Need help with RSS feeding a blog

I’m new to this stuff, but I’ve discovered Google Reader, which can “collect” all the websites you like in one place.

Is this the best (or “easiest to use”) out there, especially for the non-web saavy people?

What my goal is to set up my blog and give people that “subscribe” a notification that a new post is up, but I want it as minimal fuss as possible.

To me, Google Reader still entails telling the user to sign up for Gmail, link to Google Reader, etc.

Is it better to just email them notifications? Spam filters are what I’m afraid will block my email notifications if I do that.

What do you guys recommend, because I don’t expect my readers to come to my site everyday to check if I have a new blog entry, and I don’t think I will be able to commit to a new blog every hour or so.

Thanks for any help or recommendations!