Since both podcasts and video blogs depend on RSS for their success, it is important that you have a clear understanding of what RSS is, and how it works. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary, or RDF Site Summary – whichever you choose. As you can see, experts can’t even agree on that!
Regardless of what you want to call it, all three of those phrases mean the same thing. It means that your site, blog, or podcast is available via RSS. RSS has a very technical explanation that goes along with it, but it is too complicated for anyone that does not have an IT degree to understand – which is why many people run away from it when they look for ways to promote.
But it is really very simple, and can be put into laymen’s terms. RSS enables you to syndicate your data on the World Wide Web. When you view the word ‘syndication’ think about newspapers and how they syndicate columns or comic strips. The column or comic strip is available in multiple newspapers around the world. The same is true when RSS is used, basically.
When RSS is put into play it takes information and creates an excerpt of it. An example would be the first paragraph, or even the first fifty words of a blog post. The title of the post would also be used in the RSS. This information is used in the RSS feed.
Now, users are able to download one or several of numerous aggregators or feed readers and subscribe to sites, blogs, or even podcasts that are RSS enabled. When they open their aggregator or feed reader, they will see the headlines, and possibly the excerpts of the latest blog posts, site content, or podcasts.
They can also view these things inside of the aggregator, but may click on the link (usually the title is linked), and actually visit the site, with the aggregator or feed reader acting as a browser.
There are also services that don’t require an aggregator or feed reader to subscribe to RSS. Examples are major sites that allow users to customize the page, such as Google’s Personalized Homepage, Yahoo, and MSN. People can subscribe to your RSS and add the feed to these personalized homepages.
While RSS was originally used to deliver news, at news websites, there are numerous other uses for it today. It is used for traffic information, airline information, sports scores, stock figures, weather, real estate, and yes, even to let people know when there has been an update to your blog, site, or podcast.
An RSS enabled site usually has an emblem that looks like this:
This emblem is the internationally recognized RSS feed indicator, and it is usually clicked on to add the feed to an aggregator or feed reader. This means that when you use this emblem on your blog or podcast download page, it must be set up.
Most blog platforms are already RSS enabled, and it is just a question of going into the options and selecting it. Otherwise, you can use a feed maker to create RSS feeds and make them available. Some feed makers are free, but not very easy to use, and others are easy to use, but not free.
One of the better free feed makers can be found at Fedafi (http://fedafi.com/feed_maker.php), but it is very basic. The best paid feed maker is available at Feed for All (http://www.feedforall.com/feedforall.htm). If you want to give the free feed maker a try, all you need to do is fill in the form, and then save the XML code that is generated as a file named feed.xml.
You upload this file to your web server, and then link your little orange RSS button to feed.xml or http://www.yourdomain.com/feed.xml. Once you’ve done this, try it out yourself. Download an aggregator and get it set up, go to your site, click the button, and make sure that you have the option to add the site to your aggregator.
Aggregators are end user tools. This means that in order to subscribe to your blog or podcast, so that they can see the posts or podcasts that are new, the user must either download and set up an aggregator or use a service that will allow them to add a feed to a customized page, without the use of a standalone aggregator. Aggregators are free, and the ability to set up a customized homepage is typically also free.
That’s really all that the laymen needs to know about RSS – how to add RSS capabilities to their site. Again, there is a great deal of technical information that goes along with RSS, but knowing it isn’t at all necessary. As long as you can create a feed, upload it, use the orange button and link to the feed with that orange button, you are good to go.
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