Some of you may have noticed that on the left hand side of my blog is a login box. This is for those of you who have created a reader account.

Which would naturally have some of you ask what is a reader account and why would I want one?

A reader account for this blog can be used for any Blogware blog. When you create a reader account you can then subscribe to my blog. This means you can use the subscribe button located in the top right hand corner of my blog and opt to receive email notifications everytime I make a post. The email will include what I have posted and the link to the post. You can receive updates for all catgeories on my blog (including comments posted by other readers) or just for specific categories - the choice is up to you. 

This is a great feature if you are limited in time and are unable to surf the web. It is also an alternative to getting a RSS feed. (I wrote a bit about RSS feeds in a post dated December 9, found under the The Story of My Blog category.)

When you sign up for a reader account, you will only be required to enter a Username (which is what would appear on my blog if you chose to leave a comment) and a password. You can also provide your contact information if you would like. You cannot receive email notifications without having created a reader account..

Another benefit of creating a reader account is that you can post comments on my blog - sharing your feedback, comments and opinions. By posting a comment we can then start an online conversation/discussion very similar to a discussion board. Not all blogging services have this capability.

Finally, you can login to any Blogware blog once you have created a reader account, helping to build the Blogware community.

Blogs are in the news alot these days. Everyone is talking about them. My blog as you can see, is rather empty at the moment. It is simple in design and so far there is very little content posted.

But if you watch my blog you'll see it grow and I'll explain how it works. I'll point out what I've added and how and if I think it's important, why.

So for those of you who have heard about blogs but are unfamiliar with them, I hope that I will help clarify blogs as my own expands, even if just a little.

Let's start with the type of blog I'm using. This is a Blogware blog. There are many blogs on the market for you to choose from (TypePad and Blogger to name a couple). But this is a Blogware blog and one which I am happy with. Everyone will choose the one that works best for them.

I think we should go in order of what is layed out on the site so far. In the header you will notice three links on the top right hand side: Home, Syndicate and Subscribe. Home we are all familiar with. It's this main page. Syndicate is a way for readers of my blog to get notified when it's been updated. It is actually an RSS feed.

An RSS feed stands for Real Simple Syndication. To make it work you need an aggregator. So what's an aggregator? It's a program that collects news (RSS feeds) from various websites that you are subscribed to and provides it to you in a simple format. So rather than opening each site individually to read what is new, you subscribe to their feed with your aggregator and it does the work for you. It scans the sites you are subscribed to and when you opne the program lists much like your email inbox, all the latest news. You can then quickly scan what you want to read and what you want to keep.

I myself am new to the world of RSS feeds, but think it's a great tool for getting a lot of info and much less time than searching for it daily! Iwill write more about feeds in another entry.

If you are not comfortable with get updates from this blog using the Syndicate feature, you can use Subsccribe. Subcribe basically allows you to sign up to receive email notifications everytime I post a new entry.

You can choose to receive email notifications for specific categories that I post to or to all posts that I make. You can also receive notifications for any comments that are made by you (the reader) to the posts I've written.

Just so you know, everytime I write or add something to this blog, whether it is an artcile or photo, it is called a post.