what the &*#$ is an RSS feed and do I need this on my blog?

This is the universal RSS chicklet

yea, to be completely honest, i still wonder how RSS feeds really work even though it's clearly defined. so don't fret, a lot of people are unclear about the use of this little guy. hopefully this will help. here we go...

feeds are a way for websites and blogs to distribute their newest content to you. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates, delivered automatically via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email.

so instead of having to go blog to blog to blog to check the latest and greatest posts (like this one :), you can go to 1 place - your reader and your list of blogs that you subscribed to will be right there. Just scroll down the list of headlines from all of the blogs you subscribed to and click on any to take you to that blog.

This is a great tool for your blog. Your readers can subscribe to your blog and automatically get your updates! So as they read through their readers and see a neat new headline from you, they can click right on it and - voila - they are at your blog door. A lot of blogging platforms include the RSS feed as a gadget or widget so definitely consider including it on your sidebar.

Rebecca