Have you ever read an article, intended to explain RSS in simple terms that, begins well, but soon descends into confusing jargon or information overload?
If so, take heart, I was in the same place a few months ago.
Often the best way to understand something, is to use it. RSS is no exception.
So rather than try and create a definitive explanation of RSS, this report will tell you how to use it. I guarantee once you’ve done so, everything will that much clearer.
If a website you visit utilizes RSS, there are a number of ways it will communicate this.
The most common way is to show a little orange button with the letters XML. Like so: 
Alternatively, you may see words such as “ATOM”, “RSS”, “Site Feed” or variations on these.
What they have in common is that they will link to a webpage that, in most browsers, looks like gibberish.
It doesn’t matter one way or another, what is important is the address of the web page they link to.
To demonstrate, I will relate how to read a site feed for my website, The Nettle Blog .
Don’t confuse RSS with blogs (web logs). They are two separate concepts. The only reason you see them together so often, is that blogs are the perfect website to take advantage of site feeds. More on that later. Here we go…
Click on this link : : to go the site feed for The Nettle Blog. Ignore the content in the window, just make a note of the URL in the web address bar. It should read: http://feeds.feedburner.com/thenettle
Now you’ve got the web address for the site feed, keep it safe somewhere. You’ll need it again in a moment.
The next step is to use an RSS reader to make sense of the site feed. There are lots of these available and if you are a heavy user you would probably want to purchase a nice piece of software.
But to begin with, start with something simple and free. Start with Bloglines.
Go to www.bloglines.com/register/ and create a new account.
From the “My Feeds” section of your account you can add new site feeds you want to keep track of.
Select “ADD”, enter the URL you copied and hit “Subscribe”. You can preview the results, but skip that stage for now. Select “Subscribe” again and the title of the site feed will be transferred to the left-hand window.
Well done. You have now subscribed to your first RSS feed.
To read it just click on the title and you can view all the messages in that feed within a selected time period. The feed will most likely record news related to the website the feed belongs to.
In this instance, the site feed to The Nettle Blog records each new entry to my blog. If you find something of interest, most entries have a clickable link you can follow.
Anytime you find a website you like with a site feed, make a note of the URL for that site feed and add it to your Bloglines folder.
Now comes the clever bit.
In the left-hand column of your account is an “Extras” list. Select Download Notifier and choose the correct file to download the Bloglines Notifier This file is only 100k so any half-decent connection should complete the download in just a few seconds.
If the download is successful, you should see a small, blue icon with the letter “B”. Double-clicking it will short-cut you to Bloglines.
Right-click on the icon and you can adjust the settings. Specify how often you want Bloglines to check messages for you.
When Bloglines checks your site feeds and finds that one or more have been updated, a little chime will play and the Bloglines icon will show a little red marker. This means one of the feeds you have subscribed to has something new to say.
So there you have it. A spam-free, hassle-free way to keep track of websites you have an interest in. Providing of course, that they have a site feed. If they don’t, ask them why not.
Of course if you are a webmaster or ezine publisher, you’ll want to know how you can can easily publish a site feed for your website and track the visitors, free of charge.
Firstly, which websites can benefit from a site feed? Well, pretty much all of them.
If you provide a service, you could use a site feed to announce amendments and upgrades.
If you sell stuff, you could use a site feed to announce new products and special offers.
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.
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.
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.
You could:
- Learn the language and write your own site feed. Each time you want to add an update, just update your site feed page.
- Buy some fancy software that writes and updates the site feed for you.
- Or… setup a site feed online that automatically updates, for free in about 20 minutes.
Third option sound good? Ok, start by setting up your own blog at Blogger .
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 .
Found a website you want to note in your blog? Click the icon in your Google Toolbar and it’s taken care of.
Every time 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.
The other great thing about Blogger is that it automatically creates and updates a site feed for you. Every time you post a message to your blog, this is added to your site feed as well.
You can get the address of your site feed from the Blogger control panel by visiting the section marked “Settings” and selecting “Site Feed”.
Finally, you’ll want to know how to track visits to your site feed.
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:”. 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: 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.
Among other things, FeedBurner will also:
- 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.
- Tweak the code of your site so it can be read by all RSS readers, even those that only support ATOM.
All done? Let's recap:
You now know how to identify, view and subscribe to an RSS feed.
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. You’ll find a good collection of RSS and blog directories at:
www.masternewmedia.org/2004/02/05/rsstop55_best_blog_directory.htm
If you want to directly promote your new blog and RSS feed, try BlogExplosion . This is a traffic exchange exclusively for bloggers.
OK. Last, but not least, if you have any difficulty with anything in this report, feel free to email me at david@thenettle.com and I’ll do my best to help you out.
Thanks for reading.
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David Congreave
david@thenettle.com
COMING SOON: The Nettle Magazine
The Nettle Blog
The Early Bird
The Nettle Forum
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