Creating and Syndicating a Blog Feed

The purpose of creating a blog feed is to help your readers keep up with your posts. A feed enables them to see your articles, without having to visit your website each time to see if you have made any changes. Millions of readers prefer to keep up with syndicated news items and blog posts in this way. Many use an online blog reader, some use PC based readers, whilst others simply prefer posts delivered to their email inbox. For example, I personally use Gogle Reader to subscribe to dozens of Internet marketing blogs to keep up with the latest news, discussion and opinions on search engine optimisation and internet marketing issues.

So, having a blog feed is a terrific way to talk to customers and suppliers, make product announcements and post articles. Links within posts direct and drive traffic back into your website. It raises your company's profile and visibility. Most people who subscribe to a blog, do so because they have a particular interest in a topic, industry, individual or competitor. They also subscribe because they are inherently impatient. They do not want to waste hours trawling through their favourite websites. They want quick, snappy, catchy headlines. So, if you are going to produce a business blog feed, only post stuff you think lots of people will be interested in. Tell them something they don't know - that affects them personally.

A feed is simply a list of items which are identified by a url link. Within each item, the most common elements are usually a title, a link, and a description. Each item can have a vast amount of other meta data linked to it, including full HTML or references to images or video. Most feeds consist of an extract or snippet designed to tease the reader into clicking through via a link to see the full article. A feed is made up of RSS and XML file formats. These open files standards allow the sharing of information from one point on the web to another point. Below is a table of an excerpt from my feed showing just one 'Item':-

To write my blog feed I use of commercial software tool called Feedforall. This PC based software provides an intuitive 'fill in the blanks' interface, enabling non technical users to create an xml feed. It also provides FTP capabilities, so whenever I created a new article (such as this one), I can update my blog feed XML file in seconds. Don't forget to validate your feed, to ensure it complies with the latest RSS 2.0 standards. This will help to eliminate rendering errors, when readers view it using different feed aggregators or software tools (such as Newzcrawler).

You should protect your content before publish and distribute your feed. Upload your guide or article to your own website to get it cached. This aims to avoid penalties for duplicate content, by get the original source cached first. It also helps to specify your feed as non-cacheable. If you are using an online blog reader (such as Feedburner), there is an option make the feed non-cacheable. You could even make your feed it encrypted and password protected. However, this won't stop determined data scrapers from copying the text and pasting it elsewhere. This is why I strongly recommend getting your own content cached and accredited to your website, (before a spammer takes credit for all your hard work).

Next, make sure you include a copyright notice on each page. However, don't be too rigid or uptight. Remember, the objective is to increase traffic to your website. Therefore, also make it clear you are happy for your feed to be republished elsewhere on the web, (as long as a normal permalink is included which accredits you as the original author of the post).

Don't forget to tell your website visitors how they can subscribe to your blog feed. Make sure each page of your blog contains the appropriate RSS orange icon. You could include links to it from your Facebook Wall, or your Google Plus Profile Page, or your Twitter feed. Many Webmasters use a feed aggregator to make the whole process of syndicating a lot easier. Feed aggregator services provide multiple ways for readers to subscribe, depending on their own personal feed reader preference. After much testing in trialling, I decided to use to Feed Burner, making publishing this blog feed remarkably quick and easy. It also allows potential readers to subscribe via e-mail, straight to their inbox. It also provides feedback statistics on the number of subscribers.

I hope you found this gentle introduction to producing a blog feed informative and useful. I welcome your feedback....