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You’ve seen this button on many of the websites you visit. You usually ignore it because you have no idea what it does. You might even be afraid to click on it for fear it might crash your computer. Ok, you’re probably not that irrational… but what does that magical orange button do?

It’s called a RSS Feed, which stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” It is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, or podcasts. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite websites in an automated way, much easier than checking them manually, right? RSS content can be read using software called an “RSS reader,” “feed reader,” or an “aggregator.” You can subscribe to a feed by entering the feed’s link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. This way you can constantly be updated on the sites you check everyday, whether it’s Google News, or your favorite guilty pleasure gossip blog.

So now that you know what a RSS Feed is, you probably want one on your site, right? Here’s how you go about publishing and maintaining a RSS feed in your email newsletter or articles for your own site? (It’s not as hard or technical as it sounds.)

The first step is to use the free WebReference RSS Channel Editor to set up a channel and list up to 15 articles. This program allows you to retrieve your current RSS file (if you have one set-up) and edit or add to it, up to 15 articles. The program produces RSS 0.91 output, works well, and is easy to maintain. With the RSS Channel Editor, you click on the button that says, “Build RSS” and then copy and paste the code it creates into a file. The extension you use (.rss, .rdf, .xml) doesn’t really matter to the news aggregators; they will all work. With your FTP program you can now upload your file to your webserver, where it can be viewed and automatically checked by the news aggregators.

The next step is to check your RSS feed and make sure you have made no mistakes in the set-up process. If you build this file from scratch or “improve” it with a text editor, then it’s easy for errors to happen. You can find helpful suggestions on how to fix your code errors with FEED Validator for RSS and Atom.

Once you have checked your code and it looks good, you will want to start advertising your feed. You can place an XML icon on your website hyperlinked to the URL of your RSS feed. For site visitors who have news aggregators, this is a clue that allows them to subscribe to your channel. You should also register your RSS feed with various directories, like Syndic8, which is one of the largest and is also free. All you have to do is register, and then select “Suggest” from the top of the menu to give the URL of your RSS feed. After the feed is reviewed and approved, then it will appear in the directory.

The last step is to keep your feed up to date by continually adding new articles using the RSS Channel Editor. Every time you post a new article, you must remember to list it in your RSS feed also. If you are committed to keeping your feed maintained, an increasing number of customers and interested visitors will rely on your feed and visit your site whenever an article of interest appears in their news aggregator.

***Picture Thanks to Daniel F. Pigatto***