No, that’s not a typo in the title. It’s meant to be a pun. The first actual content post of this blog is apropos to how you might follow along with some good blogs (might I suggest this one!). Introducing the web and mobile app Feedly.
“WordPress powers almost a third of all websites”
Before we get into my preferred app, let’s explore a little of the background of blogs. This humble one runs on WordPress, the most popular Content Management System (CMS) on the web. Did you know that WordPress powers almost a third of all websites and over half of CMS-based sites? Every one of those WordPress sites automatically generates an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) that an RSS reader app can be used to subscribe to. You’ve probably heard of podcasts too. Did you know that the magic sauce your podcast app (Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts) uses to find and subscribe to shows is also RSS?
“RIP, Google Reader”
Alright, now that you know the basics of how all this works, let’s talk about what I’ve found to work for me. Ever since Google Reader shut down in 2013 (RIP, Google Reader), I’ve been using Feedly as my primary RSS feed reader. Here are a few of my favorite features:
- Lightweight / fast
- Customizable layouts
- Dark mode
- Web and Android apps that sync
- Mark to read later
And really, what more would you want in an app that’s designed to pull content from a site and allow you to read it? There are a few options that I don’t bother with, such as integrations with note apps. There’s also a premium, paid version that brings some AI and collaboration features to the table, but I find the free version to have everything I need.
Feedly’s Android app in Magazine View in dark mode 
My settings in the Feedly Android app
Ready to get started with Feedly? Visit feedly.com or download the Android or iOS app and sign up for a free account. You can use a number of popular Single Sign On accounts you probably already have (Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Facebook, etc) or create a separate Feedly account (I use Google, because of course I do!). Then start adding sources. Here are a few blogs/sites that I subscribe to:
I subscribe to about 10 blogs with an average of 3,000 articles published per month, of which I read about 200. With so many websites powered by WordPress or other CMS’s with RSS feeds, you’re bound to find tons of useful content to add to your reading list. You may already be manually browsing to one or more websites to check for new content when you could be using Feedly to aggregate all of that for you and have it delivered right into your palm. Have fun exploring and learning!