Create RSS Feed and Promote RSS Feeds

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, as it is known, is a technology that gives webmasters the ability to easily distribute and publish syndicated content on the Internet. It seems like all Internet businesses now RSS feeds available; At least your competitors do. You finally made the decision you have to have one. Where to start?

Steps to Creating an RSS feed


1.) Build a Feed

There are a number of desktop and web applications available that make feed creation easy. I would encourage anyone creating a feed to use one. Though not overly complicated, hand-coding an RSS feed can become a bit confusing and time-consuming. Most desktop software applications for building a feed include a wizard and contact-sensitive help, simplifying the process of creating a feed. Following a few simple steps in a wizard generally will produce an RSS feed in just a few minutes.

Publishers control what information is syndicated in the RSS feed, so ultimately the decision of the issuer as to whether to include teaser copy or full articles. Think what you are trying to achieve and who your target audience is when building the feed.

Software to Build a Feed - http://www.feedforall.com

Tutorial for Creating Feed by Hand using XML - http://www.make-rss-feeds.com


2.) Transfer the Feed Onto Your Server

Once you've built an RSS feed you need to transfer the feed to your server. This may be a standard FTP client (if not built into the feed creation software). The feed is usually in the root directory of the domain as follows: http://www.mydomain.com/nameoffeed.xml placed, but as long as you know where it is not really important.


3.) Display the Feed on Your Website Using a Graphic of Some Sort

In order to signal to website visitors that an RSS feed containing content related to the website is available, include a colorful graphic on the website. It has become a standard that nearly all websites that have RSS feeds available use colorful graphics such as flags as indicators that RSS feeds are available for specific content. The flags were initially bright orange rectangles but as the popularity has grown, webmasters have bent the rules a bit. NotePage has made a free online RSS graphic tool available that allows users to quickly customize buttons by selecting the text on the button and the color scheme of the button. Once the color and text is entered, a custom graphic is instantly created. Webmasters can easily match the style of the RSS button to a website's theme. Graphics experience is not required. Simply select alternative colors and insert text to personalize RSS feed graphics. The RSS graphics tool can be used by clicking the following URL http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm or choose ready made graphics fom: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-graphics.htm .


4.) Include Information in the HTML of the Web Page So RSS Readers Auto-Detect Your Feed

Following the publication of an RSS feed is important to let visitors know that the food is available. Aggregators will automatically detect RSS on a website if you add a small piece of code, in the header section of an HTML page.

[link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" onClick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/article_exit_link');" href="http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml"]

Be sure to replace http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml with the URL to the RSS feed and replace the brackets with "" greater than symbols.


5.) Display the Feed's Content on a Website

Contents contained in an RSS feed can be added to a website, providing site visitors an alternative method for viewing the content. The information will also help increase search engine interest. Displaying the feed as HTML can be accomplished. Providing fresh content on a regular basis will encourage site visitors return.

Tutorial for Displaying Feeds - http://www.small-business-software.net/display-rss.htm


6.) Submit the Feed to RSS Directories and Search Engines

As a rapidly increasing number of content sources, new and old, migrate or add RSS as a key distribution channel, and as more people utilize RSS newsreaders and aggregators to keep themselves informed, the ability to maintain high exposure and visibility is gradually shifted from complete attention to major search engines and content optimization techniques to an increasing awareness of RSS feed directories and search tools.


In order to increase exposure of an RSS feed it should be submitted to RSS search engines and directories. This can be done manually. Just as you would submit the URL of a website or web page to a search engine you will need to submit the link of the actual feed located on your website to the RSS directories. There is a large list of RSS directories at http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm . If you prefer to automate the submission process try RSS Submit at: http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html . An evaluation version is available.

Creating Dynamically Driven Content

Dynamic content to a different location, such as database-driven content descriptions that are displayed on the website store. To separate the content from the layout of such a system.

The biggest reason people use dynamically driven content is to reduce time and costs of website maintenance. If the content is dynamically driven, the website owner can easily update the content without knowledge of website design or programming. In other cases, the content can come from other sources, reducing the time it takes to create content from scratch (or pay someone to do so). Other benefits include faster page loads and more possibilities for the delivery of the content, such as RSS or delivery for user accessibility.

The methods for creating dynamic content will be distributed mostly in two categories. The first category is the client-side scripting, the mouse or keyboard actions, reacts like DHTML, JavaScript or ActionScript. The second method is a server-side scripting, the response to a form or type of browser, such as PHP, Perl or ASP.NET would be.

The easiest way to create dynamically generated content, RSS feed if you are using, PHP and MySQL database. It is as simple as, to get the address of the feed, the script is used to display the feed on the page. In addition, to retrieve information feed, each item is an inexpensive tool to create a separate page in the feed. This is a search engine page, the items in the feed, it displays the registered keyword is SEO friendly.
Other tools, RSS to retrieve information, view the original link to the item title and few lines. Because only a few lines will appear in the title and search engine, which does not utilize the whole item is not SEO friendly like.

Combining Subscribe Button With A Help Button

Most sites, especially blog has feed-related content, but Internet users do not know what is the feed or how to use it. You may have seen the white pages or blog posts written in (XML, the simple, job, group of this web site) a small orange button. If you are a non-technical staff to want to know the little button. In order to ensure that Internet users know what a feed, RSS creator Dave and promote a simple, universal use of subscription buttons, resulting in, rather than using XML, the simple job, and some web development or combination of feed Subcribe button The Help button, which will lead to the user's subscription and RSS sites explanatory page.

About RSS, XML, Syndicate This Site Link

A button or a link that says Syndicate This Site, RSS, XML simply means that the article title, a link and a brief description for each new page or post are available for you to use on your site or to access through a newsfeed reader program.

RSS is text-based format of XML (Extensible Markup Language) is specified. XML description is useful if you want to share, to send data over the Internet. HTML defines the XML data to display data. RSS stands for is used to refer to the following criteria: - The Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary is, RDF (Resource Description Framework) Site Summary.

RSS feeds provide a list of items. Usually each item contains a title, summary, a link to the full version of the content and a link to a URL of the site. For the internet user, the ability to subscribe to content using RSS means that he gets content without having to browse from site to site and also of not having to worry about spam. The content goes to a newsfeed reader. He can choose whatever content he wants to subscribe to. For the content providers, RSS can help drive traffic to their sites by making it easy for users to be updated with new pages or blog posts.

A lot of sites include any one of the RSS, Syndicate This Site buttons. Clicking one of these buttons will take you to a broken page full of codes. Just copy the URL that appears in the address bar of the page or blog and use that URL to subscribe to the site in your newsfeed reader. The newsfeed reader will inform you when there is new content from a site you subscribed to.

If a Web site to an RSS feed, it is said to be syndicated. RSS is a method by which Web publishers and bloggers their content in a format that can be read. A news feed reader or news aggregator is a software designed to subscribe to websites through syndication. A newsfeed reader automatically latest content of your pages are RSS enabled. You can now update the site in your news feed reader.

For example, you have several favorite travel websites. Rather than logging on to each one of these travel sites for fresh updates, you can just subscribe to their new contents (feeds) in your newsfeed reader software. A click of the RSS button will display a list of the headlines of all new entries from all the travel sites you subscribe to. Clicking the headline link will show a brief description for the entry and a link to the full version. You get to only read the entries that interest you.

You can install a newsfeed reader on your computer and have easy access to it on your desktop. You can also use an online newsfeed reader. Some of the more popular ones are FeedDemon for Windows, NetNewsWire for Mac OS X and Bloglines (web-based, free).

Once you have installed a news reader subscriptions, you can subscribe to feeds. The source of the news readers to make new push to use the content and update the display information sources, their names. Is technically similar to the source page. However, the Web is HTML (Hypertext Markup Language, the standard language, all pages are built) human-readable. On the contrary, the purpose is to read the feed, or by software processing. The source is based on XML technology. Feed readers allow you to subscribe feed in different ways. Most of the web page or blog post a little orange button that XML, and simple, the Group on this website.

Feeds are very useful. They notify Internet users of updates from favorite sites without visiting them one by one. Feeds also allow users to read fresh contents from one convenient location.

Subscribe Button with Help Button - User Friendly

If you have RSS feeds, you definitely would like visitors to your site to subscribe to them. This way your site doesn't get buried in oblivion. You also want to make it easy for them to subscribe to your feeds. A Subscribe button together with a Help button will be very beneficial and at the same time user friendly to your visitors.

Instead of the terms XML, RSS, Syndicate This Site, you can just use Subscribe. It is a very simple word that visitors understand compared to XML, RSS, etc. The Subscribe button is a universal RSS subscription button that lets your visitors add your RSS feeds to the newsfeed reader easily. Visitors will just click the Subscribe button on your site and they are given the go signal to select the newsfeed reader where they want to add your RSS feed. A Subscribe button makes subscription to RSS feeds easy. You can also monitor how many visitors subscribe to your feeds. Visitors will have a satisfactory online experience and thus increase visitor loyalty. However, some visitors may not understand what the Subscribe button means. This is where the Help button comes in handy.

Vis a vis the Subscribe button, clicking the Help button will display links to pages with in-depth information about feeds and subscribing. The pages include basic information on feeds, newsfeed readers, links to further readings and tutorials.

Make it a point that the Subscribe and Help Button are displayed prominently on your site to draw visitors' attention to your RSS feeds and give them convenient access to websites and blogs (the media sources).

Making an RSS Feed

What Is RSS?

How does RSS work or delivery? You have about a particular topic, say issuing a new Web page. Topics that other people will be interested to know about it. Your RSS file

What does RSS stand for? There's a can of worms. RSS as introduced by Netscape in 1999 then later abandoned in 2001 stood for "Rich Site Summary." Another version of RSS pioneered by UserLand Software stands for "Really Simple Syndication." In yet another version, RSS stands for "RDF Site Summary."

History buffs might be interested that there's been some rivalry over who invented RSS. This is why we have both different names and indeed different "flavors" or versions of RSS. Mark Pilgrim's written an excellent article, What Is RSS, that charts the different versions with recommendations on which to use. I'll also revisit the version choice you'll need to make. But first, let's look more closely at some basics of what goes into any RSS file.

How Easy Is RSS?

I've been exploring RSS because it was time that Search Engine Watch offered its own stories in this manner. I've read several tutorials about making a feed, and they generally suggest that it is easy. They often offer code that you can "cut-and-paste" and link over to specifications that I actually don't find that clear.

For example, the RSS 2.0 specification has an "cloud" element that's optional but which a lay person might still wonder if they should use it. Meanwhile, heaven help the person who stumbles into the RSS 1.0 specification and its complicated RDF syntax.

Sure, making an RSS file IS easy for many. If you understand HTML, you'll probably understand enough to do a cut-and-paste from someone else's RSS file to make your own file. Don't know HTML? Start a blog, because several blogging tools automatically generates RSS files.

For those who use non-WYSIWYG web page building tools or personal home page building systems technical staff, and confidence. Even if you can create an RSS file from scratch, as long as you have the extra features, you may not need some exemptions. We will how to do this below. Later, I will mention some of the tools, and even do some or all of your work.

The RSS File

At the heart of an RSS file are "items." No matter what version of RSS you settle on, your file will have to include at least one item. Items are generally web pages that you'd like others to link to. For example, let's say you just created a web page reviewing a new cell phone that's being released. Information about that page would form an item.

To enter your item into the RSS file, you'll need three bits of information:

* Title

* Description

* Link

Requires a precise description of the item title or to see the items on the Web page's HTML tags do not match the title, and description meta tags, they do not know (what I assume is what you use ? of my HTML tags to see the article about how to use what). Any title and description, we can write a page describing. However, the title of your page using the meta description tag, and certainly easy to copy, RSS feeds to create a paste.

In the case of our example page, let's say this is the information we settle on to define it as an item:

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html

Now we have to surround XML tags and their information. These HTML tags are exceptions, HTML, unlike XML which does not exist to set a definition similar to the tag. Anyone can configure a specific XML tags. Is convenient if the resulting XML file is read depends on the program. RSS feed is an XML tag is defined, and set their own feed. To correct them, read RSS feeds that information to understand and use?

Did that make your head spin? If so, don't reread -- just carry on to see how simple it is. First, open a text editor like Notepad. We're going to build our RSS file using it.

For your title, you need to start it with thetag, then follow this with the text of the title, then end with thetag. It looks like this:

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

For your description, you do the same, starting out with the openingtag, then following with the actual description, then "closing" with thetag. Now you have this:

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

Next, we add the link information, beginning with , following with the actual hyperlink, then closing with . That gives us this:

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html

Now there's one more thing we need to do. We actually have to define all this information as forming a particular "item," which we do using a special item tag.

You place the opening item tag,at the top or start of all the information we've listed. You then place the closing item tag, , at the bottom or "end" of the item information. The finished product looks like this:



Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html



Congratulations! You've now made your first item. There's a bit more to do to finish our RSS file. First, what if we have other items we want to syndicate? Then we simply add more item elements, just as we did above. You can have up to 15 items. New items tend to be inserted at the top, with old items removed from the bottom, to make room for new stuff.

With our example, let's see how things look if we add two more items:



Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html





Sanyo Tablet PC Amazes!

I was dubious about the new Tablet PCs, but then I saw the latest from Sanyo. Wow, cool looks and it works!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/sanyotablet.html





Canon MegaTiny Digital Camera Too Small

OK, there is a limit to just how small is too small. Canon's MetaTiny, no larger than a quarter, simply is too little to use properly

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/metatiny.html



Having defined items we want to distribute, we now have to define our site as a "channel." You'll use the same tags as with the items: title, description and link. However, this time the information will be about your entire site, rather than a particular page. That means our channel information would look like this:

All Gadgets Reviewed

If it's a gadget, we review it. Learn what gadgets are hot and what's not!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com

Now, how does something reading our RSS file know that the information above is for our "channel" when it looks just like item information? Simple. As long as we don't surround this information with an opening and closingtags, it won't be seen as item information but rather as channel information. That gives us this:

All Gadgets Reviewed

If it's a gadget, we review it. Learn what gadgets are hot and what's not!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com



Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html





Sanyo Tablet PC Amazes!

I was dubious about the new Tablet PCs, but then I saw the latest from Sanyo. Wow, cool looks and it works!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/sanyotablet.html





Canon MegaTiny Digital Camera Too Small

OK, there is a limit to just how small is too small. Canon's MetaTiny, no larger than a quarter, simply is too little to use properly

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/metatiny.html



There are a few last things we need to do. First, we need to add a tag at the very top of the file saying that this is written according to the XML 1.0 specifications. Right under this, we also have to say what RSS version we are using.

So far, everything we've done is compatible with UserLand's popular RSS 0.91 version. However, it also matches UserLand's latest RSS 2.0 version, as well, so we'll define the file as meeting that specification. This will allow us to add other neat features in the future, if we want.

Finally, after the RSS tag, we need to add an opening "channel" tag. That gives us this at the top of the file:







At the bottom of the file, after all the items we want to syndicate, we have to insert a closing channel and RSS tag, in that order. Those look like this:

This means our complete file looks like this:







All Gadgets Reviewed

If it's a gadget, we review it. Learn what gadgets are hot and what's not!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com



Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I've been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html





Sanyo Tablet PC Amazes!

I was dubious about the new Tablet PCs, but then I saw the latest from Sanyo. Wow, cool looks and it works!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/sanyotablet.html





Canon MegaTiny Digital Camera Too Small

OK, there is a limit to just how small is too small. Canon's MetaTiny, no larger than a quarter, simply is too little to use properly

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/metatiny.html







Mind Blowing Options

Everything shown above is the bare basics you need to create a file and start syndicating content from your web site. However, there are additional things you could do.

For example, rather than your entire web site being a "channel," you could actually have different content from within the web site be defined into separate channels. That's something I'm not going to explore in this article, but some of the resources below will guide you through this, when you feel more comfortable.

As suggested, RSS 2.0 allows you to insert any kind of additional information in your feed. It is your heads and watch them spin, you can decide what to use. The simple answer is, please do not worry about what you do not know. Provide all the options not all aggregators. Above proposal to provide only minimal information, but should be fine.

Did I Choose The Right RSS Version?

Earlier, I'd mentioned there are different versions of RSS. Even though we entered the bare minimum of information, it turned out that we were able to have a file that was easily considered to be RSS 2.0, the latest version promoted by UserLand and which is widely used.

Indeed, the Syndic8 site reports that the most popular format of RSS by far is RSS 0.91 -- and though we've used RSS 2.0, our file as shown is entirely compatible with RSS 0.91. In short, we're in safe company.

What about that RSS 1.0 version that I said was complicated. Well, it is complicated. However, some people might want to make use of some of the special capabilities that it offers. If you are interested in it, then check out the official specification.

Saving The File

Now that we're done adding to the file, we need to save it. But what name shall we give it? I've looked and not seen any guidance on this. I imagine that's because as long as the file is valid (more below), it probably doesn't matter what it's called.

To make my own decision for Search Engine Watch, I decided to imitate what I saw out at UserLand, which promotes the RSS 2.0 standard that we used. UserLand's example feeds all ended .xml, so let's do the same. As for the first part, that really can be whatever you like. For our example, let's say we just call it feed.xml.

Now that our file is saved, we can place it anywhere we want on our web server. Let's say we put it in the root or home directory. Then the address to our RSS file would be:

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/feed.xml

Validating The File

Now our RSS file is done, but did we do it right? To find out, we need to validate it. Use the aptly named Feed Validator service. Simply enter the address to your RSS file, and you'll be told if everything is OK -- or if there's something wrong you need to fix.

How about a quick preview of how your new feed actually looks? Then pay a visit to Wytheville Community College News Center. Again, enter your feed URL, and you'll see the clickable headlines and story descriptions nicely assembled inside a box.

The service will also generate a JavaScript code that you can post on your site. Anyone copying the JavaScript can automatically have your feed syndicated into their pages -- pretty neat!

Get Syndicated!

Now that your file is validated, you want the world to know about it! To make this happen, visit the RSS directories and search engines listed in the RSS: Your Gateway To News & Blog Content article. They generally offer submission pages, where you can inform them of your feed.

You also want to make sure people who come to your web site see that you provide a feed. It's very common to post a link to the feed somewhere on the home page of a web site. If you have a dedicated news page, you may want to put it there, as well.

You can link to your feed using a normal HTML link. However, many websites have a small orange XML button to use to the feed link. I've also seen some sites with a blue RSS icon. I could find no standard about using these. So, to be sure I have all three of Search Engine Watch. Search on the homepage, and you'll see how it's done (and help yourself to the icons, when you need it).

Finally, it's good to "ping" one of the major services that track when web logs and RSS content changes. By doing this, you ensure that other sites that monitor these know to check back at your site for more content.

Weblogs.com is one of these major sites. Enter your site's name and the URL of your feed into the manual Ping-Site Form, and it will know you've updated your feed. The Specs page explains how to set up automatic notification.

blo.gs is another major change monitoring site. It is supposed to receive any changes that come from Weblogs.com, so you shouldn't need to notify it separately. However, if you want to be on the safe side, it's easily done. Use the ping form, which also explains how to set up automatic pinging, as well.

Tutorials & Resources

RSS Headline Creator, you can skip and manually coding the number of headlines you want to choose your file, up to the 15 maximum allowed. Then a form with fields that you be made complete. Enter the correct information, then press the

How To Get Your Web Site Content Syndicated is a Dec. 2002 tutorial by Kalena Jordan and Dan Thies from which I drew inspiration to get my own feed going.

Syndic8's How To Section lists a variety of tutorials that discuss how to build RSS files.

Content Syndication with RSS is a book by Ben Hammersley that was just released in March 2003. I haven't read it, but everything I've heard is that it should be excellent.

RSS Resources Directory from UserLand categorizes helpful information related to RSS, in different categories.

Postscript: Search Types: Blogs & Feeds and SEO: Feeds are sections of the Search Topics area available to Search Engine Watch members with lots of information on the topic of feeds since this article was originally written.

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