RSS, or Really Simple Syndication as it is
commonly 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 have RSS feeds available; at
least your competitors do. You have finally made the decision that you
have to have one. Where do you 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 it is the publisher's decision as to whether to include
teaser copy or full articles. Consider what you are trying to
accomplish 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 have constructed an RSS feed you will need to transfer the
feed to your server. This can be done using a standard FTP client (if
it is not built into the feed creation software). The feed is usually
placed in the domain's root directory like this:
http://www.mydomain.com/nameoffeed.xml , but as long as you know where
it is it doesn't really matter.
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
After publishing an RSS feed it is important to let visitors know that
the feed exists. Aggregators will automatically detect RSS on a website
if you add a small bit of code in the header field of an HTML page.
[link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS"
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.
Article Source:
http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/
create-rss-feed-and-promote-rss-feeds-729596.html
About the Author
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In
addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com
audio recording and editing software.
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