tag comes next and contains the required information about this news channel (as listed above). Optional information follows these items and includes language, copyright info, contact email addresses, and an image (logo) that can be displayed with the channel's headlines. The above example contains all these options, but you can leave these out of your own feed if you prefer.
In addition to the required information, the channel must contain at least one news item.
>> News items consist of the following:
· Title: this is the headline that will be displayed for the news item
· Link: the URL where the full news item can be found (for best results, each item should be on its own unique web page)
· Description: a description of the news item – sometimes referred to as a "teaser."
The first two elements are the minimum expected by nearly all sites that carry headlines. The description field is optional, as some syndicators will ignore this field altogether, posting only the item headline. Because of this, Kalena's RSS file does not include item descriptions.
Below that, you'll see two news items listed, "Google Defines Ethical SEO" and "Yahoo Offends Gay Community in UK". Additional news items would follow the same format and be listed directly below within -
tags. Finally, the last two lines of the feed are closing tags – XML, like HTML, requires opening and closing tags.
To preview what Kalena's RSS feed looks like when syndicated, click here:
http://www.wc.cc.va.us/services/news/preview.asp?
c=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.high-search-engine-ranking.com%2Fsenb.rss
You can create your own simple RSS file with just about any text editor – I set up the sample above with Notepad. Once you've created the text file, do the following:
Save the file with .rss as the extension (example: mynews.rss) and upload it to the main folder of your website.
Validate your RSS feed by running it through the RSS Validator to make sure it's set up correctly.
Display the "valid RSS" logo on your site (available from the link above) and provide a visible link to your feed (link: http://www.mydomain.com/mynews.rss) from your site page/s. You could say something like Kalena uses on her site: Webmasters! Click below to feature our Search Engine News Blog headlines on your site. RSS Feed For This Page.
(optional) Create a javascript version of the RSS feed to enable other webmasters to syndicate your content on their sites (the Wytheville Community College News Center provides this service for free).
Submit your feed to content aggregators. Some sources are provided below.
Update your feed regularly by adding new items to the .rss file and ensuring each item has it's own link on your web site.
To keep your feed fresh, try to keep your channel items to a maximum of five, deleting older items from your feed as you update it. The dates next to your news items will adjust depending on when content aggregators pick them up.
So, that's the basics of RSS! We have only been able to scratch the surface in this short lesson, but it's enough to get you started. A complete description of the RSS 0.91 format can be found at http://backend.userland.com/rss, and more resources on creating your own newsfeed can be found here:
Set Up Your Own Newsfeed
RSS: Lo-Fi Content Syndication
Blogify Your Page
Content Syndication With RSS (Blog about RSS)
[Kalena] Thanks Dan. Ok, so your feed is created, you've verified it works and you've set up the code and Javascript on your site so that webmasters and content syndicators can grab it easily. But you're not finished yet! Now you need to spread the word about your feed. Here are a few content aggregators where you can register your newsfeed:
Syndic8
Moreover
Aggregator Userland
News is Free
News Knowledge
You only need to do this once and then syndicators tracking your feed automatically pick up your new feed items as you update them. You can also download one of these RSS readers to examine your own newsfeed:
http://www.feedreader.com/
http://www.headlineviewer.com/
So there you go. Not as difficult as you thought huh? With a little effort, your site can be rubbing shoulders with the big players on major news portals. Enjoy the traffic!
Copyright © 2002 by Dan Thies and Kalena Jordan. All rights reserved under U.S. and international law.
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