Hey!
If you haven’t been hiding under a rock, you couldn’t possibly miss the recent weeks’ hoopla about the impending demise of Google Reader.
And the apparent doom it means for your blog traffic and more.
Fear not, it probably won’t mean all THAT much for you, and I’ll tell you why.
Because most people who even bother to use news readers are the ‘loud minority’ – first adopters, journalists, marketers, online CEO’s, tech fans and more – they’ll find a way to migrate to another reader with little to no problem.
Call it the Blogger’s Y2K. š
Most importantly, now is the time to take care of two things:Ā
- Make sure you have your subscriptions exported to a file at all times (OPML, XML, what have you) so you’ll never again be tied to one platform, one backend system or on application. In 2013, your news feed should be YOURS and yours only.
- Use the best apps available to keep up to date on YOUR important topics and authors. To that end, I’m listing my personal favorites here:
For the iPad: Mr Reader is my choice because it works with Feedbin plus is just versatile as heck, combined with Flipboard for daily news discovery (let’s hope they’ll choose to support another true RSS backend soon)
For the iPhone: ReederĀ together w/ Feedbin as backend – so glad this works as before, Slow Feeds is a newcomer and a very interesting concept – check it out!
For Desktop use: With the fantasticĀ ReederĀ desktop app unavailable for now, I’m feeling the sorrow but learning to use Pulp for now. Not bad at all, just very different.
For In-Browser use: Feedly is the current leader of the pack, but things could change quickly. Some people prefer Bloglovin.
And as an independent backend system I’m using Feedbin for now. Simple, works reliable; everything I need just now.
That’s about it. Do let me know if you have important additions to the list, I’m all ears.
But wait. Why is RSS and newsreading still important, in this age of social media that aggregates the news most efficiently anyway?
I kind of alluded to it already but here you have three important reasons:
1. It’s a GREAT way to do focused market research or just keep up to date about a topic important to you. Just gather the most prominent blogs and sites, influencers’ Twitter feeds, image feeds, Google alerts on keywords… and access it from one place every single day. Still a great process to do.
2. You don’t really want to be tied down to one news source. Or pre-curated news sources, for that matter. This is the age of choice, don’t let go of it unwittingly.
3. Your most rabid fans, the influencers, the superstars… they all do the above. You want to be in front of them, and you want to emulate them. Just do it.
Alright, that’s enough of RSS and news for today. I’m sure there’ll be plenty more to come.
Cheers!
Juho
PS. Oh. Don’t forget to check that you have my blog visible on your feed readers, whether you’re using one app or several to keep up to date. I promise there will be some information upcoming you won’t want to miss…
PPS. No affiliate links were used in the making of this blog post. Relax, okay? š
People reacted to this story.
Show comments Hide commentsRSS feed is no doubt a greater too to enhance your website’s visibility to the users and search engine as well.
I still don’t really understand RSS, but I have it on all my blogs, and don’t know how to even find out how many subscribers I have to one blog in particular. Seems like just one more thing that people need to learn and be up to speed on at all times. But if all the fancy folk use it, I shall too! Thanks for a good article. Mel