As publishers have moved towards monetizing RSS feeds, their have been vibrant discussions as to whether advertisements in feeds are viable or whether they will drive subscribers away. At the end of the day while it appears that many are discussing the philosophical approaches to ads in RSS feeds few are taking the time to examine the options available for inserting advertisements in feeds. Ultimately the advertisements served are going to determine the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The ads served must be related to the content contained in the feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will succeed. Take a closer look at some of the ad serving options currently available for RSS feeds.

Advertising in RSS Feeds

Measuring and tracking RSS while a fairly simple concept, is really anything but. Unlike websites, RSS have the added caveat of potential syndication, making accurate tracking a challenge to anyone but the extremely tech savvy. It is not unrealistic for marketers to want to know how many subscribers they have, which items in their feeds attract the most interest, or how many click-throughs are generated as a result of an RSS feed.There are a number of 3rd party providers who focus on tracking the consumption of RSS feeds. Some solutions are rudimentary but likely sufficient for a small business testing the waters with RSS. Other RSS tracking solutions are more complex and while they can come close to being accurate, with syndication there is no solution that tracks with 100% accuracy.

Measuring RSS Feeds

More and more companies are using RSS as a means to communicate, so having an RSS feed that is professional and well polished will help differentiate your company from your competition. What makes an RSS feed professional? Follow these simple steps to polish your RSS feed and take it to the next level...

Create Professional RSS Feeds

If you are struggling with the decision of whether to implement RSS feeds or not, consider the following pros and cons for webmasters who use RSS feeds as part of their content and communication plan...

Pros and Cons of RSS Feeds

RSS is a standard for syndicating content on the Internet. RSS feeds are used in a variety of ways to distribute all types of content via the Internet. The benefits for individuals subscribing to RSS feeds have resulted in a rapid growth and adoption rate. Software and tools have made RSS feed creation and management easy, even for non-technical individuals, which has also fueled the growth of RSS feeds.

Create RSS | Make RSS Feeds

RSS offers webmasters a unique opportunity to display fresh content on websites. While publishing an RSS feed is a great way to generate site interest and increase communication, syndicating and displaying feeds from related relevant sources can also generate interest, increase traffic and improve search engine ranking.

Displaying RSS Feeds

In general, the following are guidelines for constructing an RSS feed. It is good to get into the habit of validating the RSS feed, either with software, or with an online validator.

Here are some general guidelines for creating RSS Feeds:

1. Enclosures

Include only one enclosure per item for maximum compatibility. The RSS 2.0 specification does not clearly state whether multiple enclosures are allowed or not, but most RSS readers will only support a single enclosure. Therefore, it is best to conform to the readers, and only include a single enclosure in each RSS feed item.
2. Date Formats

Date formats can be very tricky; be sure that all dates are properly formatted.

Etiquette for RSS Feeds

With all the vast amounts of information available on the web, it is becoming more and more difficult to sort through and find what you are looking for. RSS significantly lowers the signal-to-noise ratio. RSS has the unique ability to compile information and filter it, so you only see unique and relevant content. The information superhighway has become packed with content, and those familiar with technology are using RSS to filter the content, allowing them to drill down and access only the content they want, without having to wade through all the noise.

There are very few subjects or topics that do not currently have an RSS feed available. Perhaps it might be easier to ask what can not be published using RSS? RSS is a standard format to syndicate Internet content, not just blogs or podcasts, but any type of content. Podcasting clearly shows that feeds can be media-rich, and while podcasting is generally considered a medium for entertainment, the educational value of podcasting has not been lost on many educational institutions. The business community has been a little slower to embrace the power and importance of RSS as a communication medium, but industry leaders are gradually adopting it as a new and powerful method of communication. But back to the original point... RSS can deliver virtually any type of content, including spreadsheets, power point applications, database updates, video tutorial, and much more. The true value of RSS feeds is that the subscriber can review and evaluate the information at a time and place of their own choosing.

What Can be Published Using RSS Feeds?

More and more companies are using RSS as a means to communicate, so having an RSS feed that is professional and well polished will help differentiate your company from your competition. What makes an RSS feed professional? Follow these simple steps to polish your RSS feed and take it to the next level...

1. Feed Image
Add an image to your RSS feed. The image will be displayed by many feed readers each time your feed is displayed. This will help build and reinforce your brand or image in the minds of people who read your RSS feed. Adding an image to an RSS feed is relatively easy, and adds a level of professionalism.

Create Professional RSS Feeds

If you are struggling with the decision of whether to implement RSS feeds or not, consider the following pros and cons for webmasters who use RSS feeds as part of their content and communication plan...

Benefits (Pros Of Using RSS)
The benefits for a webmaster who opts to implement RSS feeds on their website are numerous:

1. Saves Time
RSS feeds save time. RSS subscribers can quickly scan RSS feeds, without having to visit each and every website. Subscribers can then click on any items they are interested in, to get additional information.

2. Timely
RSS feeds are timely. RSS feeds will automatically update themselves any time new information is posted, so the information your subscribers receive via their RSS reader or news aggregator is timely.

Pros and Cons of RSS Feeds

Academia has embraced RSS as a means to educate, but scrutinizing how educational institutions are using RSS feeds in their daily routines show RSS is utilized can vary across different industries.

1. Share Resources
Academics are using social bookmarking websites to share quality websites that relate to their area of expertise with colleagues and students.

Academia Adds RSS Feeds to Their Teaching Tool Kit

Daily more and more realtors are turning to RSS as a tool to market homes for sale. The growing RSS phenomenon in the realty market makes perfect sense. Unlike email RSS feeds have a 100% delivery rate. In addition the costs involved in creating and managing an RSS feed are insignificant when compared to the print advertising Realtors spend on each week. Imagine the amount spent each week to promote various properties in circulars and weekly newspapers, compared to the costs associated with updating and managing an RSS feed.

Realtors Employ RSS Feeds to Sell Homes

Here are some general guidelines for creating RSS Feeds:

1. Enclosures
Include only one enclosure per item for maximum compatibility. The RSS 2.0 specification does not clearly state whether multiple enclosures are allowed or not, but most RSS readers will only support a single enclosure. Therefore, it is best to conform to the readers, and only include a single enclosure in each RSS feed item.

2. Date Formats
Date formats can be very tricky; be sure that all dates are properly formatted.

3. Encoding
Encoding is required for certain characters. If you are using software to create the feed, it should handle character encoding for you.

Etiquette for RSS Feeds

Just as the second generation of search engines and directories evolved into niche topic specific portals we are seeing the same occur in the area of RSS feed directories and search engines. While some directories are admittedly more niche than others the trend is obvious.

Why Niche RSS Feeds Matter

RSS is a standard for syndicating content on the Internet. RSS feeds are used in a variety of ways to distribute all types of content via the Internet. The benefits for individuals subscribing to RSS feeds have resulted in a rapid growth and adoption rate. Software and tools have made RSS feed creation and management easy, even for non-technical individuals, which has also fueled the growth of RSS feeds.

Create RSS | Make RSS Feeds

eGovLinks, the e-Government starting point, is featuring two news feeds on its home page and site navigation bar, and both are from Utah State Government!

The State of Delaware has two new RSS newsfeeds featured by links right off the state's homepage. As lead of the team that developed the feeds, I'm pleased to report this as a joint effort of our office, the Government Information Center (GIC) and the Register of Regulations.

The first feed, Delaware.gov - Statewide News is a general collection of news and press releases from across state agencies.

The Current Monthly Register is the newsfeed equivalent of the The Delaware Register of Regulations, a monthly publication of all proposed regulatory changes, general notices, and final regulations from our partners in the Legislature.

The Government Information Center is the office that manages the state portal, Delaware.gov. The mission of the GIC is to develop and deliver accurate and complete governmental information online. The office works with state agencies, legislators, the public and others to improve the delivery of government services and information through Delaware.gov and other channels.

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs now provides RSS feeds for top stories from the State Department homepage, daily press briefings, press releases, and remarks by Secretary of State Colin Powell. The RSS feeds are found at:  
 
http://www.state.gov/rss/channels/highlights.xml
http://www.state.gov/rss/channels/briefings.xml
http://www.state.gov/rss/channels/prsreleases.xml
http://www.state.gov/rss/channels/sremarks.xml

You can also subscribe to email mailing lists to receive the full texts of selected U.S. Department of State documents and publications that provide key official information on U.S. foreign policy, notifications of travel warnings, and Foreign Travel Per Diem updates.

With the proliferation of RSS feeds in state and local governments, a unique opportunity is developing to expand the delivery of the critical information contained in these feeds by leveraging the most ubiquitous personal communications device in the world -– the telephone. Governments that use RSS to deliver information to citizens using RSS feeds can also leverage VoiceXML, an open standard for developing telephony applications, to expose RSS content via cellular and traditional telephones.

VoiceXML is a web technology that can turn any telephone, even a rotary phone, into an Internet device. VoiceXML is a non-proprietary, web-based markup language for creating vocal dialogues between humans and computers. VoiceXML is similar to another common markup language -- HTML, the basic language of visual web pages. Just as a web browser renders HTML documents visually, a VoiceXML interpreter renders VoiceXML documents audibly. In this respect, one can think of the VoiceXML interpreter as a telephone-based, voice browser. As with HTML documents, VoiceXML documents have web URIs and can be located on any web server. However, instead of pointing a client-side web browser at a specific URI, citizens can access a VoiceXML application by calling a toll free telephone number from any ordinary telephone - cellular or traditional, touch-tone or rotary.

It’s not hard to think of a scenario where a local government or a university could publish an RSS feed with topical news, and have a phone number for students or citizens to call for more information. Depending on how the VoiceXML is structured, the caller could have the option of being transferred directly to the number associated with the information.

The trick would be, in my opinion, finding the right place within the RSS feed to put the phone number (if the publisher wanted to provide the option of an automatic transfer). Ideally, the phone number would be contained within its own RSS element. Glancing quickly at the RSS 2.0 spec, this could be something like the guid element. So, if a publisher was using a software package to author and publish RSS feeds, they would probably need to do a little experimenting to find the right place to place the phone number.

Because RSS and VoiceXML are both XML vocabularies, there are a number of standards-based methods for converting RSS to VoiceXML and using RSS feeds from within VoiceXML applications. The first method involves the use of eXstensible Style Sheet Language Transformations (XSLT). I have created a tutorial covering this technique and some of the issues relating to it. This technique is generally agnostic to the underlying technology used; XSLT transformations are supported in technologies like JSP, PHP, Perl, .NET and others.

To see it in action there is a demo application available at (800) 289-5570. Enter the following PIN when prompted: 9991422919. This example uses the latest headlines news feed from CNET News.com (news.com.com) and the XSLT file covered in my tutorial. This is only running on a demo platform, so I can’t guarantee anything on performance. Still, it gives you a sense of how an RSS feed sounds. This technology could allow travelers only equipped with cell phones to get the latest NOAA RSS weather reports, lobbyists to dial-in for legislative floor calendars, and rescue teams to phone for the latest operational instructions.

The other method for using RSS from within VoiceXML applications is to leverage the new data tag, an addition to the VoiceXML specification that is part of the developing VoiceXML 2.1 standard. Some excellent examples of this technique can be found on the VoiceXML Forum website at http://www.voicexmlreview.org/apr2004/columns/apr2004_speak_listen.html.

VoiceXML also allows for the playback of recorded audio. If one had an audio file that they want to include in a feed, a VoiceXML application could actually invoke the audio file and play it to the caller. There is a VoiceXML service at (800) 555-TELL that plays audio files. Give it a call and try listening to the “News Center” option.

One caveat -- most VoiceXML platforms only support certain audio formats, but the more common ones (WAV, MP3) are usually supported. VoiceXML also supports recording the audio of a call, so if one wanted to let callers post comments the application could record their audio and save it for later playback. There is actually a project called “Phone Blogger” that takes this approach (see www.wombatnation.com/phoneblogger).

By using these techniques, governments that make information available to citizens through RSS feeds can dramatically expand the accessibility of these feeds by making them available to anyone with a telephone.

Mark J. Headd
Voice Technologies for Government
www.voiceingov.org
mheadd@voiceingov.org





[Editor's note: Commenting is turned off because of spamming. Mark is interested in hearing from readers who are interested in how that can use VoiceXML to augment what they are doing with RSS. Please email the author with your comments and we'll invite him to write a follow-up here at RSS in Government addressing your ideas and suggestions.]

The Wisconsin Historical Society reports to Jenny Levine that they now offer three new RSS feeds. Web Development Coordinator James Ellis says that his is the first government agency in Wisconsin to use this technology.

Two new U.S. Supreme Court opinion feeds now join RSS feeds that have been available from the West Virginia Supreme Court and other courts.

The National Association of Legislative Information Technology (NALIT) will be sharing "Web Tips, Tricks and Techniques" for building Legislative RSS feeds at their 2004 Professional Development Seminar in beautiful Burlington, Vermont, September 8-11, 2004. Panelists include key IT players from Virginia, Nevada, and Utah. Several states are now using RSS to provide users with notices of new Web content or to distribute newsletters. At least two states are now generating legislative feeds directly from databases. This article previews some of what they'll be showing from the states of Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island.

The software developer Niko Abeler has crawled 51,165 podcast feeds to study what RSS elements they contain. His comprehensive Podcast Feed Standard report looks at the usage of core RSS elements and namespace elements from Apple iTunes, Atom, Content, Podcast 2.0 and Simple Chapters. He writes:

In the world of podcasting, there is a great deal of freedom when it comes to the format and content of a podcast. Creators are free to choose their own audio format and feed content, giving them the flexibility to create something truly unique. However, when it comes to distributing a podcast, certain standards must be followed in order to be added to an aggregator such as Apple Podcasts. Additionally, the podcasting community has come to agree upon certain conventions that can be used to add additional features to a podcast, such as chapters, enhanced audio, and more. These conventions allow for a more immersive and engaging listening experience for the audience.

This website is dedicated to providing guidance and information on the conventions and standards used in podcasting.

There's a lot of interesting data in the RSS 2.0 report, which finds that these are the six least popular elements in an RSS feed's channel:

Over 99 percent of feeds contain the optional channel element language and the optional item elements enclosure, guid, pubDate and title. Only 0.2% of feeds contain a source element in an item.

The iTunes namespace report shows a lot of variation in support. The required element itunes:explicit is only present in 18 percent of feeds and four optional elements have less than 20 percent: itunes:new-feed-url, itunes:block, itunes:complete and itunes:title. One namespace in the report, Podcast 2.0, has been proposed by Podcastindex "to provide a solution for problems which previously have been solved by multiple competing standards" and is still under development.

The report also analyzes the audio files enclosed in the podcast feeds to determine their format, bitrate, channel and loudness. The report finds that 95.6 percent use MP3 and 4.4 percent AAC/M4A. People who like an alternative open source format will be oggravated that its sliver of the pie graph is so small it can't be seen.

If Abeler isn't tired of crunching numbers, one thing that would be useful for the RSS Advisory Board to learn is how many of the feeds contain more than one enclosure element within a single item.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) for receiving updated psychology web content and subscribing to AssessmentPsychology.com.

For users who would like to selectively read our latest News and announcement, check out our RSS feed at http://www.newlook.com.sg/rss/news.xml in XML format. Other sources of RSS feeds and free News reader downloads and aggregators are also suggested.

We have listed our RSS feeds on separate page for easy access and subscription to all our feeds. The page also includes easy-to-follow instructions for those who are not familiar with the methods of subscribing to RSS feeds.

We are glad to announce a new tool added to RSS Ground collection - Instagram Feeds.

The post New Instagram Feeds Generator! appeared first on RSSground.com.

After a recent release of a bunch of some new popular content sources, we are glad to announce a renovated and improved Twitter Feeds generator.

The post Upgraded Twitter Feeds Generator Is On The Fly! appeared first on RSSground.com.

Some of you might have noticed that our Facebook Feeds generator can right now generate only RSS feeds of your own Facebook pages..

The post Facebook Feeds Generator Is Experiencing Problems appeared first on RSSground.com.

Facebook review team has approved our Facebook Feeds app and now all Facebook feeds are working again. All previously generated Facebook feeds will be automatically resumed..

The post Facebook Feeds Are Back On appeared first on RSSground.com.

Now in Feeds Box you can change feeds title, add tags to your feeds, and, most remarkable, you can edit feeds' settings. We have also fine-tuned feeds search in your Feeds Box.

The post Feeds Editing And Better Search appeared first on RSSground.com.

Now you are be able to generate self-updating content feeds of your own Shopify store or any other Shopify store you like.

The post New Shopify Feeds Generator Just Released! appeared first on RSSground.com.

This week, those of you who use private YouTube feeds could notice that they now produce an error. This happens because of the recent changes in Google developers platform. Google has introduced very loose quotas for the number of YouTube video search requests. And our own RSS Ground app quota couldn’t cover all the requests […]

The post YouTube Feeds Now Require Personal API Key appeared first on RSSground.com.

We are glad to introduce our new tool – Best Buy Feeds generator! Best Buy is an American consumer electronics retailer with hundreds of stores in the USA and other countries. Somewhere around 200,000 different items can be found on the shelves of Best Buy stores. Don’t be confused that Best Buy is known as […]

The post Meet Best Buy Affiliate Feeds Generator appeared first on RSSground.com.

With continuation of our development process we are glad to introduce several updates for one of our most popular affiliate feeds generators – Amazon Feeds. Here is what’s new: New Amazon local stores Now we have a full list of Amazon local stores. You can find it in Advanced settings of Amazon Feeds generator. Each […]

The post Amazon Feeds Generator Updates appeared first on RSSground.com.

We are glad to introduce another brand new affiliate feeds tool – Gearbest Feeds generator!

The post Meet Gearbest Affiliate Feeds Generator appeared first on RSSground.com.

We are excited to announce the release of beta version of a new and long-awaited tool – Personal Feeds. In its first iteration it will allow you to create personal feeds and add items from other content feeds. You may have already used custom feeds for that in our Feeds Reader. But the main difference […]

The post Personal feeds – a tool with a personal touch… appeared first on RSSground.com.

According to recent announcements from eBay, its Dynamic Feeds Generator (eBay RSS Feeds Generator) will be deprecated very soon. Moreover, all affiliate links from the old eBay RSS feeds won’t be tracked and commissions won’t be calculated  beginning August, 2020. To ensure our users’ uninterrupted experience with eBay, we have updated our  eBay Feeds generator […]

The post New eBay Feeds Generator appeared first on RSSground.com.

It’s been a while after our last major update. However, we were busy as always working on exciting updates. You might have noticed some visual changes on our website, including a new navigation menu and a new “My Account” page.  It was long time overdue to lighten up the design and to simplify our head […]

The post Preview RSS Ground Feeds In Any Browser appeared first on RSSground.com.

We have one “gray” and one great news. Which one to start with? The “gray” goes first. We are removing Custom Feeds feature from our Feeds Reader. The great news comes right after! From now, personal feeds will replace custom feeds functionality. All your custom feeds will be automatically converted into personal feeds and show […]

The post Custom Feeds in Feeds Reader are Deprecated appeared first on RSSground.com.

After the recent changes in CJ Affiliate developers API, we had to update our CJ Affiliate Feeds generator. If you have  CJ Affiliate feeds in your Feeds Box, they may have stopped working and require action on your part. From now on, in order to generate CJ Affiliate Feeds besides the Personal Access Token you […]

The post CJ Affiliate Feeds Update. Action Required! appeared first on RSSground.com.

The holiday season is over and we are back to work.  We are finishing up the final steps before introducing you our first update of the year. Next week we will release a major update for Personal Feeds (To finally make it what it was intended for). At last, you will be able to compose […]

The post A Personal Feeds Update is Coming appeared first on RSSground.com.

  RSS Ground was always about “other people’s content”… Until now!   Starting today you can create and distribute your own content! Create your own personal feeds and compose your original posts in them. With the help of our WYSIWYG editor you can apply basic formatting, add links, images, videos, tables and, if needed, tweak […]

The post Compose Your Own Posts In Personal Feeds! appeared first on RSSground.com.

eBay Partner Network has moved from rover-based tracking links to a new tracking link format, which complies with industry standards. All former rover-based tracking links have to be replaced with the new tracking links by Wednesday, March 31.  Read more.   We are ready for these changes and have released update for our eBay Feeds […]

The post Important Changes In eBay Feeds Generator appeared first on RSSground.com.

Right before the Holidays break, we would like to share our near-future plans with you. We have several amazing updates coming up very soon. Telegram Poster. Telegram messenger is gaining even more popularity all over the world lately. It is a free multi-platform app which is known for its focus on privacy and encryption. Telegram […]

The post Coming Up Soon! Telegram poster & feeds… appeared first on RSSground.com.

Meet new source of content – Telegram Feeds! Telegram is a messaging platform that is gaining more and more popularity with millions of users and businesses. And it’s not just messages. It lets you create your own public channels for broadcasting your information as an affective one-way content delivery providing great possibilities to reach large […]

The post New Content Source – Telegram Feeds appeared first on RSSground.com.

After the recent changes at the Shopify platform we had to make some updates to our Shopify Feeds generator.  Shopify has deprecated its private apps. They were not completely removed, they were replaced by custom apps.   Read more about Shopify custom apps  You can still continue using your existing private apps and its credentials with […]

The post Important Changes in Shopify Feeds Generator appeared first on RSSground.com.

It goes without saying that ChatGPT has become a prominent figure in today’s online community. Its impressive debut left a lasting impression on everyone, and there are numerous reasons for this. One of the key features of ChatGPT is its innovative technology, which enables it to comprehend the context of users’ messages and respond accordingly. […]

The post Meet Your New Best Friend: ChatGPT Assistant for Personal Feeds appeared first on RSSground.com.

We’re thrilled to announce that RSS Ground has been officially approved as a Zapier app! What does this mean for you, our valuable users? Get ready to turbocharge your personal feeds with near-limitless content sourcing possibilities. For those who’ve been waiting this moment, let’s explore the new doors that have just swung wide open: Introducing […]

The post Elevate Your Content Game: How Zapier Integration Can Boost Your Personal Feeds! appeared first on RSSground.com.