It is important to remember that all of the programs I am using are integrated with one another. They all work together and they make the other programs better. Therefore, it is not possible to talk about one by itself, but I will have to refer back to various programs from time to time and expound upon certain things later.
Right now, I need to expound upon WordPress’ RSS feed generator, already integrated in the software. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” If you are writing a blog, evidently you are posting your thoughts in hopes that someone, somewhere will read them. One of the best ways to do this is to syndicate your blog.
Syndicating your blog means that you will produce a feed that feed readers can pick up. Think of it like a news story “coming in over the wire.” Feed readers, or feed aggregators, will monitor the feeds you like and present new posts from the various sources in one place – your feed reader’s home site. Did you think that I clicked on all the links down the side of my page to check if something new had come? Please. Who has time for that!?
There are now two types of feeds that you can grab. The first is the one that reads your posts. Recently, feeds that read every comment written to a particular post have become available. If you are trying to track a very interesting conversation on a blog, you can subscribe to the comments of that post and your feed reader will collect all the comments for you.
The standard feed creator, if you need to make one, is Feedburner. This is also a feed reader, but, as a reader, doesn’t compare to Bloglines, which I will discuss in just a moment.
When RSS first came out, you had to syndicate your blog yourself. Now, most blogging software has a feed generator integrated. My feed URL is, www.twelvewitnesses.com/feed. Pretty simple. What is even more simple is that most folks don’t even need to know that anymore. Now, unless you are using sticks and stones to browse the internet, you can look for this chicklet: 
When you click , it will automatically start the process of subscribing you to that feed. If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, that program will force you to subscribe to the feed through its bookmark folders – there’s one for feeds. If you use Firefox, however, you can designate what feed reader you want it to use.
Bloglines is my designated feed reader. When I click on the chicklet in the Firefox address bar, the window goes to the Bloglines subscription page and asks me how I want to read it, where I want to put it, etc. Bloglines allows me to create folders and structure how I want to read all of my feeds. I like it because it is customizable. I am hearing a lot about the omea feed reader lately. If you are not already committed to a reader, you might check this out.
Technorati is more than just a reader. As a reader, it’s not great. It is, however, THE STANDARD of tracking the interconnectedness of the entire blogosphere. It knows who is linking to whom, when and how often, etc. It tracks EVERYTHING. You can claim your blog there and get all kinds of interesting info. Again, Technorati is integrated in the WordPress software.
I am going to save the rundown on Firefox for Monday. It is a lot of stuff and way too much to add to the end of this post.
If you have questions, feel free to ask. If you have suggestions for other feed generators or readers, etc., then you should let ‘em rip. Have a great weekend.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Kevin Bussey
on Feb 9th, 2007
@ 9:50 am:
Good stuff Art,
You need to sell CD tutorials and say, “TRY MY PRODUCT.”
Bowden McElroy
on Feb 9th, 2007
@ 9:54 am:
I like the playlists feature of Bloglines. It allows me to create separate lists within Bloglines so I don’t have to scroll through all 200 feeds I’ve created. This is really a time saver.
Todd Nelson
on Feb 9th, 2007
@ 12:56 pm:
Art,
Thanks for doing this series. I’m happy to learn more efficient ways of using the net and monitoring blogs.
The way I’ve been keeping up with blogs is like this: I set up a personalized Google home page* and added blog sites under a new tab by clicking on “add a tab” and then “add by URL” near the search bar. Then I copied and pasted or typed the URL of each blog to add them one by one.
Once they’re all in, I can see at a glance each blog title and the headers of its last three posts. The ones I want to read, I right click and open in a new tab in Firefox. Of course, new blogs can be added and old ones deleted, and they all can be rearranged on the page by simple dragging and dropping. The page refreshes itself every few minutes so new posts appear soon after they’re put up.
In this method, comments can only be seen by going to the site. I would like to know a better way to track or be notified of new comments on the blogs I follow.
I tried Bloglines, but didn’t like the loss of formatting in each blog.
Speaking of tabs and Firefox, long ago I set three pages to start in separate tabs each time I launch the browser: my personalized Google news page; my personalized Yahoo start page for checking Yahoo Mail, news, and sports teams I follow; and a local Malaysian newspaper site. Last year, I added my personalized Google home page for checking Gmail and blogs. Of course, I have bookmarks as well, and the main ones are visible on a customized bookmark toolbar across the top, just above the tabs.
I’m sure there are scads of different ways pastors use a browser acc. to their own preferences. This way works for me.
Kudos for sharing your tricks and tips, Art. I know I still have lots to learn. I’m particularly interested in using the RSS feeds once I understand them better.
[*To personalize a Google home page at http://www.google.com, you have to sign in as a Gmail user, a Blogspot user, or apply for a free Google account. And BTW, this is not intended as an ad for Google! :-)]
David Phillips
on Feb 9th, 2007
@ 1:44 pm:
Todd.
One of the ways to keep up with comments, especially on a wordpress blog, is that you can rss feed a particular post the feed for that post will include the comments. For example, on this post, right under the “Responses to ‘Pastoral Blogging Pt. 3′”, you find “Feed for this entry” with is the rss feed for this post. When you subscribe to that, it will allow you to keep up with posts on this particular post if you were really interested in this post.
Art Rogers
on Feb 9th, 2007
@ 1:51 pm:
Here are a couple of images from my blog. These are only pictures and not live links.
On my blog, the feed for the comments on this particular post is found here, at the top of the comment section.
=============================================================================================================
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If you want to subscribe to all comments anywhere on my blog (are there any TRUE fans out there? ;) ), then you can click this link found in the lefthand sidebar.
David Phillips
on Feb 9th, 2007
@ 2:11 pm:
Good job Art…I knew you could do that as well, but I didn’t have time to find it! Good catch and great artistry!!!
Art Rogers
on Feb 9th, 2007
@ 2:27 pm:
Why, thank you, David. :)
John Stickley
on Feb 9th, 2007
@ 9:35 pm:
Speaking of feeds, for some reason your main feed doesn’t seem to be updating for me (the comment feed works fine). Anyone else having problems with this?
(I’m one of those dinosaurs using IE 7, so maybe that’s it…)
Art Rogers
on Feb 9th, 2007
@ 9:41 pm:
It may be it, John. I monitor my own feed in Bloglines and in a dynamic live bookmark in Firefox. They are both working fine.
John Stickley
on Feb 9th, 2007
@ 9:58 pm:
Looks like it’s working now. My feed aggregator had apparently encountered an error in refreshing your feed some time back, and hadn’t tried to refresh automatically since. Manually refreshing the feed brought it back to life.
Now I’ll know when you’re posting again. I hadn’t realized I’d missed so many posts… I’ve come to rely on my feed aggregator way too much!
Marty Duren
on Feb 11th, 2007
@ 6:52 pm:
All this talk about feed is making me hungry.
Alan Cross
on Feb 11th, 2007
@ 11:16 pm:
What are you guys talking about?
I personally perfer the “sticks and stones” method of checking the blogs. It keeps me tied to the earth and in a Flintstones sort of mood. I also perfer cars with holes in the floor so I can push them along in my bare feet. Does anyone else have a crank on their computer like I do? :)
Art Rogers
on Feb 12th, 2007
@ 12:01 am:
Sticks and Stones Internet is a specific reference to when Marty Duren went to Tampa to live blog the IMB BOT meetings, but couldn’t get it to work. My specific quote, I believe, is that “evidently the Internet in Tampa is pull start…” Then there was the time he showed up to Memphis without his power cord and had to borrow mine. I wonder if his Mac will be working this weekend? I hope so, since I have a Toshiba and that means my power cord won’t work on Granny Smith’s Apple. ;)