Beginner’s Guide to RSS
We live in a fast paced world where there never seems to be enough time to do what we want to do. We all have varied interests, but what many people have in common is the fact that they all go online to get their content, whether it is the joke of the day, the latest shenanigans of their favourite blogger, or the score of last night’s ballgame. Let’s say for argument’s sake that your interests happen to include all of the above. That’s three different sites that you would have to visit separately to get all your desired content, which isn’t too many. But what if you had ten sites that you visited on a regular basis? It would be extremely time-consuming to visit one site after the other and in this day and age, some people simply do not have enough time. Enter RSS.
Really Simple Syndication, or RSS for short, is a way of distributing updates via a live data feed to users so that they do not have to constantly check for new content on your website. RSS feeds can be read using services like FeedBurner or Google Reader which shows your site’s feed in an easy to view format and lets your reader browse through your latest updates.
People can choose to subscribe to feeds from multiple sites and aggregate them all into one viewing program so that it saves them from having to visit multiple sites and check for updated content. RSS readers and aggregators essentially make it extremely convenient for people to have all their favourite websites’ content shown in one place.
People have the ability to subscribe to RSS feeds at sites they are interested in and to unsubscribe at any time. Unlike email newsletters, RSS feeds do not require the submission of your name or email address, so you are guaranteed not to get any spam. This is one of the reasons why many people feel more confident in subscribing to an RSS feed rather than an email newsletter.
We’ve established the fact that RSS feeds are big time-savers for Internet users because they can get all their favourite content in one place. For content publishers and bloggers, RSS feeds allow them to automatically and immediately syndicate their content. There is no further need for waiting for the search engines to index a new blog post and no need to engage in too much traffic generation at all because your RSS feed subscribers will be immediately notified of any updates to your site. If your blog’s contents are good, then your readers will feel obliged to share it via social media and social networking sites, so this and your feed takes care of the majority of the traffic generation that you need to do.
As a blogger or a webmaster, you need to have an RSS feed on your site, or else you will be doing a disservice to your loyal followers who crave more of your content. If you are an avid web surfer who visits many different sites a day for interesting stories and other content, then you need to start subscribing to RSS feeds. You will save countless hours of your time in the long run.
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Thinking of Subscribing To a RSS Feed?
RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’, it is a format for distributing and gathering content from sources across the Web, including newspapers, magazines, and blogs. With RSS you can quickly and easily get the latest updates from all your favourite websites in one place, rather than having to visiting them one by one. To do this you use an RSS reader that automatically checks for news and updates.
How can you tell if a website has an RSS feed?
Often you will see a small orange feed icon saying ‘RSS’, ‘subscribe’ or ‘feed’ next to it. Usually you just copy and paste the feed link into your RSS reader. Another great thing about RSS feeds: No spam and complete user control; unsubscribing to RSS feeds are as easy as it can get just delete it, and it is gone. Period.
Choosing an RSS reader
There are many different ‘feed readers’ (also known as RSS readers, RSS aggregators or simply newsreaders) to choose from, but they can be divided into two main types: web-based and application based. Web-based readers have the benefit that you can check your feeds from any computer, while the stand-alone applications often have more features and greater flexibility.
Browsers such as Internet Explorer 7, Firefox and Safari also have built-in RSS readers, although these are not as flexible and versatile as using a separate application.
Web Based RSS Readers
All you have to do is to sign up for an account and you can add as many feeds as you want. Below are a few of the most popular; some sites will have buttons that allow you to add it to these RSS readers automatically. Otherwise, just copy and paste the RSS feed link into your reader and you are up and running.
MyYahoo
Bloglines
MyMSN
NewsGator
GoogleReader
Locally installed RSS Readers
If you prefer, you can download an RSS reader and install it on your computer, below are links to a few of the most popular. Some of these are freeware/open source, others charge a licence fee:
FeedReader [Freeware]
Attensa
Lektora [Win, Mac and Linux]
Klipfolio
FeedIt [Open-source]
Blogbot for Outlook
Vienna [Mac OS X, freeware]
NewsFire [Mac OS X]
Browsing and subscribing to feeds is not that complicated. Today there are well over 2,000 different feed readers. Some require a small purchase fee but there are many free readers out there too. Performing a search for ‘feed reader’ or ‘feed aggregator’ on popular search sites will yield many results.
Managing your reader online has an advantage of being able to access your feed updates anywhere you can find a web browser. Plus upgrades and new features are added automatically.
Typically the feed reader will display your feeds and the number of new entries within each of those feeds. You can customize your feeds into categories of your choice and save your favourite entries.
If you were confused or did not know how to get started, hopefully this is a more palatable form to digest.
John E, Media Relations Adviser Easily.co.uk – Domain name registration, register your low cost domain name today! Search domain names quickly, all major extensions and no catches.
How To Setup And Use RSS Feeds To Keep Your Customers Informed
RSS is the acronym for Real Simple Syndication, one of the Internets less creative titles for an ingenious method of tying yourself to your customer. It is a fast way to deliver the latest developments on your website to your customer.
Many Internet users have a number of websites that they like to keep in touch with to stay on top of what is going on. Oftentimes these sites are news and entertainment providers. These sites originated the notion of the RSS feed. They offered their viewers the opportunity to sign up for a direct feed of new information from their site to the viewers site. The viewer signs up and gets a notice whenever there is new information from the site. The Internet user can essentially create a dashboard of all the sites and material they want to see on a regular basis.
Online retailers have taken this concept and run with it, signing up customers with feeds that announce sales, promote new content and generally keep themselves in front of their cutomers on a regular basis.
Here are some ideas for using RSS feeds:
- Send product information to other web stores for their inclusion in their product catalogues.
- Distribute website content to news engines and content aggregation sites
- Communicate with affiliates
- Announce new products, special discounts or new article content to buyers.
- Supply training content to customers or affiliates
Creating a Feed
You can create a feed by using RSS creation software. This software transforms your material into XML-based format, which is then uploaded to a Web-server. To find the right feed creator, search for CNET’s RSS Creators review. You will find over thirty software products to choose from.
Once you have used your software to create your feed, be sure to test it to verify that it is error-free. You can visit the FeedValidator org site to validate it.
You will want to create one feed for each section of your site (for example, one for Product Updates, one for News, another for Service Updates, etc).
When you are satisfied that your RSS links work the way you want them to, create a page that contains links to all your feeds (also known as a Feeds sitemap). Most websites link to the feeds sitemap from their home page, using icons like XML, RSS and RML.
Your more experienced website users will already be familiar with the feature but it is better to add some langauge explaining the feature for people who are less Internet-savvy.
Although many Internet users know what it is, a large majority still needs to be educated. You can do this by adding a few words about the usefulness of this technology, how to subscribe to it, read it, and its benefits to the user.
Use a Directory
As with most marketing tools on the Internet, RSS directories have emerged. It makes sense to submit your feeds sitemap webpage to the directories because directory listing may be more likely to be picked up by search engines than your web page.
Once you are up and running, keep your feeds fresh and full of new and interesting information in order to attract and maintain a large following of subscribers.
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How to Subscribe to a RSS Feed?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, it is a format for distributing and gathering content from sources across the Web, including newspapers, magazines, and blogs. With RSS you can quickly and easily get the latest updates from all your favourite websites in one place, rather than having to visiting them one by one. To do this you use an RSS reader that automatically checks for news and updates.
While RSS was at one point only considered to be a means to deliver news headlines, RSS has quickly become a powerful medium to get all kinds of information.
As traditional marketers are attempting to rein in content delivery, measuring e-mail open rates, click-throughs and conversions, Internet users are fighting to gain control over the content they receive. Savvy marketers and business owners are using RSS as a way to improve corporate communication and increase their external exposure and brand appeal.
How can you tell if a website has an RSS feed?
Often you will see a small orange feed icon saying RSS, subscribe or feed next to it. Usually you just copy and paste the feed link into your RSS reader.
Another great thing about RSS feeds: No spam and complete user control; Unsubscribing to RSS feeds are as easy as it can get, just delete it, and it is gone. Period.
Choosing an RSS reader
There are many different feed readers (also known as RSS readers, RSS aggregators or simply newsreaders) to choose from, but they can be divided into two main types: web-based and application based. Web-based readers have the benefit that you can check your feeds from any computer, while the stand-alone applications often have more features and greater flexibility. Browsers such as Internet Explorer 7, Firefox and Safari also have built-in RSS readers, although these are not as flexible and versatile as using a separate application.
Web Based RSS Readers
All you have to do is to sign up for an account and you can add as many feeds as you want. Below are a few of the most popular; some sites will have buttons that allow you to add it to these RSS readers automatically. Otherwise, just copy and paste the RSS feed link into your reader and you are up and running.
MyYahoo
Bloglines
MyMSN
NewsGator
GoogleReader
Locally installed RSS Readers
If you prefer, you can download an RSS reader and install it on your computer, below are links to a few of the most popular. Some of these are freeware/open source, others charge a licence fee:
FeedReader [Freeware]
Attensa
Lektora [Win, Mac and Linux]
Klipfolio
FeedIt [Open-source]
Blogbot for Outlook
Vienna [Mac OS X, freeware]
NewsFire [Mac OS X]
Once your happy with the RSS feed reader of your choice it will be automatically updated with the relevant information,article or news surrounding the chosen topic area.
John E, Media Relations Adviser Easily.co.uk – Domain name registration, register your low cost domain name today! Search domain names quickly, all major extensions and no catches.
Why Do We Even Need XML Anyway?
To learn about XML (eXtensible Markup Language) we need to first know what markup languages are. Markup languages are designed for the processing, definition, and presentation of documents containing structured information. The language specifies code for formatting, both the layout and style, within a text file or document. HTML is an example of a widely known and much-used markup language.
The differences between XML and HTML are, noting that XML is not a replacement for HTML:
- XML has been designed to transport and store data, with a focus on what data is
- HTML has been designed to display data, with a focus on what data looks like
In other words, HTML is about displaying information, while XML is about carrying information.
Why XML?
In order to appreciate XML, it is important to understand why it was created. The foremost reason being so that data could be exchanged over the web. The only viable markup language alternatives for this purpose, HTML and SGML, are not practical as HTML is bound with a set of semantics that do not allow for arbitrary structure, while SGML, although it does allow for arbitrary structure, is too complex to implement just for a web browser.
A well known example of the use of XML is RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds, which is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it on a regular, up-to-date basis. In reality, these so-called RSS-feeds are nothing less than XML files.
Another important reason for the development of XML is that it allows for the use of data from more sources and in more ways as it has become a widely accepted standard for exchanging data between any number of computer systems. Why use it? Businesses today thrive on data, and said data can come from a number of sources and in a variety of formats (such as databases, web pages, spreadsheet files, etc.). Data can be extracted from various original sources, stored at a location of your choosing, and accessed whenever required by you, therefore enabling you to get more from that data.
For example, if you are required to create a report on budget data for the past three years, however you have stored that data, if it’s in XML, you can select what you need and import it into a document, worksheet, or database – whatever the situation requires.
XML and Excel
Microsoft Office 2003 Professional was the first Office version that took the XML standard seriously.
It is common knowledge that many businesses use Excel to edit and prepare data. It is easy to use and is widely available, and its tabular format is ideally suited to all kinds of information processing, such as inventory lists, customer records, financial data, statistical data, and much more.
XML is called “Extensible” for a good reason: you can extend it by adapting it to fit almost any requirement. In business, publishing, government, science, academic research – anywhere that information moves from one user to another. And it is built in to Microsoft Excel, and the other applications that make up MS Office.
Excel 2003 training will provide you with a greater understanding of the benefits to business and yourself of making use of XML for data handling and storage.
Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on excel 2003 training, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net