Why Should You Subscribe to The Fit Shack’s RSS Feed?

If you’d like to stay updated on all the happenings here at The Fit Shack, an easy way to do so is to subscribe to my RSS feed. However if you’re not familiar with RSS yet, here’s a super simple explanation:

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. When you subscribe to a blog’s RSS feed, the feed reader (I use Bloglines) that you use will list the new posts for you.

Depending on the blog, and sometimes the reader, you will either see the full article, a snippet, or just the title. When you click on the title you will be taken to the blog itself.

If you subscribe to more than one blog, you can pull up your feed reader and review all of the updates to each blog in your reader, all in one place. You can use either a web based reader, or one that runs on your computer.

There are several free, web based RSS readers that you can use. Some of the more well-known are:

If you use one of these readers, you will be viewing your subscriptions in your web browser. Additionally, if you use the Firefox browser, you have the option of using their free Live Bookmarks to subscribe to feeds, which is located in your toolbar.

You could also purchase a feed reader that resides on your computer, such as Feed Demon, or Newsgator, which also offers the free online reader.

The easiest way to subscribe to a blog’s RSS feed is to click on the icon offered on the blog. For example, you will often see this icon (also called a chicklet):

When you click on this icon in the blog you wish to subscribe to, it will take you to a page where you can select the reader you want to receive the feed in. Depending upon the feed service the blog uses, this page can look different.

Hopefully the blog is displaying the icon prominently for you. Other chicklets you may see are:

If you use these chicklets you will be directed to the respective reader’s home page where you can subscribe to the feed.

Additionally, you may also see small, rectangular, orange buttons that say XML or RSS. You can click on any of these buttons or any of the others listed above to subscribe.

Since there are several free readers available for use, I suggest signing up for one or two, and clicking around. You can’t “break” anything and you will see how simple they are to use. The worst I can think that you could do is accidentally unsubscribe yourself from a blog that you subscribed to. Feel free to click on any of the icons in this post and sign up for The Fit Shack’s feed, or use the orange chicklet in the upper corner of this page.

Of course if you aren’t comfortable with RSS, you can sign up for The Fit Shack’s updates through email. Currently you can find this up in the right hand corner of my blog, directly underneath the orange RSS icon and feed count chicklet. If the location changes I will do my best to update this post a.s.a.p.

If you have any questions just let me know, and if neither of these options sound great to you, you can bookmark The Fit Shack by pressing Ctrl-D on your keyboard; that way you can come on back and read my updates right on my site - nothing wrong with that!