RSS, Google Reader and bmindful

Just a quick, informative post about RSS and what it is; how to use RSS with Google Reader and how to take advantage of some bmindful features that keep you up to date with the latest goings on in the community and help you succeed with your affirmations.

First up, what is RSS?

Well, from Wikipedia:
“RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. … They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.”

Or for a more fun and animated education, click here to watch a short video on what RSS is used for and how it might be useful to you. Please note that I did not create this video, credit must go to YouTube user irishpolyglot. Unfortunately I do not have a cool accent, nor do I wear a funky béret :)

Now that you know what RSS is, I’d like to introduce you to my favourite way of using it. Google Reader.

Google Reader is a powerful and easy to use web based RSS reader that allows you to read your RSS subscriptions from any computer with Internet access. It’s completely free and you can sign in with your existing google account.

To help you get started with Google Reader, please have a quick look at the following videos. Once again, I did not create these videos and credit must go to YouTube user GoogleReaderHelp, who appears to be a Google employee.

Getting Started with Google Reader
Reading Feeds with Google Reader

So now you know what RSS is and how to use it, I would like to quickly show you a few ways to use Google Reader to take advantage of some of the RSS capable features built into bmindful. Please note that you will need to be logged in to bmindful to follow these tutorials exactly.

Get the latest bmindful articles delivered via RSS
Visit the bmindful front page and click on on the articles link on the main navigation bar. To get the address of the bmindful articles RSS feed, click on the RSS icon in the address bar. (Actual icon may differ across browsers)

Get the latest affirmations delivered via RSS
Next, click on the affirmations button on the main navigation bar, then click on the Recent Affirmations Via RSS link, OR the same RSS icon (in the address bar) that you clicked above. Because it’s a different page, the icon will take you to a different RSS feed, the most recent affirmations RSS feed!

Get the latest comments delivered via RSS
To get the latest comments delivered to your RSS reader, click on my home on the main navigation bar

Then scroll down and click on the Recent Comments Via RSS link.

Get comments on your profile delivered via RSS
Want an easy way to stay up to date with the conversations on your bmindful profile page? Click on the My Profile link on the main navigation bar.

Then scroll down until you see the comments via RSS link!

If you are conversing with a bmindful friend on their profile, you can subscribe to their profile feed too!

Get your affirmations delivered EVERY DAY via RSS!
This is the big one! This is a great way to be reminded of your personal affirmations EVERY DAY. An effortless way to be reminded to practice your affirmations and a fantastic way to encourage success.

Click on My Affirmations on the main navigation bar, then scroll down to the top of your affirmations and click on the My Affirmations Via RSS link! It’s as simple as that!

Please note that this feature requires a premium account. Click here to upgrade to a premium account now

Follow Lee on Twitter!
Find out what I’m up too, get all the latest bmindful news before everyone else or just have a friendly chat via Twitter!

Scroll back up to the top of the screen and click the Follow Me On Twitter link.

Scroll down the page until you see the RSS Feed of Lee Nutter’s Updates link and click away!

You can add anyone’s Twitter updates to your RSS reader, it’s an easy and effective way of staying up to date with your friends and family!

Remember that some users have their Twitter updates live on their bmindful profile, so you can get to their twitter account very easily. Also don’t forget to browse through The Official bmindful Twitter Thread

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For all you power users, let me link straight to some of the bmindful RSS Feeds:

The bmindful Article Feed
The bmindful Recent Affirmations Feed
The bmindful Recent Comments Feed
Lee’s Twitter Updates Feed

For your personal affirmations feed, your profile comments feed, or other Twitter users feeds, you’ll need to visit the appropriate sections of bmindful.

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So there you have it, a few great and easy ways to use RSS to stay up to date! If anyone else has any other ways of using RSS please contribute to this thread. If you have any questions, please post here too and I’ll do what I can to help you out!