RSS is the newest, hottest technology on the Net. Whoa! Did you pull back just from hearing the word technology? Don’t be concerned about the “how does it work”, but let’s concentrate on what it can do for you.

Let’s discuss Really Simple Syndication. What is syndication? In the off line world, it is associated with comic strips or a particular feature writer in the newspaper such as Ann Landers. The comic or article was developed and for a fee was syndicated to any newspaper that wanted to carry it. It would appear simultaneously in many newspapers across the country.

On the Net, most of the syndication does not cost anything. Most sites or companies that supply “feed” for syndication do so for free because they are looking for the exposure from the information and advertising that is carried in the feed.

When you go to the home page on Yahoo, Google, or MSN, you will see news, weather, sports, etc. displayed on the page. This information is coming through a feed from other websites and will automatically update on the home page without the owner of that page having to do anything.

What do you need to read RSS? Simple answer …… You need an RSS reader. The easiest way to get one is to subscribe to “My Yahoo”. Sign in on your “My Yahoo” page and it contains an RSS reader for you to use. Go to www.yahoo.com and click on the “My Yahoo” icon to sign on or to register.

When get your “My Yahoo” account set up and log in under your user name, look in the top left of the window and click “Add Content”. You will be presented a form to complete for feeds by subject. Don’t bother with this search box. To the right of the search box in small letters is “Add RSS by URL”. Click that link and you will be presented another search page where you can set up the feed from a particular website. There are feeds from Retirement Jobs Online.com and Boomer-eZine if your want to experiment with setting up RSS in your Yahoo reader.

DO NOT CLICK THE FOLLOWING URL. Highlight it and right click on it. Select copy and then paste it into the search box on Yahoo. Then click the “Add” box to the right of the search box. You now have added an RSS feed to your “My Yahoo” page.

http://www.retirement-jobs-online.com/retirement-jobs-online.xml OK you say. What is all the big fuss about RSS? Just stop and think about what this can do for you as a surfer on the Net. If you have particular sites that you check regularly for information, you have to spend time looking through the sites to see if new info has been posted.

If you set up an RSS feed from that site to your “My Yahoo” or any other RSS reader that you choose (and there are hundreds of them) you do not waste time having to look for changes. You are notified when a change takes place by the RSS feed and you can click right to it. As we say in Texas, “That is slicker than cow slobber”. I challenge you to find anything that is slicker than the slobber of a cow.

RSS is used extensively by bloggers to monitor blogs for new posts.

Now, on the flip side, if you have a website or a blog and you publish information, establishing a RSS feed will put your publication on the feeds on the Net so it can be picked up by additional people. These contacts will possibly become subscribers. This is a way to build additional traffic and it is free. Anyone who has a website or a blog or publishes a newsletter should establish an RSS feed for it.

RSS feeds are great tools for expanding your publishing options and I recommend that you set up a feed to help expand your online business.

I wish you the best in adding RSS to your website.

Copyright 2006 John Howe, Inc.