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How to Create & Syndicate a RSS Feed for Your Web Site
By Herman Drost (c) 2005

Are you always looking for new and better ways to market your
web site? Search engines are always on the look out for fresh
content. When doing a search you don't want old content popping
up, you want to have the most up to date information. Search
engines will generally reward those sites which provide new
content on a regular basis i.e. daily or even bi-weekly.

On of the best ways to provide fresh content is to create an
RSS Feed.

What is an RSS Feed?

RSS stands for "really simple syndication". For example I write
articles every 2 weeks and place them on my web site. I then
link to that article from my home page and from my article
headlines page. I make that article available to others as an
item in my RSS file. People who use RSS readers or news
aggregators can read, then link to your article from their web
site.

(To explain further about RSS readers visit:
http://www.isitebuild.com/rss/what-are-rss-feeds.htm)

You have now syndicated your content for others to view. This is
a great way to improve or maintain your search engine rankings
by naturally getting incoming links. Every time you write a new
article it will be instantly available to 1000s of web site
owners.

How to create an RSS File

RSS files use the XML language. This is similar to html except
you must be careful to use closing tags and be sure to validate
it before you use it. An XML file contains the information
(Title, Description and Link URL) that your audience will
receive through a RSS reader.

Here is all you need to create an RSS file:

-Title
-Description
-Link

Open notepad on your computer, then copy and paste the
information below replacing it with your own title, description
and link information.

The first part contains information about your web site. The
second part contains information for one of your articles. You
can also include optional information in your headlines such as
language, copyright info, contact email addresses, or an image.

Try to limit the number of articles you wish to include in your
RSS file to 5 or less. Enclose your RSS information with the xml
and rss versions you are using followed by the channel and item
tags. Finish off with the RSS closing tag.

Here's the example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
 <rss version="0.91">

<channel>
<title>Web Site Design | Hosting | Marketing
<link>http://www.isitebuild.com
<description>Affordable Web Design in Maryland
<language>en-us

 <tem>
 <title>How to Add a Search Engine to Your Site 
 <link>http://www.isitebuild.com/add-search-engine.htm
 <description>
 When visitors arrive at your web site you want them to find
the information quickly otherwise they will lose patience
and move on. A great way achieve this is to add a search
engine or search box to your web site.
 </description>
 </item>
 </channel>
 </rss>

You have now created your first RSS file that is almost ready
for syndicating.

How to Syndicate Your RSS Feed

If you syndicate your RSS Feed or advertise it, you will get an
immediate boost in traffic to your web site by others reading
and/or linking to your information. There are 2 ways to do this:

a) Place an XML button at the top of your home page. This is a
little orange image that links to your RSS file. You can see one
at the top of my home page at www.isitebuild.com. Get a copy of
the image (right click, save picture as) and upload it to your
website. Place the image, with your xml link, on your home page.
For example, here's the line of code I placed on my home page:

<a href="http://www.isitebuild.com/rss/rss-feed.xml"> <img
border="0" src="rss/rss_icon.jpg" alt="rss for maryland web
design" width="36" height="14"></a>

Feel free use this code for your own site but remember to
replace the information with your own link.

b) Submit your site's RSS feed URL to various aggregators or
news readers. This will enable them to start checking your RSS
feed for updates.

Here is a list of some of the most popular news aggregators:

Daypop: http://www.daypop.com/info/submit.htm
Syndic8: http://www.syndic8.com/suggest_start.php
Userland: http://aggregator.userland.com/
Feedster: http://www.feedster.com/add.php
Postami: http://www.postami.com/rss.finder/submit_feed.php

Update your RSS feed regularly - add new articles to your RSS
file on a regular basis. Make sure you link each article to your
site to increase your web traffic. Remember to delete your old
articles because the dates next to your articles will adjust
depending on when news aggregators pick them up.

You only need to do this once and then syndicators tracking
your feed automatically pick up your new feed items as you
update them.

Conclusion:

Even though RSS feeds are a relatively new way of marketing,
once you set them up it takes very little time to maintain and
provides another great way to increase the number of visitors to
your web site.

Related Articles

What is RSS and Its Benefits
http://www.isitebuild.com/rss/index.html

What are RSS Feeds and Why You Need an RSS Reader
http://www.isitebuild.com/rss/what-are-rss-feeds.htm

================================================================
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and
author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com. Affordable Web Site Design
and Web Hosting. Subscribe to his "Marketing Tips" newsletter
for more original articles. mailto:subscribe@isitebuild.com.
Read more of his in-depth articles at:
http://www.isitebuild.com/articles
================================================================

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