RSS Tips

Determine what formats that you want your RSS Feed or Blog content to be readable in. The more formats that you offer the better. I would recommend, RSS 2.0, Atom or FeedBurners “SmartFeed”. If you are using Blogger it automatically creates an Atom Feed Validate your feeds By going to www.feedvalidator.org Display the RSS feed subscribe buttons on your Blog or Website Homepage in a prominent area, either at the top of the page or in the right hand column. Put a link under your feed buttons that explains what a feed is and how to use the feed. There will be readers that don’t know what these buttons do and how to use them. Update your feed frequently with new content when appropriate. Make sure that you “ping” the RSS & Blog directories after every time that you update your RSS feed (any time you make a new post). You can do this at www.pingomatic.com Promote your RSS News feeds in your newsletter, on your website homepage, with press releases, to your email database list, etc. Submit your feeds to the major feed directories. Check that your feeds are valid at least once a month. Also verify that the feed is correct any time it is updated.