Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds

Filed in archive General on January 11, 2010

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, but for many, it's not really simple. Even many seasoned geeks are still wrapping their minds around the power that RSS provides.

You don't have an RSS feed? You don't know what RSS is? Don't waste another minute. It's essential that syndication become a part of your Web efforts. Expecting a visitor to add your site to their Bookmarks or Favorites is a hope-
less cause. Think about your own habits for a moment; how many Bookmarks/Favorites do you have? How many of them do you visit on a regular basis? How often do you remember to visit the sites you've stored for future perusal?
If it's any more than five, I'd be surprised.

So, why not rely on the tried and true email newsletter? From your visitor's point of view, RSS is really a much better option. Need further proof?

How many rules have you set up for your incoming e-mail messages? How long did it take before your inbox was completely organized? How many times have you tried to unsubscribe from an e-mail newsletter, only to be caught in an endless loop of "sorry, your e-mail address isn't in our database" responses? RSS solves every one of the aforementioned problems, inherently.



Distributing information through a pull channel that users access several times a day is simple to facilitate. Too simple. Now e-mail is overused as a publishing medium, and the people who are abusing it show no signs of stopping. "They" say that end results are all that matter.

"We" say that this trend has gone far past the point of forgiveness. Instead of being proud to say that we distribute content through e-mail, we now have to append our business model with "No, it's a confirmed opt-in process." Why
should we have to say that? We have to come out and tell people that we're not guilty even though we were never charged with a crime.

If the world were a perfect place, e-mail publishing would still be a viable model for getting the word out. But marketers and morons (two groups that are far from mutually exclusive) have flooded the space with noise. So now, instead of spending our time on crafting quality content, we waste it with endless bickering. We now have to fight with ISPs, begging them to let our messages pass through without being filtered or flagged. We have to go out of our way to educate anti-spam solutions on our product to make sure we don't get blacklisted. We have to explain to our subscribers how someone between here and there is possibly blocking the transmission, possibly troubleshooting their software, trying to figure out if there's a utility that's keeping them from receiving the stuff they asked for. Ugh!

Enter RSS.

It was already out there, and it's always been free for anybody to use. Nobody owns it, nobody controls it. You've probably already seen it, but without knowing what you were looking at, it appeared useless for your purposes. I'm used to being met with blank stares whenever I present the idea of RSS to either technical or non-technical groups. For people to understand RSS, they may need to see it in action. RSS should be fun!

Imagine a world where search results come to you automatically on a residual basis when you ask for them. Imagine a world where you no longer have to give up your e-mail address and other private, personal data just to make your Internet lifestyle more convenient. Imagine a world where the publisher always controls the content and the subscriber always controls the subscription.