The 3 Parts of RSS Feeds
When most folks think of RSS feeds, the image of a little orange square comes to mind. That square is the well-known icon that indicates a feed subscription link is available.
There are actually three parts to a feed. They are:
- The subscription link.
- The feed delivery service.
- The feed reader (not to be confused with the person who is viewing the feed, which we’ll call the viewer).
The feed subscription link is usually a logo or text link placed in the sidebar or header of a blog. When viewers subscribe to the feed, new blog posts will be delivered to them instantly and automatically without them having to go to the blog to view it.
The posts are delivered from the blog to the viewer through a feed service. The top service is FeedBurner. Burning a feed means that the blog post is auto-formatted to be compatible with any application the viewer uses to read it. FeedBurner also offers multiple ways to customize and optimize your feeds as well as giving you valuable stats on your subscribers.
One of the applications a viewer can use is known as a reader. There are three basic reader formats. The first is email. A viewer can choose to have your blog posts delivered directly to their inbox.
The second is an aggregator. This is the application that is generally referred to as a “feed reader.” It allows the viewer to build a virtual newspaper from multiple feeds all in one location. In other words, the viewer can go to their feed reader and view all posts from multiple blogs without having to visit each individual blog. They never miss a blog post. But, unless they remember to view it every day, they may not get the most time-sensitive information quickly.
The third application delivers posts to Internet-compatible phones. Blog posts must be formatted correctly to be read on small screens. They must also be optimized properly for quick upload to these devices.
RSS actually stands for “Really Simple Syndication” meaning that your feed is also made available for posting in other sites. There are many sites on the internet that are hungry for good material. If they like your posts, they can subscribe to your feed and repost it on their site, giving you a much broader audience.
Click here for more info on why you need RSS feeds.
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