Usually I’m quite a stubborn donkey when it comes to taking on new technology or ideas. A curious donkey, but a donkey nevertheless.

When I first heard about this whole RSS business I was suspicious. Wasn’t quite sure how to use it, and why would I need it in the first place. A few years passed by and now it’s one of my indispensable tools.

The benefits of RSS

So what is it about Really Simple Syndication that makes it such a necessity?

One of the main advantages of RSS is the fact that it notifies you about changes, rather than you having to periodically check a website for updates.

This might not seem like such a big deal. What’s the problem with checking a few websites every day, or every week. Well I don’t know about you, but I have a memory like Swiss cheese. This means that unless the content is updated almost daily, I’m bound to forget to check a few times, and eventually forget the url even.

It becomes especially prominent when instead of checking 5 websites you follow 500. It’s a bit of an exaggeration but allows you to see the point clearly. Some of your feeds might have new content daily, some weekly and some even monthly.

Not every author is extremely prolific, or you might be just following the release information for some software. You definitely want to know when it comes out but if the news comes about every 5 months, but at the same time you do not want to waste your time every single day checking for it.

Secondly you might not be interested in every single article from one author. If someone writes about apples and oranges, and you hate apples, why would you want to waste your time checking out an article about them? This is why RSS can act as a great information filter. Because you see the article titles, you can quickly decided whether it is something that might interest you or not.

This also leads to my next point. By using an RSS reader you can aggregate and consolidate your many information sources in one place.

Also as the reader only presents you with the text content of the article itself (or a summary, depending on the publishers settings) you save on loading many different websites with all their graphics and other unrelated page elements. This saves bandwidth as well as time.

Why should you provide RSS feeds?

Considering all the above arguments it should be clear that it is of great benefit to your readers as well as you as a writer to supply RSS feeds of your content.

Some people do worry that it takes away visitors from the site. However this is not entirely true. Readers will come to comment, or to just check out your other articles from the archive. So if your content is good enough to attract a response from a reader, you have nothing to fear.

If this still does not convince you, there is another way of getting people onto your website, while still providing feeds. You could always create RSS feeds with just your article summary and a “read more” link. This way your followers get a nudge that there is fresh content, they can see the title and an intro that gives them an idea of what the content is about, and you still get your traffic. Simple, and everyone is happy.

Websites without RSS

All the above ranting is due to my recent web browsing. I have been checking out a couple of sites and blogs, and found a few that looked like they might be worth following. Unfortunately to my surprise an RSS feed was nowhere to be found. And in my book this is a definite no-no. The content would have to be truly outstanding  and often updated for me to be able to keep coming back to a site like that. And I do not think I am alone in such attitude.

People have opinions, however not all of them express theirs freely. Even worse, those who do voice their strong opinions are often ostracized and showered with love / hate responses. But isn’t this exactly what that person wants? As some say - any publicity is good, no matter if it’s positive or negative.

I might have not searched for outright acceptance, but often tried (maybe a bit too hard) not to offend anyone. This unfortunately leaves you in a gray area, the nice guy everyone passes by. They might nod in agreement or ignore your opinion without protest, however there is nothing to prompt a response.

When you meet people of similar views you will probably agree, have a conversation, maybe exchange some arguments supporting your cause and pinning down your opponents. But will it leave you sleepless? Will it force you to take action and spread the cause more vigorously? Not really.

How to have an opinion?

As stated above we all have one, so actually we should rephrase the question as: How to have a strong opinion. Or take it even further: How to be perceived as having a strong opinion. Ultimately - how to generate human responses.

• Take sides and state your point clearly
• Avoid phrases that convey uncertainty
• Do not be afraid of negative feedback
• Be passionate
• Don’t be afraid of being wrong

Take a side

As long as you are sitting on the fence you are not gaining anything. Saying that this person is a little bit right, and that person is a little bit right too, will not make you look like a strong personality.

Taking a side allows you to focus on one point. It does not matter if you agree 100% with that side, it is obvious that the world is not black and white. But when you want to generate discussion and/or create readership making a stand is important. Playing devils advocate can be a fun experience and a good learning opportunity.

Do not over complicate

Once you establish the point you want to make be clear about what your are trying to say. Adjust the vocabulary, style and presentation to your target audience. If you are targeting teenagers it is pointless to use language from philosophical disputes, and vice versa.

Interestingly taking a side will often lead to being much more precise. This is due to the fact that you are not constantly trying to defend more than one statement, which leads to your thinking not shifting back and forth between arguments.

Use the right words for the job

If your means of communication is writing, then words are everything. Deprived of all the cues like body language, facial expression or voice tones all the weight lies in the right choice of vocabulary.

The DOs and DON’Ts:

• use pronouns like I and me
• instead of might or can or could use is, will be
• avoid expressions like I think or in my opinion
• do not hint or suggest things, make statements instead
  

This does not mean you have to be dead serious. Jokes, anecdotes and some humor can work miracles with your content.

It’s not that bad to burn at the stake…

One big obstacle is worrying about what will other people think or say. Some of us take a lot of things personally and it can be hard to take even constructive criticism, not to mention a full on bashing. There is also the fear of being misunderstood, and trying to explain everything to the greatest detail.

Being racist, sexist, homophobic, etc will not get you sympathy, but at the same time you cannot spend all your life making sure you do not step on anyone else’s toes.

In fact the fear of people not liking what you have to say is worse, than it actually happening. Once you get over the initial feeling of rejection it gets easier and easier. There are as many opinions as there are people in the world, and the sooner you realize this the better.

As mentioned before the negative comments, even when not constructive, still mean interest and emotion coming from total strangers. If anything you can be actually proud of yourself for being able to elicit this kind of reaction. When you only have (no matter how long list) of praises this does not encourage people to discuss the topic further. In fact it often are the negative remarks that encourage other people similarly minded to defend your point of view for you!

Passion is king

The common saying is content is king, both for readership and SEO purposes. Though if you lack passion in your writing you might hit your Search Engine targets, but not necessarily gain many readers. Real humans expect something more than dry paragraphs of keywords upon keywords, and in the long term they are your true audience, not the spiders. The important thing is that if you write passionately you can sneak in a few keywords to make the Search Engines happy while not upsetting the real readers.

There is always place for improvement

Don’t be afraid to be wrong. Curbing your opinions in case you might be misunderstood is not the way. Ask yourself a question. What would happen if it turned out a statement I made is wrong? Would the world collapse? No.

In blogging for example it can actually be an excellent learning experience. If you are wrong and someone points this out you can always take it in, update your views and/or your article.

It is however important not to mistake being wrong with having different opinions than someone else. If you mixed up facts - it’s only fair to update your knowledge. However you should never be pressured into changing your opinion just because some random, anonymous person on the Internet says it’s stupid…