Three Reasons Why I Subscribe to My Own RSS Feeds

Did you know that I subscribe to my own RSS feeds? Yep, the ones that are automatically generated from my websites. Why, you might ask? Well, there are a few reasons for this seemingly narcissist behavior.

Reason #1: I want to see what my readers see from their preferred RSS readers. I think it's important to get a sense of what people are seeing from their perspective. Plus, I try to step back, look from an outsider’s standpoint, and ask myself: Was it worthwhile for readers?

Reason #2: It's a good way to test RSS reader apps. I’m using Reeder, NetNewsWire, and Inoreader. All the feed items are intertwined when selecting the folder containing my feeds. Content is shown from the most recent to the older content. It’s like reading a newspaper. My RSS feeds are set up to publish posts entirely, with no excerpts. Since I don’t push ads on my websites, it doesn’t matter if readers don’t visit my websites directly and stay in their RSS reader to consume my content. I cannot count how many issues I found with my content or feeds this way.

Reason #3: I occasionally take screenshots for my archives, which are important to me. One day, I’ll look back and see what it was like to be a compulsive creator. I do this even if most of my content is saved in DayOne using IFTTT automation.

One last thing: I use my feeds through FeedPress. This service allows you to create a super-feed combining my individual RSS feeds, which is another way of doing the same within my RSS reader. All my feeds are documented in my About Page.

This article was first published on my Metablog on 2021-03-21 and updated with my current set of RSS readers.