If you'd asked me a couple of days ago, however, I would have
disagreed. I had immersed myself in all the technical details of
RSS and installing channel creation tools and was confused. Let
me see if I can break through some of the fog to help you figure
out how to do this. In short, here's what's involved:

1. Use the free WebReference RSS Channel Editor to set up a
channel and list up to 15 articles. 2. Upload the file you've
created to your webserver. 3. Validate the XML to make sure it
can be read by the multitude of news aggregation programs. 4.
Advertise your RSS feed (channel) to various directories and to
your site visitors 5. Maintain your feed by adding new articles
using the RSS Channel Editor Before we look at each of these
points, however, I need to briefly discuss news aggregators and
RSS formats.

News Aggregators News aggregators are the software tools used to
read the RSS news feeds that you and your customers will
subscribe to. Various RSS Formats There's some controversy over
competing RSS format standards. Most feeds use the related
standards RSS 0.91 or 2.0, which are pretty similar. I don't
think it makes much difference what standard you adopt at first
-- the crucial decision is what tool you can find to create your
channel. For now the most accessible tools produce RSS 0.91
feeds. All the major news aggregators support all the formats.
Of course, the more recent 1.0 and 2.0 standards each offer
advantages, but don't wait until you can produce feeds in these
formats. Start now with whatever standard is easiest for you and
upgrade later. 1. Create a Channel To create a RSS news channel
that lists the various articles on your site or in your e-mail
newsletter, you have four choices: · Construct it from scratch
in Notepad. Not recommended. · Use a RSS syndication tool built
into the content management or blogger software you may be
using. · Prepare your feed from a stand-alone tool such as RSS
Channel Editor. · Have a software tool "scrape" your site and
incorporate the most important information it finds there.
However, scraping your site with a tool like MyRSS may produce
some pretty strange results unless the process is customized and
the appropriate sections are marked on your site.

I tried a number of tools and settled on the WebReference RSS
Channel Editor. This program allows you to retrieve your current
RSS file (if you have one set up), and edit it or add to it, up
to 15 articles. The program produces RSS 0.91 output and works
quite well. Another stand-alone program is the RSS Headline
Creator from WebDevTips which produces RSS 2.0 output, but isn't
as easy to maintain your feed as with the RSS Channel Editor.

2. Upload the File With RSS Channel Editor you click a button
"Build RSS" and then copy and paste the code to a file. The
extension you use doesn't really matter to the news aggregators
-- .rss, .rdf, .xml all work. Now, with your FTP program, you
upload your file to your webserver where it can be viewed and
automatically checked by news aggregators.

3. Validate the XML The next step is to check your RSS file to
make sure that it is error-free. If you build this file from
scratch or "improve" it with a text editor, errors can easily
creep in. Of the various validation programs, I found that FEED
Validator for RSS and Atom gave the most helpful suggestions to
fix errors in the code. Another is Userland RSS Validator. 4.
Advertise Your RSS Feed Once you've checked your code, it's time
to let others know about your feed. This has two aspects: ·
Place an XML icon on your website hyperlinked to the URL of your
RSS feed. For site visitors who have news aggregators, this is a
clue that allows them to subscribe to the channel -- either by
right-clicking on the icon and selecting subscribe or some other
method. The icon doesn't need any explanation. · Register your
RSS feed with various directories. Syndic8 is one of the largest
and doesn't cost anything. First, you'll need to register. Then
select "Suggest" from the top menu to give the URL of your RSS
feed. After the feed has been reviewed and approved, it will
appear in the Syndic8 directory. NewsIsFree offers free listings
for non-commercial organizations. RSSxpress lists UK sites.

5. Keep Your Feed Up-to-Date Finally, you'll need to maintain
your feed by adding new articles using the RSS Channel Editor.
Every time you post a new article on your website, remember to
list it in your RSS feed also. If you faithfully do this, an
increasing number of customers and interested visitors will rely
on your RSS feed and will visit you whenever an article of
interest appears in their news aggregator.

Displaying the Feed on Your Home Page While this isn't necessary
or even appropriate in all cases, consider displaying your own
RSS feed on the home page of your website as a guide to what is
new inside the site. There are several tools which convert RSS
to HTML that you can display on your website. Be aware that
getting the various XML and RSS parsing modules installed on
your webserver can be tricky, so you may need to enlist a
programmer for an hour or so to help you get these programs
working.

Thought for the day: To promote your offering on the Internet,
it is often necessary to extend your knowledge and try something
new in otder to succeed.

About the author:
Steve Castle is a respected Internet Marketer who is committed
to ethically helping others to achieve their financial freedom.
mailto:steve@ask-a-southafrican.co.uk
http://www.ask-a-southafrican.co.uk/pips.html
http://www.triseven.ws http://www.printwisesolutions.com