RSS

RSS (really simple syndication), often just called “Feeds”, are a great way to keed updated. Most blogs, news, magazines, and generally any website that posts content will have one or more feeds you can subscribe to. There’s a whole cornucopia of Feed Readers available that will allow you to keep up with the latest. My personal favorite is Reeder but I’ll list a few other notables at the bottom. Some are free, others are paid, but none are trully expensive (IMO).

Originally, I had only one feed that contained all my posts. This made sense when was only posting in a couple categories, but as I’ve expanded the kinds of content I post, I want to give people a way to subscribe to only what they want without being force fed the stuff they don’t.

RSS Feeds

All Posts

Category Feeds

Updates
Mostly updates to the sites. Sometimes updates about my life. Eventually updates about my work.

Reviews
Book reviews

Sketches
Sketches I’ve drawn in my spare time.

Quotes
Quotes I like.

Stories
Stories I’ve written. Usually short stories or the first chapter or two of an idea I might want to write someday.

Thoughts
Random thoughts and ideas I have. Sometimes political, sometimes philosophical, occasionally religious, and almost always guaranteed to be utterly wrong.

Writing
My thoughts on the writing process. I’m a little conflicted about having it as a separate category, but since I want to be a writer, it does make some sense to keep these thoughts separate.

RSS Services

While most RSS Readers allow you to subscribe to individual feeds, you may want to subscribe to a Feed Service to keep your feeds in sync between devices. Most of these services are free, or have minimal monthly fees. They will sync your feeds on your behalf, keep their read status updated, and all your devices in sync. While many of these services have their own app, they also support 3rd party readers.

Note: The newest Reeder app can do this without a service using iCloud. However, it is limited to Apple devices (Mac & iOS).

All services that have free accounts usually have feed limits (ex: 100 feeds), may have slow sync times, may not sync as often, serve ads, and may limit how many articles per feed it will sync, etc. Also, beware: if you’re not paying for the product, that’s probably because you are the product (they’re selling your data).

  • Feedly - Both free and paid Accounts
  • Feedbin - Free trail, then paid. ($5/mo last I checked)
  • NewsBlur - Free and paid accounts.
  • FeedHQ - A cheap open-source project. Paid only accounts.
  • Inoreader - Both free and paid accounts.
  • FreshRSS - A self-hosted option. This is what I use, but requires enough tech chops to setup your own server. Also, only some rss readers support it.

RSS Readers

I’m not including apps provided by sync services (above).

Also, a search in your local app store may reveal other apps.