How I read blogs

Posted 11-09-2007 at 10:47 AM by Doug Nelson
Updated 11-09-2007 at 11:05 AM by Doug Nelson

I know a lot of users are still trying to get their head around "what is a blog?", so I thought I'd offer my own experience.

I use a program called FeedDemon. There are lots of alternatives, many of them free. I just happen to like FeedDemon.

When you discover a blog you'd like to follow (more on that later), just find the RSS feed (the little orange icon over on the left here), copy the URL to the clipboard, then in FeedDemon click Subscribe. It automatically reads the clipboard and (after a couple of OK clicks) adds that feed to your listing.

If you're browsing from within FeedDemon you don't even have to do all that. Just click on an orange RSS icon and it assumes you want to add that feed.

From that point forward you'll never have to visit the actual blog site, at least not to see if anything new has been posted.

I have over 100 subscriptions, and I'm able to scan them all in just a few minutes to see if there's anything interesting posted (frankly, that's rare). But I'll usually be able to find 5 or 10 interesting reads.

And many times one article will lead you to another blog, which may (or may not) provide you with something else you'd like to add to your subscription list.