Rss feeds and Auto Discovery

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Just imagine. Every time someone visits your website, there
browser notifies them of your RSS feed. No, it’s not as
interruptive and no where near as annoying as popup
subscription boxes but still a good chance to get people to
subscribe to something you have to offer. In a nutshell,
that’s how auto discovery works. There ’s usually a small
flag somewhere in the browser telling people your feed is
available for them and if the visitor is interested in
subscribing, they will simply click subscribe - much like
bookmarking a page.

Now you know how it works, why is it so important? For one,
many feed readers and browsers already support auto
discovery RSS feeds. But perhaps what’s more important,
Microsoft is incorporating this starting with Internet
Explorer 7. Internet Explorer still commands a good chunk
of browser share out there, especially those who are new to
the Internet or non technical Internet users. If your RSS
feeds are not auto discovery enabled, it’s a good chance
you’ll lose out on a bunch of subscribers.

As it is today, browsers like Firefox, Opera and Safari can
auto discover feeds. Many use this to subscribe because it’s
just so much easier. While this group may not be that large
but why should you not take advantage? If just making your
feeds auto discovery friendly you get an extra subscriber,
even if it’s only one it would be worth it because it costs
nothing but maybe 2 minutes of your time.

So how do you find out if your feeds are auto discovery
friendly? The good news is, if you’re using a blog to
manage your content, many have this feature built in. But
it doesn’t hurt to just check it anyway. If you don’t use a
blog, chances are, your feed is not auto discovery enabled.
For step-by-step instructions how to check if your page has
auto discovery, visit
http://www.techbasedmarketing.com/auto-discovery-step-by-step.html

Before I go, here are two little tips that would help your
RSS distribution and subscription using auto discovery.
1. Put the auto discovery tag in other web pages too. Just
because it’s not a blog doesn’t mean you can’t have an RSS
feed on it. Take advantage of that, put your feed in your
main website’s template. Now you have two opportunities to
get in touch with people. When you update your website and
when you update your blog.
2. If you use a service like FeedBurner to track your
subscriptions, remember to update the feed URL in your blog
or website template. This way, you’re capturing all your
feed traffic statistics.

What’s next? Go make your RSS feeds auto discovery friendly
right now. Because RSS is not always visible to us, don’t
run the risk of forgetting this.

Lynette Chandler helps entreprenuers leverage readily
available technology for their marketing. Watch a 3 Minute
Video Tutorial How Auto Discovery Works
http://www.techbasedmarketing.com/videos/autodiscovery.html

What is Pinging?

Exactly what is pinging?

Pinging which in some ways is similar to rss are simple syndication is basically a way to communicate to other blogs and directories that your blog has just been recently updated. It lets directories know that there is new content on the site and that maybe they should head on over there and re-index the site on the most current information.

Rss feeds send information in the format of the full blog post or just a small title and to what the post is about through email or through feed readers, usually to subscribers only. Pings are small increments of information sent from web server to the next letting them know new blog is available.

Some ways to set up pinging is looking into your wordpress settings and manually setting this up your self. Or you could simply set it up at pingomatic.com.  Technorati is also another great spot to get your pings taken and noticed by a large audience looking for your content.

http://www.technorati.com/ping

Wordpress Plugins you can’t live without

Blogging is great sociable way to have fun online while at the same time being  able to teach and share your experiences with other.

The platform that was created as a content management system has grown and expanded so much, that now many plugins enable your wordpress blog to be taken to whole new level.

Blogs allow for the ability to use the site for so much than a basic online journal. From everything from data feeds and scripts and rss posted in many directories.

The possibilities are endless and that is why for your blog to be on that level as the higher ranking ones. You need to check out these awesome wordpress plugins.

All in one seo pack allows you to enter data for your title tags, keywords, and description of post for each individual one.

Google Site maps allows your wordpress blog to be able to focus on pings throughout MSN, YAHOO, GOOGLE ETC.

Related Post plugin will let your readers search around your blog more for more consistent material.

W-p Affiliate plugin allows you to post your affiliate links and mask them so no one can steal affiliate commissions.

Sticky post allows your post to stay up as long as you need it to no matter what.

RSS footer plugin- Makes it super easy to add a line of content at bottom of feeds  with a link back to site.

W-p link directory plugin is one that I just recently found out about, and it helps to set up a directory of listings of links for the site of your choice. Great for seo too.

Permalink Redirect plugin- Makes sure there is 301 permanent redirect if the requested url is not listed and keeps the browser on your site.

Stay Tuned for part two…. of some fun plugins I will list soon for your blog.

What is Rss and Simple syndication?

What is an RSS Feed?

A common term seen online is “RSS Feed”. However, just what do the letters RSS stand for and what is all the rage surrounding this frequently used term? RSS actually stands for really simple syndication. In this case they are referring to web syndication, which is making the content of a website or blog available for others to use. It is making the feed of a website available for others to access and read elsewhere rather than just from the main web site.

RSS feeds are the way in which a series of blog posts, news stories or headlines, podcasts or other similar content is distributed or syndicated on the Internet. Using a feed makes it easier for a person to access the information in an automated way, using a feedreader or aggregator, such as Google Reader.

There are also desktop readers that will download the information to your computer desktop. Both are merely a type of software that allows you to read RSS feeds all in one place rather than having to hop from blog to blog or news site to news site.

RSS feeds really can simplify the way that you access content across the web. Using an RSS feed reader or aggregator can save you a lot of time when you are wanting to access information. You can subscribe to specific feeds and even categorize them and file them so that you can have easily access to that particular information later, when you’re ready to read up on the news, your favorite blogs, or specific topics related to your business or life.

And, after all that is what the use of RSS feeds is all about making it really simple for people to access the information that they need or making the information that you have for others available to them in a simple manner.