Blogging and RSS

RSS commonly stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It refers to the ability to push data/information from one location (i.e. web site or blog) to another location (i.e. feed reader, site, blog).

Wikipedia states it:

"RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts...

Users of RSS content use programs called feed 'readers' or 'aggregators': the user 'subscribes' to a feed by supplying to their reader a link to the feed; the reader can then check the user's subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it checked, and if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)

It is a very good idea to have a blog that publishes an RSS format so your articles are easily distributed to people looking for the content you offer. On many sites you will see little logos saying RSS 2.0 or Atom 1.0 or something similar. Clicking on one of those buttons usually pops up a new window and lets you choose to subscribe to the feed. You can add it to Google, Yahoo, or any feed reader you subscribe to.

Be sure any blog tool you use allows for users to subscribe to your feed. Once a subscriber adds the feed to their feed reader they will see a new entry any time a new blog post is added. The beauty is that a user can keep all of their desired content in one area - the reader - instead of going to each site every time they want the info. They simply go to their reader and all of the current content from all of their preferred sites has been syndicated and is there.