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Blogging, RSS & Feeds |
Why Every Site Needs RSSRSS or 'Really Simple Syndication' is not just for Blogs and News sites. Every website can... read more Amazing Information About BloggingA few months back, at the ITEA conference I saw this guy sitting next to me typing constan... read more Why Blog?It seems everyone these days is talking about blogging. Everywhere I go, I find articles a... read more See RSS Feeds from Your WebsiteRSS feeds have made it so convenient to gather current information. If you have an RSS Rea... read more Should My Home Business Have a Blog?It's fair to say that blogging has taken the Internet by storm over recent years. And it's... read more RSS For Fresh Content & Better RankingA lot of commotion was made some time ago when webmasters discovered RSS (Really Simple Sy... read more Dear Web Diary!Blogging is hot and getting hotter, with more and more web logs (blogs) cropping up online... read more Comparing Free Blogging SoftwareWith the increased interest in Blogging (web Logging), many web hosting providers now prov... read more Marketing With Blogs - Part 1Marketers have found that blogs are excellent tools for communicating with their audience.... read more Writing Good BlogsThere's a lot of blogs out there on the Web, most of which don't entice one to go back reg... read more How Blogs Can Be An Excellent Promotional ToolBlogs as an online promotional strategy if done right could save you huge dollars in reach... read more What Blog Can Make Money?How to blog to make money from it? Truly the whole picture of making money bl... read more Build a Website Using Blog SoftwareHave you thought about how easily you could build and maintain a website if you created th... read more Building Backlinks With BlogsThe most boring part of getting traffic to a website is getting backlinks. This is hard, b... read more Using QuickSub To Make It Easier For Your Visitors To Subscribe To Your FeedYou can make it easier for your visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed. With a free and ea... read more |
RSS - The Making of a FeedEveryday more and more websites, news services and blogs are adding RSS content. RSS is a method of syndicating content.The concept of aggregating content in one central location or repository is very appealing. Consumers have become tired of push technology, RSS allows users the flexibility to regain control of their content. RSS feed creators provide content without forcing it on consumers. In fact with RSS consumers are able to choose the content they wish to view. How to Make an RSS Feed RSS feeds contain what are referred to as "items". The items are usually connected in some way and contain a common theme or other similarity. The following feed http://w ww.notepage.net/feed.x ml contains eight items. The items are all SMS and paging related news articles that would likely benefit someone interested in the wireless market. Each item contains: title< /p> description < p>linkThe title and description should be written to describe the content and the link should reference the webpage that contains that actual content. Like html, the xml file uses open and close tags to designate the title, description and link. Tags are enclosed in brackets , like standard html and the close tag contains a forward slash /. The following is what an item in a xml file looks like: The Title Goes Here The description goes here http://www. linkgoeshere.com As I mentioned earlier, an RSS feeds contains items and like the tags above, an open and close tag is used to distinguish between items. The Title Goes Here The description goes here http://www. linkgoeshere.com Another Title Goes Here Another description goes here http://www. anotherlinkgoeshere.co m Now an RSS Feed is a series of items, these items are chained together to create what is called a "Channel". The Channel appears at the top of the file and tells people how the items relate to each other. Like items channels use title, description and link tags to describe its content. The open channel tag occurs before the first item and the close tag occurs after the last item. The Channel Title Goes Here The explanation of how the items are related goes here http://www. directoryoflinksgohere The Title Goes Here The description goes here http://www. linkgoeshere.com Another Title Goes Here Another description goes here http://www. anotherlinkgoeshere.co m Finally you will need to designate the file by indicating it is an XML file by inserting xml and rss defining tags at the beginning and at the very end. The Channel Title Goes Here The explanation of how the items are related goes here http://www. directoryoflinksgohere The Title Goes Here The description goes here http://www. linkgoeshere.com Another Title Goes Here Another description goes here http://www. anotherlinkgoeshere.co m When you save the file be sure to save it as an xml file. Warning If you create the file using Dreamweaver or a similar tool becareful that it does not strip out tags it feels are redundant. In order to be be an RSS feed your file needs at bare minimum that tags that were discussed above, and the file will not be valid if tags are stripped out. I found a cool little free program that helped in xml file creation called First Object Editor http://www.firstobject .com/ Validation As my math teacher use to say, check your work! Once your file is complete and uploaded einter it into the feed validator at http://feedvalidator.o rg Syndication / Submission If you've made it this far you are in good shape it is time to "syndicate" your content! Submit your RSS feed (the xml file you created) to sites just like you would submit a web page. Some of the more popular sites that accept RSS files can be found under "Post RSS Feed" About The Author Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://w ww.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://w ww.softwaremarketingre source.com , and http://w ww.small-business-soft ware.net |
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