Making RSS feeds free and easy

If you want to offer RSS feeds on your website and you don’t have either the technology to provide them or the know-how to build them, then you might want to try Dapper.net Dapper helps you to create RSS feeds from content you select from your website. By following some simple step-by-step instructions you can select content from 1 or multiple pages that you want to include in the RSS feed. For example you might choose a page that lists news items that include a title, a summary, and a link –you can easily select each element to create a field to include in your feed. Once you’re happy with your new feed you can make a user friendly URL which you can link from your website, and before you know it you’re providing an RSS feed. Dapper has more options than just RSS feeds, you can output content to XML, HTML, and create Google gadgets and flash widgets to add to your website. Visit www.dapper.net to see what else you can create.

RSS feeds via Email

You could go a step further and make a browser friendly version of your feed and also give people the option of an email subscription using Feedburner. RSS feeds aren’t everyone’s cup of tea so giving people the option of email is a good way to increase your reader base. You will need to create an account with Feedburner and enter the address of your RSS feed. Then you’ll see there are options for “publicizing your feed” one of which is email subscriptions. Feedburner gives you the option of either a link to place on your website, or a piece of code for embedding a small form in your page. You can also customise the design of the email by changing fonts and adding your organisations logo. (I used Feedburner for the RSS feeds and email subscriptions on this blog, have a look at the subscribe page.) Feedburner allows you to collect statistics on both your RSS feed and email subscriptions, as well as allowing you to remove subscribers if you need to. If you want to know more about RSS feeds read Six Apart’s “About Feeds”. If you have any other suggestions or feedback on this topic please comment, I’d like to know what other applications people are using.

Here’s a little tip:

It might seem obvious but remember to subscribe to your own RSS feeds and email subscriptions. You shouldn’t rely 100% on third party applications, by subscribing yourself you’ll know what everyone else is seeing.