What is an RSS feed?

Put simply it send out either the full page(s) or a sample amount of an article published from your website and sends it to the subscriber through a variety of different ways. (From which they specified when subscribing to your RSS feed.) The Acronym ‘RSS’ stands for, Rich Site Summary. Which makes sense you when you spell it out to yourself, a site summary is a simplified version of events.

RSS is also expanded (and most popularly) as Really Simple Syndication, a standardized format is recognized whether you have posted a video, music or blog post the user will receive your published post to read when they wish.

How do I subscribe to an RSS feed?

Various sites differ in how you can subscribe to their feeds, a widely recognised format used by many (especially in the design sites) is something called Feedburner. (This is something I will discuss later.) Something as simple as a button in the web address bar, an icon in the sites sidebar or maybe even in the websites footer.

Next I am going to showcase several sites and the ways in which they encourage users to subscribe to their specific RSS feeds.

Assault Blog

Assault blog showcases its RSS logo in an understated yet prominent position alongside its other main headings, so as your eye line trails along that text your eye is drawn to the final RSS text (as well as the recognizable RSS icon.)

Find AssaultBlog Online Here.

Subscribe To AssaultBlogs RSS Feed Here.

Design Shard

I love the little area set aside in the top right hand corner left, on the Design Shard website. The area shows both the numbers of subscribers (and twitter followers,) but also various ways in which you can keep in touch and find Design Shard all over the web. Email updates, Flickr groups and Facebook presence are valuable ways in which to reach other users across the web. The RSS button is synonymous with orange and stand out against the darker browns of the sites template, attracting the users eye.

Find Design Shard Online Here

Subscribe to Design Shard’s RSS Feed Here

Naldz Graphics

Much like Design Shard the top right hand corner of Naldz Graphics site, directs users to the other areas of the web where Naldz graphics can be found in various capacities. Right next to the Naldz Graphics mascot we see the understated RSS feed icon, this isn’t often a good thing not to make the icons we all use to fade into the background. But on this occasion there are several icons and links which direct users to the feed, this idea isn’t a bad one. Your eye line also sees the logo as we are attracted to that area with the clever use of the Naldz Graphics mascot.

Find Naldz Graphics on the Web Here

Subscribe to Naldz Graphics Today

What happens Next?

Once you click the RSS feed button on the site you are then taken to another screen, one of the two screens you seen below. The system of which RSS feeds have been setup make this type of subscription to be so easy for a novice (or experienced) Internet user.

In the case of this screen all you need to do is confirm your subscription by clicking the subscribe now button.

Again in the Feedburner screen; a subscribe now button confirms your subscription, it can often also offer you several reader options from which you can subscribe towards to read your RSS feeds.

Subscribe to the Design Juices RSS Feed

You can find the RSS feed button is three locations on Design Juices;

In the toolbar of your we browser you should be able to see this rss feed button, I run the Firefox browser and this button often shows on in various sites allowing a quick and easy way in which to subscribe to their RSS feeds.

In the sidebar of the Design Juices site you can see the big bold RSS feed logo standing out prominently.

Here you can quickly click the ‘RSS Feed‘ text displayed, which will take you to the basic instructions page confirming that you want to subscribe to the Design Juices RSS Feed.

Many sites showcase a large RSS feed Icon button to attract its users in subscribing to their prospective RSS feeds. Other icons and buttons such as a Twitter, Flickr or Email subscription button can also often be found.

The third and final opportunity placed at the bottom of each page on the site is the RSS feed button in the Footer, it attracts the attention of the user when they come to the end of reading a particular page.

The other buttons in this subscribe section direction users to various pages (this can often be found as a plug in, which can be downloaded from the WordPress plug ins page.)

Footnotes

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