Keeper
09-12-2005, 06:07 PM
How You Can Instantly Tap Into an Unlimited Source of Content, for Free!
By Brad Callen (c) 2005
Are you looking for dynamic, automatically refreshing, sticky
content to spice up your website?
If you are a webmaster, you'll know how difficult it is to
create fresh content to attract your subscribers and new
visitors to your website. Paying freelance writers can cost you
a fortune when you are just starting out and don't have site
revenues to fund expenses, and writing the articles yourself
takes way too much time and takes you away from other important
tasks (like actually running the site and making sales happen).
Luckily, there's a little-known but extremely easy tool that
you can use to instantly jazz up your website and provide your
traffic with valuable information. In fact, you might have heard
of this tool before. Headline syndication, aggregators, XML
format?
Sound familiar?
Yup, I'm talking about RSS Feeds.
If you haven't heard about RSS Feeds, or what they are, I
strongly urge you to print out this article, go to a quiet
corner where you won't be disturbed and literally devour every
word of the rest of this article. Not only will it probably save
your business, but it will revolutionize the way you think about
the Internet.
And if you've come across RSS feeds before or used them, then
skim through the next section to refresh your memory (seriously,
there is a lot of useful information that you might be missing
out on) and then dive into the meat of this article, which will
show you how to set up RSS feeds on your website to display
dynamic, self-updating content with very little effort.
What Is RSS?
RSS stands for "Rich Site Summary, although other terms such
as "RDF Site Summary" (which emphasizes the file format) and
"Really Simple Syndication" (which highlights the main selling
point of RSS) are also useful in defining RSS by the book.
However, bookish definitions don't always explain things very
well. What really is RSS?
RSS is a platform over which a webmaster can instantly deliver
summarized information about the latest / most important content
on his website. This summary is usually a list of headlines and
snippets – the headline will instantly inform the reader of what
this new article or page contains and the snippet (usually the
first few lines of the article) is to further entice the reader
into visiting the website, or to simply give the reader more
information. RSS has evolved into a commonly accepted XML
standard, and many websites now use RSS Feeds (XML files
containing the summaries) to publish "updates" about themselves.
From the webmaster's point of view, an RSS feed is meant to
allow visitors and subscribers an easy way to keep themselves
abreast of fresh content on their website (without having them
visit the website first). Additionally, an RSS Feed also allows
the reader to "preview" this fresh content, thus letting them
decide immediately if the new article / content is interesting
to them or not. All in all, RSS Feeds have the main purpose of
enhancing user experience.
Keep that last point as we go through the rest of this
article – it is an underlying mindset to making RSS Feeds work
effectively.
Using An RSS Feed
As an Internet entrepreneur, one of your most valuable tools
can be an RSS Reader. This is essentially an aggregator – a
collection of RSS Feeds (that you can add or remove) from
different websites that you are interested in. A typical RSS
Reader would include RSS Feeds from news sites, sports sites,
and perhaps a few niche sites (such as SEO forums, blogs on SEO,
etc.). The main purpose of this software is to keep you informed
of the latest news and content on websites that you are
interested in.
If you have used My Yahoo!(my.yahoo.com) or Bloglines
(www.bloglines.com), you've probably used RSS Feeds already.
These are online RSS aggregators – you get to choose from
numerous websites and within minutes you can have your own
launch-pad for knowing everything that's happening in your
niche, in the world, or in sports.
As a first step to understanding how RSS Feeds work, I'd suggest
that you use at least one RSS Aggregator – either an online RSS
tool or RSS reading software like SharpReader
(www.SharpReader.net) – and subscribe to a few RSS Feeds to
learn how it works from a user's perspective.
Marketing and RSS
Using RSS Feeds, websites can:
• Attract more customers/ visitors.
• Keep subscribers informed of new developments
• Allow subscribers to instantly learn of new articles, content
and products on their website.
• Reduce the load on the subscriber's inbox by reserving
newsletters for important news, special product offers, etc.
As a webmaster, you can use RSS Feeds to your advantage. Since
blogging became insanely popular over two years ago, RSS Feeds
have become mainstream. In other words, no matter what your
niche, there's a good chance that you'll be able to find a few
authority sites that publish RSS Feeds, thus syndicating their
latest headlines.
How can you use this?
By providing your visitors relevant, self-refreshing content
in the shape of the "latest news" by using RSS feeds from
niche-relevant websites.
Now I'm not saying that you should cover your whole website (or
even one whole page) with RSS Feeds. Such practice is frowned
upon by search engines and will actually get your website banned
from every single search engine index! RSS Feeds are meant for
headline syndication, not for content scraping.
Instead, you could use headlines from the top 3 forums in the
weight loss niche to show the latest discussion threads on one
side of the "News" page of your own weight loss website. The
rest of the page would, of course, be covered with information
(i.e. latest news) about your own website.
Or you could put a news ticker on your politics blog to not only
give your blog a look of "being updated" but to also provide your
readers with relevant, useful information.
If you sell sports goods and own an online store, you could run
a "sports news" feed on your main page to attract the attention
of your visitors and give your website a more authentic look and
feel.
There are many different ways you can use RSS Feeds to add value
to your website. Make sure though, that you are merely using
these Feeds as "icing on the cake", and not as the whole cake
itself.
Finding RSS Feeds
Finding RSS Feeds is easy; there are several RSS-specific
directories and niche search engines for you to browse through.
However, the surge of blogging in the last two years has meant
that any RSS search tool is inundated with blog spam. This makes
it a bit harder to find RSS Feeds that you can actually use.
I've listed a few resources below that can help you get started
in your search for finding relevant RSS Feeds.
• Bloglines (www.bloglines.com)
• BlogPulse (www.blogpulse.com)
• Daypop (www.daypop.com)
• Feedster (www.feedster.com)
• Findory Blogory (findory.com/blogs)
• Gigablast Blog Search (blogs.gigablast.com)
• IceRocket Blog Search (www.icerocket.com/?tab=blog)
• PubSub (www.pubsub.com)
• Technorati (www.technorati.com)
Once you've found the RSS Feeds of your choice, it's time to
find out how to set them up on your website.
Setting up an RSS Feed to Display on your Website
Internet Marketers are a particular breed; we're always looking
for an 'easier" or "quicker" way of doing things; not necessarily
shortcuts, but just ways to work smarter. It's the same with RSS.
When I first came across it, I immediately went to Google and
not only picked out a tool that could help me syndicate my own
website (so I wouldn't have to spend time learning XML), but I
also found several tools that I could use to display RSS Feeds
from other websites onto mine! These tools are ridiculously
simple, and I'd fully suggest that you try them before venturing
into learning how to display RSS Feeds on your webpages through
code.
If your website is in PHP, you can use the following software:
CaRP (www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/)
This software also has a free version, which displays a simple
ad in the middle of the news display saying something like
"these news headlines brought to you by CaRP". Try it out; it's
easy to use, and will teach a lot about managing RSS Feeds.
There are JavaScript alternatives available as well (in case
your website uses plain HTML).
Jawfish (www.geckotribe.com/rss/jawfish/)
Like CaRP, Jawfish also has a free trial, which is once again
easy to setup if you can follow step-by-step instructions.
FeedRoll (www.feedroll.com/rssviewer/)
Another JavaScript alternative is FeedRoll – this is perhaps the
easiest to use of the three mentioned here, but it offers less
flexibility and choice of feeds compared to the others.
Of course, if you want more options (or have ASP or something on
your website), go to your search engine of choice and type in
"How to display RSS Feeds on my website" to get a quick listing
of articles, tutorials and more tools to help you out.
More RSS
RSS is an amazingly versatile platform that can be used from
anything as simple as running a news ticker to something as
topical and time-sensitive as providing weather alerts to
affected areas. In fact, any information that is:
• regularly updated
• time sensitive
• new
can be a good candidate for an RSS Feed. The key here is to
remember that there are always new uses for information and
technology... it's just a matter of pinning them down.
If you liked the lesson and want to learn more about SEO, visit
http://www.seoelite.com/7DaysToMassiveWebsiteTraffic.htm and get
your free copy of "7 Days To Massive Website Traffic!" right
now!
Brad Callen
SEO Elite
http://www.seoelite.com
================================================== ==============
Brad Callen has been working online as a professional SEO and
Internet Marketer for several years. He began online in the
weight loss/fitness industry and achieved great success using
advanced SEO techniques that he had taught himself. However, SEO
was too time-consuming for Brad's expanding business, so he took
what he had learned about SEO and created SEO Elite, a software
tool that automates and manages the SEO process (www.seoelite.com)
================================================== ==============
Copyright © 2005 Jayde Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
HTML version available at: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives.html
By Brad Callen (c) 2005
Are you looking for dynamic, automatically refreshing, sticky
content to spice up your website?
If you are a webmaster, you'll know how difficult it is to
create fresh content to attract your subscribers and new
visitors to your website. Paying freelance writers can cost you
a fortune when you are just starting out and don't have site
revenues to fund expenses, and writing the articles yourself
takes way too much time and takes you away from other important
tasks (like actually running the site and making sales happen).
Luckily, there's a little-known but extremely easy tool that
you can use to instantly jazz up your website and provide your
traffic with valuable information. In fact, you might have heard
of this tool before. Headline syndication, aggregators, XML
format?
Sound familiar?
Yup, I'm talking about RSS Feeds.
If you haven't heard about RSS Feeds, or what they are, I
strongly urge you to print out this article, go to a quiet
corner where you won't be disturbed and literally devour every
word of the rest of this article. Not only will it probably save
your business, but it will revolutionize the way you think about
the Internet.
And if you've come across RSS feeds before or used them, then
skim through the next section to refresh your memory (seriously,
there is a lot of useful information that you might be missing
out on) and then dive into the meat of this article, which will
show you how to set up RSS feeds on your website to display
dynamic, self-updating content with very little effort.
What Is RSS?
RSS stands for "Rich Site Summary, although other terms such
as "RDF Site Summary" (which emphasizes the file format) and
"Really Simple Syndication" (which highlights the main selling
point of RSS) are also useful in defining RSS by the book.
However, bookish definitions don't always explain things very
well. What really is RSS?
RSS is a platform over which a webmaster can instantly deliver
summarized information about the latest / most important content
on his website. This summary is usually a list of headlines and
snippets – the headline will instantly inform the reader of what
this new article or page contains and the snippet (usually the
first few lines of the article) is to further entice the reader
into visiting the website, or to simply give the reader more
information. RSS has evolved into a commonly accepted XML
standard, and many websites now use RSS Feeds (XML files
containing the summaries) to publish "updates" about themselves.
From the webmaster's point of view, an RSS feed is meant to
allow visitors and subscribers an easy way to keep themselves
abreast of fresh content on their website (without having them
visit the website first). Additionally, an RSS Feed also allows
the reader to "preview" this fresh content, thus letting them
decide immediately if the new article / content is interesting
to them or not. All in all, RSS Feeds have the main purpose of
enhancing user experience.
Keep that last point as we go through the rest of this
article – it is an underlying mindset to making RSS Feeds work
effectively.
Using An RSS Feed
As an Internet entrepreneur, one of your most valuable tools
can be an RSS Reader. This is essentially an aggregator – a
collection of RSS Feeds (that you can add or remove) from
different websites that you are interested in. A typical RSS
Reader would include RSS Feeds from news sites, sports sites,
and perhaps a few niche sites (such as SEO forums, blogs on SEO,
etc.). The main purpose of this software is to keep you informed
of the latest news and content on websites that you are
interested in.
If you have used My Yahoo!(my.yahoo.com) or Bloglines
(www.bloglines.com), you've probably used RSS Feeds already.
These are online RSS aggregators – you get to choose from
numerous websites and within minutes you can have your own
launch-pad for knowing everything that's happening in your
niche, in the world, or in sports.
As a first step to understanding how RSS Feeds work, I'd suggest
that you use at least one RSS Aggregator – either an online RSS
tool or RSS reading software like SharpReader
(www.SharpReader.net) – and subscribe to a few RSS Feeds to
learn how it works from a user's perspective.
Marketing and RSS
Using RSS Feeds, websites can:
• Attract more customers/ visitors.
• Keep subscribers informed of new developments
• Allow subscribers to instantly learn of new articles, content
and products on their website.
• Reduce the load on the subscriber's inbox by reserving
newsletters for important news, special product offers, etc.
As a webmaster, you can use RSS Feeds to your advantage. Since
blogging became insanely popular over two years ago, RSS Feeds
have become mainstream. In other words, no matter what your
niche, there's a good chance that you'll be able to find a few
authority sites that publish RSS Feeds, thus syndicating their
latest headlines.
How can you use this?
By providing your visitors relevant, self-refreshing content
in the shape of the "latest news" by using RSS feeds from
niche-relevant websites.
Now I'm not saying that you should cover your whole website (or
even one whole page) with RSS Feeds. Such practice is frowned
upon by search engines and will actually get your website banned
from every single search engine index! RSS Feeds are meant for
headline syndication, not for content scraping.
Instead, you could use headlines from the top 3 forums in the
weight loss niche to show the latest discussion threads on one
side of the "News" page of your own weight loss website. The
rest of the page would, of course, be covered with information
(i.e. latest news) about your own website.
Or you could put a news ticker on your politics blog to not only
give your blog a look of "being updated" but to also provide your
readers with relevant, useful information.
If you sell sports goods and own an online store, you could run
a "sports news" feed on your main page to attract the attention
of your visitors and give your website a more authentic look and
feel.
There are many different ways you can use RSS Feeds to add value
to your website. Make sure though, that you are merely using
these Feeds as "icing on the cake", and not as the whole cake
itself.
Finding RSS Feeds
Finding RSS Feeds is easy; there are several RSS-specific
directories and niche search engines for you to browse through.
However, the surge of blogging in the last two years has meant
that any RSS search tool is inundated with blog spam. This makes
it a bit harder to find RSS Feeds that you can actually use.
I've listed a few resources below that can help you get started
in your search for finding relevant RSS Feeds.
• Bloglines (www.bloglines.com)
• BlogPulse (www.blogpulse.com)
• Daypop (www.daypop.com)
• Feedster (www.feedster.com)
• Findory Blogory (findory.com/blogs)
• Gigablast Blog Search (blogs.gigablast.com)
• IceRocket Blog Search (www.icerocket.com/?tab=blog)
• PubSub (www.pubsub.com)
• Technorati (www.technorati.com)
Once you've found the RSS Feeds of your choice, it's time to
find out how to set them up on your website.
Setting up an RSS Feed to Display on your Website
Internet Marketers are a particular breed; we're always looking
for an 'easier" or "quicker" way of doing things; not necessarily
shortcuts, but just ways to work smarter. It's the same with RSS.
When I first came across it, I immediately went to Google and
not only picked out a tool that could help me syndicate my own
website (so I wouldn't have to spend time learning XML), but I
also found several tools that I could use to display RSS Feeds
from other websites onto mine! These tools are ridiculously
simple, and I'd fully suggest that you try them before venturing
into learning how to display RSS Feeds on your webpages through
code.
If your website is in PHP, you can use the following software:
CaRP (www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/)
This software also has a free version, which displays a simple
ad in the middle of the news display saying something like
"these news headlines brought to you by CaRP". Try it out; it's
easy to use, and will teach a lot about managing RSS Feeds.
There are JavaScript alternatives available as well (in case
your website uses plain HTML).
Jawfish (www.geckotribe.com/rss/jawfish/)
Like CaRP, Jawfish also has a free trial, which is once again
easy to setup if you can follow step-by-step instructions.
FeedRoll (www.feedroll.com/rssviewer/)
Another JavaScript alternative is FeedRoll – this is perhaps the
easiest to use of the three mentioned here, but it offers less
flexibility and choice of feeds compared to the others.
Of course, if you want more options (or have ASP or something on
your website), go to your search engine of choice and type in
"How to display RSS Feeds on my website" to get a quick listing
of articles, tutorials and more tools to help you out.
More RSS
RSS is an amazingly versatile platform that can be used from
anything as simple as running a news ticker to something as
topical and time-sensitive as providing weather alerts to
affected areas. In fact, any information that is:
• regularly updated
• time sensitive
• new
can be a good candidate for an RSS Feed. The key here is to
remember that there are always new uses for information and
technology... it's just a matter of pinning them down.
If you liked the lesson and want to learn more about SEO, visit
http://www.seoelite.com/7DaysToMassiveWebsiteTraffic.htm and get
your free copy of "7 Days To Massive Website Traffic!" right
now!
Brad Callen
SEO Elite
http://www.seoelite.com
================================================== ==============
Brad Callen has been working online as a professional SEO and
Internet Marketer for several years. He began online in the
weight loss/fitness industry and achieved great success using
advanced SEO techniques that he had taught himself. However, SEO
was too time-consuming for Brad's expanding business, so he took
what he had learned about SEO and created SEO Elite, a software
tool that automates and manages the SEO process (www.seoelite.com)
================================================== ==============
Copyright © 2005 Jayde Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
HTML version available at: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives.html