Continue reading… »

Your friend may expect you to comment on their site, whether or not your current friendship with that friend is solely based on the online world. You can talk to your friend via the phone or even chat with them online, but if you do not visit or comment on their site regularly, they may retaliate by not talking to you that much or by talking to someone else who visits and comments on their blog.

It is as if the friendship is solely based on the number of comments you leave on a blog. A blog can be considered someone’s personal property, thus you have to see whether or not your friend is justified in getting upset over you not commenting on their site. Your friend getting upset over the absence of your comments on your site can either be like your friend expecting you to support them in unrelated things in order for the friendship to continue or like your friend expecting you to support them in a passion they may have.

Of course, such confusion can be solved if you ask your friend what they want, or if your friend tells you what they want. However, I wonder if it is always easy for everyone to tell a friend “You know what, I don’t like commenting on your blog or reading it, because of this and this reason. Is that going to upset you?”

Business and non-business contacts expecting comments

Business and non-business contacts can be different than your friends. Sure, more and more people are calling each other friends, but no one is there for each other in anything from which they themselves do not benefit, or when a business deal is not around. Thus, let us briefly focus on the idea of non-friend contacts expecting comments from you: a random person or a business contact may show you their personal or some other blog, and thus may expect you to regularly visit or participate that blog. What happens if you do not fulfill their expectations?

Well, from my personal experience, several things can happen. I have seen business contacts doing less business simply because I do not comment on every post of theirs. I have also seen some very famous business contacts being non-communicative until they need something, which can appear to be beyond unprofessionalism in many cases. I have also heard people complaining about their business contacts becoming more aggressive and unfriendly in business deals if those people post a disagreeing comment about something on a blog. Getting upset in different ways over other contacts not commenting on some site can be signs of people not being able to differentiate between their expectations from their own blogs and their business and other deals with other people.

How do you fix such a thing? You cannot fix such a trend and mentality until you find out what the business or some other deal expects. You entered into a business deal; did it include in any direct or indirect manner your participation on any site? Did the other person get any kind of a hint in the beginning that you will continuously participate on their site? It is best to not mix business with personal life or something like your passion for comments unless you know the people involved in a business deal are willing to be true friends or logical contacts who will not let things get affected by something like the number of comments you post on a blog not related to the business or some other deal in question.

What to do?

It depends. I personally do not want to be obligated to comment on any friend’s or non-friend’s blog. I comment when I want to. Otherwise, I try to communicate with people a lot outside of a blog, like via the phone, e-mail or even chatting online on different im’s. I actually prefer to communicate more offline than online in many cases.

Do you want friendship to continue? Do you want a business or some other contact to continue doing business or remain a contact with you? Do you want a random contact to keep in touch normally? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you can think of ways to come at a solution that satisfied either you, the other person, or both of you. Whatever solution you come up with, you should feel comfortable enough to actually stick to the solution if the other person agrees to the solution also.

What do you think? Please let me know, thank you.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

I am seeing an increasing trend where many online bloggers are helping and linking mostly to bloggers from their own ethnic background only. This is probably a trait carried on from the offline world, where one prefers and gives better treatment to people depending on their ethnic background. By ethnic background, I am referring solely to the ethnic background of a person, and no other connection.

The blogs in question could be about any topic, but a person, or you, may prefer linking or reading them simply because the blogger in question is of the same ethnicity as yourself, and not because of the topic in question. In the process of doing so, a person is deliberately ignoring people from other ethnicities, simply because they are from a different ethnic background.

Is your favorite blogger giving preferential treatment based on ethnic backgrounds?

Check out majority of the top blogs on the internet today, including all the ones you visit each and every single day. Check out this very site too, and check out your sites too if you have one. If many of the top blogs do not usually link to each other based on the amount of income one makes, then many of those blogs prefer linking to each other based on their ethnic background affiliations. Do you also notice such a trend?

Some people can mix ethnicity to country affiliations too. Americans preferring American bloggers, Australians preferring Australian bloggers, Brazilians preferring Brazilian bloggers, Canadians preferring Canadian bloggers, Chinese preferring Chinese bloggers, French preferring French bloggers, Indians preferring Indian bloggers, Japanese preferring Japanese bloggers, Mexicans preferring Mexican bloggers, Vietnamese preferring Vietnamese bloggers, and so on. Instead of using the internet to be more equal and to do away with racial and ethnic differences, we are using the internet to increase the awareness of such socially constructed differences even more.

A brief view of a brief summary my view on ethnic backgrounds and affiliations

The topic of how much I dislike ethnic affiliations requires a book of its own. I personally oppose any idea of preferential treatment based on ethnic identities. I consider everyone, including myself, to be equal unless and until someone brings me back to my senses by asking me about my ethnic background and by making me realize how different or same of a human being I may be in the eyes of others. For me, ethnic identification is just a stereotype, since every human being is unique and has her or his own abilities that may be similar to the abilities of other people.

I dislike talking about my ethnic background, since in my view talking about such a thing does nothing but give others better ways to stereotype. I am me; judge me, if you must, based on how I act and based on how I think and based on what I feel, and not based on how some specific group out there may act or think or feel. “You are from Japan? No wonder you like sushi. You are of African decent? No wonder you like rap music. You are American? No wonder you support any and all wars. You are European or Middle Eastern? No wonder you oppose any and all wars. You from the same ethnic background as me? We are good friends already! You have the same ethnicity as me? I will treat you better, and you should treat me better too.” All pure rubbish views, in my view, because they are derived solely from stereotypes based on ethnic generalities and assumptions. I do not care what your ethnicity is. All I care is how you have and will act around me and others, and towards me, others and yourself, and why. Thats is it. Nothing else matters to me when it comes to me respecting you. Absolutely nothing.

Do you prefer linking to, or reading things by bloggers who are of the same ethnic background as yourself?

What do you think? Do you support the idea of linking to or reading blogs written by bloggers from the same ethnic background?

Please let me know what you think. Thank you.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

I was reading a blog post by Connor Wilson recently, in which Connors was opposed to the idea of a guy called Franky criticizing Matt Mullenweg regarding the issue of banning sponsored WordPress themes for the WordPress platform. In the post, Connor also said the following:

In the above quote, Connor said that Franky should not use the name of Matt in order to generate traffic for Franky’s site. That made me think: how can one be sure that a blog article really intends to be critical, and how can one be sure when a blog article was written simply to attract traffic? Is there a way to prove that something was written to be critical, or if something was written only to generate traffic? The same idea can be applied to Franky’s post; how can we know he really got affected by Matt’s decision on sponsored WordPress themes, since he is still using the WordPress software on the very site he criticized Matt on?

Some people criticize in order to be heard. Others criticize to get website traffic. Yet others combine the two to get both.

There is nothing wrong with producing quality content and expecting incoming traffic. That is why whenever there is a critical analysis about something, one of the questions that comes to my mind is “Why is he or she interested in this topic?” Similarly, when a post is not a critical analysis and is instead simply criticism about something, I wonder about the same question. Sometimes, people write articles simply to impress readers and generate traffic. Other times, people criticize others because they actually feel they are not satisfied with something.

Is there a way to find out when a blog post was written only to get traffic, or if it was written with at least a little bit intention of sincerely talking about some issue?

That makes me wonder if there is any good way to figure out when a criticizing article was written to be only a linkbait, and when a criticizing article was written because there was something useful to write about. Can I say that Connor was only trying to generate traffic for his site by criticizing Franky, or can I say that Franky was only trying to generate traffic for his site by criticizing Matt? Can they both be sincerely criticizing something they are not happy with? Or could they both be using different names simply to attract traffic? How can you be sure that this very post of mine that you are reading was not written only to generate traffic?

Is it ever possible to criticize someone else without being called a person who only wants publicity and nothing else?

Are stereotyping or misinterpreting writing which criticizes someone or something we value to be written only to generate traffic and for no other benefit? Is writing something to generate traffic always bad? How can we ever criticize anyone or anything without worrying that someone out there may think that we are criticizing intentionally only to get attention for our website? Is anything that is done to earn money or get something like blog traffic not good at all? What level of scale or analysis can be used online to find out the answer?

The answer can very easy or hard, depending on whether or not we have experience with such things in both the online and the offline world.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

1. Importance is based on earnings

   Many people think that the richer a blogger is, the more important that blogger is supposed to be. The next time you run into a blogger and want to act discriminatory, or simply want to stereotype them, simply find out how much money they make, and worship them accordingly.

   This stereotype is the reason why you see so many immature and manipulative bloggers running around claiming authority, when all they have is an authority on the amount of money they make. Have money? Will worship.

2. Intelligence of others is based on their topics of interest

   Because of this stereotype, most personal bloggers and personal blogs are not taken seriously by many in the blogosphere. Sure, talking about overcooking the tuna may be interesting to someone, but you think such bloggers need sympathy and mental help. For you, the only normal bloggers may be the ones who talk about ways to make money, or they talk about topics which make them money, enabling you to use the first point above into your judgment too.

   This stereotype is one of the reasons personal bloggers are considered to be less knowledgeable, and also less important, than many other kinds of bloggers. This very stereotype may also blind you from the fact that personal bloggers shaped the origins and the beginning of the blogging trend. Instead of feeling lucky that you know bloggers and personal bloggers who have defined history for all future bloggers for generations to come, you simply think “A blog about daily life? This blogger has no life!“

3. Disagreements mean there are enemies

   This is one of the classics. If you see a blogger talking about something which disagrees with what you believe either directly or indirectly, you use the offline stereotype regarding disagreements and immediately start considering that blogger to be your life-long enemy. A blogger says Honda is the best but you think Ford is superior? You pray for that blogger’s doom. They eat 3 times a day but you prefer eating 5 times a day? You start attacking them directly and personally for not living their life the way you want them to live their life.

   Everyone can have their own understanding of the world, but this offline stereotype, which even prompts many people to find mirror copies of themselves to date, results in people feeling that the existence of any difference of opinion means we have to learn the art of fist fighting and we have to convert everyone else, by force, to our way of thinking.

4. Intelligence is measured by appearance

   For many people, a poorly designed blog means the blogger in question is stupid. This has something to do with our offline lives; if you see two business people, wearing the same suit and both appearing professional arrive in two different vehicles, one being a brand new car, and the other being a rusty old truck from 1950 with loud, annoying music on, which person would you be more inclined to do business with? Many people, if not most, will be inclined to choose the guy in the new car. Why? Because we care about appearances. You may think bloggers are stupid unless the nice design of a blog makes you want to smell your monitor to see if you can smell the freshness.

   While caring for appearances is important, we forget the fact that sometimes some people cannot fix certain things, or do not know how to. However, this offline stereotype of judging others based on their appearance to think that anyone who does not have a good looking blog is not a good blogger, cannot think logically, cannot writer, cannot communicate, and so on. Is that not sort of similar to what we do in the offline world, where if we are right about someone being careless enough to not take care of their appearance when they possibly can, we start questioning unrelated things about their character also, like loyalty, intelligence, and importance?

5. Ethnicity, gender, political and religious affiliations define a person for you, and not what the person actually does in life

   This can be the classic example for many people. The same way many people categorize and judge others in the offline world based on ethnic background, gender, political and religious affiliations, I am noticing many people judge bloggers based on their similar characteristics. You hate people from certain ethnicities and you run into a blogger from that ethnicity? No problem; you simply stereotype and tell the blogger “How dare you go online and start blogging? People of your type should be banned from blogging.”

   Sure, a blogger may themselves try to promote their ethnicity, gender, political or religious affiliation onto the reader, but you do not need to follow their example. It is better to judge people based on how they relate and value certain things, like religion, than to associate them with a certain religion and treat them the same way you supposedly want to treat everyone from that specific trait or religion.

There you have it. Those are the 5 stereotypical things that I think many people have successfully brought from their offline lives onto the online world. If you want to continue stereotyping in the online world, the above list can serve as a cheat sheet for you to refer to whenever you want to think of solid, proven methods to stereotype bloggers.

What is your opinion about this? Can you think of some other points that allow many of us to categorize and stereotype against bloggers?

Thank you for reading.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

What many people in the online world do not realize is that sharing information has nothing to do with whether you are online or offline; if you share anyone’s personal information with anyone, through any method and in any form, you may be breaking a trust.

I think that in order to build relationships, make friends or even have good contacts, one should prioritize the idea of never revealing anyone’s personal information under any circumstance unless one has specific permission to do so. Otherwise, people who share their personal lives with others will be forced to blame themselves for sharing their thoughts with others.

Sharing people’s personal and private information, that they entrusted you with, in your blog posts should be avoided

Imagine you write a blog post using someone’s personal life situation as even a small indirect example, and then some random commentor dissects that information or the topic in question. Because of that, you have forced someone, who shared that personal information with you, to feel defensive and to feel bad for having their personal lives out in the open for random people to discuss and debate. That is not an act of being considerate to others. That is an act of using others to write blog posts.

Why would you assume that someone would not mind you sharing their personal information?

Personal information is personal information, Assuming things like “I thought you wouldn’t mind…” only makes me think of a few questions: Why would you think that someone would not mind you sharing their personal information? What specific thing prompted you to think that someone would be comfortable with you talking about their personal life with someone else, on a blog or a place like Xanga? What is your reasoning and logic behind such an assumption?

If you ask personal questions, be prepared to keep to yourself any personal answers you receive

Many people consider things like business and blogging ideas to be part of their personal lives too, so it is important to realize when to share any information about other people, and when to simply keep quiet. If you do discuss the information with someone, make sure no one finds out about it. Otherwise, the act of sharing information will result in someone running into trust issues, because of their private information being put into the public world by an inconsiderate person. It is not nice to have someone else suffer because of your actions, is it?

What do you think? If you would like to read more on a related note, Jess has an excellent post about this, titled “How foolish is it to trust?“, which can tell you more about some of the thoughts that can come to mind regarding the topic of trusting others.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

If you are a blogger, you may have a habit of responding only to certain comments or commentors, or you may try to respond to every comment. You may also not respond to any comment at all. If you are a blogger, you should realize that there is a difference between responding to comments and simply acknowledging comments. Thus, simply acknowledging comments as an obligation on a regular basis does not mean you know how to, and that you actually are willing to, communicate and interact with your readers.

Responding to comments as a reader

If you are a reader and a commentor on a blog, you may or may not like responding to each and every comment addressed to you, or you may or may not like responding to comments that revolve around your comment. You may even have the habit of tackling and addressing each comment on other people’s blog, based on certain criteria such as the type of a blog in question, the type of topic covered, etc.

One thing we should keep in mind is that every blogger can also be a commentor, and every commentor can also be a blogger through the comments, so both bloggers and commentors can also fall into both categories at the same time.

I try my best to respond to each and every comment

I try to respond to everyone on this site, and I try my best to keep up to date with my comments and any due comments on other sites. Sometimes it takes a while, even a few weeks or months, though I try my best to get to everything. For me, late follow-ups are better than no follow-ups. Communicating with others is one of my main priorities.

I just went through all of my comments and e-mails, and unless I have misplaced e-mails or cannot easily find things because of numerous computer backups, I am happy to say that I have responded, via comments, instant messages, e-mails and other channels of communication, to each and every comment and commentor on all of my blogs for the last 7-8 years or so, with the exception of RA Project, Flickrness and Eyeography so far; I should hopefully be able to get to them soon. Responding to comments in my view means communicating with the commentor, and I do that even on the phone [voice or text messages].

Is responding to all comments one of your priorities?

Keeping the above in mind, do you like responding to all blog comments?

Please let me know what your opinion is about this topic, and also whether or not you think responding to all comments is necessary. Thank you.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Pros:

• Track some people who visit your site
• Get traffic by having other MyBlogLog members visit your site, similar to a traffic exchange network where members visit anyone voluntarily who visits their site
• The MyBlogLog team is trying hard to listen to the readers and improve the service as one of their main priorities, thus you have greater chances of having your suggestions implemented than before
• Be able to see a list of regular MyBlogLog readers who like your website on a regular basis

Cons:

• Track only other MyBlogLog members
• Available only if the widget is displayed
• MyBlogLog code can slow down or halt your site - for an example, see the attached image of how MyBlogLog sometimes halts The Reasoner - opens in a new window. The screenshot image is an example of how the MyBlogLog code keeps waiting for something to load from the Yahoo/MyBlogLog servers, and my website is never completely loaded in such cases.
• MyBlogLog widget is not customizable
• MyBlogLog communities are currently blogrolls being spammed by many members

Do the MyBlogLog Pros outweigh the Cons for you, or vice versa?

So, if you have a blog, do you like using MyBlogLog? If you do not have a blog, or have not used MyBlogLog yet, would you like using MyBlogLog on your site?

Please let me know. Thank you.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

1. Talk about typical and non-typical topics because of believing in them

   This is one of my greatest skills, and it is also one of my greatest weaknesses. The benefit? I can talk about things that can affect individuals and corporations, both typical and non-typical, both big and small, since I believe that both big and small things affect us all. The downside? Venturing off in different directions appears to be a form of “not having a clear focus” to many readers, and patience is something that is usually replaced by the need to find out things right away, even by myself.

   I like blogging about random topics and revolving them around certain themes. Take your own personal life as an example: when you live your life, you revolve everything in your life around your understanding of things, even if your understanding prompts you to be considerate of everyone else. Similarly, I believe that any blogging topic out there can be taken and applied to any kind of a belief you may have, or revolved around any topic.

   That is why I try to revolve the most random things around certain key elements, like reason.

   Many people seem to be doing the same thing, going from one topic to another, while not aiming at a certain thing. Many of such people are simply trying to get their post count up. Kudos to them!

2. Revolve the blog around readers

   I am not here to vent my emotions. I am here to vent my emotions into your thoughts and feelings. I am not desperate to be heard in the online word, so everything I write, I write to communicate something with you. Venting about something means to vent something off your chest; I am here to convey an understanding instead. Therefore, even though the topics are all mine, I want to show them to you so that you will understand the message I am trying to convey to you. That is why my blog revolves around both me and you.

   The downside of such an approach? Money. It is hard to make money when your blog revolves around bringing up topics that you think are good and practical for you and your readers. Otherwise, I can start talking about a 100 ways to make money through your blog every week, and I will start getting a lot of sponsors too. Maybe I can simply talk about one single way to make money every week to keep many parties happy, no?

   Many people think that saying “My blog is not possible without readers like you” is enough to show any kind of a bond or an appreciation, even when no other element on their blog appreciates readers. Most bloggers write about topics that please their advertisors or the companies, networks and groups they are affiliated with.

3. Respond to all comments, using a brain

   I have been trying to respond to all comments for several years now. Sometimes I respond to comments via e-mails, taking the discussion away from the blog and continuing it through e-mails. Most of the time, I will reply to each and every individual comment, not only to acknowledge a comment but to actually communicate with a person. I think communicating with all commentors on The Reasoner is something I can do blindfolded now.

   Why? Because I hate it when I write a long comment on someone else’s site, and they respond with only a “Thank you for your comment. ” Such comments simply tell me that a blogger feels obligated to reply to each comment, without actually communicating with me. Either do not reply, or stop using the same copy-paste responses to every comment you get. Maybe I should start a list outlining all the bloggers who look stupid trying to treat comment responses as an obligation.

4. I like keeping the number of posts on my site down

   I do not believe in outputting as many posts as possible in order to attract readers and advertisors and search engines. I want to attract others by the actual value that helps people, and not by promises that something may help people. That is why sometimes I can write 2 posts a day for months, and then I will slow down and write a post a week. What I write is more important to me than how much I write. People who write a lot of posts regularly usually tend to write things to lure in people. Some people who actually write a lot while giving value back to the readers are simply amazing. They exist, but they are hard to find. One place you can find them is in my bookmarks menu, though I remember their blog addresses by heart.

   In contrast, I try to keep my post count growth rate down. I got an offer last month to have a small ad placed on my site for $450 a month if I post an article everyday for at least 6 months, the way I have already been doing for a few months now. I declined the advertising offer, telling the advertisor to let me know if they would like to place an ad on my site if they did not have a posting schedule requirement. Since then, I have instead started posting less and running a poll asking you about the frequency of published posts you would like to see here. Why? I think it is a waste of my time to post a 100 posts in 2 months when only 5 of those posts get the message across. I feel the need to combine the ideas, thoughts, and pack a lot of punch into any post I write, so that each and every post gets attention and I get all my ideas and message across. Maybe I am currently quite satisfied eating 2 pieces of bread and drinking a glass of milk every day, using money earned in the offline world?

   For me, having a few nice posts is better than having a 100 useless posts that only aim to lure in people so that more money can be made. Money to go retire can be made easily by fooling people, but building legends, fortunes, relationships and brands takes a long time, and requires doing something realistic so that people in both the short and the long term, even when you are not around anymore, will say “Wow, he/she did help me! What a memory!” That is why I like working with companies which aim to build a brand through legacy, and to make money at the same time, and not companies which are only around to make money quickly. When you aim to build a brand or have a legacy, you tend to care more about other people, even if you love making money.

5. Value content over looks

   I believe that if one had to choose, content is more important than design. However, in reality, it seems that most human beings prefer something that appears nice instead of something that is ugly but has actual value. That is why even with design changes, my writing maintains a lot of the same philosophy of feelings in my content, even if the topics keep on changing. For me, content comes first, and if I have time, I work on the design slowly. Sure, looks can be important as Darren from ProBlogger argues, but without content, looks are usually used only to deceive people and to make some money. If someone can manage to have both quality content and a quality design on their blog, I think that person has a very nice diamond that they should utilize fully, quickly and carefully, to ensure that they are able to communicate with as many blog readers as possible and get their message across efficiently and effectively.

   Why? Maybe it is human nature, to be attracted to things that appeal to any of our senses, or our thoughts and feelings. It is important to present things nicely, since we are all like babies. You can get many babies to eat the toxic veggies if you act nice and talk in a friendly manner, but you will have a hard time getting the same babies to eat the veggies if you are dressed as a bigfoot and you keep growling at the top of your voice. The value you offer, the vegetables, are still the same, but for the baby, your presentation and your looks also becomes part of the content.

   Maybe I want us all to be non-typical babies?

So there you have it; a really nice bragging post. Among the thousand other things [haha], the above 5 are some of the common things that many bloggers try to copy from The Reasoner. Some give credit, some do not give credit, and some have come up with their own versions of similar ideas on their own.

Whatever the reason may be, I hope this list helps you improve some aspect of your blogging or life. I also hope that if you have any suggestions for any of these things, you can let me know so I can improve.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Many personal blogs usually take advantage of having password protected entries, like SP’s site. SP could write things about, let’s say, Bes, as in “Bes is so retarded, Bes actually tries to communicate with cats, squirrels, penguins and whales!” SP could then password protect that entry, so that I do not see what she wrote about me.

Password protected content on Non-Personal Blogs

Another way to use password protected entries could be to have content reserved only for a specific type of readers, like readers who pay. A blog or a site could have such premium content, that it could charge readers a monthly fee in order to receive specific or customized passwords to access all the password-protected content. For example, I could have a special subscription section on this site catering to non-personal blog readers, where I have videos of me trying to kidnap whales, but instead I end up getting kidnapped by whales. I could password protect that content, and give Jess that password if Jess pays me $500. Does that sound like a good deal, Jess?

Password protected content has drawbacks too

While password protected content can offer benefits to many blogs, any password protected entries can have drawbacks too, for both blogs and blog readers. Regular visitors may not be able to access information simply because they do not know the password, and thus a blog may get more criticism than praise. Also, people who cannot afford to pay me $500 for my “How to kidnap a whale and get kidnapped instead!” videos may not be able to see the epic tale I have to tell. Password protected entries limit access for many people, and that may not be cool in the eyes of many.

So, do you like having and seeing password-protected entires on blogs? What is your opinion about them?

Please let me know what you think. Thank you.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

• Write personal opinions to share with others.
• Earn money directly through ads on your blog.
• Keep an online diary.
• Practice skills, such as your writing, recording, and other skills.
• Establish an authority on different topics through your blog.
• Promote your offline business.
• Keep in touch with friends or family, or others online.
• Be like others, since others have blogs too.
• Pass time without being bored, and a blog helps you pass time easily.
• Maintain your job, since it may require you to blog.
• Pass a class, since your class may require you to blog or comment on some classwork-related blog.

So, why do you blog? Why do you own or run any kind of a site? Can you think of others reasons for which you may be blogging?

Please let me know what you think of the above, and what you think of this question. Thank you for reading.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Ok, fine, RSS does not mean Really Scary Squirrel. RSS basically means Really Simple Syndication. An RSS Feed, or a Really Simple Syndication Feed allows a reader, like yourself and someone called Bes, to view some specific content through a platform and software of almost any choice. For the remainder of this article, the terms RSS, RSS Feeds and Feeds will all mean the same thing: RSS Feeds.

RSS allows Content Delivery in a method of your preference

Imagine I had a show on the street, where I acted very weird, or normal in some people’s view. If you wanted to see me, you would have to come to the street and watch me. I could, however, make a videotape of myself and have that videotape available in libraries, bookstores, movie stores, and also have it shown in movie theatres and on TV. If you choose to watch my performance by watching a videotape at your home, you are watching my show in a manner you want, instead of coming to the street and watching it.

RSS is that video tape. An RSS Feed allows you to view any website content, which makes available its own content via RSS feeds, in any RSS platform and software of your choice. That way, instead of typing “http://www.thereasoner.com” to visit my site multiple times daily, your RSS Feed Reader can show you all the new and latest content that is available on my site, right in your RSS Feed Reader. Not only that, your RSS Feed Reader can also show you updates from multiple websites in a single window, saving you time and space. Thus, instead of you going to a website, the website content is delivered to you. For the remainder of this article, RSS Feed Readers, RSS Readers and Feed Readers will refer to the same thing: RSS Feed Readers.

Types of RSS Feeds

As RSS Feeds got popular, different groups have come up with newer versions of RSS Feed formats, like RSS, RDF, and ATOM. Usually, it does not matter which version or format of an RSS Feed you use or come across. As long as there is an RSS Feed, you can usually view it in an RSS Feed Reader.

How do I find the RSS Feeds on different sites?

The exact location of an RSS feed usually depends on the software being used to power and run a website. Many new RSS Feed Readers automatically determine the location of a website’s RSS Feeds, so depending on your RSS Feed Reader, you may simply point your RSS Feed Reader to a website and the RSS Feed Reader will do all the work.

Here are a few locations where, usually, some specific software-powered websites place their RSS feeds. Every time you see the word “name” below, simply replace it with the domain name of the website, relevant username or relevant member id, to find the appropriate RSS Feed.

• Blog.com
  http://name.blog.com/atom/
  or
  http://name.blog.com/rss
• Blogger/BlogSpot.com
  http://name.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
  or
  http://name.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/

  For example, Jerine’s BlogSpot.com blog rss feed is:
  http://this-is-the-mad-style.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

• LiveJournal

  LiveJournal feeds are available only to people who pay for it, or have specific accounts that come with feeds, and thus LiveJournal acts both as a feed reader and as a feed creator. Typically, the feed url is:

  http://syndicated.livejournal.com/name/

• MovableType powered sites
  http://www.name.com/atom.xml
• MySpace

  MySpace Feeds are currently very buggy, though if they work, here is the link: http://blog.myspace.com/blog/rss.cfm?friendID=name .

• Nucleus
  http://www.name.com/xml-rss2.php
• TypePad
  http://name.typepad.com/my_weblog/rss.xml
• Vox

  http://name.vox.com/library/posts/rss-full.xml
  and
  http://name.vox.com/library/posts/atom-full.xml

  For example, Stacee’s blog on Vox is http://stacey.vox.com/, and the relevant RSS feed url is
  http://stacey.vox.com/library/posts/rss-full.xml

• Xanga
  http://www.xanga.com/name/rss
• Windows Live Space
  http://name.spaces.live.com/feed.rss
• WordPress powered sites
  http://www.name.com/feed/

  For example, Valerie’s site Spoken-For.org is a self-hosted WordPress site, so her RSS Feed address is http://spoken-for.org/feed/. Also, as suggested by Valerie, the following work also:

  http://www.name.com/wp-rss2.php
  or
  http://www.name.com/wp-atom.php

• WordPress.com
  http://name.wordpress.com/feed/

What are RSS Feed E-mail Subscriptions?

Some websites, like FeedBurner, allow website owners to have their website feeds available via e-mail. For example, this very site, The Reasoner, allows you to subscribe to its feed via e-mail also. You simply add your e-mail address to the RSS E-mail subscription list, and if there is any new content, you will be e-mailed any new content from any website with RSS e-mail subscriptions, every 24 hours. RSS Feed E-mail Subscriptions simply e-mail you any new content as it becomes available.

Example of RSS Feed Readers

There are many different kinds of RSS Feed Readers available. Many are free, while some require payments. Generally, RSS Feed Readers are currently divided into two main categories: Online RSS Feed Readers and Offline RSS Feed Readers.

Online RSS Feed Readers

The Online RSS Feed Readers allow you to check different websites feeds while being online on a certain RSS Feed Reader website. All you need to do is visit a website and you can access an RSS Feed Reader online. Usually, you need to be online at all times in order to view feeds in an Online RSS Feed Reader.

Here are some examples of Online RSS Feed Readers:

• Bloglines
• FeedLounge
• NewsAlloy
• Google Reader
• LiveJournal - If I understand this correctly, depending on what your LiveJournal account level is, you can add RSS feeds from different sites into a LiveJournal Syndication and read them via your LiveJournal account.
• NetVibes
• Rojo

Offline RSS Feed Readers

The Offline RSS Feed Readers allow you to check different website feeds by installing a software on your computer. After you run that installed software, you can access the different feeds. Usually, once you download all the updated feeds, you do not need to be online through an Offline RSS Feed reader in order to view the feeds you have already downloaded at a later time.

Here are some examples of Offline RSS Feed Readers:

• FeedDemom
• FeedReader
• Illumio - suggested by John
• ThunderBird - The e-mail client has a built-in RSS Feed Reader too.
• Browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, etc : the popular browsers can also serve as RSS Feed Readers. Simply click on any RSS link or icon on a website in your browser to see the RSS feed right in your favorite browser.
• NEWSFIRE
• SharpReader
• RSSOwl

Both the Online and Offline RSS Feed Readers download new feeds and any new, updated content of your choice from the websites you select whenever you login or run such RSS Feed Readers.

How do I add feeds to an RSS Feed Reader?

To add feeds to any kind of an RSS Feed Reader, you will usually be required to create a an account, which is also usually free, with the RSS Feed Reader website of your choice. Once you are logged into the online or the offline RSS Feed Reader, simply add the appropriate RSS Feed address for a website, or add the normal website address into the feed reader. Most Feed Readers today can automatically find the appropriate RSS Feed addresses. If you have any questions about specific Feed Readers, simply ask me.

What is RSS itself? Is it a file, is it a software, or what?

Jess asked an excellent question below about what exactly is RSS: a file, software, code, etc, and how it is installed on different systems. Please see my answer below for more details.

Conclusion: RSS really simplifies syndication

There you have it. In one post, you have gone from believing that RSS Feeds meant Really Stupid Squirrels Feeding on something, to thinking that RSS Feeds mean Really Simply Syndication Feeds. I still think RSS Feeds mean Really Scary Squirrels Feeding on scary things, by the way.

If you have any questions, please contact me or post a comment below. I will update this introduction with any questions or information you may have, and give you credit too.

Thank you for reading.

« Show less..

Continue reading… »

Following are 10 random reasons which show that you may want to blog regularly because you want to:

1. Have more readers.
2. Have more commentors.
3. Have more search engine exposure.
4. Attract more advertisors for your blog.
5. Tell others about your personal life.
6. Keep an online diary for yourself.
7. Meet online people more in order to make more online friends [different than making online contacts in order to make money].
8. Post more as your current income depends on it.
9. Express your views on a certain issue more; like global warming, the myth of global warming, etc.
10. Showcase skills to potential employers through your blog, like writing, video editing, design, etc.

Do you prefer having a regular blog schedule which depends on some element like time, your offline life, etc? Do you feel obligated to blog on a regular schedule?

Please let me know what you think. Thank you for reading.

« Show less..