Do you have favorite dance, news, or arts sites but forget to visit them and miss out when new stuff is added?
Did you know that you can receive automatic updates to your favorite blogs or news sites and even read them all in one place without having your inbox clogged with additional e-mails?
It’s true! It’s like having your own personal magazine including only the topics and sections you’ve handpicked. As long as the site has a feed (and many do these days), you’re good to go!
Getting Started
I realize there are many people who don’t know about or understand how feeds work or what purpose they serve. If you are one of those people, here is a quick explanation that will guide you through the steps of adding your favorite sites to a feed aggregator. Keep in mind, this is just one method using one of Google’s many gadgets, but it’s one of the easiest. Here we go!
- Go to the Google homepage and select More>Reader from the navigation list.
- Create a free Google account and follow steps (or login if you already have one) and that’s pretty much it!
** this is not a gmail account but you can set up gmail with this google account - Now you just need to add subscriptions. There are a few ways to do this:
If you know the web address or feed address just click Add Subscription and enter it in the box. For example, enter http://danceadvantage.net/feed OR http://feeds.feedburner.com/danceadvantage and WHA-LA!, Dance Advantage’s latest updates are at your fingertips. Click on a post title to read an article. Click on the arrow next to the title and it will even take you to the website so that you have access to all of the site’s articles and special features!- You can find other sites that match your interests with the Discover link (next to Add Subscriptions). Click on Browse and type in a keyword and it will lead you to new sites.
- If you are on a website you like, look for buttons
or links that say “feed” or “subscribe” or “RSS” or a symbol that looks like this:
- In some browsers, the above icon appears in the address bar at the top of your browser. Clicking on these will typically lead you to a page where you can choose to add the feed to Google Reader. Once you’ve done this, the latest updates from the site will automatically appear in google reader.
You have lots of options for feed aggregators, but I use Google Reader because it is…
- Free
- Online, so I can access it from any computer, and
- Because I already use other Google services.
I use a reader in general because it really is like creating my own personal magazine! I am a dancer but also a mom and I have interests in a variety of subjects. With a reader, I can view the latest in these topics all in one place. I can check out news headlines, recipes, and articles from my favorite websites without having to visit them each individually. For sites with content I don’t want to miss, it is way more efficient than ordinary bookmarking.
Need some more help?
I doubt you’ll need it. Honestly, Google Reader makes it pretty darn easy with tips to get you started. But you might also try reading Subscribing to Blogs 101 at one of my favorite “mommy blogs” SimpleMom.
Get Going!
Visiting the websites of your favorite dance companies and organizations, and subscribing to their blogs is a good way to start your “magazine.” Try the DA Blog Stars in the sidebar to the right or visit our Links page for more great dance resources.
Give it a try and don’t forget to add Dance Advantage to your subscriptions!!
Reading via E-mail
Feeds can also be read via e-mail. Many blogs offer this through Feedburner or other services. Just as an aggregator is “fed” new content each time a post is published, these services send out a new e-mail with each update. Subscribe to DA via e-mail with Feedburner.
Dance Advantage also offers blog updates via the Subscriber Plus membership. Subscribing is free, offers more control over how often you receive blog updates (providing a weekly digest), and extends exclusive content and offers based upon your interest and involvement in dance education. You can read more about that here or simply subscribe.
Once again, thank you so much for reading! I love to read your comments on posts and hope that more of you will take advantage of this option. It is important to me to build an interactive site where people can not only read my thoughts, but respond and offer their own thoughts and ideas as well. It will make us all more knowledgeable about this passion we share – dance!
Nichelle (admin)
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Google+
Great article – I have also see a great youtube video giving very easy instructions with fun little line drawings on it.
My own blog post where I include it:
http://halyma.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/how-to-use-rss-to-make-life-easier/
The direct link to the video:
http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
And now I can add your article for those who like to read how to do it
This is Wonderful information, Nichelle! Creating one place to visit rather than a bunch of different web sites will save tons of time…which is exactly what I need. I, too, am a dance teacher plus mother to four children, so my time is in very short supply.
Thank you for sharing!!
Rebecca
Awesome! Glad to help. This post is one of our older ones, so if something’s not the same and you can’t figure it out, let me know! I’ll try to answer questions.