Pursuit of the Perfect Blogroll

I love reading blogs and really enjoy going to my feed readers and seeing it full of new content for me to dig into. So many people have thoughts about numerous topics out on the web. I love seeing other peoples thoughts on topics. Whether it religious viewpoints, technology, or blogging, it can all be found on the web. My RSS feed reader allows me to digest large amounts of content in one consolidated organized place.

Before we get into feed readers lets first take a look into what a RSS feed is for those of you who do not know. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS feeds are used to publish works that are constantly being updated. They are often found on blogs and news sites. Having a RSS feed for your site will allow readers the opportunity to subscribe to your content and get it delivered to their feed reader automatically without having to visit your website to view your new content. This is very beneficial because it you are like me and enjoy taking in and reading lots of blogs the number of sites you would have to visit will add up really quickly. With a simple click of the “subcribe to feed” you will be able to get the sites new updated content delivered to you whenever updated, instead of having to remember the website and going to check only to see that there is no new content. I just do not like wasting time and having the ability to view the content of sites I like in one place with efficiency gets a plus in my book. If I ever come across a site that I really enjoy I will subscribe to it and not have to go back unless I want to comment on a post they have produced. If you do not have a RSS feed set up for your blog today I would highly suggest that you do to take advantage of all of us out there that want to have a constant stream of fresh content our fingertips.

A feed reader or aggregator is the place where you can view all of the feeds that you have subscribed. They can be web-based, desktop based, or mobile based for easy access while on the go. There are a multitude of feed readers out there and you will have to test them out to see which one works the best for your own personal taste. For me it is Google Reader. I have been using it for about four years now and have been very pleased with it. It keeps my feeds organised into folders I have created for each type of feed that I follow. Most the the feeds that I subscribe too deal with: blogging, freelancing, personal development, leadership, and religion. I do not follow news with my RSS reader because I just feel that I just get a lot of stuff being delivered that i really do not care that much about.

There are many choices for RSS readers though as can be seen as follows:

Desktop Readers: Newsgator, Tristana, Snarfer, NetNewsWire

Web Based Readers: Google Reader,  Newsgator, My Yahoo, Feed Show

Those are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many to choose from. I use Google Reader on my computer and while on the go I access Google’s mobile reader site to access my feeds.

As I noted above I am an a big fan of Google Reader and would highly recommend it if you are interested in a good easy to use reader. I use it daily an I am able to quickly and efficiently go through my feeds. I usually check my feeds three times a day: first thing int he morning, at lunch, and in the afternoon.  That way I am always able stay up to date on all of my feeds and keep my new feeds form piling up on me where it becomes unmanageable and leaving me behind on reading feeds. I seldom read every feed that I have coming in. I will look at the title of the article and if it sounds like it would be interesting I will read it. So if you create content for the web always have a catchy title. It may not seem important, but it is. On a side note one thing that i really do not like is when only half of the blog post is sent to the reader and the other half has to be accessed by going to the site. If this happens I will not follow the blog (unless it is just awesome content). It just slows down the efficiency and is pointless subscribing to those kinds of blogs. One of the blogs that I follow did this a while back, and it was frustraiting to me. He produces great content so I continue to follow him, but I wish I had the complete feed in my reader….

I go through the feeds that I subscribe to about once a year and thin it out. I do this by using an awesome feature that Google Reader has called Trends. Trends gives you information such as: what feeds you read the most often, which feeds you follow that are updated the most often, and which blog’s feed that you click through most often to go to full site to name a few. I clean out all the blogs that have not been active for a few months or that I find myself constantly not enjoying the content being produced. It the yearly cleaning usually gets rid of quite a few sites that are often quickly replaced.

That is what I have found that has worked for me pretty well over the years, and is the system that I currently use.

Over the next few of days I am going to share the feeds I follow. Hopefully you will be able to gain a few new sites that will give you some great newe content to keep up with.

Blogs you should be following:

• Christian Blogs
• Blogs on Blogging
• Other Notables

Do you follow RSS feeds? What is your reader of choice?