Creating A Basic RSS Feed For Your Site

The future of RSS Feeds and internet marketing is looking bright and promising. It would be a wisedecision to get yourself up to speed on this developingcontent sharing technology by putting together yourown news feed for your site.

In the previous article on RSS Feeds you learned some of the basic information on what an RSS feed is and what it can do for your website. Today we're going to learn to create a basic feed that you can put into use within a few minutes.

To see what RSS Feeds will look like on your site youcan take a look at mine at:

http://www.cashway.com

Is it difficult to create the feed?

No not really. You do need to know how to set up andedit html code using a few symbols that I'll show you below.

Without getting into all of the technical details of whcih version or RSS specification you should use, let's justget down to the nuts n' bolts of it.

You can build an RSS file from scratch pretty easily, as long as you keep the features aligned with the materialyou're trying to present. You'll need to start up your favorite html editor to create the one your file (page that will contain the code and content links) for your RSS Feed.

NOTE: Once you have created this file you will need to upload it to your server to allow other web sites to display your feed on their site(s). The best part about this is thatonce the file is created you can easily update your channel and content by updating your file.

OK let's begin....

You must be in html format to enter the code on the page.At the top you must include the following: This lets RSS readers know that the page is set up for an RSS Feed.

Next you will be adding the code that identifies your channelinformation. This tells readers about your feed. Add Your sites's feed title here http://www.yoursite.com Describe What Your Feed Offers en-us What's the above mean? Here's the breakdown.

Tag definitions...

The "title" tag tells viewers the name of your channel. The "link" tag provides a link to your web site. The "description" tag describes what your channel offers and the "language" tag indicates that you're writing in English.

Now for those of you who want to provide an image like your logo within your feed you can add the following tags:Title For Your Imagehttp://www.yoursite.com/image.gifPlace a link here such as http://www.yoursite.com/8831Describe What Your Site OffersOK - now that we have all of the business side of the feed out of the way we can get on to the code that will allow you to display your content. For each item you want to allow others to see you need to add the following code. My First Article, etc http://www.yoursite.com/myfirstarticle.htm Provide the headline or short description here For every new item you add you will need to follow this same format. Pretty simple, huh!

Now lets close up your feed. To do this add the following code after the last item you want to display.There, you're done. Now save your page with a .rss extensionand upload it to your website. It doesn't matter where you save it to, it can be in your root directory or in a separate folder.

---------------------------------------------------------------

You can get more indepth information and complete step-by-stepinstructions from the FREE ebook "RSS Publishing Made Easy"that you can download when you subscribe to my Net Reviewnewsletter.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Now that you've created your feed you'll want to share it with others on your website and maybe even syndicate it on other sites.In order to view your new feed on any of your webpages or let others display it on their's you need to do one or two more things.

You can....

1 - Convert your RSS Feed URL to a java script code that you can add to any webpage on your's or others sites. To do that you'll need an RSS to javascript converter. Not to worrybecause they're Free online services that you can use to do thisvery quickly.

My favorite one is...

http://rssxpress.ukoln.ac.uk/lite/

Here's another...

http://jade.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/feed/

You can also look for news aggregators and reader directories that you can submit your feed to for more exposure.

Now, with an RSS feed you have an efficient way of sending your content directly to the viewers who have asked for it. This gives you another avenue to get your message viewed by more and more people across the net.

Ed Duvall is webmaster for http://www.cashway.com and http://www.instantnettraffic.com providing internet marketing tools and resourcesto help you with your online business.

Reprint this article as long as resource box remains intact.

Copyright 2005 cashway.com

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Blogging/RSS Information:

Related Articles

Increase Traffic to Your Blog from Search Engines - The Top 5 Tips
Your favorite thing about having a blog may soon be this - they naturally attract search engine traffic.Blogs already have optimized site architecture.
Why You're Not Blogging - And Why You Should Start Today
Those of you who aren't ready to wade into the Blog pool are taking your time for several reasons, according to my informal interviews with people before and after they blog. Others start blogging and then abandon their projects too soon, unaware of the benefits.
Writing Quality Blogs
Writing?Blogs?Blogs are on-line journals where people express themselves through writing. Writing?Writing is the process where one puts down words of a language on a format that others can read.
How to Activate The Firefox Live Bookmark Feature on Your Site
Live Bookmark is Mozilla's response to offering RSS feeds through their browsers and Firefox in particular. Using this technology, it's possible for any visitor to your website to add your RSS feed in only two or three steps.
Top 6 Reasons for Having a RSS Feed - Come and Explore the Possibilities!
Getting traffic to your website can be hard. No one just randomly types in "makelotsofmoneyonlinequicklyandfromhome.
Blog and Ping is Dead
Unfortunately, this formerly reliable method of getting listed in Yahoo seems to be dead. I have used it a few times over the last month to try to get some new pages listed in Yahoo and there has been no action at all.
Small Business: To Blog or Not To Blog
A weblog, or "blog" started out as a personal journal on the Web. They have evolved far beyond that initial concept.
What Is A Blog?
Blogs can be described in many definitions and they are all correct.Blogs are instant publishing.
Blog Problems
What in the world is up with the world of blogs? Blogs are meant to be this great new technology where people can share their ideas and interests with others around the globe. As far as I'm concerned the state of blogs is one of chaos, confusion, and anti-interactivity.
Business Blogging: Where Do I Start?
The new hot commodity is a blog for your small business so you've decided you must have one.Before you begin think about it long term.
If an RSS feed is the Yahoo Backdoor, is a Blog Googles?
Though the answer is in a book I wrote this July, the question is still asked of me repeatedly. Why does it work for some sites and not others? And how come some blogs get indexed in a day and then are dropped, and others stay in Google indefinitely?Well, let's take one question at a time.
Im a Failed Blogger!
I've never been popular in my whole life. I think there must be something inside me that didn't get enough attention as a kid or something because I seem to find myself looking for it all the time.
NEWS FLASH! Article Directories JUMP-ON The RSS Syndication Band Wagon
Quick question..
Top Ten Reason to Publish an Ezine AND a Blog
Blogs are the hottest thing going these days when it comes to marketing on the Internet. A blog is a way of delivering your messages and article to clients.
The Full Circle of RSS Marketing Power
RSS is a many-in-one marketing & publishing tool, although unfortunatelly most marketers still fail to understand this powerful concept.While RSS does provide a number of benefits when used for each individual marketing function, best results are achieved when it is fully integrated in your internet marketing strategy.
5 New Internet Marketing Opportunities Through RSS
When it comes to new internet marketing opportunities for your business, RSS just might be the answer you were looking for. Here are just some of the new opportunities it can provide you with ?1.
Marketing With Blogs and RSS - The Hot New Tools of 2005
In case you haven't heard, the net is buzzing with talk ofblogging and RSS. Once the province strictly of people whogot a kick out of publishing online diaries, and later ofpolitical and social commentarists, blogs and RSS are beingadopted by the internet marketing community.
The Best Marketing Tool For Your RSS Feed and Its Free
Do a search on Blogs on Yahoo and you get 236 Million Results.A Yahoo Search on RSS yields 558 Million Results.
Blogs: A Fool Proof Way to Attract Visitors
Blogs might seem like an old hat at this time as by now really everyone has one him- and herself. But exactly this fact is what makes them such a valuable promotion tool even for long existing websites (that are no blog and don't have one yet): The wide and large userbase.
What the Heck is a Blog?
Everybody is talking about blogs. They are everywhere: on the TV, in the newspapers, and all over the internet.