RSS
What is RSS?
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. See Introduction to RSS and myYahoo! RSS FAQ for more information.
More and more content publishers, media outlets, and bloggers are turning to syndication. Typically, people use RSS to:
- Gather, read, or quickly scan frequently updated headlines from a variety of sources using a News Aggregator or Newsreader program.
- Incorporate syndicated headlines into their personal weblogs as a way to display information from different publishers.
Read more about RSS on Wikipedia.
Why?
- RSS is slowly gaining popularity. According to Jupiter Research, 12 percent of online consumers use RSS feeds at home and in the office. (On the other hand, according to a June 2005 Pew Internet & American Life Project report, only 9% of Americans online have a good idea of what RSS feeds are.)
- Microsoft is integrating RSS features throughout "Longhorn" to enable a broad group of users and developers to more easily take advantage of RSS. For instance, while browsing the Web, "Longhorn" users will be able to easily discover RSS feeds through an illuminated icon, as well as read the feed while still in the Web browser. In addition, users will be able to subscribe to an RSS feed as simply as adding a Web site to their "favorites."
- Improve search engine rankings.
- Allow others to republish you content.
- "... although 75 million Web users in the USA and UK use RSS routinely, about 50 million of them have no idea what RSS is." Early adopters respond to orange button. But most traffic is coming from myYahoo and myMSN. (50 Million US & UK RSS Users Do Not Know They Use RSS -- How to Reach Them)
How is it implemented?
- Validate the RSS feed.
![[Valid RSS]](http://feedvalidator.org/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
- Some programs look for a link in the <head> section of your HTML.
To support this, include the following <link> tag on the Web page
that is most similar to the feed content:
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Buzz RSS Feed" href="http://www.webstandards.org/buzz/index.xml" />
How can you promote it?
- Include the orange RSS or XML button (
or 
)
which links to the RSS feed. - Many websites also include a "What is RSS?" link next to the orange button, e.g. BBC.
- The BBC also adds a stylesheet to their xml feed providing information on what this page is and how to subscribe.
- The Web Standards Project
notes on the bottom of their page "Also availables in
" - Many sites are included in the myYahoo directory and include the "Add-to-My
Yahoo!" button.
See Yahoo Publisher's
Guide to RSS for more information. See also the Automatic
RSS Feed Button Maker. - Submit feed to blog and rss directories.
- See the The 7-Step RSS Marketing Plan.
Examples
- BBC
- Burpee -- See also MarketingSherpa's case study
- Comedy Central
- Jerusalem Post
- JTA
- MarketingSherpa
- NPR
- Travelocity -- See also MarketingSherpa's case study
