MySnowPro.com and it's authors invite you to read all the cool articles, tip and tricks, and postings we create on our blogs. But do you have to go to the site and check it very day to see if there's something new? No, you don't have to do that at all! How?
With the use of feeds!
Feeds let you get a reminder only when there's new content on the site. So you'll be able to check if there's anything new just by looking at your homepage or your browser toolbar. Following is a summary about feeds from the makers of our blogging software, Six Apart.
You'll see that on every page of every blog in MySnowPro.com, there's a section on the right called "Subscription Options." You can use any of those links to "subscribe" to the freed for that particular blog, whether it's MySnowPro.com itself, or an MSP Author's blog. If you click one of the buttons, it's likely your browser will recognize the feed and know what to do with it. Or, if you use My Yahoo! or Google's homepage or another of the "Feed Readers" out there, you can click the appropriate button for you.
Read below for more about Feeds, and subscribe to the sites you want to keep track of. It'll save you time!
from Six Apart's website:
Many websites have links labeled "XML" or "RSS" or "Atom". All of these are ways of saying that you can find out about updates to that site without having to visit the site in your web browser.
This feature is referred to as "syndication" or "aggregation". Sometimes it's just called subscribing. And these days, instead of one of these words, lots of sites will use a little orange button. The standard one looks like this: 
It's also common to see buttons that say "RSS" or "XML", which looks like this:
All these links and buttons mean the same thing: The site you're viewing has a feed available.
We've provided a little bit of information here on how you can get easily get started reading feeds for free.
Who Publishes Feeds?
Anyone that publishes on the web can publish a feed. Blogs (or weblogs) were one of the first types of sites to offer feeds, and since that's what we do at Six Apart, we're glad they're so popular. But most major newspapers and news websites, hobbyist sites, and even stores like Amazon.com all offer feeds, too.
What Do I Need?
Just like when you want to watch a video clip or listen to music on the web, you need a "player" of some kind to subscribe to feeds. Good news: Most of these tools are free, and there are many to choose from, so you can find the one that best suits you.
The "player" for a feed is called a feed reader. This tool lets you subscribe to any feeds you want, checks automatically to see when they're updated, and then displays the updates for you as they arrive.
Feed readers can run on your computer or you can sign up to use a feed-reader that runs on the web. If you use one of the web-based readers, you can access your feeds from anywhere you go, just by signing into the website that manages your feeds. If you use a feed reading program that installs on your computer, your feeds can be stored for you even if you're not connected to the Internet.
What Feed Reader Should I Use?
Here's a list some of the most popular tools for reading feeds people like.
On the web:
If you don't want to have to install a program, many people choose My Yahoo!, Google Personalized Homepage, My MSN, or My AOL to read feeds right within the home page that their browser starts in. Other providers of web-based feed readers include Rojo, Bloglines, Attensa Online, or NewsGator Online. All of the web-based services are free.On your computer:
If you want a feed reading program that runs on your own computer, there are a few options. Anyone using the Mozilla Firefox web browser has support for feeds built-in, and Microsoft Windows users have support for feeds in Internet Explorer 7. Apple Macintosh users can also use the built-in support for feeds in the Safari web browser.If you want a separate program to read feeds, you can use FeedDemon or NewsGator for Microsoft Outlook or Attensa for Outlook if you're on Microsoft Windows. Both tools let you switch between these programs and the web-based reader at any time. If you're on a Macintosh running OS X, the most popular feed reader is NetNewsWire, which can also connect to the web-based services.
for mySnowPro.com
Just take advantage of the ability to keep track of the information you want to follow. Save time by using a feed-reader if you're not already. Thanks for reading!
Your founding SnowPros,
Jon Lawson
Gregg Davis
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