RSS: All About RSS

What is RSS??
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Link

For user, RSS allows you to gather news and information from various sources of the internet and displaying all of it at one single point for you. This means that you do not have to visit numerous websites to gather all the related news that you want. You would need a RSS reader to do this, please see below. For web publishers, they can publish and promote their news and information from their site to interested readers and users which is updated daily. Please also see below why do sites make RSS feeds available. RSS Tutorial will also give you some explanation of what RSS is.


How to use feeds?
Aggregators are the most common use of RSS feeds, and there are several types. Web aggregators (sometimes called portals) make this view available in a Web page; my Yahoo is a well-known example of this.

There are also other RSS software or RSS readers that will allow you to use feeds or translate feeds into news for you. I personally recommend and use RssReader, this is a free RSS reader that will display any RSS or atom news feed (XML) on your computer. This means that all you need is this reader and you can read all the news that you want at one single point on your comp. This is cool.

Gecko Tribe has a product call Jawfish that will allow you to display multiple feeds (news) from different sources on your site. Feedroll also has a similar service but you can't custome design the layout which Gecko Tribe can. However, Feedroll is free and not Gecko Tribe's Jawfish although they do have a free trial period. Jawfish do have some problems where I can't display any other feeds (news) when I was trying it out.

Understand how aggregators work

Why make an RSS feed available?
Your viewers will thank you, and there will be more of them, because RSS allows them to see your site without going out of their way to visit it.
While this seems bad at first glance, it actually improves your site's visibility; by making it easier for your users to keep up with your site - allowing them to see it the way they want to - it's more likely that they'll know when something that interests them is available on your site.
For example, imagine that your company announces a new product or feature every month or two. Without a feed, your viewers have to remember to come to your site and see if they find anything new - if they have time. If you provide a feed for them, they can point their aggregator or other software at it, and it will give them a link and a description of developments at your site almost as soon as they happen.

News is similar; because there are so many sources of news on the Internet, most of your viewers won't come to your site every day. By providing an RSS feed, you are in front of them constantly, improving the chances that they'll click through to an article that catches their eye.

How to create RSS feed:
http://www.mnot.net/rss/tutorial/ has the technical way of creating and publishing feeds

To create RSS feeds, here is a link that will make creating RSS feeds easier.
http://www.rss2html.com/ has a free function that will allow you in creating URL on your website to display RSS. If you would like to let people see your blog in the form of a RSS feed, do use FeedBurner. I use this for my Marketing Blog. There are also other free tools for you to create RSS feeds.

Displaying RSS Feeds on your site:
Websites containing information on how to display RSS feeds on your own website or blog
http://www.rss-specifications.com/displaying-rss-feeds.htm

Below is a list of websites that allow you to display RSS feeds from different categories/industries (Free RSS News Feeds):
http://w.moreover.com/site/products/ind/rss_feeds.html
http://ezinearticles.com/
http://chordata.info/

Promoting your feed:
Below is a list of websites that has information on how to promote your RSS feed:
http://www.rss-specifications.com/7-steps-to-rss.htm
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/ - Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites

Ksoft has a software that has automatic submission of RSS feeds to Blog and RSS feeds directories. Even if you do want to buy it; you can find a list of these directories on their content. All you need is time now.