Not Using an RSS Reader? You Ignorant Time-Waster!

In the course of making continued improvements to the Christian Web Trends blog I came across 2 startling statistics this week: CTW has 17,000 email subscribers but only 50 RSS subscribers. I was shocked!

So, I hope the title of this article gets your attention long enough for me to convince you that you could save lots of time and become better informed with the help of a simple RSS feed reader. If you are still fuzzy on what RSS is and how it can benefit you, I’ve included a great little video that will help to clear that up.

You would like to save time and be better informed wouldn’t you???

First of all, if you’re offended by the title of this article because you don’t use RSS and don’t like being called ignorant, chill for a second and hear me out. There’s nothing wrong with being ignorant. It doesn’t mean dumb; it just means uninformed at this point in time. All it takes to go from ignorant to informed is a little information.

It really bothers me that so many of our readers are not using an RSS feed reader and therefore are wasting precious time for no good reason. I want to help you save time and become better informed, so I’m going to get up on my soap box for just a moment to explain RSS and strongly encourage you to use an RSS reader.

Recently, I came across this excellent little video called “RSS in Plain English.” Take 3 short minutes to watch the video.

The bottom line is that if you read blogs or news sites, going to those sites periodically to look for new articles has two negative results.

1) You waste a lot of time going to each site checking for new articles
2) You miss articles when you get busy or forget to check the sites

An RSS feed reader (or aggregator) is a simple tool that periodically checks all the blogs and news sites you subscribe to, let’s you know when there are new articles, and puts them all in one easy-to-use tool where you can quickly skim headlines for articles you want to read. It’s like Tivo for blogs.

You can use a web-based RSS feed reader like those provided by Google and Yahoo! or you can install free software such as FeedReader, RSS Bandit, or SharpReader (my preference).

So, if you were fuzzy on the whole RSS thing before, does this help clear things up? Are you convinced an RSS reader is the way to go? Post a comment if you’ve “converted” to an RSS reader.

If something about RSS is still not clear or you think RSS is not for you, I’d like to hear about that too.

And by the way, all this information including the video are included on the What is RSS? Page, which is has a permanent link under the big orange RSS button in the right menu.

P.S. If you found this article interesting or helpful, please vote for it on Blogs4God and GospelShout so others will see it.

Paul Steinbrueck

Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com

Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.

An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.

Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.