![]() |
All About Blogging and RSS | ![]() |
|
|
How To Use RSS Correctly
There is no doubt in my mind that RSS is here to stay. RSS is a simple and effective means of communicating your message to your visitors without invading their privacy or spamming them. It has many benefits over email and there have been many reports of the death of email due to the continual rise of mass spamming and non delivery due to spam filters. By no means is email dead, it is still the best personal communication method besides picking up the phone. It's just that RSS does some things much better than email. I have been informing and educating webmasters about RSS since I first discovered the potential of this medium. A whole industry has now grown up around RSS and now there are directories that specialise in listing RSS feeds and tools to help you create RSS feeds. Everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon and everybody seems to have their own opinions about how RSS should be used. Even Google has joined in to offer adsense in RSS feeds. The problem I see is that improper use of RSS may well send RSS the way of email. Currently it seems that if you publish an RSS feed the contents of that feed seem to be considered public domain. The reasons for this is, I believe, to do with the way content is packaged in RSS, this makes the content easy to syndicate. It is not that difficult to create a script or desktop application to strip out the content of RSS feeds and publish them on someone else's website. There is even a few applications being sold for just this purpose. This has lead to what I consider improper use of RSS feeds to spam the search engines, this seems to be aimed particularly at Google. Although not yet widespread yet many webmasters are cottoning on to the fact that they can get easy content for their websites without putting in much effort. Although off hand this may not seem detrimental to you, consider the long term consequences. Your feed copied hundreds if not thousands of times and no back links to your site as the links have been stripped. What if Google decides to penalise due to duplicate content, the consequences could be that your site is dropped from Googles listings. After considering such a scenario I have come up with a few suggestions. Firstly only publish a teaser paragraph in your feed that links back to the main article. Although some may disagree with me as they prefer the full article in the feed, I truly believe RSS is better suited to notification type messages. Secondly you can publish some terms in your feed which states that the contents are personal use only and you should be contacted for syndication rights. While this will not stop those determined to copy the content of your RSS feed it will help raise awareness of the issue. Allan is the webmaster at NewsNiche an RSS resource for webmasters. Learn how to use RSS to attract and retain visitors to your site.
Help keep Blogging and RSS available by donating any amount.
MORE RESOURCES:
Blogging-RSS - Google News |
RELATED ARTICLES
How and Why to RSS RSS feeds and blogs (and blog and pinging) are part of the latest hyper-frenzy in internet marketing. Tools and services are mushrooming all over. 10 Reasons to Put RSS on Your Site! RSS and Blogs are the topics of the moment. Seems like everyone is talking about it. Are Blog Meant for Raves and Rants? Blogging is the latest internet craze and it may turn out to be just that and killed off if the avalanche of misinformation continues. One is amazed at how an excellent online medium is promoted for all the wrong reasons. Seven Sizzling Ways to Turn Targeted Traffic Towards Your Blog! Blogs are an unbelievable way to achieve success on the internet. Blogs can establish a web presence, express your opinions and generate serious profits. Shorten Your Blogging-RSS Learning and Submission Curve A blog is a frequent, online publication of comments, web links, and news. It is an online Enzine of sorts. Top 10 Reasons to Start Blogging "What's blogging?" you ask."Where have you been?" I reply. RSS Feeds Have Revolutionized the Internet RSS feeds have revolutionized the Internet for one very good reason: they have provided and end to Spam. With RSS feeds, you can say good-bye to mass emails and distributions that do not meet your news needs and clog up your mailbox and hard drive. RSS & How to Use It -- Part 2 Welcome to part 2 of the article that aims to give you just enough information to help you understand RSS and start using it. Part 1 gave you simple instructions on how to read and subscribe to an RSS site feed, part 2 will give you simple instructions on how to publish your own. A Person Is Known By the Blog He Keeps Literature is the soul of the wit. The best source of literature can be now found in blogs. Blogging Your Way To Success Part 4 (Continued from Blogging Your Way To Success Part 3)In this last part of the series, we will summarize what we have covered:1) You have registered for a Blogger account at http://www.blogger. Strategies to Make Your Blog More Interesting Putting up your business blog is an advantageous way of establishing your presence on web. It's no longer just about putting plain texts up on your blog. Top 10 Tips for Bloggers Tips for creating a blog.There are no hard and fast rules on how to blog. Starting Your Own Blog I was sitting in my local Internet Cafe yesterday, I like to get away from my 'home office' from time to time and it's a great place to go for a cup of Espresso and to meet interesting people. The rather attractive lady sitting next to me was typing away furiously and, when she had finished, I asked her what she was writing - I'm interested in learning how other people use the Internet. Bad Blogs Have Got To Go, Blogging Could Be Really Cool If Done Properly There's a lot of blogs out there on the Web, most of which don't entice one to go back regularly to read updates. What is missing from these on-line journals that would essentially make them 'good' blogs? Well, the answers in life usually come down to simplicities. How to Get a Blog on the Internet Of all people in the world I was easily one of the most pessimistic about computers, the Internet and now that I even know they exist-blogs. I think blogs are pretty cool but I never thought I could have one. RSS as a Change Agent To better understand how RSS is changing the way companies and individuals deliver and consume content on the macro scale, let us first remember how content is traditionally delivered and consumed.People subscribe to e-mail newsletters or e-mail update services to get content delivered directly to their inboxes. To Blog or Not to Blog: Are Blogs Becoming More Popular than Forums, Newsletters and E-zines? Blogging is hot, and seems to be becoming hotter each month. Although blogging originally was dismissed, by many successful publishers and other online "gurus", the truth is that now, a few years after the "blogging trend" began, there are actually more blogs and more bloggers online than ever before. Use Blogging to Manage Your Entire Web Sites Content Blogging is a term that means different things to different people. To some people it means keeping an online journal. Its Not Enough to Blog A properly created weblog will do the following for your website: (a) add rich content; (b) add interactivity in the form of user ability to post comments; and (c) if properly set up, can automatically ping major search engines when new posts are made. This results in more frequent spidering of your website by the major search engines, with the fresh content being picked up quickly and increasing your site's ranking. How to Make Money from Your Blog Content Writing a blog can be fun and exciting, but it can also be rewarding. If you do not know how to make money from your blog content then you need to consider implementing the following suggestions in your blog. |