to include your site in their index.
- Create compelling content with your VISITOR (not the search engines) in mind.
- Promote your web presence like the search engines do NOT exist.
Here’s wishing you a year that is prosperous and full of health!