RSS Real Simple Syndication Overview
By now everyone has seen the RSS symbol and even the little add to Yahoo and Google on every blog and more and more websites. What is RSS, how does it work, why should I care? These are all valid questions, and I’m here to give you the answer. Below are some of the typical icons that you will see that relate to RSS syndication:
RSS Syndication Explained
RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, and it surely is simple. Just about every blogging system that exists has RSS built into it. I have also heard that RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. In fact when you type “what is RSS” into Google, the #1 site is a one page wonder that calls it Rich Site Summary, but I haven’t heard anyone else call it that so we will stick with the Real Simple Syndication definition.
Ok so what is RSS? In tech speak it is a type of XML code that comes in 3 or 4 different languages such as Atom, RSS 2, etc. The type isn’t that relevant until you get to the point where you are actively promoting your own feed. If I had to choose I would stick with Atom since it is understood by the majority of readers and is the flavor of choice with Google Base.
Again most blogging systems put some code in the header of your site with meta information that tells RSS readers and other interested programs where your feeds are and what type they are. There are also RSS services that help you help yourself, by understanding your subscribers. A subscriber is a person that has either added your feed to their Yahoo, MSN, or Google homepage, bookmarked your blog feed in their browser or RSS feed reader, or if you are like me signed up to receive email updates to your site.
I personally use FeedBurner to manage all my feeds, It is free and easy to use. Plus they are a big believer in analytics and give you a quick overview of how many subscribers you have and how they are subscribing. Another company FeedBlitz allows your site visitors to subscribe to your feed via email. Since I am a WordPress guy I use a cool plugin called “What Would Seth Godin Do” written by Richard Miller. Get the plugin from Richard K Miller dot cooooooooom. What it does is add a little box either at the beginning or end of every post that prompts users to subscribe to your feed. It has an easy to customize plugin manager page that allows you to also throw in the FeedBlitz code for email subscription. Since I added the plugin a ton of subscribers signed up for email updates to my blog.
Before I move on FeedBlitz is free, but for a mere $14.00 a month you can update how your email is sent and even customize the template. I upgraded mine and I plan on using it as a newsletter. Since there are still a bunch of people who aren’t sure what RSS is or how to use it, calling it a newsletter is a great way to promote your site’s feed!
My next article on RSS will go into the nitty gritty of feed promotion as well as sharing with you the tools that I use to get the most out of RSS.
Interesting article on RSS. You couldn’t have explained it simpler.
I began researching RSS for a Master’s Project, and your overview was found to be very helpful. Thank you!
Sara,
I’m glad I could help. Feel free to ask any questions you might have. RSS is the most important aspect of social network marketing, web 2.0 or whatever you want to call user driven content. In fact, Google is now showing subscribers in its Webmaster center and explaining how more an more people are having content sent directly to their browsers or email through RSS. RSS has changed the very fabric of data gathering on the Internet.