*A quick tutorial if you don’t know how to subscribe to a feed!*

Do you know what these terms mean: atom, rss feed, feed reader? No? Who cares! You don’t need to understand any of them to subscribe to a blog. There are step by step instructions below (and you really only need to read the bold parts).

Why subscribe to blogs?

If you are like me and try to keep up with about 10 million blogs a day, it’s a great way to (1) be sure you actually do keep up, (2) read them all in one place. Feeds are often also available for online magazines, newspapers, and some retailer’s news sections. Some sites only let you see part of the content in the feed or just a summary. Other sites let you read the whole thing, though the “feed” just publishes the bare-bones of each post — pictures and text, and nothing else to do with the web-page. Even if you get a full-feed (the full post in your Reader), it’s also good to visit the actual site once in awhile as well. This usually supports the blogger more than the feed does.

What does it mean to “subscribe”?

Usually it means any blog you subscribe to will let you know (”ping” you) whenever there’s a post. You can look at your “Feed Reader” (sort of like your own personal newspaper) any time of day and all the posts you have not yet read will be there waiting for you. (Some people prefer to have an email subscription - which means you might get emailed daily or weekly updates. This isn’t the same as a feed, but will keep you updated anyway!)

How do you subscribe?

  1. Find a Button
    Most subscribe buttons look like this orange one at right (this particular one is linked to my feed). Sometimes you’ll find these on the sidebar of a blog or in other convenient locations. If a blog or page has got one of these, this will probably be the best place to subscribe. (The blogger might have hooked this button up with the easiest way to subscribe, etc). If the blog doesn’t have a button, it might just have a “subscribe” link.



    Or, you can always check the address bar. If the blog has a feed, meaning it’s capable of being updated and sent to you, then there will be a little button in the address bar on the far right — usually it’s that same little orange square as pictured above! (I think it’s easier to subscribe to feeds in firefox. In safari, sometimes the feed buttons in address bars look like a little blue rectangle with RSS written in it.)

  2. Click the Button & Choose a “Reader”

    This next page can look really different depending on your browser or the type of feed, but the page should give you a choice of which “reader” your feed should be sent to. If you have a google account, I’d go with Google Reader (you shouldn’t have to sign up for anything new to use this and it’s really easy). But whatever you do, choose the same reader every time, because the point is to have all the blogs you read in one place!

  3. Click On!
    Depending on the reader you’ve chosen, you’ll get different options. If you’re using Google Reader then I’d choose “Add to Google Reader” option rather than the add to homepage option. (If you use “igoogle” then you can add a feed reader directly to your igoogle page.

  4. Stay Updated

    That’s it. Now you are subscribed, and whenever there is an update to the blog, it will appear in your reader. Save the reader page (www.google.com/reader, for example) and you can go back to it all day long. (You can even sort your feeds and do lots of google-y fun stuff!)

If you want to subscribe to Stickers & Donuts you can click on any of the orange buttons on this page or just click here. Or, click here to see more subscribing options (like via a daily email or a Mac widget).

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