Six Apart has a great beginners’ explanation of feeds. Click here to read the entire article, then come back for my specific recommendations on how to get started using feeds to follow other people’s blogs.

The article mentions several feed readers (or aggregators) that can be used to make following blogs efficient. Google Reader is easy to use, and there are online tutorials where you can learn how to use it. If you don’t have a Google account, you have to set one up at www.reader.google.com. Once you set up your username and password for Reader, you can use Gmail and other Google services from the same account.

For those who already have a Google account, just log in to your Gmail account. Reader appears as one of your choices at the top of the page. Click on Reader. The help section doesn’t really tell you much unless you know something about feed readers, so I suggest you go to the video tutorials at Butterscotch.com and work through all of the lessons on using RSS feeds and Google Reader. There are several, but here’s the link to the first one.

If you don’t have a Google account and don’t want to open one, you can use any one of a number of feed readers recommended in the Six Apart article. I have tried Bloglines and Newsgator myself. Both are free services, so I suggest you try them both before making your decision on which you will use. Sign up for a Bloglines account at http://www.bloglines.com/. Newsgator can we used online, or you can download FeedDemon for use on your computer. To get started with Newsgator, set up your account at http://www.newsgator.com/.

If you just want to keep it simple, Google Reader is your best bet. Once you are familiar with how the feed reader works, you can check out the others.

I invite you so subscribe to this blog. The stated purpose is to provide information about online resources for all writers but especially those writing for the Christian market. Check out the older posts, or use the search feature to see what else is offered here.

If you are a writer, there are some publishing industry blogs that you really should follow. I won’t share my entire list, but here are the ones I find most valuable for myself as a Christian writer.

Sally Stuart (Christian Writers’ Market Guide): http://stuartmarket.blogspot.com/

Jim Watkins (Author, Editor, Speaker): http://jameswatkins.wordpress.com/

Terry Whalin (Author, Agent): http://terrywhalin.blogspot.com/

Michael Hyatt (CEO Thomas Nelson Publishing): http://www.michaelhyatt.com/fromwhereisit/

Christian Authors Network: http://canblog.typepad.com/canbookmarketing/

Some of my other favorites are:

Lawrence Wilson (Wesleyan Publishing House): http://www.lawrencewilson.com/index.htm

Ron Ovitt’s Devotional Blog: http://devog.wordpress.com/

Jerry Brecheisen: http://brecksong.com/

When I talk to other writers about following blogs, they often ask me how I find time to follow so many. I use the feeds feature in Internet Explorer 7 favorites menu. There’s a tour of the feature on the Microsoft site. What I really like about this method is that I can see my whole list of blogs at once. The blog names that have updated material appear in bold type. I check my favorites first, and, if I run out of time, I come back later to check the others. Information on how Mozilla Firefox’s readers are here.

If you use an older version of Internet Explorer, you should be able to upgrade to IE7 on the Microsoft site. I don’t use Mozilla Firefox myself, so I don’t know whether you can upgrade from older versions or not.

The only downside of following blogs on your Web browser is that you can’t access your list from other computers. Next post, I’ll discuss some of the online feed aggregators I’ve tried.

Meanwhile, feel free to comment on this post and share any knowledge you might have on this subject. I invite you to subscribe, too.