Fun Free Feed Tools For Both The Publisher And The Reader

As you've probably been reading, there are basically three problems many webmasters have with web feeds (that is, among those who are already familiar with them on a basic level).

The three concerns I hear the most are:

"How do I deal with the bandwidth hit?"

"Is there a way to include information that isn't in the automated resource I use to populate my feed without touching any code?"

and

"Where can I find a cost-effective, simple way to display feeds on my site?"

Say Goodbye to Bandwidth Overages with FeedBurner

http://feedburner.com

If you're a publisher, chances are, you're familiar with the bandwidth increase that occurs every time your audience reads the latest update to your feed that for some webmasters lead to the possibility of exceeding monthly bandwidth limitations. There's an easy solution.

Burn your feed with FeedBurner. They're happy to take the burden off your server. (And yes, they say, FeedBurner is one word.)

Whether you've just created your news feed or you have been RSS-ing for years, you can create a free account at their site. Their service will also:

• translate your feed from Atom to RSS or vice versa,

• make a browser-friendly page that explains what web feeds are to the new user,

• allow you to splice any link into your feed using some of the more popular social bookmarking services.

FeedBurner also allows you to study your demographic by giving you statistics on how many request have been made for your feed contents, down to the item if you like.

Though I offer both the burned version of my feed and the original to my audience, they love the extra information my FeedBurned link provides them.

Social Bookmarking -Share More Info with Less Hassle

http://furl.net

http://bloglines.com

http://del.icio.us

Social bookmarking allows you to create a bookmark online, and share those bookmarks via RSS.

Some services even allow you to share your collection of links, as you can do with the service from del.icio.us . Furl.net, newly acquired by LookSmart, also adds the capability of saving an old version of a page you have visited with the bookmark feature. And at Bloglines, you can get ezine subscriptions via feed by subscribing through a special address they give you.

All three of these services can be coupled with FeedBurner to splice external links - or other internal links from your own site - into the "burned" version of your feed.

Display links on your site for free with RSS Digest

http://www.bigbold.com/rssdigest/

You've heard about the value of displaying feeds from other sites (with permission of the publisher, of course) on your site. The theory is that the frequently updated headlines add freshness to your site, which results in more frequent visits from search engine spiders. This can lead to better rankings for the site carrying the headlines, and more backlinks for the feed publisher. Everybody wins.

For the most part, I've found this to be true, with a feed that frequently updates, at sites that have suitable content for both the visitor and the spiders to enjoy.

The trouble for many smaller web property owners is finding a cost-effective manner in which to employ this technique. Most free tools that do this with javascript are fine for site publishers who are using the headlines for content, but if you also want the search engine benefits, it doesn't help as many spiders don't register content that appears in this format.

RSS Digest will do this for you in HTML, as recently reported in Search Engine Journal.

It's not as sophisticated a tool as CARP or RSS Equalizer, but if you want to offer your feed to an audience and they don't mind using an IFRAME or pasting PHP code into their pages, this will do the job just fine.

If you're good at supplying tips, finding resources, or locating fresh information, after viewing some news feeds for yourself, you might find that you're ready to take the next step and publish one. If you're already a publisher, utilizing some of these free tools may help you build a better feed.

Either way, good luck!

Copyright 2004 Tinu AbayomiPaul

About The Author

Tinu saw a 75% increase in site traffic using only promotion of her web feeds, not taking into account increased exposure in search engines. She compiled her findings into a quick, ever-evolving guide this past July that you can download from http://www.freetraffictip.com, in addition to the semi-daily free traffic tips you'll find in her blog.

---

Blog and Ping: The Basics!

The buzz words on the internet at the moment are... Read More

Blogging Your Way To Success Part 4

(Continued from Blogging Your Way To Success Part 3)In this... Read More

To Blog Or Not To Blog - A Laymans View

We have now entered the world of blogs! Sounds kind... Read More

Why Journal Writing On The Web? Blogs Are Journals Giving Anyone An Identity, And An Awesome Forum

Journal writing used to be a private, personal experience done... Read More

How To Create A Blog

Blogs are more permanent than posts to an online discussion... Read More

Could There Be A New Way Of hearing The News Stories We Feel Are Relevant In Our Lives?

Mainstream media has become a single-minded authority on how we... Read More

Top Ten Reason to Publish an Ezine AND a Blog

Blogs are the hottest thing going these days when it... Read More

RSS Feeds Explosion

Gain Massive Exposure For Your ServiceGet your web site listed... Read More

So You Have a Blog, Now What Do You Do With It? Blog Basics

(This article assumes that you have already set up a... Read More

Do You Know The 3 Key Ways to Blog to Promote Your Online Home Based Business?

Most People who Blog and Ping only use 1 Method... Read More

Why Wordpress is now my Blog of Choice

The more I use Wordpress, the more I love it.... Read More

Blogging for Business

Business blogs are primarily used to improve a company's communication... Read More

Bad Blogs Have Got To Go, Blogging Could Be Really Cool If Done Properly

There's a lot of blogs out there on the Web,... Read More

The Right Blog Software Can Make A Blog Stand Out from the Crowd

Blogs are an easy way to get your voice out... Read More

How to Cash In on Blogs

Over the past year or so, more and more webmasters... Read More

Just Tag It!

Tags - Revolutionary or Just Folly?Just another trend or something... Read More

Making Money With Your Blog

I've sure you've heard before that it's a possibility to... Read More

Reachout Throughout ? RSS

RSS has been around for more than a decade but... Read More

RSS Explained

What is RSS? To begin with, it's one of those... Read More

NEWS FLASH! Article Directories JUMP-ON The RSS Syndication Band Wagon

Quick question... do you publish 'Articles' on a regular basis?I'm... Read More

Is Blogging For You? Take This Quick Quiz

What The Hell Is A Blog Anyway?The word 'blog' is... Read More

Feed The Need: 5 Ways To Use RSS To Boost Your Business Or Organizational Success

RSS (it stands for Really Simple Syndication, among other things)... Read More

Why you should be using RSS

RSS opens up a whole new channel of communication between... Read More

The 7 Steps to Promoting Your RSS Feeds on Your Website

RSS gets 100% of your content delivered, but it's no... Read More

Displaying RSS Feeds on Websites

Displaying RSS RSS offers webmasters a unique opportunity to display... Read More

The Full Circle of RSS Marketing Power

RSS is a many-in-one marketing & publishing tool, although unfortunatelly... Read More

If an RSS feed is the Yahoo Backdoor, is a Blog Googles?

Though the answer is in a book I wrote this... Read More

Blogging For Fun & Profits

Unless you've been under a rock for the last year,... Read More

Business Blogs and Their Benefits

Blog is a medium for self-expression on web. Blogs are... Read More

Blogs: Todays Internet Diary and Marketing Tool

The popular blogger.com owned by Google, Inc. has been around... Read More

RSS is Not Only for Blogs

Contrary to popular opinion, RSS is not only good for... Read More

Should My Home Business Have a Blog?

It's fair to say that blogging has taken the Internet... Read More

How To Build Traffic To Your Blog

With the growing interest in blogging as... Read More