What Are Content Feeds?
RSS Feeds
RSS also known as rich site summary or real simply syndication,
arrived on the scene a number of years ago, but was
only recently embraced by webmasters as a means to effectively
syndicate content. RSS Feeds provide webmasters and
content providers an avenue to provide concise summaries
to prospective readers. Thousands of commercial web
sites and blogs now publish content summaries in an
RSS feed. Each item in the feed typically contains a
headline; article summary and link back to the online
article.
Benefit to the Webmaster
As the web has become more crowded webmasters
have been striving to provide fresh and up to date content
for their website visitors. Many webmasters have discovered
they can easily utilize the information in RSS feeds
to provide fresh web content.
RSS feeds are composed
in XML, which is a very simple markup language. Similar
to HTML, XML uses tags to identify fields. Webmasters
can easily parse the RSS feed and dynamically create
web pages that contain headlines and summaries. The
feeds will continuously update, supplying a steady stream
of automatically generated fresh content.
RSS allows webmasters
to:
1.) Provide fresh and relevant content
on their website, which encourages users to return.
2.) Constantly
changing content means that search engine spiders will
visit more frequently.
3.) Automate
content delivery.
The benefits of RSS feeds
are not limited to webmasters, surfers too benefit from
the technology as well.
Benefit to Web Surfers
The beauty of RSS is that readers can quickly
scan headlines (titles) and read articles of interest.
Because the information is condensed and provided in
a single location users can generally review more information
in a shorter time frame. Additional information is only
a click away. Best of all readers choose the feeds they
wish to see, there is no spam with RSS. If you are not
completely thrilled with the content appearing in a
feed simply remove it from the newsreader. The technology
is a pull technology rather than push technology, meaning
the content is not forced on the consumers, who pull
the content they want to see.
RSS allows for users to:
1.) Easily locate information.
2.) Read
condensced information or 'soundbytes' with clearly
marked and dated topic material.
3.) Classify
and categorize information in an easy to navigate manner.
4.) Maximize
their time without having to deal with spam.
RSS feeds can be viewed
in a news aggregator or reader, which constantly updates
and shows unread feeds. I found the functionality of
the newsreaders to be similar to a simple email client.
Consumers generally enter the URL of any RSS feeds that
interest them. Topics with a common theme can be segregated
into related groups.
I highly recommend FeedDemon
http://www.feeddemon.com
by BradSoft as a newsreader. FeedDemon is extremely
easy to use and allows for quick scanning and indexing
of topics. FeedDemon allows users to quickly scan, sort
and scroll through headline and article summaries, while
viewing the actual content in a split screen web browser.
Finding Topic Specific
Relevant Feeds
In order to find feeds that provide niche information
users can search Feedster. Feedster http://www.feedster.com
is a rapidly growing news search engine that indexes
information contained within RSS feeds. Searches for
topic specific feeds can be conducted and feeds can
be retrieved for syndication.
Benefit to Content
Developer
While the benefits to users and webmasters are
clear the distribution opportunities made available
to content developers should not be overlooked. Information
contained in the RSS feed can be easily syndicated,
increasing content distribution and reach.
RSS allows for content
developers to:
1.) Increase exposure in niche markets.
2.) Communicate
with user bases and reach potential customers via an
alternate communication method.
3.) Disseminate
relevant information.
4.) Define
themselves as an industry expert.
5.) Automate
content delivery.
RSS has effectively standardized
the format for content delivery and has effectively
defined the accepted standard for content distribution
and syndication. RSS will likely rival email as a means
of content distribution in another few years. The shear
simplicity makes the technology very appealing.
The distribution potential,
while albeit difficult to measure, is still attractive
to all parties making the likelihood that RSS popularity
will only continue to grow.
RSS Feeds to Try
Feeds exist for almost any topic consider trying
these feeds out by entering the url in your feed reader:
Small Business Feed
- small business tips and news
http://www.small-business-software.net/blog-feed.xml
Software Marketing Blog Summary - software
marketing and online news
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog-feed.xml
SMS, Wireless Messaging
Related News. - news related to telecom, wireless
industry and NotePage's software
http://www.notepage.net/blog-feed.xml
Free Content Articles - collection of
free content articles, updates when new article is released.
http://www.small-business-software.net/article-feed.xml
Software Marketing
News - news related to software conferences,
awards, software development and marketing
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/feed.xml
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc.
http://www.notepage.net
a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and
wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by
Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com
, and http://www.small-business-software.net
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