Manage Mailing Lists using Bloglines Email Subscriptions

Now that I am an avid fan of Bloglines (if you haven't already done so, setup an account and check it out) the possibilities for RSS feeds/subscriptions have been pouring into my brain.

My latest idea was this: why do I want my Yahoo Groups email notifications pouring into my inbox?  Useless clutter, right?  Right.

So off I went in search of a way to get an RSS feed for Yahoo Groups.  Short answer: it exists, but only for public groups.  Most of the ones I belong to are private.  :(

Turns out Bloglines has already got you covered.  All you need to do is setup an email subscription.

What is an Email Subscription?

I'll let Bloglines cover that:

You can create an unlimited number of special Bloglines email addresses that are tied to your Bloglines account. The email addresses show up as subscriptions in your My Blogs page, and email sent to those email addresses appears as new items.

When you create a Bloglines email address, a subscription is added to your account. If you unsubscribe from that subscription, the email address becomes invalid and mail sent to it will bounce.

Email subscriptions are great for announce-only or broadcast mailing lists that don't provide RSS feeds. They are also useful as temporary email addresses.

To rename or move your email subscriptions, use the 'Edit' link under the 'My Feeds' tab.

How do I set up an Email Subscription?

1. Go to your regular "My Feeds" section in Bloglines.

2. Scroll to the "Extras" part at the bottom.

3. Click on "Email Subscriptions"

4. Name your subscription whatever you want.  Bloglines will give you the email address when you are done.

5. Go back to your Yahoo Groups page (or whatever other mailing list you want) and change the notification email address to this address.

6. Done!