Blogging

Creating an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is really quite a simple process. RSS is a lightweight XML design that is really easy to setup and implement. It’s a great way to pass on important updates, send out your articles or news, or send out your favorite website links!

RSS feeds can be setup in a very short time, literally a few minutes! Simply put, an RSS feed is basically a text file with a couple HTML looking tags. There is an area with the information about the feed, then individual blocks of code for each article or piece of content being syndicated. It may sound bad now, but I assure you it’s very simple to setup and I’ll give you a full working example by the end of this article!

The first thing you need to do is to create a file that you want to call your RSS feed. It can be anything, the name isn’t important. For this article I will call it “cool_feed.xml”

All the following code will be placed inside the “cool_feed.xml” file. This file is the primary file you will use, in fact outside of one minor modification to other pages in your website you will use this file exclusively for sending out your feed updates.

The above block of code as you can see is very similar to HTML, all it is doing is telling people the version of XML you are using, and the version of RSS you are conforming to, as you can see this is XML v1.0 and RSS v0.91.

The next thing we need to do is setup your “channel” which is the name of your feed, and a description of it. In addition to the description it gives some contact information, the language and the website you run.

Your Website Title http://YourWebsite.com/ What is your RSS Feed about? en-us Your Copyright Line Your@email.com Your@email.com

As I’ve mentioned several times before, it’s similar to HTML in that it has an open and closing block after each parameter. But you also may have noticed there isn’t a closing block for CHANNEL. That is because it is sort of the equivalent of the “BODY” block in HTML, it will do it’s close near the very end. Actually, we opened the RSS block up in the first block of code I gave you also, where we set the version, that is the equivalent to the HTML block and will be the very last thing closed at the end of the XML file.

Article Number One http://YourWebsite.com/Article_Number_One.html 1-3 sentences about your article

This ITEM block is your first article, every time you want to add an update you just create another ITEM block similar to this one. It simply has an article title, link to where the article is on your website, and a description field, which is normally 1-3 sentences long.

These are the final closing blocks of code for the channel and RSS blocks that you setup in the top of the file. You must have these blocks of code at the very end, in this order. I will give a couple of links to websites that can check your code to make sure it works properly.

Once you have saved all that code in your file, the next thing we need to do is modify your website. This set is NOT required by any means, but it tells your users web browsers that you have an RSS feed, if their browser supports viewing them.

All you have to do is add the following line to the HEAD field of your website:

Congratulations, you are the proud owner of a brand new RSS feed!

Ken Dennis http://KenDennis-RSS.homeip.net/

Really Simple Syndication is exactly what it’s name states. A very simple way to syndicate your websites contents to other websites and news reading programs. This article describes the benefits of creating an RSS feed, and not how to produce one, or integrate other peoples RSS feeds in to your website.

RSS is a lightweight XML design with a very easy format, very similar to HTML tags. Simply put, an RSS feed is a file that has a title, description, and link to your content. Implementing an RSS feed on your website takes a very short time and is a great way to drive traffic to your website. But don’t think that article writers are the only ones who can benefit from this form of information dissemination, it has many great practical purposes.

RSS gives you the ability to have a list produced that can be integrated in part, or whole in to another website. RSS gives you the ability to have other websites have up to date, accurate information from you online in seconds. Headline news, technical articles, website updates, security alerts, or your favorite food recipes are just a few of the things that you can syndicate!

You would be surprised at how many websites have RSS feeds that you may not have noticed, generally you can identify a website that syndicates their content by a graphic (normally at the bottom) that says “RSS” or “XML” or identifies in other ways that their articles are syndicated.

In addition to people receiving your syndicated articles over websites, there are many websites who keep up to date databases of RSS feeds. You can search their websites for your favorite topics and see what feeds provide information you like, then have it mailed to you, or browse it online. In addition web browsers such as Mozilla FireFox have introduced the live bookmark concept, which allows you to add dynamic content such as RSS feeds to your favorites, this creates a folder in your favorites and that folder polls your favorite feeds from time to time to keep you up to date all the time!

Really Simple Syndication is a great way to get way for webmasters to provide a valuable service to their users, other websites that may rely on them, and increase your traffic and reputation.

Ken Dennis http://KenDennis-RSS.homeip.net/

It was Friday night. I finished reading a book about RSS feeds. Quickly set up one for my site, submitted it on directories and went to bed.

Sunday morning, I noticed a sale. Idly, I scanned my logs to see where the buyer had found me.

It was from Yahoo! Now that may not seem surprising, except… I had not been listed in Yahoo! before.

Curious, I did a Yahoo! Search for my domain name… and almost fainted in shock! There were 123 of my pages listed – many of them in the top 10 ranks on my best keywords.

My RSS feed had been listed within 48 hours – and since my other pages were linked from it, they had all been indexed by Yahoo! just as quickly. And for free!

Since then I have heard many others share similar experiences. It is no fluke. RSS is H-O-T. And search engines LOVE it.

So what is RSS? An acronym for Really Simple Syndication, it is a web language format designed to help syndicate content across different sources.

RSS has been around for more than 10 years but has only recently become popular. RSS feeds provide headlines and summaries of information in a concise and standardized way.

The rise in RSS popularity, specially among marketers, has many reasons. Email filters and new legislation have lowered the effectiveness of email marketing. Content syndication in many different ways is gathering momentum. And fresh, frequently updated content is the very essence of the Web.

How can you use RSS feeds in your marketing? Is there a way to turn RSS feeds into profits?

Absolutely. Here are some ideas:

# Beat email filters. Ask your subscribers, prospects and clients to sign up to your RSS feed along with your email newsletter. If the ezine gets blocked, they’ll still get your RSS feed.

# Spread the word. Offer your new, valuable content to many other ‘lazy’ website owners – in return for getting extra exposure of your name and brand to their audiences.

# Get listed on search engines. No one knows how long this ‘honeymoon’ will last. But ride the wave – and get into search engines quickly, inexpensively – by submitting your RSS feeds to them.

# Use the first-mover advantage. Dedicated RSS directories are mushrooming. Make sure your RSS feed is indexed in them and you could future-proof your business. Imagine if you were one of the first sites to be indexed in Google or Yahoo 5 years ago!

# Offer your readers new content. Keep creating your own content – but also use RSS feed syndication to offer other people’s content to your list. Less pain, less strain, more gain.

And that’s not all. On a bet, I sat down and listed 41 different ideas to profit from RSS feeds. I’m sure you can do it too – and turn the hot new revolution in online communication into a money magnet for your ebusiness.

Happy blogging.

About The Author

Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian has been marketing with blogs for over 3 years. His free 5 day RSS Primer explains the basics of RSS Marketing – sign up here: http://www.RSS-Marketing.com He is also author of ‘How To Profit From RSS Feeds – 41 Quick & Easy Ideas For RSS Feed Publishers’ – http://www.RSS-Marketing.com/book.htm