RSS Feed Explained: Everything You Need to Know About RSS As a Blogger

What is RSS?

RSS is commonly known as Really Simple Syndication.

It is simply a protocol, or a communication standard if you will, for the website or blog to publish the content in a way that other website/blog/software could easily retrieve and re-publish (thus Syndication).

Here is Google’s explanation of RSS feed if you care to read more about it.

As you publish new blog posts, not only does your blog gets updated with the new content, that piece of content also gets published to your RSS feed page. Read on to understand why RSS was created.

Why did they create RSS?

Imagine I have a piece of software that notifies me whenever blog X gets updated with new content. As the programmer of the software, and without RSS, I have to literally go visit blog X, parse the HTML code, and extract just the content piece of the entire page.

Now, think of the various problems this approach could present. For one, I have to understand where in this HTML code the content really starts and ends. Okay, no problem, say I figured that out. But what if blog X all of a sudden decide to change its theme, then I have to update my software to cope with the new “look.”

What if tomorrow I found interest in blog Y and wanted to add it to my software, that has a totally different design?

Bottom line, it is impractical to “scrape” the content portion of any blog, because not all blogs have the same design!

That’s why RSS was created.

If you look at source code of a RSS feed page, you will see that it is a very well-structured document that tells you the title, category, date, actual content of my blog post, etc.

Whereas HTML presents the entire webpage in a structured document, A RSS feed is like a HTML page designed specifically to present content in a structured document.

Where is the RSS feed located for my blog?

If you have a WordPress blog, the default URL for your RSS feed is located at http://www.yourdomain.com/feed.

The feed to this blog is at http://www.howtostartablog.com/feed.

Most browsers should understand RSS, and if it does, you will a very bare bone page listing your recent blog posts without the fancy formatting and theme design.

Don’t forget, as you publish new blog posts, that piece of content also gets published to your RSS feed page.

What are some uses of RSS for bloggers?

Notifying your blog subscribers of new content is a must for any successful blog. If you do not capture your visitors, they will most likely never come back to your blog (unless you have a very popular blog that gets quoted by the media all the time).

This is where RSS comes in to help you draw your readers backs to your blog.

I’m not sure how many people still use a RSS feed reader software to get updates to blogs they subscribe to, but it is one of the uses for bloggers to push updates to their readers notifying them of new content.

As a step-up, Google’s free Feedburner service allows you to publish a subscription form on your blog to capture your visitor’s email. Every time you publish something new on your blog, Feedburner automatically sends out an email to all of your subscribers to let them know of the new blog post.

How cool is that?!

Another popular use of RSS is content aggregation. Say you know several photobloggers who regularly posts stock photographs on their own blogs.

You can create a blog to aggregate their contents by using RSS syndication plugin, or even the RSS widget in the WordPress dashboard.

By setting up this blog, you’ve centralized content that has a common theme (stock photographs in this example), and that alone adds a lot of value for people who are looking for stock photographs because they just need to visit your blog instead of individual blogs for new photos.

Are you having a light bulb moment, yet?

Hopefully it sparks some business ideas for you. If not, think about syndication fees that you can charge these individual photobloggers, especially when you show them how many blog subscribers you have! See, it’s not so bad to know what RSS is afterall

Show off your RSS feed

Feel free to leave a comment below with a brief description of your blog, and your RSS feed URL for some exposure and link love.

If you have any question about RSS or its usage, fire away!

Your Blog Will Absolutely Fail If You Don’t Have This!

Quick… in 10 seconds, give me your elevator pitch.

Your elevator pitch, you know, kinda like your mission statement and what your blog is all about, summarized in 10 seconds.

If you don’t have a mission statement for your blog, you are not playing to win – I’m sorry. And don’t think you can get away with this even if you are just using your blog for personal or pleasure.

Go right now and add a new page to your blog, call it “About”, “About Me”, “About this blog” or something where your visitors can find out what your blog is all about, and more importantly, just what the heck you are trying to accomplish with your blog.

If you already have an “About” page, add to it your mission statement, or specific goals you are trying to achieve with your blog. Be very specific, and use numbers if applicable, such as

“My blog is about tracking and keeping myself accountable the weight loss goal. The goal is to lose 30 pounds in 6 months, and I will be posting weekly to provide updates to my progress.

I hope this blog becomes a motivation for you to take action to eat and drink healthier, feel better, and improve your quality of life.

You can follow this blog by subscribing to my blog announcement list at [blah blah blah]“

Better yet, put a blurb like the example above, change it to what your blog is all about and what it can do for your readers, and stick it on your homepage so your first time visitors will know exactly what your blog is about, and what they can expect from your blog.

Got it? Good, because my next post will be a “About” page challenge I will make each of you participate, and if you are playing to win you will not want to miss the opportunity for free publicity.

50 Things to Blog About

If you ever get stumped on what to write about, here are 50 ideas to help get the creative juices flowing as a follow up to my other post on 10 Killer Blog Post Ideas

Take a photo. Share a picture instead of words!
Share a relevant YouTube video. Perhaps even analyze it a bit in your post. It doesn’t require a lot of work to watch and then find the best videos.
Shoot a video of your own. People love to see a blogger’s face rather than just read their words.
Comment on another blog post on your blog. For example, if another well known blogger makes a strong statement, respond to that statement on your blog.
Comment on a news event and on how it relates to your field.
Write a How To post. Walkthroughs, tutorials and how to’s tend to do very well online.
Bust a Myth. What are common beliefs people hold in your industry that simply aren’t true?
Tell an entertaining and educational story. What were some turning point moments in your career?
Create a Q&A post. What are common questions people have and what are their answers?
Examine a Problem. Take an issue that people often get stuck on and go in depth into its causes and solutions.
Write a Top X List. For example, “Top 50 ways to get blog traffic” or “Top 12 hip hop dance moves.”
Ramble. Just talk aimlessly and passionately about a subject. Be sure to set it aside and read it a day or two later to make sure it’s relevant before you post it.
Write about common pitfalls. What are mistakes that beginners might make without knowing it?
Interview an expert. Post it in audio or video form on your blog.
Review a product. What are its benefits and its drawbacks? What sets it apart? Would you recommend it?
Comment on state of the industry. What’s going well and what isn’t’ going well?
Ask your audience a question. What do they think about Topic X?
Post the top resources for someone in your industry. Give links, downloads, videos, etc that might help them in what they’re trying to do.
Make a prediction on the future. What do you think is going to happen in the next 12 months?
Write about an in person event. For example, “What I learned at Affiliate Summit X this year.
Share a provocative opinion. What’s an opinion you have that just isn’t politically correct?
Why someone is right or wrong. Write a post about why you think someone is right or wrong about a certain subject.
Make something complex simple. Break a hard process down into its parts and make it easy to do or follow.
Share a thought process. How do you get from point A to point B in your thought process?
Blog about a personal experiment. What’s something you tried? Did it work or did it not work? What would you do differently and what would you recommend?
Do an audio recording. Sharing yourself via MP3 rather than text can lead to more connection with your readers.
Write a sarcastic post. It shouldn’t be aggressive, but be a little satirical post that contradicts popular opinion.
Give away an eBook. Pack it with value and just give it away for free.
Analyze someone else’s success. Why did they make it? What did they do differently than other people?
Analyze someone else’s failure. Why did company X or project X fail? What was the key mistake?
Write about an article at the top of Digg or Reddit. These topics are what the movers and shakers online care about right now.
Write about the pros and cons of X. What are the benefits and drawbacks?
Take the alternate position. What does everyone else think? What do you typically stand for? Try taking the other side.
Write about a book in your industry. Review it or write a synopsis.
Write a post designed to be inspirational. Not a how to, but something that gives people a sense that they can do it too.
Write an Update post – How it used to be, how it is today. For example, “X used to work in the past, but with the recent changes in the market, you really need to do Y to get the same effects.”
Write a post for experts. Give specific how-to’s and little known industry knowledge.
Write a post for newbies. Make it easy and answer questions that beginners often ask.
Share a secret in your industry. What are things that people on the inside know but tend not to share?
Do a multi-part post with cliffhangers in between. Write a great post #1, then leave people wanting for more before part 2.
Write a followup on your most popular posts. Take your top 3 articles and expand on those topics.
Host a poll and then post the results. Analyze why you think the poll turned out the way it did.
Write an open letter to someone well known in your industry. For example, “An Open Letter to Steve Jobs” went viral when the iPhone 3GS came out.
Show off! What you did and the results you got.
A “What I wish I did differently” post. Use what you know now to analyze your successes and failures.
Address common frustrations in the industry. Where do people generally get frustrated and not know how to move forward? Let them know they’re not alone.
Post an infographic. Take statistics, data and information and put it in graphical form. These tend to get passed around a lot.
Around the world view. How is X done similarly or differently around the world?
Creative ways to do X. How can you do things differently than other people?
How to speed up X. How to do a process faster than it’s normally done.

These are 50 things to blog about. Anytime you get stuck, just come back to this list to help inspire new blogging ideas.

If you have actual blog posts that uses any of the above 50 things, share it in the comments below!

35 Blogging Best Practices To Help Your Blog Succeed

True or False? You need readers, buzz, comments, a great design, AND something of value to offer in order to make money with your blog…

TRUE!

The answer to the above question is absolute TRUE! Maybe you’re new at this online business or blogging thing. Maybe you’ve just read your share of blogs and thought it would be fun to play along.

Maybe you want to…

Start or maintain a blog
Improve your blog
Earn significant money with your blog
Become more savvy with your blog design
Increase traffic to your blog
Increase comments on your blog
Draw high quality partners to your business with your blog
All of the above

Maybe, you’re trying to make a living online, and really need your blog to be a part of it.

Truth is, even if you are experienced at blogging, info marketing online, or both, and even if you’re currently making some money at it…we could all use a little boost from time to time.

I’m going to show you no less than 35 different ways to enhance your blog. You want to maximize your blog’s impact? Here’s how you do just that. I’ll cover everything you need to know, and whether you’re a beginner, or the Tiger Woods of blogging, this “swing change” is what could take you to that next level!

Take a look at some of the tips you’ll find in this report…

7 Ways to Write Great Blog Headlines

7 Ways to Get Great Ideas for Blog Posts

7 Ways to Get More Comments at Your Blog

7 Ways to Make Money from Your Blog

7 Ways to Improve Your Blog Design

Even if you take just one of these 35 tips I give you I promise you will see an improvement in your blog

How to Access WordPress Admin Panel (Dashboard)

Have you ever used a WordPress theme where the sidebar is missing the Login or admin panel link?

Well, don’t fret, all you have to do is add “wp-admin” to the end of your blog URL.

For example, the dashboard URL for this blog is:

http://www.howtostartablog.com/wp-admin

Now, if you have installed your WordPress blog in a subdirectory then you would tag on “wp-admin” as usual.

For example,

http://www.mysite.com/myblog/wp-admin

Have fun!

How To Blog Faster, and More Efficiently

Here are a few blogging tips to help you become a blogging master.

Post via E-mail
This option can be turned on in your WordPress blog by going under Settings -> Writing.

post-by-email

What this allows you to do is post to your blog by sending an email that you have set up. Therefore, if you have an iPhone or internet-enabled cellphone you could pretty much “blog on the spot”.

Think of this as your own twitter space… instead of tweeting to your twitter microblog, you are tweeting to your own blog.

The only limitation with this is that you can only post by email to a chosen category.

Schedule Your Post Publication
Ever have one of those nights where you can just keep going and going? (like when I was in my 20′s ) Okay… I meant you could just write on and on, but you don’t want to publish them all in one night.

Well, WordPress does allow you to schedule your posts, so you can “content drip” your blog.

When adding a new post (or editing a post) you will see a Publish metabox that allows you to change the publication date from the default immediately to a date/time of your choosing:

publish-scheduling

This is a great way to make your blog “work” while you are on vacation.

So if you know you will be on travel for a month, you could simply pre-write your blog posts and schedule them to publish for that period of absence to make it appear as if you are keeping up with your blog!

Keep a List
I don’t know how many times I’ve told myself, “Hey, I should really blog about that!” when carrying out my daily routines or in talking with people.

These are the moments that gives you inspiration and ideas of your next blog post, but if you don’t start blogging about it immediately or at least write it down on your “My Next Blog Post List” it will most likely be forgotten.

So, it is a good habit to have a list on you so you can write down your ideas to capture these previous inspirational moments.

For me, since I’m on my computer most of the time, I simply login to my WordPress blog and start a post. Write up a title to remind me what this will be about, and hit “Save Draft” instead of publishing. Then I can come back to these draft posts and finish them up later.

Small Words, Big Finish
Do you know how freakin’ difficult it is to write in a way that makes you sound more intellectual than you really are?

Once I tell myself, “Look Steve, don’t show off your vocab, because you’ve got none!”, my writer’s block tend to just disappear.

In fact, if I were to read a blog and the blogger throws out big SAT words and use complex sentence structures, it really turns me off – it makes me feel stupid!

Once I accept who I am, write the way as if how I would talk, words tend to flow better for me.

Try this yourself, and let me know if you have an easier time going, I mean, blogging

10 Killer Blog Post Ideas

Are you running out of ideas for your next blog post? Here are 10+ killer blog post ideas that will sure entertain your readers and keep them coming back to your blog.

Note that some of these blog post ideas may not be appropriate for your type of audience, so proceed with caution!

#1. Ask Your Readers For Suggestions

No content is better than content that your readers want to see. You should be keeping a mailing list of your readers and have the mailing list software send out blog announcements (ie. email your readers when new blog posts are made). You may also use the mailing list software to make email broadcasts. In the email broadcast ask your readers what they would like to see posted.

Another idea would be to simply make your post a “Open MIC day” where you allow your readers to ask you questions and you and/or your readers can interact with each other via the comment form.

#2. Expand on Your Existing Post

Look for an old post that you have made and see if there is opportunity for you to expand or write a sequel to the post.

Sometimes it takes revisiting your old writings for your brain to “see” something that didn’t occur to you at the time of writing.

#3. Trackback to Another Post

Go read another blog that you frequent, and if you see something you like, trackback to it and share it with your readers.

You can also expand on another blogger’s post (idea #2).

#4. Give Something Away

If you are serious about branding your blog you should have some “freebies” in stock – branded T-shirts, mugs, gifts, DVD’s, and other promotional items.

You could ask your readers (if they are also bloggers) to trackback to your post in order to receive the item. This helps build linking back to your post and possibly more subscribers.

#5. Start a Debate

You could take a current event or a controversial topic and start a debate on your blog post. Just make sure you open up the commenting form.

#6. Share Your Laughter

Did you come across a funny joke, a funny video on YouTube? Share it!

Your readers can use a good laughter from time to time.

#7. Fact Tells, But Story Sells

Tell your readers why you have started your blog if you haven’t already. Tell your readers an empiphany that you had. Tell a moral story, whatever. People like to hear stories, and it’s nice to have one once in a while.

#8. Request for Guest Post

You may approach other bloggers who blogs similar topics as you to guest blog. Other bloggers should have no trouble understanding that this is mutually beneficial – You get interesting content to your readers, and the other bloggers get a link back to their blogs (as they should).

#9. Become a Guest Blogger

On the contrary, you can become a guest blogger for another blog! Again, the benefits are mutual.

Your brain works in strange ways. As soon as you know that you are writing not for your readers, it may become quite a relieve and ideas and contents would just flow to you.

#10. Silence is Golden

Yeah, leave it for another day. No one says that you have to make a post everyday!

Okay, your turn! I’m taking idea #1 myself and would like to ask you to keep the list going! Got a fresh idea on a blog post? Trackback to this post (idea #3) or share it by commenting below.