{"id":2227,"date":"2006-02-25T00:02:19","date_gmt":"2006-02-24T13:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/problogger.com\/?p=2227"},"modified":"2019-10-03T13:37:29","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T03:37:29","slug":"kick-your-rss-jumping-on-the-syndication-bandwagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/problogger.com\/kick-your-rss-jumping-on-the-syndication-bandwagon\/","title":{"rendered":"Kick Your RSS: Jumping on the Syndication Bandwagon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"Feed-Icon-96X96\"The following post was submitted by for the <\/em>Blogging for Beginners Series<\/a><\/em> by Aaron Brazell. Aaron is a major contributer over at b5 (he is a major player in keeping our servers in order) and writes on numerous blogs including <\/em>Emerging Earth<\/a> and Technosailor.com<\/a>. I asked Aaron to write an introduction to RSS. Here’s what he has to say on the topic:<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\nCatchy title, no? Thanks! I’m proud of it.\n<\/p>\n

\nRSS. You’ve heard about it. You’ve read about it. Bloggers encourage the use of RSS. But what is it? What does it give you in terms of benefits and promotion? How can you use it to aggregate the vast amounts of information out there? These are all valid questions.\n<\/p>\n

\nRSS, or R<\/em><\/strong>eally S<\/em><\/strong>imple S<\/em><\/strong>yndication, was a concept introduced in the late 1990s to present data in a open format for data exchange. In other words, much like the meaning of its name, it was a way to syndicate data for other services, computers or tools to understand. Because RSS is a special XML-based format, it is intended for computers to understand and not for human consumption.\n<\/p>\n

\nThere are about a dozen varieties of syndication formats, most of which are versions of RSS, but some, such as Atom and RDF which also provide a syndication format. A more advanced article could be written about the nuances, benefits and drawbacks for each of these but, for this article, they all have the same basic features and present challenges as well.\n<\/p>\n

\nHow do I Start Publishing RSS on my Blog?<\/em><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIf you use one of the major blog platforms such as WordPress or Moveable Type, you don’t have to do anything. You may not even realize it, but your blog is already publishing an RSS feed and most modern browsers will alert your readers to this fact\n<\/p>\n

\n\"Rss-Ff\"<\/a>
\nFigure 1: Firefox alerts the reader to the presence of feeds by placing an RSS icon on the extreme right side of the address bar.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n\"Rss-Ie7\"
\nFigure 2: Internet Explorer 7 has a grayed out RSS icon on one of its toolbars. The icon becomes orange when an RSS feed is available on the site.<\/em><\/p>\n

Instantly, that means opportunity for you. I describe this concept in You Can Blog in this way: <\/em>if you envision a piece of paper with a square drawn on it, that’s blogging without RSS. However, if you place two squares together, one directly above the other and connect the respective corners of the two squares, you will have a cube. This is blogging with RSS. RSS provides a new dimension to your blogging.\n<\/p>\n

\nTwo dimensional blogging requires readers to visit your site to read your material. It requires that interaction be confined to the browser and the website, whereas three dimensional blogging gives the reader the chance to read your entries through an email client, web based news aggregator or other similar central location.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe benefits of RSS for your readers are (to name a few):\n<\/p>\n