While the in-browser feed readers are convenient they are still quite rudimentary. You should consider switching to a full-fledged feed aggregator for more features and increased usability. There are many feed readers to choose from, each have different levels of complexity and features. There are essentially two types: web-based and application-based. With a web-based aggregator you can check your feeds from any computer but this comes at the cost of limited functionality and speed. With application-based feed readers you get excellent features and speed but lack mobility. You dont have to decide just yet, Ill go over configuring both types.

First off, well start with a web-based feed reader. The most best and popular online feed reader, in my opinion, is Bloglines. Sign up for an account and click My Feeds on the top left. Test out Bloglines by adding a few feeds. When you setup Bloglines for the first time, it will suggest a few feeds to subscribe to. I usually do not accept them and just add my own. Below My Feeds should be a Add link that you will click.

You will be on a subscribe page now. If you found the feed on the website you can paste that in here. However, Bloglines has a feature where you can just type in the URL of the website and it will search for feeds. It may find several feeds and other times it will not find any.

To avoid confusion about which feed to use, I suggest using the one shown on the website as that is the one they want you to use. Sometimes they will place a link to their FeedBurner feed and forget to remove the old feed. Either way, whether you enter a feed or URL, click Subscribe and use the default options. Do this several times with some more feeds and you will have setup Bloglines. Everytime you login you can click My Feeds and instantly find out how many of your feeds have new posts you have not read yet. Unread feeds will be bolded and have the number of new stories in parentheses. Bloglines provides a simple way to read RSS feeds from anywhere, but is not the fastest and most feature-rich solution.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. It is a technique to easily distribute a list of headlines, update notices, also every now and then content to a wide number of people. It is used by computer programs that organize those headlines also notices for easy reading.
What problem does RSS solve?

A good number people are interested in a lot of websites whose content changes on an random schedule. Examples of such websites are news sites, community also religious organization information pages, product information pages, medical websites, also weblogs. Repeatedly checking each one website to see if there is any new content can be very tedious.

Email notification of changes was an early solution to this problem. Unfortunately, when you receive email notifications from numerous websites they are usually disorganized also can get overwhelming, also are often mistaken for spam.

RSS is a better technique to be notified of new also changed content. Notifications of changes to numerous websites are handled easily, also the results are presented to you well organized also distinct from email.
How does RSS work?

RSS works by having the website author maintain a list of notifications on their website in a standard way. This list of notifications is called an “RSS Feed”. People who are interested in finding out the latest headlines or changes can check this list. Special computer programs called “RSS aggregators” have been developed that routinely access the RSS feeds of websites you care about on your behalf also organize the results for you. (RSS feeds also aggregators are also every now and then called “RSS Channels” also “RSS Readers”.)

Producing an RSS feed is very simple also hundreds of thousands of websites now provide this feature, including major news organizations like the New York Times, the BBC, also Reuters, as well as a lot of weblogs.
What information does RSS provide?

RSS provides very basic information to do its notification. It is made up of a list of items presented in order from newest to oldest. each one item usually consists of a simple title describing the item along with a more complete description also a link to a web page with the actual information being described. Every now and then this description is the full information you want to read (such as the content of a weblog post) also every now and then it is just a summary.

RSS aggregator programs

Think of an RSS aggregator as just a web browser for RSS content. RSS aggregators routinely check a series of RSS feeds for new items on an ongoing basis, making it is possible to keep track of changes to numerous websites without needing to tediously read also re-read each one of the websites yourself. They detect the additions also present them all together to you in a solid also useful manner. If the title also description of an item are of interest, the link can be used to quickly bring the related web page up for reading.

How do I find out if a website has an RSS feed?

It is getting more also more common for websites to have RSS feeds. They usually indicate the existence of the feed on the home page or main news page with a link to “RSS”, or every now and then by displaying an orange button with the letters “XML” or “RSS”. RSS feeds are also often found via a “Syndicate This” link. Text “RSS” links every now and then (there are lots of variations) point to a web page explaining the nature of the RSS feeds provided also how to find them. The buttons are often linked directly to the RSS feed file itself.

Once you know the URL of an RSS feed, you can provide that address to an RSS aggregator program also have the aggregator monitor the feed for you. Various RSS aggregators come preconfigured with a list to choose from of RSS feed URLs for popular news websites.
How is the RSS feed file produced?

Unless you are maintaining a website or want to create your own RSS feed for some other purpose, how the RSS feed is produced should not be of concern also you may skip this section.

The special XML-format file that makes up an RSS feed is usually created in one of a variety of ways.

A good number large news websites also the majority weblogs are maintained using special “content management” programs. Authors add their stories also postings to the website by interacting with those programs also also use the program’s “publish” facility to create the HTML files that make up the website. Those programs often also can update the RSS feed XML file at the same time, adding an item referring to the new story or post, also removing less recent items. Blog creation tools like Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, also Radio routinely create feeds.

Websites that are produced in a more custom manner, such as with Macromedia Dreamweaver or a simple text editor, usually do not routinely create RSS feeds. Authors of such websites either maintain the XML files by hand, just as they do the website itself, or use a tool such as Software Garden, Inc.’s ListGarden program to maintain it. There are also services that from time to time read requested websites themselves also try to routinely determine changes (this is the majority reliable for websites with a somewhat regular news-like format), or that let you create RSS feed XML files that are hosted by that service provider.

how can i make money with rss?

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Online Publishing Strategy: What Robin Good Suggests Online publishing is in many respects the new frontier for those who have a voice, a business, a desire to communicate or change things for the better. It potentially enables any individual connected to the net to be a two-way communication hub capable of sending out information and equipped with technologies to listen and respond. But to transform such revolutionary opportunity into a truly effective marketing vehicle, or into a sustainable online business resource, takes a lot more than what we are told on blogs or on the many sites promoting how easy and fast it is to become a successful online publisher. Photo credit: Robin Good In reality, transforming the online publishing opportunity into something that one can leverage to reach and realize his own dreams, it is much more complex and hard than we are told. It takes lots of efforts, time, resources, expertise and skills which are not part, for the most, of our typical background and scholastic preparation. It requires the use of approaches and methods which sometimes counter what we have unconsciously learned through traditional media and that command lots of dedicated work to produce any significant results. But even the most fundamental, basic concepts of effective communication, sometimes seem to escape even those that command so well technology and new trends. It may be because some of us really never got to stop and study the mechanisms behind it, or simply because what we have been often seeing reported as professional communication has been nothing but the wrong approach to getting a message across and starting a true conversation. In these two short excerpts from my Dicole OZ show, recorded in Helsinki, this past December, you can grasp a little more of what I think is really essential to know to become a great and effective web publisher. …

Website Usability Testing: Guide To The Best Free Tools And Services Website usability testing identifies a precise methodology devoted to uncover specific bugs, idiosyncrasies and ambiguities in the way that website design impacts the effective use, legibility, navigation, and user experience of your website. In this MasterNewMedia guide you can find the best free website usability testing tools available out there. Heat map of MasterNewMedia homepage created with Feng-GUI Website usability testing is indeed a critical component of any effective online publishing strategy. When properly utilized, usability testing allows you to effectively scan and rapidly identify which are the critical issues to be addressed in your web publication that can improve legibility, the time visitors spend on your website or the ability to turn offers for products and services into actual conversions. In fact, what’s the point of having valuable content under your hood if your readers cannot easily discover it, share it and put it to effective use? To be of immediate “use“, let me share first with you a simple set of basic tasks you can follow to start testing and reviewing the usability of your own website: Identify a critical goal: Likely, you have multiple goals for your website. The first step is to focus on the most critical. Is it sales? Is it traffic? Is it help people find something? Use Personas: Create typical users profiles to best focus on potential needs and expectations of a fictional target group. Is your website addressed to experts in the filed or to a general audience? Do you want to attract loyal readers or occasional stumblers? Which age / sex / location are your users? Carry on critical tasks: After identifying your goals and creating typical users profiles (Personas), you want some friends, readers or volunteers, to carry on critical tasks on your website to identify areas for improvement and weaknesses. Is the sale process straightforward? Can people download your content easily? Are your blog posts easily shareable on social media? Collect the data: While your users go through a set of pre-determined tasks and perform specific actions on your website, you need to closely observe and report where they hesitate, step back, or remain confused by what they see on your site. Better yet, you can use a dedicated usability tool that collects absolute or relative data that can help you characterize the behavior of your testers. Review your analysis: Once you gather this data, you need to group it in clear-labeled groups (i.e. navigation, layout, functional flow, error handling, etc.), so that you can easily review and analyze all of this information and then find the ideal strategy to make your improvements. Now that you know what are the key steps needed to start a website usability test, what you really need is knowing which tools or services are available out there that you can immediately put to use to support, speed up and professionally organize those very tasks. But how can you identify and select which is the most appropriate website usability testing tool for your specific needs, competence level and budget? To help you get started right away, this guide provides you with a set of individual reviews, a comparative table and a comprehensive mindmap to help you select your ideal free website usability testing tool. Please note that these free usability testing tools have a limited range of features. For example, they do not allow you to record the screen of your testers or engage them in screen-sharing sessions unlike professional usability testing solutions like TechSmith Morae, which will be covered in a separate upcoming MasterNewMedia guide. Now that I have warned you about the limitations of these free website usability testing tools, here below are the specific selection criteria that I have used to compare these different services: Testing approach: a) Test the usability of your website by inviting specific users to share their feedback, b) analyze analytic and statistical data. Analytics: Generate automatic analytical data from each website usability testing tool to evaluate the the quality of your website design and user interface. Visualization of user behavior: Visualize the behavior of your visitors by analyzing where they click or look (via mouse tracking) on your website and which path they follow to carry on specific tasks. Usability report: Generate a comprehensive report that contains all the analytical data gathered by the usability test. …

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Create RSS Create RSS feeds. RSS news feeds are now being used as marketing tools.

Create an RSS Feed RSS Feeds are created in XML. Feeds can be created using tags that are enclosed.

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