RSS 101 Tutorial Part 5

Submitted by: seoexperts

Creating an RSS Feed Manually

Let's manually create a basic RSS feed. Assume that we want to create a feed about documentation standards and guidelines significant to the IT industry. Within this feed, we can integrate various topics such as:

- Writing style
- Leverage of correct grammar, punctuation, and spellings
- Sentence formature
- Guidelines for writing technical documents, white papers, installations sheets, customer service configuration manuals, and user guides
- Sample templates
- Tips for conforming to international standards
- Signification of avoiding or enclosing colloquialism
- Rules for reviewing and editing
- Charges for writing beginners, knowing, and experts

Each topic identified hereinabove forms an item for the RSS feed. Our first item can be written as follows

Item Title Writing Style

Item Construction

The purpose of a document and its audience define its writing style. A formal release such as a white paper or a management report must have the formal tone. In contrast, a user guide constraints to be written in a more friendly tone. Learn more about writing style and build result-oriented documents.

Detailed Article URL www ITdocumentation dot com / WritingStyle.html

Author Writing Guru

Email WritingGuru at ITdocumentation dot com

Broadcasting Date Mon, 27 June 2005, 0900 EST

Gather similar info for all index to be included in the feed. This data forms item data part of the RSS feed.

As for the channel data, define a feed title, Form, and its URL. In our example these attributes can be:

Feed Title Guidelines for IT Documentation

Feed Differentiation Brilliant inventory of writing tips and guidelines for documentation specialists of all experience levels working in the IT field!

Feed URL www dot ITdocumentation dot com

Using the Basic RSS Feed Format

The next step after collecting the feed newsletter is to put in a typical format, which the Internet browsers and RSS aggregators can comprehend and interpret to show it correctly on your PC. The format for this file is as follows:

<rss version="2.0">
<channel>

Insert feed URL

<description>Insert feed Construction</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<lastbuilddate>Insert date and time</lastbuilddate>
<item>

Insert URL of the detailed article for the first item

<differentiation>Insert Construction of the first item </differentiation>
<author>Insert author's email address (Author's name)</author>
<pubdate>Insert item broadcasting date</pubdate>
</item>
<item>

Insert URL of the detailed article for the second item

<statement>Insert Characterization of the second item </statement>
<author>Insert author's email address (Author's name)</author>
<pubdate>Insert item broadcasting date</pubdate>
</item>
:
:
</channel>
</rss>

Notice that there is only one instance of the channel tag, whereas thousand frequencys of the item tag. The number of item tags should be the same as the number of part you want to combine in your RSS feed.

The tags in red illustrate the extra newsletter you can embrace in an RSS feed. This data is not essential, but gives the article more credibility and offers the readers an option of communicating with the author.

Let's now look at inserting item newsletter in the above format. The first item in our case when inserted in the before format will look as follows:

<rss version="0.91">
<channel>

http : // www dot domain dot com

<description> Brilliant gathering of writing tips and guidelines for documentation specialists of all experience levels working in the IT field!</description>

<language>en-us</language>
<lastbuilddate> Mon, 27 June 2005, 0930 EST</lastbuilddate>
<item>

http : // www dot domain dot com / WritingStyle.html

<differentiation> The purpose of a document and its audience define its writing style. A formal production such as a white paper or a management report must have the formal tone. In alternative, a user guide requirements to be written in a more friendly tone. Learn more about writing style and construct result-oriented documents.
</differentiation>

<author>WritingGuru at ITdocumentation dot com (Writing Guru)</author>
<pubdate> Mon, 27 June 2005, 0900 EST</pubdate>
</item>
:
:
</channel>
</rss>

Use the hereinbefore format to put together information for other items and your feed is settled!

Assign the feed a name and save it. A number RSS resources say that all RSS feeds have the extension .rss or .xml. In reality, however, an RSS feed can have any extension or no file extension. Considerable RSS feed generating software written in hypertext preprocessor (PHP) use the .php extension for the feeds they build. It is also for the sake of keeping things simple and filenames indicating their content that public might attach .rss or .xml extensions to RSS feeds.

You can superadd as many content as you want though try not to exceed beyond 10 elements per feed for usability reasons.

In an RSS feed, content are typically arranged in the reverse chronographic order with the latest item being the first one and the oldest item at the end, just like news headlines.

Again if you are new to Internet, you can no doubt generate an RSS feed as long as you follow this basic feed format and you have excellence content to publish.

Validating the Feed

Use Feed Validator for an automated code validation of the feed. To do this, upload your RSS file of your web site. In the example hereinabove, the file will be uploaded on http : // www dot ITdocumentation dot com / rss / writingstyle.xml.

Next, go to http : // www dot feedvalidator dot organization. This site shows a text box where you neediness to enter the place of your RSS file, which in our case is http : // www dot ITdocumentation dot

com / rss / writingstyle.xml.

Click the Validate button for code validation to begin and wait for some time to view message informing you about subsistence or absence of any errors in the file. If the validator reports any errors, fix them, and recheck the code until all errors are fixed.

Adding Digital Media

Adding digital media enclosing images, audio, and video can transport your audience to a different realm. With this capability, your messages become even more personalized and merge that human touch to the process.

Apparently actually including an audio file, you can include a established link in your RSS feed directing the users towards a file which when selected allows the surfers to download it. The subscribers can refer to it repeatedly and when ever they want to.

Moreover, RSS 2.0 supports a new feature named enclosure to enable feed creators enclose digital media content. When an appropriate surrounding reading software comes across such a feed item, it reads the combined link and content form to automatically download it and store it on a media device.

Using Software to Generate an RSS Feed

Software offers various advantages over manual:

- No requirement of any technical knowledge including that of XML or HTML.
- Spell check to eliminate spelling mistakes from feeds.
- No essential to validate your feed.
- Eases the process of updating a feed.
- The option of adding your enterprise logo thereby giving an identity to the feed.

The next part will be about: "Tips for Creating Efficient RSS Feeds"

If you can't wait till the next part release, or you can't detect the first 3 parts please download the extensive report from our web site in the downloads area.

About the Author

James Saunders is the owner of Traffic Booster Pro at http://TrafficBoosterPro.com, the SEO Tool and Marketing Tool that turns any web site into a Self managing unit! Self Growing Intelligence Web Sites builder at http://TrafficBoosterProV2.com

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