RSS & How to Use It -- Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of the article that aims to give you just enough information to help you understand RSS and start using it.

If you sell stuff, you could use a site feed to announce new products and special offers.

Among other things, FeedBurner will also:

Found a website you want to note in your blog? Click the icon in your Google Toolbar and it’s taken care of.

If you provide a service, you could use a site feed to announce amendments and upgrades.

-- Learn the language and write your own site feed. Each time you want to add an update, just update your site feed page.

Site feeds are usually written in a code called XML. If you view the code for a site feed it will look a little like HTML.

Part 1 gave you simple instructions on how to read and subscribe to an RSS site feed, part 2 will give you simple instructions on how to publish your own.

This bit is even easier. Just convert your site feed address into a FeedBurner address.

Go to: www.feedburner.com and enter the address of your site feed into the box marked "Feed URL:", then click "Next >>".

Play around with some of the options and at the end of it you will have a new site feed address that looks something like this:

-- Or… setup a site feed online that automatically updates, for free in about 20 minutes.

But wait, before you rush off, you’ll want to know how to track visits to your site feed.

This is free to do and, if you want, they will even host it for you in exchange for a couple of banners at the top of the blog. The great thing about Blogger is that it works in tandem with the Google Toolbar.

-- Tweak the code of your site so it can be read by all RSS readers, even those that only support ATOM.

You can get the address of your site feed from the Blogger control panel by visiting the section marked "Settings" and selecting "Site Feed".

The other great thing about Blogger is that it automatically creates and updates a site feed for you. Everytime you post a message to your blog, this is added to your site feed as well.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourwebsitename Now advertise this site feed address instead of the site feed address Blogger gave you. It will do exactly the same thing, except now you can login to FeedBurner and view statistics on how often your site feed page is visited.

Third option sound good? Ok, start by setting up your own blog at Blogger.

You now know how to identify, view and subscribe to an RSS feed.

You could:

And if you own a website or web log that is regularly updated with news of any description, a site feed is virtually a necessity.

Everytime you add or change something on your website, record it in your blog so individuals and search engines viewing your blog can be made aware of it.

All done? Let's recap:

-- Buy some fancy software that writes and updates the site feed for you.

-- Dress your site feed up so when someone views it in their normal internet browser it will explain what it is instead of just showing the source code.

Now you know the web address of your site feed, you are free to add it to your homepage, submit it to RSS directories, anything you want.

Site feeds may not be exactly commonplace at present but don’t doubt for a moment that their popularity is growing. If you get a site feed up and running now, you’ll be ahead of the game for some time to come and offer a friendly alternative to email communication.

Firstly, which websites can benefit from a site feed? Well, pretty much all of them.

You now have a blog you can submit to blog directories that allows people and search engines to see updates to your website.

And you have a site feed address you can submit to RSS directories and advertise on your website. Visitors to your website can subscribe to your feed and never miss anything new you have to offer.

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