What is RSS?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML-based format for content distribution that allows you to identify the content you like and have it delivered directly to you. More plainly, instead of having to come to Doing Business Blog each day to check for new posts, RSS allows you to subscribe to our content feed and receive our new posts in your e-mail or news aggregator. RSS is meant to take the hassle out of staying up-to-date by giving you direct access to our latest posts as they are published.

How to start using RSS feeds?

The first thing you need is something called a news reader or aggregator. This is basically a one-stop-shop that you can check for the latest new content from your favorite news outlets, blogs and Web sites. It allows you to easily subscribe to different RSS feeds, and to organize and display these feeds as you like. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, others which are downloadable applications - and most of them are free. The most popular Web-base aggregators are: Bloglines, My Yahoo! and NewsGator. Some of the most popular desktop aggregators are: Awasu, FeedDemon,  Newsfire and NetNewsFire. Different readers work on different operating systems, so you will have to take this into account when you make your choice.

Once you have chosen a reader, you now have to subscribe to the RSS feeds of the sites you are interested in. Most major news sites and virtually all blogs have RSS feeds. Normally you will see a small orange box with the letters XML or RSS indicating that a feed is available. If you click on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader or by cutting the same URL into a new feed in your news reader. If you still want to know more, we would recommend this quickstart guide or this advanced tutorial.

RSS terms and conditions

We encourage the use of the Doing Business Blog RSS feed for personal use in a news reader or as part of a non-commercial Web site or blog. However, we do ask that you properly attribute any Doing Business Blog content which is posted on your Web site, and we reserve the right to require that you cease distributing Doing Business Blog content.