How To Subscribe To A Blog

Have you ever noticed that anytime you read a blog, there is a Subscription Button at the top right that encourages you to subscribe to it? Well, I have been questioned about this a few times and thought I’d write a post about how and why you should subscribe to the The Internet Squeeze.

Most people have not become comfortable with the subscription process and purpose, so this will be a simple “how and why” article to hopefully move you forward to being better organized in your reading and researching on the internet.

Blog Subscriptions Are Just Like Old Fashioned Magazine Subscriptions

Before we had the internet, the paper world used the term subscription to mean that somebody had paid for the right to receive an amount of consecutive issues of a newspaper or magazine over a period of time. So, If I subscribed to the Tallahassee Democrat, it would be delivered to me every time a new one was printed (on the schedule that I had purchased).

Blog subscriptions are no different. If you find a blog that you like, you just click on that orange button and then you are subscribed to that blog! The great benefit of subscribing to the The Internet Squeeze is that you no longer have to check for updates, they will be delivered to you as they are published!

How Are Blog Subscriptions Delivered

The good ‘ol U.S. Mail was the delivery mechanism for paper subscriptions, but how do we receive our blog subscriptions? Well, websites publish lists of updates, called “feeds,” that indicate when new content has been posted. When you subscribe to a feed, your feed reader (explained in the next paragraph) starts monitoring that feed for updates. You don’t have to give any personal information, it doesn’t cost anything, and it’s easy to unsubscribe.

• Feed Readers – You can utilize a free web application like Google Reader to aggregate all of your favorite blogs into one easy location for viewing at your leisure. Aggregators such as this go out and check the blogs that you have identified (subscribed) and updates content since your last viewing. It saves you from having to visit your favorite blog to check for updates.
• Email Subscriptions – Most blogs offer a “Subscribe By Email” feature which will email you a copy of the latest blog post on a routine schedule. This is a very convenient way to receive the content from your favorite blogs. You only need an email application and new updates show up right in your inbox.

What Is RSS and Atom

RSS and Atom are the “languages” or formats used by the aggregators so that everyone is speaking the same language. RSS stands for “real simple syndication” and is the most often used format for blog aggregators. Fortunately, you really don’t need to know anything about this, just decide whether you would like everything sent to your email, or to a reader such as Google Reader.

How Do You Cancel Your Blog Subscription

I don’t know about you, but I get a ton of email spam these days. I used to be reluctant to subscribe to a blog thinking that I would only be adding to the spam, but it turns out that most of these use an “opt in” subscription service. This allows you to confirm that you want to receive the subscription and you won’t get spammed by the sender. Most blogs use a service called Aweber or one called Feedburner (and both guarantee to keep your email address private).

Subscribe To The Internet Squeeze

So now that you know two different ways to subscribe to The Internet Squeeze, you have no excuse for not being in the loop about the process for moving your company or business to the internet! Subscribe to The Internet Squeeze by email and don’t forget to comment often so that you can be part of the discussion!

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