How Do I Put an RSS Feed on My Website

Search Engine Marketers: How Do I Put an RSS Feed on My Website

“RSS is the TiVo for the net”(I heard Nan Dawkins of Redboots Consulting reference this at SES in NYC, originated from...?)

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. RSS is a special internet tool that gets your content delivered directly to your recipients, without any spam filters to get in the way.

RSS Syntax

RSS defines an XML grammar (a set of HTML-like tags) for sharing news. Each RSS text file contains both static information about your site, plus dynamic information about your new stories, all surrounded by matching start and end tags.

Each story is defined by an tag, which contains a headline TITLE, URL, and DESCRIPTION. Here's an example:

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RSS Resources
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/
Defined in XML, the Rich Site Summary (RSS) format has
quietly become a dominant format for distributing headlines on the Web.
Our list of links gives you the tools, tips and tutorials you need to get
started using RSS. 0323




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Resouce: How Do I Put an RSS Feed on My Website

Syndication Options

How does RSS syndication work? Say you publish a new web page about a particular topic. You want others interested in that topic to know about it. By listing the page as an "item" in your RSS file, you can have the page appear in front of those who read information using RSS readers or "news aggregators."

Publishing your RSS feed is just the beginning. RSS, a mini database containing headlines and descriptions of what's new on your site, is a natural for layering on additional services. In addition to displaying your news on other sites and headline readers, RSS data can flow into other products and services like PDA's, cell phones, email ticklers. and even voice updates. Email newsletters can easily be automated with RSS.


Tips For Implementing Your RSS Feeds

Tell user what RSS is, give them a link to download an RSS reader and place a link/button to your RSS feed. Turn PDFs’, emails into RSS, Podcast your RSS feeds too. RSS feeds can deliver blogs, articles, forums, schedules, discounts, specials and products.

Companies Already Using RSS Feeds, Increasing Business Success

• MarketingVOX is using RSS to deliver internet marketing news to their readers as it becomes available. Instead of having to wait to receive all the news in a single e-mail newsletter, RSS users get them as soon as they are ready.
• Amazon.com is using RSS to announce their bestsellers and to help their users keep track of releases they are most interested in.
• FindSavings.com uses RSS to deliver savings coupons and related information.
• Microsoft is about to launch a new version of the Internet Explorer in a few months, and it is believed the new version will include RSS support. Once that happens, the number of RSS users could more than triple in just a few days. And a few weeks after that almost "every" marketer and publisher will have his own RSS feed.
• eDiets.com is using RSS to deliver news for each of their sections featuring health, fitness, recipes, food, healthy kids, motivation and nutrition.

If this isn't part of your Search Engine Marketing tools then it should be. Even MSN is jumping on the RSS feed wagon
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1776122,00.asp