If you are reading this blog, I assume you probably read some other blogs, as well. As far as I can tell, less than a quarter of you read the RSS feed, which means most of you visit my website.

While I appreciate the attention, an RSS feed reader like Google Reader (my personal favorite), FeedDemon (Windows), or NetNewsWire (Mac), is a great way to flip through all the blogs you read at one location. (You can also subscribe using Microsoft Outlook, if you do not want to use yet another program.)

If you subscribe to your favorite blogs using a reader, whenever a new article is posted to any of the blogs you read, it will show up in your reader, kind of like your e-mail inbox. Open up your reader when you feel like checking in, and browse through the articles. Saves time, and makes it easier to skip the articles you do not care to read.

Look for the RSS feed icon (at right). If you already have a Google account, just click on it. If you want to subscribe using Outlook, FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, or another software feed reader, right-click > “Copy Link Location,” and paste the feed address into your reader.

Hosting provider? Check. Website? Check. Advertising plan? Check. Now it is time to talk more advanced online marketing: blogs and social networking.

Starting a blog or participating in an online social network is more advanced in the sense that both require more time and a bit more comfort with online interaction. But blogging and social networking also offer new, more direct ways to reach potential clients.

A static website is just a fancy billboard or calling card. But a blog or a social network profile allow you to meet your clients before they pick up the phone to call or walk into your office. You can establish your ethos with people you have not yet met, so that when they have a legal problem, they are not calling a stranger, but someone they already know.

Many lawyers, however, seem afraid to say anything online (or in public) for fear that it will come back to haunt them. To this I have two pieces of advice: (1) stop saying things that might come back to haunt you; and (2) get over it. If you cannot get over it, then blogs and social networking are not for you.

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Like the blog, but keep forgetting to come back? No problem. Our RSS feed is just a click away. What is RSS? Really Simple Syndication, a way to gather the blogs you want to read in one place, instead of visiting each blog separately. Just clicking on the feed link will give you the option to add our feed to Google, Yahoo, AOL, and other readers you probably already have access to. Or, you can just have posts delivered to your e-mail inbox.

Lifehacker just posted a great pro-and-con review of online RSS feed reader Google Reader versus desktop feed readers like NewsGator’s FeedDemon (PC) and NetNewsWire (Mac).

I have been using Google Reader for about a year now, and I love it. The convenient keyboard shortcuts (j, k, and s) make flying through a backlog of posts a breeze. Plus, I just like Google apps for anything that is not overly sensitive. I do not use Google apps for business, for example.

Still, the desktop readers from NewsGator sound like great options. And, of course, you can read feeds within Outlook and Thunderbird, already, if you just want to stay within software you are already using. Check out the review and decide if you should be using something different.