What Is A RSS Feed And Why It Is A Great Way To Promote Your Blog?
It's Important Because You Can Make It EASY To Share Your Content....
So...What Is It?
Short for Rich Site Summary, RSS allows you to simply syndicate your content in one easy to monitor channel, which interested parties can then read at their leisure.
This saves you the trouble of sending out email notifications, et cetera upon posting, and also offers a fair degree of convenience and privacy for dedicated visitors.
Benefits, Uses, and Background Information
If you can consistently create interesting, relevant, and readable content on your blog, you are likely to have your regular readers clamoring for a RSS feed in order to keep up with your latest efforts.
A RSS feed is a very common feature, extremely easy to install on almost any blog or website, and a great way to keep the conversation and feedback going on your posts within minutes of making them public.
How Do I Create An RSS Feed?
Plenty of common blogging platforms already have an easy to install option designed to help you create an RSS feed with just a few clicks of the mouse, but if you are using a customized platform, you may need to set this up yourself.
Fortunately, setting up a syndicated feed is a fairly easy task nowadays, and there are many free and easy programs available on the web that can help you create feed of your own without any special technical know-how.
Feedburner, for instance, allows you to simply enter the URL of your site, select certain options that will make your feed compatible with just about any feed reader available today, and will then generate a RSS feed code for you to post on your website.
This will create a simple widget that allows a user to add your feed to their reader whenever they like, but make sure that your widget works correctly before announcing its arrival to the masses!
Other RSS Uses
While blogging and news sites are by far the most commonly used applications for an RSS feed, it should be noted that one can use this feature to notify customers of new products available on a commercial website, as well.
This can sometimes prove to be a little trickier than simply syndicating a blog post or news item, but a little research into the correct way to integrate a feed into your site's particular format should offer a few relatively simple solutions that apply to your situation.
Again, make sure that your widgets all work correctly before releasing them to the masses, and your site should be well on its way to greatness!
Here's A RSS Tip.....
Use RSS feeds from other blogs or news outlets that you like and accumulate all of the stories in one place such as Google Reader. All you have to do is to have a Gmail account (which is FREE) and you will have access to Google Reader.
When you find a blog you like, simply click the RSS Feed button, you will have 2 choices, get any new posts sent via email or have it sent directly to your Google Reader. That way, you won't clog up your email with more email than you know what to do with.
By having Google Reader, it lets YOU decide when you want to read it. I have mine set up so I can access when I am waiting for a Doctor or sitting at a kids baseball practice. That way, it's like having a updated newspaper just sitting there waiting for me to read it.
Don't wait too long though, you can get WAY too many articles, so just clean it out once a week and you will be up to date.
Learn More About Content Marketing
Understanding RSS Feeds are just one of the many factors that go into a web marketing strategy. Download my Free Ebook, "An Introduction To Content Marketing".
I wrote the book to help you get a better understanding of how to use content to market your business.
