Staying ahead with

If you're a blogger, you'll probably know all about RSS. It stands for 'Really Simple Syndication', although there's some disagreement about that, but it's the latest way to keep up-to-date with developments on your chosen websites without having to trawl through all those bookmarks manually.

If you have an RSS reader you can instruct it to automatically check our RSS feed for you, and download new listings just like your email reader downloads your mail. No more searching through the listings waiting for that perfect apartment to come on the market! Just let the RSS reader do the work for you.

You'll find your RSS facility is also useful for downloading the latest headlines from your favorite news channel or publication, or getting the latest weather reports direct from the weather sites.

Where to get an RSS reader.

The latest Opera browser has a built-in RSS reader, and will automatically find the correct settings when it browses an RSS-enabled site. www.opera.com

Thunderbird mail reader is not only a great mail reader similar to Outlook Express, but it also has an RSS facility. www.mozilla.com

Stand-alone readers: There are plenty available. Search Yahoo or MSN for "RSS News Reader", or have a look at the ones below. Most RSS readers are free, though often paid versions exist that give even more features.

Windows
Newz Crawler
FeedDemon
Awasu

Mac OS X
Newsfire
NetNewsWire

There are also customizable web pages that let you incorporate your favorite RSS feeds. My Yahoo! is probably the most popular. Make it your home page, and new Lansing Rental Guide listings will be available right on your home page when you start up your browser!

Bloglines
My Yahoo!
NewsGator

What's the URL?

Some of the above RSS readers will automatically find the Lansing Rental Guide RSS feed when you browse our home page. For some, you can drag-and-drop this little icon into your reader. On some, you will have to set up the RSS feed by entering the correct URL into the account setup. It's http://www.lansingrentalguide.com/latestrss.xml

See your reader's help file on the best way to set up a feed. (Sorry, because there are so many readers and each one is different, we cannot offer technical assistance on setup.)

Lansing Rental Guide listings are updated daily. If you have the facility in your reader, we recommend you set the update frequency to 'Every 12 hours'.