Do you ever notice the icon on blogs with the three lines in an orange (or any other color for that matter- mine is red and to the right of this post) square and wonder what it’s for? While some readers may be aware of RSS feeds and how they work, I realize that some of my readers may not.

RSS is an acronym for really simple syndication, and it is a way of “fetching” a new post from a blog each time it is published.

There are several different ways of organizing RSS feeds that you subscribe to. For example, many people like to use Google Reader. Once you have signed in with Google Reader (it uses the same log in info as all other Google services), you can click on “Subscribe” to find feeds.

If I wanted to search for my own blog, I would enter “30 Something Mother Runner,” and it would pull up the feed for my blog. By subscribing, each time I publish a new post, it would show up in my Google Reader.

If you use Mozilla Firefox, you can simply click on the RSS feed icon on a blog site and it will automatically take you to the subscription page.

Other sites that can help you keep track of RSS feeds are Bloglovin’ and Bloglines. I am sure that there are other sites that can help too, so if you use a different one and like it, please share!

Hopefully, this little tutorial explained RSS feeds and how they can help keep you organized and up to date with the blogs you follow. If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed, just click on my RSS feed button under the menu. Happy blog reading!