I was surprised the other day to learn that my brother, who is a veterinarian by profession and oversees his own web site, had no clue about what RSS was.
So, how do you explain to someone why they should ‘subscribe to your feed’ when they have no idea what you are talking about? This is what I told him and fortunately, he got it the first time.
Oh, the RSS… well, lets see: 
Its a way to read new content of any website on a single page, so you don’t have to remember each website’s address!
There are many companies who let you do that… Google does it through their application called Google Reader.
Its fairly simple to have a Google account and then click on Reader option and start adding sites that you want to see the newest content from. Also see here: A Quick Tour of Google Reader
I personally prefer Bloglines – another company that also lets you read your favorite sites on a single page – after signing up with them of course… you can see the sites I’ve added on my Bloglines here
I then showed him how to set up the his Google Reader since he already had a Google account.
Its easier to understand what RSS is once you sign up with either of the two i mentioned here and see it in action…
Go ahead, click on any one of these orange icons and you’ll be taken to a page where you can choose one of your favorite readers to subscribe to my feed and you’ll be able to read the latest content of this site as I publish it.
While you are here, I urge you to take a look at the Most Commented posts from menu below the header image OR click on any of the posts displaying in the gallery and see if you like the conversations that follow on this blog.
Don’t forget to check out the Archives for some interesting posts either. Here are some of my favorites:
Communicating with people you haven’t met
Links, Backlinks, Pingbacks and Trackbacks – What Exactly Are They?
Creating Content From Everyday Life
I cannot add my Stumble Upon Fans as friends
Coordination, Cooperation and Collaboration – Lead to Success
Any questions? still not convinced? don’t hesitate to come back and ask in the comments.
pelf
I have a “What is RSS” link on my front page, which also sorta explains on a step-by-step basis, what RSS is.
I didn’t quite get it the first time somebody explained it to me, so I understand the importance of a simple-to-understand guide to RSS :D