RSS or Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary is the latest information management tool that is gradually earning popularity among web users and website owners. With RSS technology, it is possible to get the latest postings from your favorite websites. But clicking on the RSS or XML button in a homepage is not enough to give you the service you need. An RSS feed or code displayed in the pop-up screen if not on the main page is composed of symbols and words that would only make sense to advanced RSS users and computer programmers and software enthusiasts. Another software tool called an RSS aggregator or reader is needed.

An aggregator works by scanning the worldwide web with latest postings based on the RSS code (containing the websites URL) provided or added by the user. When it finds a new posting, news, or update, it will publish the RSS feed on your home page containing the title of the posting, which also serves as a clickable link to the website source. This RSS feed may or may not contain the whole article, a summary, and photos, depending on what RSS aggregator you are using.

Aggregators come in two types: the downloadable program or desktop-type and the online or web-based type. The desktop aggregator usually charges a certain amount for its services; this would include regular updating in the form of upgrades or patches to the original version. This type of RSS reader allows more customization of RSS feeds as well as page format or design over its on-line counterparts. But of course, price can be a drawback.

On-line or web-based aggregators are free of charge. All you need to do is register an account with them then you can start enjoying their services. Depending on the brand of the aggregator, customization is more limited. Some even do not allow you to customize at all.

Product and service advertisers are realizing the potential of RSS aggregators in internet marketing. In fact, several submit RSS codes to several popular web-based aggregators to reach the growing technophile and internet-based market. My Yahoo has been instrumental in popularizing RSS technology to both users and website owners and advertisers.

At present, there are many aggregators to choose from and newer versions of the same aggregator are constantly developed by its programmers.

Below are some of these desktop and online aggregators:

Desktop Aggregators

1. AmphetaDesk

Advantages:

-free

-supports Linux, Mac, and Windows

-easy addition of RSS feeds

Disadvantages:

-not maximized use of screen display

-few options for customizing

2. FeedDemon

Advantages:

-user friendly

-free trial version

-contains prepared popular feeds

-allows filtering of RSS feeds

-configurable watch list to manage junk RSS feeds

-search channel feature that incorporates other RSS services e.g. Feedster

-allows feed storage for future use

-tabbed browsers for channel navigation

-built-in podcast receiver

Disadvantages:

-supports only Internet Explorer (embedded)

-paid software (`$29.95)

Online Aggregators

1. Bloglines

Advantages:

-all major browsers supported (e.g. Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, Firefox)

-user-friendly especially for beginners

-free, web-based aggregator

-easy registration

-no advertisements

-contains its own directory of RSS feeds of thousands of websites

-personal email account for subscribing to newsletter emails (optional)

-allows privacy adjustments for personal blogs

-allows saved searches

-mobile version available

-10 languages supported

-Additional add-on tools for automated blogrolls and subscription buttons

2. NewsGator

Advantages:

-free (consumer-standard version)

-provides personalized news channel

-allows translation of RSS articles into email format

-synchronization of feeds in several devices possible

-browse and search feed capabilities save time on surfing

-allows keyword filtering

-blog headlines

-button-click automatic subscription to news feeds

Disadvantage:

-Outlook-based thus limited to Windows

3. My Yahoo

Advantages:

-Free web-based aggregator

-user-friendly

-customizable home page design

-button-click subscription to RSS feeds

-built-in directory and search tool for feeds

-wide variety of feeds e.g. news (science, technology, local), weather

-connects to all Yahoo features and services

Disadvantage

-banner advertisements

There are also lightweight RSS aggregator extensions which are actually plug-ins to existing internet browsers. An example of which is Sage aggregator.

Advantages:

-free of charge

-beginner-friendly

-reeds both RSS and Atom feeds

-allows feed discovery

-can be assimilated to Firefox bookmark (storage and live)

-allows OPML feed lists imports and exports

-customizable style sheets

-supports a wide range of locales e.g. Catalan, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Korean, Polish, Slovenian, etc.

-easy installation

Disadvantages:

-good for about 12 RSS feeds

-limited use to Mozilla-Firefox and Mozilla-Firefox supported browsers

RSS developers promise better features in future versions of their aggregators. Microsoft is planning to include a built-in aggregator in their next Windows version. These developments are definitely something to look forward to by all internet aficionados.

Author: Jeremiah Patton
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Times

RSS is fast replacing email marketing and newsletters. You would not want to be left behind would you? Your competitor will surely overtake you and speed right up. RSS is mostly called Really Simple Syndication, although some give other meaning to the acronym. It is a process by which you could place a feed on websites that can read RSS from your directory.

Information distribution has been made simply by RSS. Simply put, with RSS, you can place your headline to other website for more people to see it. In marketing, it is a known concept that the more people you reaches to, the more likely that your product will sell.

RSS is an XML-based application. XML is similar in a way to HTML, which we all know is the most common website creator application. From a directory, it would feed the headlines into website that has an RSS reader. Creating an RSS feed would definitely boost up your sales. How can you make an RSS feed? Just follow these simple steps:

Create a file for your feed.

Using a certain format, youd have to create the XML version of your feed. It should include the title or the headline, the bodys short description, and the link where it can be read. There are a lot of different RSS web channel editor you can use for this. Some programs just require you to write news and articles down on a notepad and when placed on the editor, it will show up with the necessary formatting ready for upload. It would be advisable to make at least ten articles for your feed.

Save and Upload the file.

After creating your file, save your work as an XML, RSS, or an RDF file. Then you are now ready to upload it. Upload the file using your FTP program and place it on your web server. This process now makes the file readable by RSS news aggregators.

Validate the file.

Make your RSS program error-free. RSS is programming, so errors could lie unseen. Again, there are different programs that can assist you for this process. You would just need to place the saved and uploaded RSS file for the program to test it against wrong and missed code and tags. It is essential for you to check your work of course. This way, youre sure that what you have is readable and usable.

Create a directory.

Now that you have created the file, saved it, and made sure it works, you are ready to let other see it. The main purpose of an RSS feed is to broadcast it to all RSS enabled sites. So go ahead and look for a directory where you can place your feed. Some may require fees for uploading a directory. Some offer it for free. Scout around and round up all the free sites you can have and place it there. If you have some marketing budget, you might want to subscribe to sites that charge a minimal amount. Dont forget to place an icon of your RSS feed on your website, too for those people who visits you directly.

Update regularly.

With RSS, you know that the feed changes automatically every time you change the main file. Dont let your RSS feed sit there for a month without modifying it. Maintain it. Add new articles. The more exciting your topic is, the more people will check your feeds and visit your website.

Creating an RSS feed for Internet marketing is made very simple now a days. Even people who are not computer savvy can create RSS feeds, based on the steps provided above. The applications that were created for RSS creation are the ones that make it easy for everyday computer users to make an RSS feed. All you need is familiarization with the process.

Start now creating RSS feeds. Give your competitor something fierce to duel with. Needless to say, RSS feeds give your website more traffic than usual web hosting. And web traffic means more people seeing your products that could be interested in buying them. Add strength to your marketing strategy. Make RSS feeds and be ready to sell.

Author: Jeremiah Patton
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera News

Well so now you kind of like, are in love, or are obsessed with RSS. Those little orange buttons are all over and you want to put one up in your web site or Blog or on your wall. That is cool, and it will demand a bit of technical knowledge, some writing, some research and some frustration. So here are the major steps to publishing your RSS feed and giving all that information to the world at large, which I will discuss in depth with examples in this series of articles. Right now we will outline these steps.

1. Sit back, STOP! & Think. (How is that for step one?)

• a. Do you have information that should or would go into an RSS file? Remember that the unwritten rules of RSS is that you must update the file with “new” and more “current” information if not hourly or daily, but at least on a fairly common basis. No one is going to want to keep your RSS in their reader if the information they see every day for the next month is exactly the same as the day before it.


• b. Additionally, though some people do this, it really is NOT good practice to put long essays into an RSS feed. What you want is the first line or description of an object, idea or news. Hook the person so he clicks on the topic in his reader, reads the summary, clicks again and finds himself on your web page.


• c. Do you have the time to do it? There are millions of Blogs out there that were started with the best of intentions. One entry, two entries, three entries. And then they die. Why? Because the author/owners simply had no clue about the dedication demanded and time needed to update their Blogs on a regular basis. They also had no idea just how difficult he competition was to get people to read those Blogs. The same is true with RSS. You start a feed to get readers, or to pass on information to the web. You need to understand this is going to take time and patience and work. This is not a one-time one-shot one-pie-in-the-sky deal.

2. Your depth of Technical knowledge

You will need to become familiar with the following terms and understand them and perhaps learn some very simple things in how to program them.

1. RSS


2. XML


3. HTML


4. CSS


5. Atom


6. RSS Readers


7. RSS Parsers


8. RSS Validation

3. Now begins the Actual WORK!

• a. Preparing the file – You will need a template RSS file (for the sake of these articles it will be called rss.xml though it can have any name you choose as long as it is in xml format.) Unless you are good enough to write one yourself this is critical.


• b. Understanding the Template and what information goes where


• c. Putting the information into the template – Each piece of information you have will go into specific [headers] and you must understand the RSS structure in the XML file to get that right.


• d. Validating the Template – A crucial aspect. Unlike HTML, RSS is very, very, let me say this again, very unforgiving. It does not like deviations from the norm or from the basic format laid down. Getting it right can be the most trying and frustrating part of the process.

4. Okay now you wrote the RSS file, your XML file is ready and validated. Now what? Guess you think you are done. Think again.

• a. You will have to place the rss.xml file on your web site or somewhere on the web where people can get to it.


• b. Now you can steal, get, copy, make – whatever you choose – your own little XML/RSS or RSS – Valid button.


• c. Hyperlink your file to the RSS


• d. Submit your file under the correct category to RSS directories.

5. How many people will pick up your RSS? I will discuss this as well in a later article, but surprisingly, the answer here is still very vague. There are some ways of tracing the numbers, but none are foolproof, and most are very convoluted.

6. Go and get a good night’s sleep cause tomorrow you are going to have to start the process of adding information to your RSS (or changing it) all over again!

(This is a continuation from my first article on RSS – “RSS Mania Addiction – An Introduction to RSS and the Terminology”)

Author: Ted Gross
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Beading Necklace

It’s clear that RSS and e-mail in fact need to be used together, as opposed to either one replacing the other.

While RSS might not be used by as many people as e-mail, you can be sure that those that do use it and subscribe to your feeds will get your content without fail. In addition, many already prefer to receive information via RSS instead of e-mail, making RSS an absolute must as a supplement to e-mail delivery.

Let’s now take a detailed look at exactly how RSS and e-mail can work together.

1. ANNOUNCING YOUR E-ZINE VIA RSS

What’s the use of an excellent e-mail e-zine if it’s blocked by spam filters or lost in the recipient’s mailbox? No matter how high quality content you prepare, if it’s not received it can’t be read and then acted upon to drive sales your way.

Namely, you need to stop thinking of your e-zine in terms of e-mail delivery, but rather consider it as a vehicle to present relevant and related content in a specific context of an individual e-zine issue, which can then be delivered to your recipients in multiple ways.

Just consider newspapers, which are delivered in print format, on the Web, via e-mail and RSS as well, all this to assure optimum delivery according to end-user preferences.

While most e-zine publishers will never consider presenting their e-zine in print format and delivering it via traditional delivery services, you need to explore all available means of online delivery. After e-mail, RSS is the first that comes to mind.

Using RSS to announce your e-zine via RSS is the simplest and least expensive way to get started with RSS and it will help you make sure that your valuable content in fact does get delivered, at least to the audience using RSS.

A) THE PROCESS: E-MAIL E-ZINES

What is the process behind traditional e-zine publishing?

–> The publisher provides an e-mail e-zine subscription box, in which visitors enter their e-mail addresses, thus giving consent to the publisher to receive his communications and at the same time building his subscriber database.

–> The e-mail address is saved in the publisher’s subscriber database.

–> The publisher prepares an e-zine issue, usually creating an HTML document with either full-text e-zine issue articles and news or summaries of articles with links to full-text articles on his website.

–> The HTML document is packaged as an e-mail message by the publishers’ e-mail publishing solution and then sent to his subscriber database using e-mail as the delivery channel.

–> E-mail messages “travel through the internet” and are either stopped on the way by various spam filters and other “barricades” and are then either deleted automatically or delivered to the subscribers’ e-mail accounts.

–> Subscribers download these e-mail messages when they log-on to their e-mail account and can then manipulate them, either deleting them, moving them to another folder or reading them.

How can we now transfer this process to publishing your e-zine via RSS as well?

B) THE PROCESS: RSS CONTENT DELIVERY

We first need to understand how RSS content delivery works.

–> The publisher creates an RSS feed, basically just a simple XML file structured in a specific way, and provides a link to that XML file on his website and through other sites, search engines and directories. The file needs to first be created and then uploaded to the server, before a link to it can be provided. Fortunately, there are many tools available that will do this for you easily.

–> The visitor to the website subscribes to this RSS feed, by easily importing the link to the RSS feed in to his RSS Reader/Aggregator, instead of giving the publisher his e-mail address. In terms of subscriptions, the process is reversed. Instead of the visitor giving his e-mail address to the publisher, the publisher rather provides the visitor with a single URL, which then the visitor “puts” in his aggregator.

–> The publisher now prepares a new story or article to include in the RSS feed. Usually, he first publishes this new story on his website and then simply prepares a summary and puts it in to the RSS feed/file. In this case, the summary in the feed simply notifies the reader of new full-text content being made available and pulls him to click-through to the full-text article on the website. Alternatively, the publisher could also provide full-text content of the story in the feed.

–> As soon as the publisher updates the RSS feed with the new story, the subscriber can retrieve it and read its content. The feed content is immediately available to the subscriber, without having to face any spam filters on the way.

All of this might sound complicated, but it really is not. Let’s now take a look at the process from the e-zine publishing point of view.

C) THE PROCESS: RSS E-ZINE DELIVERY

–> The publisher creates an RSS feed intended to specifically notify subscribers of new e-zine issues and promotes it on the website. The feed should be promoted directly below the e-mail subscription box, serving simply as an alternative to e-mail delivery. Visitors have the choice of subscribing either via e-mail or RSS.

–> The publisher now takes the HTML document he already prepared for the e-mail version of the e-zine, and puts it online like any other webpage. What you basically need to do is practically take the same presentation and format that you already prepared for the e-mail e-zine and place it online for anyone to see.

–> The publisher then creates a new story or content item in the RSS feed, which is basically just a short summary of the e-zine and links it to the webpage he prepared earlier.

–> Once subscribers retrieve the feed, they see a new content item with the e-zine title and its description. After clicking on the title they are taken to the web version of the same e-zine that was also delivered via e-mail.

D) THE TECHNOLOGY

As you can see this is a simple process and it only takes about 5 minutes more to do than just doing an e-mail version, and it will ensure that your content is now accessible to all those that prefer RSS to e-mail, it will generate additional exposure for your content by being included in RSS search engines and directories and it will generate more search engine visibility for you.

The best part is that the technology to publish an RSS feed in such a way is widely available and there are quite a few tools to choose from.

If simple e-zine delivery via RSS is your starting goal, a desktop solution should work very nicely. Just try out http://www.feedforall.com, which is the market leader in this category, or the less advanced but free [http://www.usablelabs.com/productFeedSpring.html].

Keep in mind that only using RSS for e-zine announcements is the simplest way to go and that there is much much more you can do with RSS.

In the next article of the series we’ll take a look at how you can measure the readership of your RSS e-zine version and then take on other ways RSS and e-mail can work together.

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Author: Rok Hrastnik
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: US Dollar credit card

There’s no denying it, the Internet has changed. The change was so
subtle most people missed it. It was no great momentous event, just
a slight sideways flex in how information is exchanged on the web.
However, this slight shift has significant ramifications for anyone
trying to achieve top rankings in the different search engines.
So keep reading to find out how you can use this new SEO wildcard to
‘hotwire’ your site to the major search engines such as Google, Msn
and Yahoo.

Of course, the wildcard we’re talking about is RSS!

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication.’ Basically, RSS allows you to
directly deliver your content to all interested parties… don’t come
to us; we will deliver the information to you or your website. It
syndicates your content. In a nutshell; it’s simply a more efficient way to
get your content ‘out there’.

It was first used by News sites to send updated headlines and
brief summaries to all interested parties. Many people associate
RSS with Blogs or Blogging because Blogs are usually written in
XML or RSS format (code like HTML) so that these headlines and
postings can be easily read and accessed.

Although the change may have been slight, the ramifications of RSS
may be long lasting and far reaching. As the major search engines
incorporate RSS into their SERPs and Algorithms, RSS may even play
a larger role than many people realized at first glance. However,
RSS emergence as a dominant SEO factor is not really a big surprise;
RSS presents ‘raw-timely-content’ for the search engines to serve up
to their patrons — its just what the ‘info pushers’ ordered.

Therefore, you must optimize or position your site to take full
advantage of the RSS wildcard. RSS Positioning! Simple RSS strategies
that you can use to position your site with the major search engines
including Google.

Actually, Google has just introduced a new XML powered Sitemaps. You are
basically setting up a direct ‘hotwire’ — linking your site to Google.
Any or all changes on your site can now be instantly updated and indexed
by Google.

How It Works

There are several ways to set-up a XML Sitemap, perhaps
the easiest way is to use the open-source Generator which
you can download from Google. This is a Python file that
you can upload to your webserver and this generator
will create a sitemap from your ‘URL lists, webserver
directories, or your access logs’.

Once done, you have to then submit your newly generated XML sitemap
to Google — the search engine will use this XML sitemap to
update and index your site whenever you make changes on your site.
You will need to have a Google account.

You may also submit text files containing URLs from your web site
to be included in Google Sitemaps but these text files will have
or will be given low priority for the time being.

To get started on your own Google Sitemaps Account you can click here:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

But Google’s new Sitemaps is just the latest way to use RSS positioning,
its not the only way! You can further optimize your site by
using the following RSS strategies:

Build RSS Feeds and Blogs for Your Keywords.

One of the best ways to use RSS is to set up a Blog and RSS feed for
each of your major keywords. Any major topic or subject on your site
must or should have a Blog and RSS feed to compliment your site’s content.

To optimize fully, it is best to have a separate IP address for each of
these Blogs, different from your site’s IP address. You can even use Free Blog
sites like Bloglines (owned by Ask Jeeves) or eBlogger (owned by Google).
To take full advantage, it’s best to use ‘unique content’ in these blogs
and make sure you link only to high PR quality sites.

Ping Your Blogs Regularly

Pinging your blog posts regularly will alert the search engines new
content has been added to your site or blog. Most of you have probably
noticed by now that using sites like ‘MyYahoo’ to ping your blogs
and RSS feeds is a great way of getting your sites spidered and
indexed quickly in the major search engines.

Pinging is simply sending out a signal to all the weblog tracking
sites that your site/blog has been updated.

Here’s a site http://pingomatic.com that will ‘ping’ you blogs
automatically.

Add RSS Feeds to Your Site

Another way to attract the search engines is to place high quality RSS
feeds on your site related to your subject area. Use these feeds to provide
valuable content to your visitors.

And it’s quite simple to do; just add “&format=rss” at the end of the
URL in your Msn search engine query. For example, to get an RSS Feed for
‘tsunami relief’ you would use this url:

http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=tsunami+relief&format=rss

In Yahoo the URL would be slightly different:

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=tsunami+relief&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt

Of course, you can change ‘tsunami+relief’ with the keyword or phrase of
your choice to suit your website’s content.

Conclusion

Trying these RSS positioning strategies will give your site added
visibility on the web and a greater presence in the major search
engines. It will create dynamic links to and from your site and this will
result in faster spidering/indexing of your sites. You should be using
RSS to basically ‘hotwire’ your site or sites to the major search engines
such as Google, Msn and Yahoo — in fact, it should be your number one priority.

RSS is still relatively new; despite the popularity of blogging,
podcasting, MyYahoo and the RSS featured Firefox Browser, it hasn’t totally gone
mainstream. Many webmasters have not yet optimized their sites for RSS,
so you can give your site a slight competitive edge if you act quickly.
By taking full advantage of this new technology you will see a marked
improvement in your site’s traffic, not to mention a noticeable increase
in your site’s rankings.

So don’t delay, ‘hotwire’ your site by utilizing the RSS factor and you
might be pleasantly surprised where it takes you!

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Multi-cooker

Nothing and a whole lot!

That’s if Microsoft gets it right. First impressions appear to
be very promising and all indications show a much more powerful
RSS system, neatly integrated into the next version of Windows.
Could this finally mean the ‘coming of age’ for RSS?

But what does RSS mean to the average computer user at
this moment in time? Will people get RSS? Does Microsoft
have an education project on their hands with RSS?

Not Really!

Does DOS mean anything to you? If you’re like 95% of
computer users — probably not much. But that doesn’t
stop us from enjoying our computers and fully benefiting
from DOS. Sometimes complete ignorance is bless.

Unless you’re a techie and such technical stuff makes
your heart skip a beat, knowledge of such material is not
really required by the end-user. Fortunately, people don’t
have to understand ‘HTML’ to enjoy the Internet.

Likewise, knowledge of RSS is not important to the
ordinary computer or Internet user. Microsoft’s
RSS Longhorn puts RSS where it rightfully belongs,
in the background, invisible…seamlessly integrated
into your computing and web browsing experience.

It will make RSS an integral element of its new operating
system which has the code-name Longhorn. It will firmly
place RSS into the heart of your computing experience,
enriching and enhancing it in more ways than even Microsoft
is probably aware of yet!

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ and it has
long been associated with blogs and blogging because
they are written in RSS or XML format — code like HTML.
DOS stands for ‘Disk Operating System’ by the way
and it’s the platform for operating systems on your
computer. MS-DOS is the most widely used system.
Ignorance can sometimes be overrated.

Microsoft’s announcement of its plans to place RSS features
into its next Windows version, due out in 2006 and in servers
by 2007, is truly groundbreaking . You can read more about
Microsoft’s RSS plans here: Understanding RSS In The Next Windows.

This takes RSS out of just browsers and RSS readers (called
aggregators); and giving it much more powerful applications.
Most interesting is a new set of applications — Simple List
Extensions — allowing web sites to publish feeds containing
lists such as a wish list or top 10 list. Should make David
Letterman happy!

All kidding aside, for you, these RSS applications will
be very beneficial and rewarding. These applications will
make browsing, searching and subscribing to your favorite
information or sites a lot more easier. You can now take control
of your Internet, viewing and accessing the information you
want to digest.

It has many personal and business applications that will
take ‘keeping in touch’ to a new level. Calendars, events,
updates, personal photo albums…can all now be syndicated
with the new RSS platform.

What’s really important about Microsoft’s plans (I believe)
is the fact that this now makes RSS legit. Lets face it,
outside of blogging and a few alert online marketers, RSS is
still not understood by most people.

But as stated before, people don’t have to understand ‘HTML’
to enjoy the Internet. They don’t really have to know about
servers, DOS, or even ISPs to get full benefit from the web.
Likewise, RSS doesn’t have to be known or even understood
by the majority of the people who will be using it.

But it’s helpful that you do understand for you the
future of RSS holds many treats and the full impact won’t
really be known for years. Under the Creative Commons license,
RSS applications could have a far reaching impact on your
computing world of the future.

The potential of RSS is enormous. It may even pave the way
for a ‘Billion Channel Internet’ — where each web site is
its own little broadcasting system. An interactive channel
that broadcasts audio and video to all interested subscribers.

Microsoft’s announcement may just be the nucleus of such
a system. Many components are already in place like podcasting,
broadcatching, data feeds, etc. and its not that great a leap
or too fantastical to imagine such a system will exist in
the very near future.

For RSS changes HOW information is transmitted on the
web…from a passive role to a more pro-active one.
Don’t come to us — we will deliver.

RSS is also one of the more democratic elements of the
web where the little guy has a say. It was more than
fitting that Microsoft’s RSS team met with Dave Winer
(Mr. RSS to those who keep a close watch on all things RSS)
and asked his opinions on these recent developments.

Ordinary Bloggers have preached the benefits of RSS for so
long; the mantra was becoming a tiresome echo across the
web. No one seemed to be taking RSS seriously.

In that light, it can’t be understated that Microsoft’s
incorporation of RSS into Windows is one of those true
‘turning points’ that has to be acknowledged. It does
change how computers and the Internet will work.

This is a great step forward in making RSS an integrated and
seamless component of computers and the Internet.

At last, someone has gotten RSS right.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Wordpress plugin expert

You hear so much talk about RSS these days on the Internet and in
the media. Everyone is acknowledging it’s importance in boosting
your site’s presence on the web. Not to mention how it can increase
your site’s traffic and ranking. But what exactly is RSS and how can
I actually use it on my site? Try these Five Easy Ways…

First, just what is RSS?

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. Basically, RSS allows
you to directly deliver your content to all interested parties…
don’t come to us; we will deliver the information to you or your website.

It syndicates your content. It lets you send updated headlines and
brief summaries to your subscribers. In a nutshell; it’s simply
a more efficient way to get your content ‘out there’.

Many people associate RSS with Blogs or Blogging because Blogs
are usually written in XML or RSS format (code like html) so that
these headlines and postings can be easily read and accessed.

RSS has been around for awhile but it really didn’t catch
on when users had to use RSS readers or aggregators but with
the increasing popularity of MyYahoo, the Firefox Browser
and Blogging…RSS is becoming: more popular, more accessible
and more mainstream.

That’s great –you say– but just how do I put the
stuff on my site!

If you’re wondering how to actually use RSS and Benefit from
it — Try these Five Easy Ways…

1. How do I Get My OWN RSS Feed?

First, you need to get an RSS Feed for your site. There are
several ways to do this. Let’s just stick with the easiest.
You can use a site like http://www.blogger.com and start a Blog on
your site’s topic or any topic that interests you.

Creating a blog with sites like Blogger (owned by Google)
or Bloglines (recently acquired by Ask Jeeves) is quick,
fast, and painless. Within minutes you can have your own blog
up and running.

This Blog will also supply you with an RSS Feed that you can
place on your site. Get a XML or RSS orange button and place
it on your site. Link it to your RSS Feed url – this is your
atom.xml link if you’re using Blogger.

You can also use a MyYahoo button so visitors can add your
feed to their MyYahoo. Each time a subscriber opens their
MyYahoo site; your RSS Feed will be updated.

You can also add ‘MyMsn’ and ‘Bloglines’ buttons on your site.
Plus others, give your visitors every opportunity to subscribe
to your RSS Feed or Blog, and you will see a marked increase in
visitors to your site.

Of course, you can also get your own blogging software and install
it on your site. For those who want to choose this route, it might
be helpful to check out this comprehensive comparison of the different
blogging software here:
http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm

2. How Do I Place Other RSS Feeds On My Site?

Have a cool RSS Feed from your favorite site and you want to
place that Feed’s content on your own site. How is it done?

It’s a lot easier than you think!

There are several ways, but we’ll again stick with the
easiest way. If you just want to place headlines on your
site – try a free service like http://www.feedburner.com and you
will get a headline animator. This will display the RSS feed’s
headlines with links to the content.

If you want to place other content from a feed on your site
- one of the easiest ways I found is to use this free site:
[http://www.bigbold.com/rssdigest/]

This site will generate the source code (html or javascript)
that you need to place into your webpages. It’s good because
it gives your code in several options: Javascript, Php file,
and Iframe.

Keep in mind that Search Engines cannot or don’t read
javascript so if you want this daily updated content to be
indexed please be aware of this.

Just take this code and add it your webpages where you
want this content to go.

3. How do I place MSN Search Results Directly on My Site?

MSN has come out with their Beta Program using RSS in their
search. You can now place RSS search results directly onto
your website. It can enrich your site with daily updated content.

And it’s quite simple to use; just add “&format=rss” at the end of the
URL in your MSN search engine query. For example, to get an RSS Feed for
‘tsunami relief’ you would use this url: http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=tsunami+relief&format=rss

4. How do I place Yahoo Results on my site?

In Yahoo the URL would be slightly different:

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=tsunami+relief&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt

Of course, in both cases you can change ‘tsunami+relief’ with the keyword
or phrase of your choice to suit your website’s content.

Yahoo also has an RSS Search Directory here:
http://news.yahoo.com/rss

5. What are Tags? How can I use them on my site?

Tags are more or less keywords for blogs and you should
take advantage of them to bring targeted traffic to your
site or blog.

Tags have hit the radar lately because Technorati, which
indexes 4.5 million blogs, started sorting blog posts by
using tags.

They have created a folksonomy, drawing tags from
different sources, mainly Flickr.com which sorts or
groups pictures and from del.icio.us — where you
create a tag when you bookmark a page.

Or if your blogging software supports categories; this will
be recognized by Technorati as a tag.

If you want to create a ‘tag’ it’s very simple; just place
this code in your blog:

Computers
(remove asterisks in actual code)

and you will have created a tag for computers.

Conclusion

You have just discovered five easy ways to put RSS on your
website, but you have to implement this newly acquired information
in order to see any results. You don’t have to try all five — just
pick a few and put them on your site. Just take action and do it.

It’s fairly easy, and you will see the benefits of RSS
almost immediately. You will also see what all the fuss is
about!

Copyright © 2005 – Bizwaremagic.com

This article may be freely distributed if this resource

box stays attached.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: How Electric Pressure Cookers Work

One of the very first articles I ever wrote on Internet Marketing had to do with RSS and it was entitled “10 Reasons To Put RSS On Your Site.” That was in 2004 and RSS was somewhat new and many webmasters were just beginning to place blogs and RSS feeds on their sites. If you do a search in Google, you can still find that article on around 2,000 sites.

Most people now refer to RSS as “Really Simple Syndication” — although it originally stood for “Rich Site Summary” and was a very simple way of summarizing and syndicating your content in real-time to all interested parties.

RSS had its early beginnings with Netscape in 1991 which introduced the first version of RSS (RDF Site Summary). Later versions would be introduced and made popular by Dave Winer of ScriptingNews and Userland fame who is considered by many to be one of the major founding fathers of RSS.

Most people today associate RSS with blogs and blogging. You can read RSS content by using an RSS feed reader or “aggregator” which can be desktop or web-based. Some common feed readers include FeedDemon, My Yahoo!, iGoogle and Firefox (Live Bookmarks). You subscribe to your favorite RSS feed by clicking the small icon on your favorite blog or site and then when fresh content is published via RSS your reader can immediately retrieve and display it for you.

RSS is a very simple way of keeping up to date and in contact with your favorite site or topic. It makes staying informed easy to do and it provides site/blog owners a simple way of distributing their content.

One can’t but wonder has RSS lived up to all that early hype?

Perhaps that question can only be answered by looking at the popularity of blogging and the role it now plays on the web. No one can deny blogs and their accompanying RSS feeds carry tremendous weight, no matter which way you measure it. Can anyone now imagine the World Wide Web without blogs?

But the importance of RSS goes beyond just blogging, we tend to forget how important it is for all the new social media sites like Digg, Technorati, Reddit… and not to forget fast growing applications like Twitter.

People also forget RSS feeds play a major role in online retail and affiliate programs. For example, you can get an RSS feed of all the latest Amazon products to place on your site. Many major online companies now have these product feeds to help promote and sell their wares.

XML and RSS have blended so seamlessly into many browsers and operating systems most users are blissfully unaware they’re even using RSS. Maybe that’s how things should be; with RSS, the ever-present workhorse, quietly doing its job behind the scenes.

RSS is just as important now as it was five years ago; actually its influence and presence has only grown stronger over the years. If you have not fully embraced RSS and placed it on your site and in your online marketing you’re missing out on one of the best opportunities to spread your message on the web.

RSS is here to stay and even has its own advisory board to help with the technical and programming side of RSS. They also list a very handy “RSS Best Practices Profile” for any webmaster wishing to create their own XML-based RSS documents. rssboard.org

Why should you use RSS?

Well, the list of reasons is quite long but RSS can help you: syndicate your content in real-time, sell your products, build your list, gather fresh content, promote your company and boost that one vital element everyone needs more of on the web — traffic. For those who have taken full advantage of RSS it has delivered in more ways than one for it has truly turned into that Golden Goose with the Midas complex. RSS has simply proven beneficial to those users who have fully embraced it.

Now, you still don’t really need 10 reasons to put RSS on your site, do you?

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Duty on LCD/Plasma TV

You have the website, the product, and compelling content to attract readers to purchase your book, your CD, or whatever items you choose to sell. You may notice a surge in traffic as you build your site and employ various search engine optimization tactics, but are not wholly satisfied.

You know you can attract more visitors if you could just reach them. You have a weblog attached to your site, and you write wonderful articles which receive much praise. What else is there to do?

Have you considered syndicating your content and products to users with an RSS feed? Do you even know what RSS is?

Simply defined, RSS is an XML-based format. XML, for the novice, stands for Xtreme Markup Language, a special coding language that represents information for resources in the World Wide Web. Using the XML, one can permit the distribution, or syndication, of content to users who collect such data through specialized aggregators, or readers. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, and once you get used to the idea it really can be simple.

By creating an RSS “feed” (think of a news ticker on a cable network, providing up-to-date information in real time), one can distribute product content, articles, pictures, and even embedded video, audio, and links. This information is used to entice users to click through to the host site.

RSS allows a person’s computer to fetch and understand the information, so that all of the lists that person is interested in can be tracked and personalized for them. RSS differs from a traditional website in that the information is usually presented elsewhere. Say for example an Internet user has a personalize start page with My Yahoo! On this start page is information on various sports teams so the user can keep track of the playoffs. Yahoo allows the user to edit what information is displayed so only the information the user wants is visible. The user may aggregate information from various sports websites that offer RSS data, and place it on the Yahoo page.

When the user visits his start up page, he will see headlines from the many sports websites fed into the page. If there is a headline that appeals to the user, a click on the link will direct him to the site. Think of RSS feeds as puzzle pieces, brought together to create custom designs for Web users all over the world.

Sites that allow for the opportunity to generate updated, fresh content can benefit from offering an RSS feed. Whether you sell products or services, want to promote a new book or film, an RSS feed attached to your site can extend your site’s reach and increase traffic. Having an RSS feed attached to a site also allows for the opportunity to submit to RSS specific search engines, thereby increasing awareness of the site. As you research RSS, you may find there are feeds for just about every subject of conversation, from sports to movies, multi-cultural issues to religion. Shopping sites use RSS to advertise sales, while travel site promote discount airfares for frequent flyers. There is no limit to what you can promote with RSS.

Creating an RSS Feed

Now that you have decided to promote yourself and your products with RSS, it is time to create a feed and attract the traffic you want. Creating a feed is different from creating website. Though there is content involved, you do not need to worry much about presentation and design, as different RSS readers tend to presently only the text and links associated with the feed content.

If you are unfamiliar with hand-coding XML, it would be best to create your RSS through either special software or through a third-party website that creates and hosts feeds. A quick Internet search on “RSS builders” and “RSS host sites” will lead you in the right direction.

If you have a weblog with a third-party host, you may note that this content is already being syndicated. If so, you may want to consider changing the focus of your blog to better sell your products, or create a second feed for better sale emphasis.

Once you have decided on the method of production, it’s time to produce!

Writing RSS content can be likened to ad copy. You want to use attention-getting headlines that will entice readers to click through to your site. As some RSS readers display only the headline rather than an abstract of the content, you want to be concise and compelling. “Save now on special purchase,” “Buy one, get one free!” Make the reader want to click to read more.

Depending upon the RSS aggregator, the reader will immediately click-through to your site, or be taken to your RSS content. Either way, it is important that all clicks eventually lead to the point of sale. Keep RSS posts short and direct. Tempt the reader to click through to your site to learn more about buying your book, CD, or product. Link to the sale page rather than the home page so a reader won’t become frustrated with having to navigate your entire site. Hot link a photo of the item using the IMG tag to give your feed an attractive look. If you use an RSS software or third party site, you may be able to use such coding, be sure to check.

Promoting with an RSS Feed

As search engines become more adept at collecting information, they are devising new ways to get this data. Some engines, like Google, have special spiders that mine the Internet solely for RSS-based information. If you want your RSS feed to be found, whether you host it on your site as an RSS or XML file, or host through a third party website, you will need to have the URL of the feed on your front page so people can subscribe to it.

Clicking on the link will not open the feed like a website, but depending upon the browser being used to view the feed it may take the user to an option that allows him to save your feed’s information. A quick Internet search on RSS tutorials will give you a special code you can put on your site to alert spiders to your feed, too. Also, there do exist RSS search engine where you can submit your feed for inclusion.

The one advantage to having an RSS feed is that what content you provide remains available to users who find it during search. To improve the likelihood of traffic increases, add to your RSS feed regularly, advertising all news and specials related to your books, music, or services. Your ability to prove Internet savvy can attract a new audience to your site, and in turn improve your sales.

Author: Kathryn Lively
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Duty tariff

One of the biggest reasons people visit websites is to get information. If you can regularly provide fresh, quality content on your website you can expect to be rewarded by visitors and return visitors. What’s more, you will be rewarded by the search engines. I recommended that you add new and original content to your site as often as possible, ideally once a day.

Regularly adding fresh and original content:

- Keeps your site visitors coming back

- Continually adds value to your website

- Makes people more comfortable buying from your site

- Establishes yourself as an authority in your industry

- Greatly helps your site rank higher in search engines

All of the above factors translate into revenue.

We all know how hard adding original and fresh content is, especially if you’re the business owner. You have to be original, creative, organized, thoughtful and motivated, and above all, able to write. So what’s a website owner or business owner supposed to do? RSS may be the answer.

What Is RSS?

Here’s the Wikipedia definition of RSS:
RSS is a family of web feed formats specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats) and used for Web syndication. RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an “RSS feed”, “webfeed”, “RSS stream”, or “RSS channel”. These RSS feeds provide a way for users to passively receive newly released content (such as text, web pages, sound files, or other media); this might be the full content itself or just a link to it, possibly with a summary or other metadata (data describing the content).

RSS feeds are operated by many news web sites, weblogs, schools, and podcasters.

“RSS” can stand for any of the following phrases:

Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)

RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)

Want to see an example of RSS in action? Go to the Oak Web Works, LLC homepage (www.oakwebworks.com/), and look at the bottom of the right-hand column under the title ‘Latest Tech News’. This is actually two RSS feeds from other websites.

Our company homepage was very static. It didn’t change very much since the services we offer stay basically the same. Why should any visitors come back if every time they come to our site, the content is exactly the same? They don’t have much of a reason.

Interestingly, that’s the way search engine spiders were programmed to “think” as well. Spiders are programs written for search engines to regularly surf the Web and record what’s there. That recording goes into the search engine’s databases ready to be accessed by the next searcher. This process is called indexing.

For example, Google will send out a spider to your site and index a lot of it, but not always all of it. It determines how often to revisit and index your site by how often you update it. If you update it every day, then it will visit much more often than if you rarely update it. Engines also consider the homepage to be the most important page, so it’s good to update it even more often than the rest of your site.

Again, if you struggle with adding fresh content, then RSS may be the answer. We didn’t write the headlines under ‘Latest Tech News’ on our homepage. Instead, the RSS feed automatically grabbed it from another site that had created them. Once we set the feed up, we don’t have to do anything more, and our homepage has regularly updated content. Every time those headlines change, it updates its feed, which is then updated on any other websites displaying that feed, as well as ours.

RSS feeds can be more than news headlines. They can be lists of any kind. They can be press releases, articles, blog entries, product releases, or almost any other grouping of changing or growing data.

How Do I Set An RSS Feed Up?

There are a number of ways in which you can display an RSS feed on your website. You can use JavaScript or various other scripting languages. Unfortunately, RSS that uses JavaScript is not seen at all by search engines when they come and index your site, so don’t use JavaScript.

Instead, use a script that can be handled by your Web server besides JavaScript. Ask your hosting company or IT people what platform your Web server uses and what software or modules are loaded onto the machine. This will determine what scripting language you can use for your RSS.

Check if your Web server has PHP capabilities. If so, then there are hundreds of scripts written in PHP that you can use for free that properly displays RSS feeds that are recognized by search engines. There are RSS scripts written in ASP.NET, Perl and numerous other languages, so you have a wide variety to choose from.

For the Oak Web Works, LLC homepage we used an ASP script called RSStoHTML.

Which one would you choose? After you’ve determined which languages your Web server supports, conduct a search such as “PHP script for displaying RSS feeds in html” or ‘ASP and RSS’, for example. Try a few and see which ones run on your server. If one runs on your server properly, and you check this by simply seeing if it displays RSS feeds on your Web page, then use that one.

When you download the script, look at the code and find where to add an RSS feed URL. There should be a dummy one in there already, so just replace that one with the RSS feed you want to use. Here’s what a typical RSS feed URL looks like: http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/userland/Technology.xml
The URL’s often end in ‘.rss’ as well.

After we inserted the RSS feed URL into the script, we wanted to display the feed in HTML on our homepage. To do this we added the following bit of code into the spot on our homepage html code where we wanted it to display:

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Keep in mind that this is for a Windows Web server. The way in which you include it on a website powered by a UNIX Web server will be a little different. If you’re not sure, ask your hosting company.

Where can I find feeds that are relevant to my website’s content?

First you can try these:

- Syndic8 – http://www.syndic8.com/

- Feedster – [http://www.feedster.com/]

You can also do a search for your topic and RSS feeds. For example, search for “RSS feeds and pets’, or ‘football and RSS feeds’, or ’small business news feeds’. Finally, you can go to specific websites that are related to your industry and look for a small, orange, rectangular icon that say ‘RSS’ or ‘XML’. Click on that and you’ll get a feed URL to enter into your RSS feed script.

Remember, always be sure to include feeds that are relevant to your website’s content. Once you get the hang of the concept, RSS can be a lot of fun, and it definitely keeps your website fresh and updated, just what search engines like, and more importantly, what website visitors like.

Author: Jason OConnor
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty tariff