What IS an RSS reader? An RSS reader is anything that collect RSS feeds. And experienced online users define RSS feeds as the key to keeping current on current events, by making the news come to you.
Creating free RSS feeds is easier than you think. In fact, if you use WordPress, creating a feed is so easy that you probably have already done it, just by writing and posting. WordPress RSS plugins are embedded in the software, and compatible with most of the available themes, so the chances are quite good that your posts have been RSS capable all along.
The kind of RSS feed WordPress helps to create is similar to the kind of feeds generated by news websites, video blogs, and online comics, so readers can aggregate an eclectic mix of online content into one feed reader. The reason this works so smoothly is that RSS links are very simple (after all, the first two letters of RSS stand for “Really Simple”). The code is not complex, providing each feed aggregator with a headline, perhaps a snippet of the article (or perhaps not), and metadata such as the posting date and the name of the author.
An RSS feed WordPress widget generates all this information for you, through parameters that you define. The default parameters get the job done, and done well, but you can further customize the RSS feed WordPress creates for your blog by defining the blurb length, the category, and any comments you wish to add to entice a reader to read your post.
No one writes just to write. Writers want to be read. By automatically generating an RSS feed WordPress is helping writers to avoid the need know how to write code, and instead to focus on what they do best… writing interesting things for people to read.