RSS for your readers
Because I’m a serial blogger, I read a lot of other blogs- for inspiration, fun, news, etc.
Now while there are so many wonderful blogs out there, many of them aren’t too easy on the eyes (especially when you’ve got extremely high astigmatism). Tiny fonts, bad fonts, too-tight or too-loose line-spacing… the list goes on and on.
Which is why the very first thing I do when discovering a good blog is look for their RSS feed. My eyes seek out that little orange button.
For the most part, I’ve learned to find these feeds based on what specific platform the blog is using. For example, Typepad blogs usually have a “Subscribe to this blog’s feed” text line. Majority of Wordpress templates, on the other hand, have the RSS feed listed in the “smalltype” of their page footers. Some blogs have clearly labeled, easily discovered buttons and links- others require a bit more digging (and source viewing in some cases).
My point? If you publish a blog, please publish an RSS feed. Validate your feed, and feature the link prominently on your blog. It makes life that much easier for your readers.
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23 Jan 06 | 7:47 pm | #
Hey, thanks for the link.
I would love to create a page that just has a big RSS button for the header, but I think the majority of the return visitors don’t use RSS (or have any idea what it means). So I did a little compromising. I still think it could be better placed, but oh well.
Also, I think most feed reader programs will auto-discover the feed URL if you provide the website’s address. So that works, too.
Now, I’ll try to make the site easy on the eyes so you won’t have to rely on RSS to run away from my design, haha.
23 Jan 06 | 11:24 pm | #
Thanks for visiting, Chris- I love your site, but love your RSS button even more. Nice and clear and easily found.