How To: Subscribing to an RSS Feed In Bloglines

This is a step-by-step to manually subscribe to an RSS feed using Bloglines.

This step-by-step assumes that you have already created an account at Bloglines and have logged in to the Bloglines homepage. The blog in the tutorial is The Social Customer Manifesto.

1. Log in to Bloglines.
2. In another tab or window, navigate to the blog that you’d like to add to your Bloglines feeds (subscriptions).
3. Find the RSS link on the blog that you want to add to your subscriptions. Look for an orange “XML” or “RSS” icon — or an orange “Subscribe” button — or the hyperlinked words “Subscribe” – “RSS” – or “XML”.
4. If there is more than one link option — don’t worry. Just pick one! Then right-click that link (URL) and copy it to the clipboard (right-click -> copy).
5. Open the browser window containing Bloglines.
6. Click the “Feeds” tab – top left navigation area of the Bloglines application.
7. Click “Add” (navigation options underneath the “Feeds” tab).
8. Paste the link (URL) into the subscribe box (right-click -> paste) in the right frame.
9. Click “Subscribe”
10. Configure the options for this subscription.
11. Click “Subscribe”
12. The new feed should be visible in your “Feeds” window (left pane).
13. Click the feed to test the Bloglines subscription.

Please Note:

• This is the “long” way (the most steps) to subscribe but it is also the most reliable.
• This is how you would subscribe if you were already reading your RSS feeds (subscriptions).
• If you are not already reading your feeds (subscriptions), you can shortcut this process by clicking the “subscribe” link on the home page.
• It is sometimes possible to subscribe to a blog feed by simply pasting the blog domain name (URL) into the subscribe field. If Bloglines returns more than one possible feed (eg, Atom, RSS, XML), just pick one!
• Sometimes, Bloglines will reject a feed because the feed is corrupted/not valid. I know of no solution in this case — other than to write the blogger in question and advise that there is a validation problem with their feed.

Watch this process (screen capture only, no audio) at YouTube or download/watch as a Quicktime Movie. Currently, not narrated.