When you're unfamiliar with blogging, it can be a challenge to understand how it all works.
The two most common questions I'm asked are "How do people get my blog posts?" and "How can I add new subscribers to my blog?" I know there are some experienced bloggers who snigger at those questions, thinking they are light years ahead of these newbies.
Shame on them! Blogs and how they are delivered can be a mystery to beginners and understanding them can feel like the hurdles everyone faced at the dawn of personal computers.
Remember years ago when you wondered how to find a website online or if someone really received an email? Really Simple Syndication.
The core of all blogs is something called RSS- Really Simple Syndication.
You may have heard of syndicated writers, like Ann Landers or Dear Abbey, who write one column that appears in many newspapers all over the world.
RSS produces what is called feed, contains your blog posts.
This feed allows bloggers to publish a new blog post and it can be read by many people through a choice of many different feed readers.
When a blogger writes a new post or article, it's delivered to the people who subscribe.
Simple.
Readers.
The blog Feed is delivered to any of numerous readers which is very good news because you can choose to use a Reader that fits the way you already use the Internet.
If you're a die-hard AOL user they have a Reader.
Sold on Yahoo!? They have a Reader.
Are you a Googler like me? No problem, use iGoogle.
com.
If you want to keep all the blogs you read close to your email, then use MS Outlook and have your Feeds delivered to a box called RSS Feeds.
About SPAM.
Subscribing to blogs is tied to the new generation of "permission marketing"...
you won't be subscribed without your permission nor will you receive unwanted blog posts.
Bloggers can't put subscribers on an address list.
The blog feed will only go to those who have requested it.
SEO.
Google Real time changes the search engine game.
Google has started to pick up blog RSS feeds and other social media content in "real time" and it will be displayed in the search results.
Unlike an e-newsletter, blog posts are displayed online and remain online.
As articles are posted in the feed, they reach subscribers and also build online content to be found by the search engines like Google.
Sharing.
A feed will be seen by more people than an e-newsletter that only travels as far as the subscriber's inbox.
Because a feed can be read by different readers its ideal for sharing between systems: if someone likes a post they can share the feed with their social networks through accounts like Digg, Facebook, Twitter, and more.
What you put on a blog can end up on thousands of websites and reach a greater number of people as people share your content.