Recently, there have been many developments in the
RSS arena. Changes that will make RSS a major
force on the web and a dominant contributing factor
to your computing experience. Online marketers should
pay special attention to the RSS wildcard in
any future marketing ventures.

If you’re like the average surfer or computer
user (you’re probably scratching your head) what
the heck is RSS? Never heard of it?

‘RSS’ stand for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ and
its original acronym stood for ‘Rich Site Summary’.
RSS is basically just a simple code like xml or
html. Truth be told, many surfers who use the web
every day probably never heard of html either.

However, there is one very important distinction you
should realize about RSS — one fundamental difference
that makes it such a revolutionary element. It changes
how information is transmitted on the web, it sends
out or syndicates a site’s contents. Don’t come
to us, we will deliver.

Surfers can view the contents of your site without
actually having to go to your site! RSS is usually
associated with Blogs and Blogging because Blogs
use RSS Feeds to syndicate its contents.

Why all the fuss? Why is RSS so revolutionary?

Basically, in a very simple and practical way,
RSS changes ‘HOW’ information is exchanged on
the web. It changes how content is accessed,
instead of the surfer visiting websites and
getting the information; with RSS a site’s information
is sent or syndicated to all interested parties.

RSS has the potential to change every website on
the net into its own mini-broadcasting system.
Sending out videos (broadcatching) and audio feeds
(podcasting) to those you have subscribed to receive
this information.

Websites can now go from being a ’static’ force,
just sitting there waiting for visitors to come pay
a visit; to a more pro-active broadcasting force,
sending out content, news and information.
The implications may be enormous and far reaching.

Already, we see some major Internet and Computer
Companies gearing up for the coming RSS revolution!
Perhaps, the most significant and revolutionary is
Microsoft’s Longhorn announcement that the next
version of Windows will have RSS integrated not
only into its browser but also into their operating
system.

This will place RSS firmly into the heart of your
computing experience. It will change how you use
the Internet and it will change how you use your
computer. If that wasn’t enough, Microsoft’s new
list extensions to the RSS standard will be
under the ‘Creative Commons License’.

There is even a group offering $100 million in
RSS venture capital funding. Based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts — RSS Investors will offer funding
in the developing technology of RSS. What’s a
revolution without fuel!
[http://www.news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5778367.html]

Another Internet company you may have stumbled upon
while surfing, is also gearing up for RSS. Google is
already using an xml powered sitemaps system to help
it index the whole Internet. Webmasters, can use xml
to keep their websites constantly updated in Google.

A while back, Google also bought Blogger.com which is
an online blogging system (Personal web logs or journals
where people give their take on the state of the universe
as they see it!) that also takes advantage of syndicated
feeds to distribute its content.

Google is already going ‘head-to-head’ with Microsoft
in the ‘desktop battleground’ with the release of
Google Desktop 2. Google is also finally accepting
the RSS standard by placing it in the Sidebar feature
… users can personalize this sidebar with their own
RSS and Atom Feeds. In the past, the Atom syndication
standard was favored and promoted by Google.

These are just two companies that are gearing up for
RSS. There are millions more who are starting to use
RSS feeds to broadcast their message, product or content.
RSS is a marketer’s dream. The opportunities to advertise,
promote and sell your products with RSS are endless.
More and more businesses are just realizing the enormous
potential of RSS. Real estate, insurance, tourist industry…

So what about you? Do you run a website? Are you geared
up for RSS? Are you taking advantage of RSS?

If you haven’t joined the RSS bandwagon, don’t worry, this
revolution is very easy to join. Here’s a few quick pointers.

First, set up a blog and RSS feed for your site. This
can be done within a few minutes with a no-cost system
like Blogger.com which is owned by Google. You can even
host this blog on your own site. Another system that
offers more options is the free ‘wordpress’ blogging system.
Find more out about it here: http://www.wordpress.org

But blogs are just one area of RSS, make sure you have
Google Sitemaps set up on your site. If you need help
with this procedure click here:
http://www.bizwaremagic.com/Google_Sitemaps_Explained.htm

There are other simple and easy ways to use RSS on your
site. Tags, content feeds, RSS search… Click here for
further help on the different ways you can use RSS
on your site: http://www.ezinearticles.com/?id=14366

Get your site ready, don’t delay. The RSS revolution is
already started.

Microsoft and Google are just two companies that are taking
advantage of RSS. You should follow their lead and start
gearing up your site for RSS if you haven’t already. The
benefits are enormous and the consequences of not having or
using RSS could be crippling to any online concern. With or
without you, RSS will change the web and the way we use our
personal computers. However, this is one revolution you
definitely should consider joining. The stakes are just too
high and besides, what’s a revolution without you?

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Pressure cooker

We’ve all heard about it-it seems like all the buzz right now in the search engine marketing industry is RSS. If you’re a website owner, than there are two ways your website can benefit from using RSS on your website-you can provide an RSS feed or, for the not-so-technically-inclined folks like me, you can use an RSS feed to keep your site’s content fresh.

RSS is a way to syndicate website content. According to Wikipedia, “RSS is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by (amongst other things) news websites and weblogs…the RSS formats provide web content or summaries of web content together with links to the full versions of the content, and other meta-data.” Wikipedia goes on to say that “A program known as a feed reader or aggregator can check RSS-enabled web pages on behalf of a user and display any updated articles that it finds. It is now common to find RSS feeds on major web sites, as well as many smaller ones.”

If you’re a website owner, you can use RSS to your advantage in two ways: use someone else’s RSS feed or produce your own RSS feed. 1. Install a script on your website-whenever a web page on your website is loaded the script automatically loads data from an RSS feed. If the RSS feed you choose to use is the latest news, then the latest news will appear on your website. This is fairly easy to set up and is good for search engine optimization purposes. I’ll discuss installing an RSS feed script on your website later on in this article.

2. Provide an RSS feed of your website’s content so others can use it. By providing an RSS feed of your website’s content, you’re essentially allowing people to use the content on their website or through their feed reader. In either case, you’re also providing links back to your website, which is good for search engine optimization purposes-it will also get visitors to visit your website. Providing an RSS feed of your site’s content can be tricky to set up-or it may not be appropriate if you don’t have a lot of content on your website. I’ll discuss your options later on in this article.

If you’re a website owner, then chances are you want to keep your website’s content fresh. By updating the content on a regular basis, the search engine spiders will take notice-they’ll visit your website more often and index the new content and new web pages-which can ultimately bring more visitors to your website. For example, if your website is about real estate, you might consider including the latest real estate news on your website. Users typically search for topics that are related to items in the news, so if those topics and keywords are included on your website you can typically be found in the search engines for those terms. It’s like having your own real estate news staff on hand, 24 hours a day, adding the latest news on your website.

Installing an RSS Feed on Your Website

Installing an RSS feed on your website is not as difficult as it sounds. You simply install a script one time-and then anywhere you want the RSS feed to appear you simply pick a feed and copy and paste some code on your page. The first thing you need to do is figure out which script to use. If your website is using an Unix server and has PHP installed, the the easiest PHP script I’ve found is called CaRP. You will first want to visit the CaRP download page and download the file. CaRP has a free version that you can use on your website. They request that you link back to their website if you use it. Unzip the zip file and upload the files to your website using an FTP program. Then, run the setup file in your web browser, chmod the appropriate files, and continue with the directions given to you in the web browser. Once it’s installed, the script will give you code to copy and paste wherever your want the RSS feed to be displayed on your website. You can even change the font, size, and color of the feed by specifying those attributes before the code.

There are other RSS parser scripts available, but CaRP is the one that I’m more familiar with because its ease of use and ease of installation. To find other RSS parsers, you can search Google for “rss parser script”. CaRP is typically used if you have PHP installed on your website, and RSS parser scripts are available if you’re running a website on a Windows server. If you’re using the PHP version of CaRP then you’ll want to use PHP pages on your website-or you will need to parse your html pages as PHP pages.

Finding an RSS Feed

Once you’ve installed the parser script, you’ll want to find the appropriate RSS feed to use on your website. Keep in mind that a lot of RSS feeds are provided for “non-commercial use only”, so if your website is a for-profit website you’ll need to check the terms of using the RSS feed before you use it.

The best way to find an RSS feed is to search for it. Following my real estate example above, searching for “rss real estate” (without the quotes) finds several feeds. Topix.net provides a real estate rss feed. By copying that URL and pasting it into the CaRP code provided by CaRP, you can add that code to any web page on your website and the latest Real Estate News from Topix will automatically appear. Another way to find a feed is to look for a blog on your site’s topic. Most blog software includes an RSS feed, so searching Google for “keyword blog rss” might also help you find a feed you can use.

Adding an RSS feed on your web page won’t get you high rankings in the search engines. A while back I tested this theory a while back by making three nearly identical web pages-one static page, one with RSS feed content on it, and another with a live RSS feed on it. It turned out that after all three pages were indexed and ranked, the page with the live RSS feed actually ranks third-the static page without the RSS content on it always ranks the best. Search Google for “silly burlywood revenue” and you’ll see what I mean.

Although adding an RSS feed won’t get your page top rankings in Google, there are other benefits. For example, updating your web page’s content on a regular basis gets the page crawled more often-and more active crawling can contribute to other benefits, such as ranking for terms that appear in the feed on your site as well as causing new web pages on your site to get indexed faster than they were before.

Providing an RSS Feed of Your Content

Depending on your website’s content, providing an RSS feed of your content might be appropriate. If your website provides news or contains a blog, then publishing an RSS feed might work well. Most blog software automatically publishes an RSS feed of your blog, so you might want to find its URL and start promoting it. If you sell a lot of products on your website, you might consider making an RSS feed available-perhaps one that includes your top selling products along with their prices. Other websites might be interested in publishing that data for their users, and you would receive more visitors and links back to your website, something that will help your site’s search engine rankings.

Publishing an RSS feed is a little more complicated, perhaps to lengthy a discussion for this article. However, there are many good tutorials out there, including Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Watch article about it, as well as the RSS tutorial at mnot.net.

Whether you use RSS to publish your own feed or you use someone else’s feed on your website, both provide great benefits to website owners-and definitely will continue in the future to be used more and more.

Author: Bill Hartzer
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: How Electric Pressure Cookers Work