The Publisher’s Guide to Understanding RSS

Posted by Justin Smith at 15 September, 2008, 4:03 pm

RSS is such an interesting technology. It has truly spearheaded a complete mind shift in the way people design, look at, and interact with the internet.

When I first read an e-book in 2003 about this new RSS technology that was becoming more mainstream, I have to admit, it was a little fuzzy. The only RSS readers available were software programs you had to download and install. Only a few sites even published RSS feeds, and the few popular blogs that existed only had a handful of subscribers. But even in my ignorance, I ran out to get a blog realizing at the time, that it was one of the fastest and cheapest ways to publish your own RSS feed.

Now look at where we are today! Most sites that publish content on a regular basis have an RSS feed. All blogs have one, or multiple feeds. We have over a dozen very high quality web based RSS readers that keep getting better, and subscription options are more plentiful than ever.

Awareness of RSS is still growing, and it has really begun to pick up steam in the last 2 years. Even for people that aren’t very technically saavy… it’s easier than ever to get them plugged in as an RSS subscriber through new easy to use tools.

Still Unclear About RSS? Here are some resources and a video that will help:

Great Video Explaining RSS:

If you are just getting started, I highly recommend the new version of bloglines, which can be found at: http://beta.bloglines.com or Goolge Reader. Both offer easy ways to subscribe to new feeds, and are really easy to manage. I particularly like Bloglines because it has a great folder organizing option, and automatically checks off articles you’ve already read.

Quick Steps to Getting Started as an RSS User/Reader/Subscriber

If you are still unclear about how to sign up to an RSS feed, I’ll make it really easy for you:

Step 1: Make sure you have Firefox 3.0, or Internet Explorer 7 or 8 installed.

Step 2: Navigate to a website you want to subscribe to.

Step 3: Find the Orange RSS Icon in the browser bar and click on it. (some sites don’t have an RSS feed)

Step 4: Choose Your feed reader

Step 5: Visit your RSS reader to make sure you subscribed (optional)

Do You Publish An RSS Feed? If You Have a Blog, Then The Answer Is YES!!

In this post, I want to review not only what it means to be an RSS user/reader/subscriber, but what it means to be an RSS publisher! If you have a blog, chances are you already have an RSS feed

First, find your RSS feed by navigating to your website or blog and following the instructions I gave above.

This RSS feed is important, it’s your lifeline to your readers. One of your primary goals as a blogger is to get as many people as possible to subscribe to your feed. The beautiful thing about RSS is that your content will be pushed to your subscribers. You won’t have to trust that people will come back to your blog every time they want to read your articles (which isn’t likely to happen).

Your basic RSS feed is a good thing, but it can have it’s shortcomings…

What is Feedburner, and Why Should You Care?

Feedburner is a Google owned company (as of recently), that is in the business of RSS delivery. In a nutshell, they will take your plain old RSS feed, and will provide a number of services including: more browser flexibility, more subscription options, subscriber statistics, RSS email delivery, and alot more… Feedburner is your RSS feed on steroids.

If you are serious about getting RSS subscribers, giving your readers more flexibility, viewing subscriber stats, and delivering your feed via email, then I HIGHLY suggest you sign up for feedburner.

Getting Your RSS Feed Set Up With Feedburner:

Step 1: Sign up for an account at Feedburner.com

Step 2: “Burn” your RSS feed. (tell Feedburner to start managing your RSS feed)

Step 3: You’re done…. wasn’t that easy? Now you simply need to promote your feed.

How to Promote Your Feedburner Email Subscription Form

Next I want to go over a few ideas for promoting your Feedburner email form. You’ve probably noticed by now that the html form I showed you last time isn’t compatible in many places. You can’t place it into many blog platforms, and you can’t place it in your email signature. Unfortunately, there are many places you can’t place an html form. But, the good news is that you have other options.

Just because you don’t have a nice form to give to people doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. At this point, I think it would be helpful to point out where you can get a hyperlink to your email form. A hyperlink has ultimate versatility. You can attach it to a banner or button, you can put it in your email signature, you can create a text link… you can use it just about anywhere.

But, to get the link you need, you’ll have to follow a couple steps.

First, navigate to your Feedburner feed. Mine is at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/hismove

Then, follow these steps:

Feedburner is good

Make sure to hang on to this link. Bookmark it, write it down, whatever… just don’t lose it. You’ll want to use it later.

Pretty simple so far right? Remember, you can take this link just about anywhere to allow people to sign up via email.

In my opinion, your email subscription tool is one of the most powerful in your entire arsenal. You should be promoting it religiously everywhere you leave a footprint online. You can even promote it offline if you have the means. I had a student that sent out blog announcements to their SOI offering a free $5 Starbucks card for the first 50 email subscribers. It was a great way to build awareness and get new subscribers.

Tips on Increasing Your RSS Subscribers

Here are some tips that I’ve personally used to help increase my RSS subscribers:

Write Great Content - Ok, ok… it’s not earth shattering, but you have to have a solid base to work from. If you write bad articles, building a subscriber base will be excruciatingly difficult.
Write Consistently - This was found to be one of the number one reasons why people UN-subscribe from a blog. Lack of consistency will kill you. Even if you can only realistically write 2 posts per month, that’s better then setting a 1 post/day precedent, then not writing for 3 weeks.
Give Some Incentive - People like free stuff. A gift card can work well, but if you’re working on “the cheap”, try offering a free e-book to subscribers. If you promote it right you’ll create a great value, and build your subscribers at the same time. If you really want to get advanced, you could offer exclusive content in the feed itself. This would create a sort of “secret tips” feed that only your subscribers can see. There is a post here on how to do it.
Don’t Just Promote It On Your Blog - If you’re like most bloggers, you probably have a pretty large online footprint… Social Networking, Forums, Bookmarking, Social Media… these are all places where you can promote your feed. We typically use our websites as a signature, but why not our RSS URL’s as well?
Publish a Full RSS Feed - It’s tempting to want to publish a truncated version of your feed to try to drive traffic back to the site, but it rarely works like that. What you end up doing is just making people mad. This was listed as the 3rd most popular reason why people UN-subscribe from blogs.
Place an RSS Icon in a Prominent Place - This is an easy one, but you’d be suprised how much it can help.
Seek Out People that Didn’t Confirm - One of the frustrations of Feedburner is that it’s a double opt-in system. It’ good for protecting spam, but sometimes people will try to subscribe but never confirm their subscription. These people are listed in your Feeburner account. Simply email them again asking them to confirm their subscription.
Stay on Topic & Don’t Overpost - These were both popular reasons why people UN-subscribed from blogs. If you write a mortgage news blog, don’t write about what you had for breakfast. No one cares. And if you’re a prolific writer, try to keep it down to 1 per day. Each post you write should be very high quality. If you have too much to say try using Twitter as an outlet…
Write Great Content - Um… did I already mention this?

I hope this guide was helpful to you as an RSS publisher. Please email me if you have any questions about how to implement the above tips and suggestions on your site.

Oh… and don’t forget to sign up to my blog!