What is the purpose of an RSS feed? That is one of many questions I get from people on a daily basis. I decided I would share. First, you have to understand what it is before I go onto explaining how you can use your RSS feed to your advantage.
According to Wikipedia, an RSS feed is:
RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.
The format is really simple (exactly part of its definition.) In fact, you can view my own rss feed here at Blondish.net and see for yourself. You will be able to subscribe to these feeds too. One way you can subscribe is to plug the feeds you into your Google Reader. You can simply click on the title of the feed on one side and it appears in a window for your to reading convenience.
However, here are a few things to help you with your blog when harnessing the power of RSS feeds:
- You can use your social networking places and spread the news about your blog and ask those who like your blog to subscribe to your feed. The feed is something that your reader can choose to come back and not forget about after some time.
- You can make money with your RSS feed. There are programs out there that will allow you to add text links or advertisements to your feed so you can make a little money.
- You can hold subscription drives. RSS feeds are free to subscribe to. In fact, Chris Brogan holds them on occasion, and encourages others to hold them too. These subscription drives could pull in more readers who are curious about your content. You can also take this time to ask your audience on what they would like to see on your site so they may come back again and again.
- You can encourage your readers to make comments on your blog through your feed too! This is a great way to keep your blog’s conversation rolling!
The great thing about the feeds are that all you have to do is blog and it will be published not just to your website, but your feed page too. It can drive traffic to your site on days you did not do much to promote your blog, and possibly bring back old viewers you have not seen in some time.
Do you have an RSS feed? If so, what do you do to harness its power? If not, have you ever considered putting one on your site?
hi nile nice article. i know rss feed is so important but its became almost more then 8 month but not able to gain rss readers 🙁
Hello Nile,
It’s funny you have posted this. Just until the past couple of weeks, I have finally started reading some of the RSS feeds that I subscribe to.
The reason I would never read them was because of the reader itself. When I’m online I never would think about opening up the reader and check out the new feeds because I was always business doing other stuff.
My wife bought me a Kindle Fire which I use for reading and now I can enjoy all the RSS feeds I use to never read because I have the Google Reader App installed. Makes it a lot easier.
Great post! Keep sharing the good stuff!
Anthony
This is where I think Twitter has the biggest strength. Their time line is a great way to stay up with people you are following.
Thanks for clearing that up, Nile. For the longest time RSS seemed just one more area of the net foreign to my noob mind.
I do have rss feed in my blog but to be hones I really don’t know how to utilize it all I know is that if your readers are interested with your post they will subscribe to it.
RSS feeds are a source of great information for both the readers and the blogger. I think its also an interesting technique to find out new ideas to blog about. Its vital to keep updates about the blog.
helllo
rss is such a great thing for our readers to keep ourselve updated and provide information to readers nice post
Thanks for the tutorial, it is very useful and it helped refresh my memory because it’s been a while since the last time I set up an RSS feed.
I particularly like the idea of receiving my feeds as soon as they are ready.
Unfortunately I find myself not wanting to deal with the RSS reader (I use gmail), since it takes just as much effort to log into it as it does to go to the source site directly and check for new content myself.
Thanks for the tutorial.
Thank You Niles
This was great information, I had no idea about RSS, We learn something new everyday, And this is something that I will be learning about.
Thank You so much
Wish You The Best In 2012
Sharon
Hello Niles
Yes, I have an RSS on my blog. Currently I am not using the RSS feed to achieve what you describe in this article. Would you write more on subscription drives?
Thanks
Perry A Davis Jr
Music City
Great tips Niles. Not that long ago I started getting more active about promoting my RSS feed through various directories – I was stunned how quickly my list of subscribers grew! You mentioned adding messages to the feed and I just recently installed a WP plugin for that and added a message and back link to my blog. I like the idea of using it for promotional purposes so that’s something I’m going to explore next.
Hi Nile:
I have been using a Feedburner RSS feed since I started blogging. I am know sure what the differences are between a feedburner feed and a regular feed. 🙂
The big area that I have noticed a lot of growth in lately is in my RSS e-mail subscribers. For a long time I didn’t have an e-mail subscription prominent on my page and since I have it has been going great!
Kevin
Hello Nile, Browsing through your blog and RSS feeds sparked my interest. My husband and I were just talking about it and here is the answer to our burning question in detail! So many thanks Nile.
At this time my blog is going through changes, and my blog designer is putting in a new opt-in I have created. Also I am up grading it too. First I had to upgrade my mac, so now all is in place and I’m ready. That RSS feed is going in! Thanks so much. Blessings, Donna
P.S. My husband thanks you too!
I have an RSS feed for my site. I just don’t know if anyone looks at it. Do you know how you can tell if people use it? Would it show up in my Stats?
The big area that I have noticed a lot of growth in lately is in my RSS e-mail subscribers.I particularly like the idea of receiving my feeds as soon as they are ready.Very nice article….
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