Google generally pulls any site with questionable malware out of the search results, but when I went into my Webmaster Tools, I saw a malware warning.

Not good.

I assume the hack was caused by one of two things: an easily breakable password or a bug in the WordPress code. I’ve since changed my password and upgraded to WordPress 2.5. (If you plan to do this, be sure to back up your database and deactivate all your plugins. I had another blog which I didn’t deactivate all the plugins and ended up spending hours troubleshooting. Having learned my lesson, I deactivated everything and found the upgrade painless and without hitch.)

1. People are notified immediately when your site is updated.
2. It’s convenient – people that read a number of different news sources and sites can read them all in one place rather than have to visit each site individually.

How To View RSS content
Subscribing to an RSS feed is simple. I use an online reader called Bloglines.com, but if you have a Yahoo account, you can use that.

Bloglines – Set up a Bloglines account by visiting the site and clicking the “register” link at the top right side of the page. Then, set up your account by entering your email address, password, and preferences. You’ll be asked to check your email to confirm your subscription. Once you do, you can add a feed to your account by clicking on the “add” link on the left side of the page below the tab navigation. Enter the feed URL – like http://feeds.feedburner.com/SecretLawOfAttraction for this site – in the feed field. On the next screen, check the checkbox beside the feed then scroll to the bottom to subscribe.

Yahoo! – If you already have a Yahoo! Account, it’s easy to set up a feed. Go to My Yahoo! and click the “Add Content” link at the top just underneath the search box. On the next page, you’ll see a box that says “find content” with a text box and a button that says “find”. To the right of the “find” button, there’s a link that says “Add RSS by URL”. Click that and enter the feed URL – http://feeds.feedburner.com/SecretLawOfAttraction for this site – in the URL box and click the “add” button. Finally, confirm your subscription by clicking the yellow “Add to My Yahoo!” button. The site’s headlines now show up on your my Yahoo! Page.

To add other sites to your account, when you’re browsing the web, look for either a link to an “RSS” or “XML” feed, or look for the orange feed icon (displayed on the left). Then, click on the icon to get the url of the feed.