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FAQ list for the SoulOfAmerica.com RSS feed.

Want to be the first to get SoulOfAmerica.com headlines as soon as they are published? This FAQ will show you how, and will answer some of the common questions about the SoulOfAmerica.com news feed.

What is a news feed?
How do I subscribe to SoulOfAmerica.com news feed?
What is a news reader?
Should I use a news reader?
What is RSS?
What is syndication?


What is a news feed?

A news feed (also known as an RSS feed) is a listing of a website's content. It is updated whenever new content is published to the site. News readers "subscribe" to news feeds, which means they download lists of stories at an interval that you specify (every 30 minutes, for example), and present them to you in your news reader. A news feed might contain a list of story headlines, a list of excerpts from the stories, or a list containing each story from the website. All news feeds will have a link back to the website, so if you see a headline / excerpt / story you like, you can click on the link for that piece of content and will be taken to the website to read it.

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How do I subscribe to the SoulOfAmerica.com news feed?

Point your news reader to our news feed:     http://SoulOfAmerica.com/feeds.php

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What is a news reader?

A news reader (also known as a news aggregator) is simply a piece of software that you can use to read your subscribed news feeds. It is to news feeds what Outlook, Hotmail, and Entourage are to email.

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Should I use a news reader?

The short answer: it depends.

The longer answer: if you visit a lot of websites on daily basis, or read a lot of blogs, a news reader can save you a lot of time. Sites like ABCNews.com, CNN.com and ESPN.com all have syndicated feeds.

Using a news reader to consume your web media means that you only need to visit a website when you read a story in your news reader that is of interest to you. You won't have to visit many sites multiple times every day to see if there are updates; your news reader will do that for you and will let you know when there is a new story to be read!

So if you visit a lot of websites regularly, or want to be alerted automatically when your websites publishes a new story, using a news reader makes sense.

Some commonly used news readers are Feed Demon, Sharp Reader, and NewsGator (an Outlook plugin) for Windows, NetNewsWire and AmphetaDesk for Macs, and Bloglines.com for those who like web-based readers.

You can find a variety of news readers at RSS Info.

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What is RSS?

Depending on whom you ask, the acronym RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication", "Rich Site Summary", or any of a handful of others.

The meaning of the acronym is not terribly important, however. An RSS feed is a site's syndicated news feed that you subscribe to using your news reader.

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What is Syndication?

Syndication refers to the process that occurs when a publisher provides content in a form that can be consumed by software (like a news reader).

For example, SoulOfAmerica.com (the publisher) publishes a story about family travel to California parks (the content). Your favorite news reader (the software) sees that SoulOfAmerica.com has published a new story, and probably alerts you with a flashing icon on your screen.

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