For many, RSS is just three little letters. For others, it is a powerful way to syndicate their content, increase exposure and reach thousands of potential subscribers who are truly interested in what they have to say! Which one are you? Are you a three little letters person, or are you an RSS powerhouse? If you want to be an RSS powerhouse then lets talk about some little know steps you can take to pimp out your RSS feed and maximize its effectiveness.
A Quick RSS Education
For those of you who may not know what RSS is or how useful it can be, here’s a quick overview.
RSS is an acronym for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a member of a family of different syndication formats to include RSS 1 & 2, as well as Atom, just to name a few. RSS is an XML format used to expose your newly updated content to the world. The feed can then be consumed and displayed by other websites, RSS readers, browsers and any other technology that was created with the capability to consume your RSS feed. This is very valuable to you because it allows you to easily share your content throughout the internet without having to copy & paste or recreate your content for distribution.
A Behind The Scenes Look
Here is a behind the scenes look at how I use my RSS feed to syndicate my content to the world.
Google Feedburner
First, I syndicated my feed through Google Feedburner. Feedburner is a free service offered by Google which allows you to improve your understanding of and relationship with your audience. It offers many beneficial enhancements that go beyond your typical RSS feed. Once you’ve syndicated your feed through Feedburner, you can add enhancements to your RSS feed known as “FeedFlare”. FeedFlare are simply plugins for your RSS feed. FeedFlare allow you to add enhancements to your feed such as the ability for feed subscribers to email the feed or share it on Facebook, Delicious or Stumbleupon further increasing your reach and providing you access to thousands of potential readers you otherwise would not have had access too! You can also search from hundreds of additional FeedFlare options to add to your feed.
The image on the left is an example of how FeedFlare will appear in your RSS feed when others view it. To access FeedFlare, simply login to your Feedburner account and click the “Options” tab at the top, then select FeedFlare from the left menu.
RSS Submission
Next, I did a Google Search for the search term “rss submit”, which brings up a listing of various rss submission websites and software. There are a few ways you can do this.
- Manually submit your RSS feed to feed syndication directories.
- Purchase RSS feed submission software to submit your feed to multiple RSS syndication directories at once.
- Pay a 3rd party RSS submission company to handle the submission process for you.
The first option is free but requires a time commitment on your part to submit your feed. The latter two options have a cost related to them but usually aren’t that expensive, $50 – $100 at most usually. Submitting your RSS feed to multiple syndication directories allows you to spread your content to a wider audience which will then be updated each time you post new content to your website or blog.
TwitterFeed
The next thing I do is go to TwitterFeed and syndicate my feed to Twitter and Ping. This allows me to automatically update my Twitter followers as well as all my other social networking sites, such as Facebook, FriendFeed, LinkedIn and Plurk whenever I post new content to my blog.
Aweber Blog Broadcast
And finally, the most important thing I do with my RSS feed is syndicate it through Aweber’s Blog Broadcast feature. This allows me to immediately notify subscribers to my blog and email list of new content on my blog automatically by sending an email of my new content to my subscribers in a clean, professional way. Being the graphic designer and web developer I am, I was able to create a personalized branded look and feel to the email that is sent out through Aweber’s Blog Broadcast capabilities. This personalized template is simply a wrapper around my RSS feed which allows me to present the updated content to my subscribers in an eye pleasing, yet personally branded look. Aweber also provides pre-designed templates for you to choose from. The Aweber Blog Broadcast feature allows me to update my email list without having to compose a separate email to notify my subscribers that I’ve posted new content saving me a substantial amount of time.
To Summarize
These are just a few of the ways you can use your RSS feed and benefit from its amazing capabilities to spread your content throughout the internet. Be creative and find new ways to take advantage of your RSS feed as it is a powerful way to quickly and easily spread your content to reach thousands of potential readers.
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To Your Success!
Sean Smith
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