I have been wanting to add RSS to my blog for quite a while now, but am still trying to grasp the concept of it, and figure out how to add it to my self-hosted blog. I found this fantastic article that clearly outlines what you need to know about RSS and blogs. I will certainly use the information provided to try and get it onto my blog, and I hope you find this article as useful as I have:
Copyright © Danny Wirken
Blogs are making it possible for all of the world's information
to be accessible. But keeping up-to-date with the multitude of
information you are interested in can be overwhelming. Wouldn't
it be nice to have the freshest news and content delivered
directly to you without having to surf from one blog to
another? RSS informs you when blogs have added new content. You
can get the latest headlines and blog entries be they text,
audio files, photographs or video in one screen as soon as they
are published.
Figuring Out RSS
You must have noticed the little orange buttons with the icons
XML, RSS, Subscribe, and Syndicate This Site when you visit
blogs. Clicking on the button, all you will see is a heap of
computer codes. This is an RSS feed.
RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, Rich Site Summary or Really
Simple Syndication. The latter is the most popular descriptive
definition. RSS is a feed format that allows blog publishers to
share and distribute content to other blogs or individual web
surfers. Bloggers use RSS to provide updates in the form of
blog posts. If a blog publishes RSS content commonly known as
RSS feed, this feed will include summaries of all the entries
posted on that blog. RSS is written in the Internet coding
language XML, thus some buttons are labeled as such.
The first part of an RSS feed is a descriptive detail about the
"channel" or the source that is publishing the content. The
"channel" may include the title of the source, a short
description, its blog address, date the information was last
updated, name and e-mail address of the blog author. The second
part is the list of items. Each "item" represents one published
piece of content. Each "item" includes the headline of the
entry (title), a two to three sentence summary of the entry
(description) and the URL address to read the full entry.
RSS feeds are meant to be read by a software or web-based
application known as a feed reader. Feed readers understand the
data contained in RSS feeds and translates these data and make
available to Internet users or customized blogs,
Subscribing to RSS Feeds
To receive updates or view RSS feeds, you will need a feed
reader. A feed reader is an application that allows you to
subscribe (add a feed) to a blog and receive quick summaries
when that blog is updated. This application is also referred to
as RSS reader, news aggregator, news reader or feed aggregator.
When you subscribe to RSS feeds, the feed reader collect from
different blogs and organize them in a convenient place for you
to read rather than you visiting individual blogs looking for
new content. Whenever new content is posted from one of the
feeds you are subscribed to, the feed reader displays the new
headlines. You can go over the headlines and if one is
particularly interesting, you can click the headline and you
will be brought to the original source where you can read the
entire content.
There are primarily two versions of feed readers - web-based
and stand-alone applications. Web-based or online feed readers
provide a quick start for RSS subscriptions. They let you read
your RSS feeds from any computer. Some of these readers are
free while others with advanced features are offered at a cost.
Some examples of web-based feed readers are Google Reader, My
Yahoo and Bloglines. Stand-alone or downloadable feed readers
are applications that you install on your main computer just
like the Microsoft Outlook e-mail program. These feed readers
are usually run in the background. A sound or pop-up window
notifies you of any updates. SharpReader is a free feed reader
for Windows. For Mac users, a preferred feed reader is
NetNewsWire.
Once you have a feed reader, you can choose what you want to
receive in your feed reader. You can also add feeds through the
RSS buttons of your favorite blogs. Clicking on the RSS orange
icon, you can subscribe to the feed by dragging the URL of the
RSS feed into your feed reader or by cutting and pasting the
same URL into a new feed in your feed reader. Most blogs offer
RSS feeds using the orange RSS, XML button. Conversely, you can
also create your own RSS feed.
Creating an RSS Feed
You can also create you own feeds. It is a pretty easy task.
The hard part is creating the content itself. The feed part is
usually just using the standard RSS format that notifies the
feed reader which sections of your blog entry relates to the
RSS title, description, date, link and other pertinent data.
This is done using XML format, the standard method of
surrounding the significant parts of the content with tags that
the feed reader understands. Once content has been set up with
an RSS feed, then it is ready for the reading public.
Publishing an RSS Feed
You can add RSS syndication as a publishing option in your
blog. In some cases, this is done automatically, without you
having to set up anything. If you are using a blogging tool
software like Blogger, TypePad or WordPress, publishing a feed
is one of their built-in features plus some other feed-related
options. Other types of feed readers may require programming
skills to add RSS syndication. Once you have created an RSS
feed with your blogging software, pipe it through your feed
reader and voila, a whole stream of benefits awaits you.
Benefiting from RSS
The most compelling use of RSS is that it lets you take hold of
information you are interested in and have it updated for you in
one place where you can read it within the shortest possible
time. RSS has been embraced by individual users, blog
publishers and businesses as well.
For individual users, RSS feeds keep them updated on news,
information and blog posts. There is no need to visit numerous
blogs. There is no deluge of e-mail newsletters that clutter
the mailbox. Unlike e-mail, there is no spam. Opting out can be
done anytime and there is no need to give any contact
information to subscribe to a feed. An individual user can also
customize content that comes to him and ignore blog entries that
are of no interest to him. There is absolutely no need to check
back for new postings as the feed reader delivers content to
him.
For blog publishers, RSS permits quick distribution of new blog
entries to individual users in a convenient way. RSS feeds when
incorporated into a blog offers a more personalized and
interactive user experience, strengthening blog presence and
maximizing revenue opportunities.
For businesses, RSS feeds enable them to do without regularly
checking blogs for important updates or plowing through a pile
of e-mail distribution lists. RSS provides businesses with
much-needed fresh information. RSS feeds are extremely helpful
for brand marketing, customer service, internal and external
communications and competitive awareness.
In a nutshell, if you want to be informed of the latest news
and happenings around the world and is having a hard time
managing information overload, RSS is the answer.
Hopefully, these basics can help you get started with RSS. It
may be difficult to understand at first, but once you get the
gist of it, surfing the web will be effortless with RSS.
About The Author:
http://www.theinternetone.net
Copyright © Liane Bate
http://www.HonestMoneyMaking.comOwning a profitable home based business online is a dream that many people have because they want that extra residual income to travel the world, put their kids through college, pay for a cruise, buy their dream homes, pay off their mortgage, and be financially worry-free. Honest money making online is not an easy task, as some of us already know, and some of us have yet to discover. With all the websites out there, and the threat of identity theft, credit card fraud, hackers, viruses, and total internet scam artists, it's no wonder people are worried about buying into that next best online business opportunity that claims to solve all of life's problems and make you rich in no time flat. Obviously, though, some internet marketers and gurus are making millions on the net. So how do you know who you can trust online, and which business plan to buy into when searching for an honest money making business? This article will attempt to help you weed out the scams.
The first thing to consider is that you have to know what you're getting yourself into before you jump in, as tempting as that may be after you've come across a very persuasive sales letter about an online business. Read each word on the sales page very carefully, and several times over. Look for return policies, disclaimers, terms of service, guarantees, and testimonials. Honest money making businesses will have these available to you, not to mention they will offer and provide outstanding customer service and support and see you through to success.
Next, you want to ask questions about the business and take note of how long it takes to get a reply, and what type of answers you get. This may take place via email exchanges, or by phone. A business is probably more reputable if it offers a telephone number where prospects can call to find out more details about the business, talk to the person they sign up with, and get answers to all their questions and concerns. Check to see if the site offers a forum for discussing problems and where you can get help from others in the same honest money making program that you hope to join.
Asking questions about the business also involves doing research both on the business you have in mind, and on other similar business opportunities. If you do an internet search on making money online, you will get millions of search results on that topic. Where do you even begin? Most people will click on the first few search results, but even these sites you must question because they get to the top of the search listings by doing some careful search engine optimization (SEO), and they are not necessarily the most reputable businesses. It's a good idea to check with the Better Business Bureau or Federal Trade Commission, forums that discuss the business, and product or service review sites.
Further research that you should do involves not only focusing on the honest money making business itself, but understanding exactly what it is you are getting into when building an online business. Ask yourself if this is really what you want, if you can handle the time, energy, effort, and money that it takes to build, maintain, and advertise your business. Realize that legitimate profitable home based business opportunities will, without fail, involve commitment, consistent action, daily maintenance, effort, time, and money if you want to become the next online millionaire, or even succeed at making a few extra thousand dollars per month. You want to avoid businesses that claim to make you rich quick, or make so much within a specific time period and with little effort. These claims are almost always false.
Remember that when searching for that perfect honest money making opportunity that you don't want to be a sucker. Be aware of the scams out there, do your research, and don't blindly trust those who claim to make you a millionaire overnight. Keep your eyes peeled, do your homework, and once you find that profitable home based business you can trust, feel safe and enjoy your online business journey to success!
About the Author:
Liane Bate owns an
Honest Money Making web business. Find out how you can build a trustworthy and
Profitable Home Based Business too!
Copyright © Liane Bate
http://www.HonestMoneyMaking.comHonestMoneyMaking.com is celebrating 8 months in business today! Some things I've focused on over the past month have been making more changes to my website, such as changing and adding new text, as well as adding featured articles that I have written and products that I use and recommend. I would like to continue adding more of my own content.
Traffic has expectedly gone down as I have not been purchasing traffic credits as I had done for a few months in the past. At first it did not make a difference in my traffic numbers so I knew my article backlinks were working for me nicely. But for some reason in the recent weeks my traffic has gone down too much for my liking and I'm not sure why, since I just purchased more credits that don't seem to be helping. Something for me to investigate!
I have started submitting my articles to a few new authority-type article sites, and would like to find new things to post to my blog so I can add content more regularly there. I also need to submit my blog to more link directories and continue gathering more links and visiting more forums.
Here are my stats for the month of Sept.17/06-Oct.17/06:
SFI: Personally sponsored affiliates: 12 (up 2), EA status = 0
IMC: Personally sponsored affiliates: 6 (up 1)
Empowerism signups: Free members = 2, Unpaid Subscribers = 2
Host4Profit signups: 1
Traffic Swarm downline: Level 1 = 9, Level 2 = 5 (up 5)
Newsletter Subscribers: 53 (up 6)
Website Traffic daily low/high: 115/260 unique visitors
Original Articles written: 64 (up 4)
Full PIPS signups: 1
Success University: strong leg active Premium members = 253, 1 active personally enrolled student
Link Popularity: 1507 (website, up 160), 470 (blog, up 69)
Google PR website: 4
Google PR blog: 3
Total Earnings (all time): $193.58 (up $43.16)
About the Author:
Liane Bate owns a Plugin Profit Site web business, is a member of Success University, and the IAHBE.
Visit:
http://www.HonestMoneyMaking.com,
Plugin Profit Site, and
Success University
Copyright © Liane Bate
http://www.HonestMoneyMaking.comSEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is something that webmasters try to implement on their websites, particularly if it's an online business or if they want a lot of traffic to their sites. Basically, SEO is developing your website in such a way that the search engines will display your site whenever someone does an internet search for specific keywords that you have craftily sprinkled throughout your pages. With the millions of websites out there, it can be very difficult keeping up with the competition so that your site is displayed in the top few search results, or even the first two pages of search results. This article will describe a few things you can do when optimizing your site for the search engines.
Firstly, there are different search engines that people use to find information on the net. The top three that you should be trying to optimize your site for are MSN, Yahoo, and Google. We all want to be at the top of the Google search listings, but it's a good idea to start with MSN and Yahoo, simply because it's usually quicker to get indexed and you still get a significant amount of your website traffic from these search engines. You will get more traffic from Google, but it's a little trickier and probably more competition there.
The next thing you want to do is come up with keywords for your website that you think a lot of people will do internet searches for. This is harder than it sounds and you have to be really careful to choose the right keywords and keyword phrases so that you can beat out the competition. The way to find the best keywords to use on your site is to use a keyword research tool that displays the number of times per month your chosen keyword is searched in the three major search engines. You may initially think that the more a term is searched, the more traffic you will get, but think again! The more a term is searched, the harder it will be to get your site ranked in the top few search results, or the first few pages of search results. You want to choose terms that are less popular, but still have a significant number of searches. A good number to aim for is any term that is searched about 5000-10000 times per month. It's pretty difficult to do this without using a keyword research tool, such as Good Keywords.
Once you've found some good keywords, you want to go into the source code for your site and add those keywords to your HTML code in the right places. The best places to put your keywords are in the title tag, H1 and H2 header tags, the description tag, and then sprinkled throughout the text on your pages. Keyword density is an important factor that the search engines take into consideration when listing pages in the search results. While you want to repeat your keywords throughout your text, you also want to be careful not to overload your pages with the same keywords to make it obvious that you're just trying to get ahead in the search engine listings. If you try this, you risk getting your site banned, so try to maintain a relatively high keyword density, but not too high.
Now that you have your site sprinkled with enough good keywords, it's time to write articles on topics related to your keywords. Use those keywords in the article title, the first paragraph, within the body of the text, and in the conclusion, again without overloading the text with your keywords. There is no better way to get traffic to your site, links pointing back to your site, and the search engines to visit your site than by writing a good quality, original article with your search terms embedded throughout. These are the basics of keywords and SEO!
About the Author:
Liane Bate owns a Plugin Profit Site web business, is a member of Success University, and the IAHBE.
Visit:
http://www.HonestMoneyMaking.com,
Plugin Profit Site, and
Success University
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