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Automatic Notification When Build It Solar has New Content

I've been looking for a way to notify interested people when new articles are added to Build-It-Solar.

My first thought was to have anyone interested sign up for email notification, but in the process of setting that up, I ran across RSS feeds, which seem simpler, and have no potential security problems for either of us.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide a way for websites to "broadcast" new items, and for anyone subscribed to a websites RSS feed to get that information as soon as its published in the feed. There is no need to check at each actual website to see if anything new has come up. You can read the feed, and if any of the items seem interesting, you can click the link to go to the website and see the whole article. For people who keep track of a number of websites, its a real time saver.

So, if you want to give it a try, here is how to sign up for the Build-It-Solar feed:

Click on the orange button at the top of the "New Content" area on the home page.
(you can also click the orange button up in the address bar)
This should bring up an offer to subscribe to the feed, and a question on where you want to read the feed. Just pick your "reader software" (see below), and that's it.

You don't need to provide any information or an email address, and I don't have to worry about keeping a long list of email addresses safe. I won't know you signed up unless you tell me, and you can unsubscribe with a single click. Its all spam and advertisement free.

Reading the Feeds:

I'm in the internet stone age, so I'm only going to describe the easiest way to read your feeds -- there is a ton of material out there on other alternatives if you search for it. There are highly sophisticated and free feed readers out there for those who have a lot of sites to keep up with (e.g. Feed Demon).

Using Internet Explorer:

When you click on the orange button to subscribe to a feed, IE will show you the feed contents. If you want to subscribe, just click on the "Subscribe to this feed" link.

The feed will be added to IE's Feeds panel on the left, and you can read and review all your feeds whenever you like there.

Using the Firefox Browser:

First go into the Tools menu and pick Options, then click on the "Feeds" tab. Indicate there how you want to receive your feeds -- basically MyYahoo, or your Google Homepage, or a feed reader you have already downloaded and installed.

Then, when you click on the orange button to subscribe to a feed, it will be added to the place you indicated above.

Using the Opera browser:

When you click on the orange button to subscribe to a feed, Opera will offer to subscribe to the feed, and place it on the Feeds page, where you can review all your feeds.

Gary May 14, 2008