On your blog (and more and more websites) you will likely encounter an RSS (Really simple Syndication) feed.  Even today, there are in reality, very few people who understand or even use this feature effectively so I thought it best to fill you in right now on why its so cool for website visitors. The most popular RSS tool is `probably Feedburner (now owned by Google) so you will need to have setup your feed there in advance.

On a visitor level, the RSS feed means one thing. Access to information automatically.  When you visit a site you will no doubt encounter the RSS logo, which is typically an orange coloured square or round cornered box with a white dot and three concentric circular lines radiating out from it to the right.

When you click this icon you will be (typically but not necessarily) be presented with a screen like this with a range of options.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/justinparks

You can from here subscribe via RSS and if available subscribe via email if the option exists.  You can also “feed” the RSS into an aggregator  or RSS reader if you have one setup. Once subscribed you will from that point on receive the latest news and updates automatically to the destination as soon as they are posted or scheduled by the poster for delivery.

RSS feed with feeburner

Once you set it up (use your gmail account and hit this page: http://feedburner.google.com/ to burn the feed) you can now (finally) activate the FeedBurner Feedsmith Plugin in the WordPress admin and go to the settings page.  Drop the RSS feed address into first line as requested and your all good to go!

You will notice the comments on your blog also have an RSS feed and this is dependant on your theme and if you are using DisQus, so decide accordingly.

Author: Google

Download the FD Feedburner Plugin.