Technical Questions
Basic Instructions
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Choose a RSS feed reader (see table in About RSS).
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Subscribe to feeds by clicking on the feed link. This can be a button or link that says RSS or XML. Copy and Paste the URL into a new feed for your reader, or use your reader's automatic subscription tools.
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Check your RSS reader weekly or more often for new feeds. Each reader denotes which feeds are new since your last visit.
What is a plugin?
A plugin is a bit of software that adds a specialized function to a blog.
Examples of plugins: comment spam filters, statistics counters, automated blog backups; e.g., WordPress currently has more than 1,100 plugins, available at <http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/>
How do I install a plugin?
Plugins are downloaded from the Internet to one's desktop, where they usually need to be unzipped (you will know this if the file name ends with .zip). Once unzipped the folder of files is copied to your blog plugins folder. Each blog software has its own way of installing plugins and the instructions are generally well documented.
What is a blogroll?
A blogroll is a collection of links to other blogs, usually of similar interest or scope. Blogrolls are generally found on the side menu of a blog.
How do I set up my blog to e-mail me and/or subscribers every time an item is posted to the blog?
There are several free and for fee services that will generate an email when a RSS or blog entry is made.
- http://www.feedblitz.com
- http://www.rssfwd.com
- http://www.zookoda.com/
- ZapTXT - monitors feeds for certain terms and sends you notifications via e-mail. Also has a mobile version.
- R|Mail - offers simple subscription to any RSS feed, as well as an R|mail subscription widget which you can use on your site.
- Cat2email: Although skippy.net no longer creates WordPress plugins, the cat2email plugin works well to send blog posts to an email list or a single email address.