Creating RSS Feeds for Your Website

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) or it's sometimes referred to as Rich Site Summary. It's an XML-based content format for distributing news, headlines, articles etc. Many news sites such as CNN.com and USAToday.com now provide their headlines in RSS format for web surfers.
So if you have a free RSS reader like BlogExpress you can get the headlines from these sites without even having to visit their homepage. You can also do the same for your website by publishing your own RSS news feeds.

Advantages of Creating RSS Feeds

For webmasters this is an excellent way to bring repeat traffic to your site. Every time a web surfer opens their RSS reader to get the headlines for all the sites they monitor, they will also see your site's updates. Instead of relying on them to bookmark your site and return at a later date, their RSS reader keeps your site fresh in their minds.

So when they open their reader to check the headlines for Yahoo, CNN or any other feeds they subscribe to, they will also get the latest updates from you.
Export Your RSS Feed
About these feeds is that other people can use them as content on their site. So if you have a feed that is of particular interest to another webmaster, they can post your content on their site. This is another great traffic opportunity!

First you need to build your feeds :
I use www.feedforall.com. They have an easy-to-use feed builder that lets you create and manage all your feeds in one place. Then once you've created your feed you have to upload the XML file to your web server. FeedForAll.com will automatically convert your feed into the XML format so you don't need to worry about additional formatting or coding.
The URL will be
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Imtiaztips-WebmasterArticlesWebsiteDesignDevelopmentTutorial.
This is the link to your RSS/XML feed, and the one you'll be advertising so people can subscribe.
So any time you add a new article to your feed, that XML file is updated.
FeedForAll also has a built-in upload feature so you can upload the XML file right to your web server with their software, assuming your web host has FTP access.

Another way to create it: You can create a free blog at Blogger.com and the feed URL is automatically generated for you. This is the easiest way to go. So every time you post to your blog, the feed is updated instantly.
For example, imtiaztips blog. The URL to the actual RSS feed is: http://imtiaztips.blogspot.com/atom.xml

So that's what people with RSS readers will add to their software in order to subscribe to that feed. Now any time I make a new post to my blog, their RSS reader is updated with the new content.


Announcing Your Feeds on Your Website
Now that your feed has been uploaded to your website, you need to tell your visitors how to subscribe to it. First, you'll want to get one of the RSS or XML buttons to add to your site. This lets people know you have feeds available. Go here to select a button.
Once you are displaying the button on your site be sure to add the XML link to it so a person can retrieve the link to the feed. For example, here's my feed .
If you click the button notice it opens my XML feed. Of course, you don't want your visitors to link to your feed this way. You want them to put this link into their RSS reader so they can subscribe to it and it will display like a regular news feed.
So what you would do is instruct them to right-click the button and "Copy Shortcut" (for IE users) or "Copy Link Location" (for Firefox users)
Have them open their RSS reader and start a "New Subscription". Now they can paste the XML link into their reader they are subscribed. It's that easy!
Now every time they open their reader and refresh their news items, they'll get the latest and greatest from your website.