How to Program RSS Feeds for Your Websites?
Making your own RSS feed is not difficult. It may so happen that your articles are published at different places and you want to display them on your website or blog. Now, you can simply copy your links with anchor text to display your articles but your intention is to allow your visitors to copy your XML feed or JavaScript Code to their websites or blogs for staying updated with your articles.
APSense Feeds:
APSense provides the following feeds containing all articles, revpages, talents and groups feeds separately. The XML feeds are:
http://www.apsense.com/feed/articles.xml
http://www.apsense.com/feed/revpages.xml
http://www.apsense.com/feed/talents.xml
http://www.apsense.com/feed/groups.xml
These can be fed into any XML reader or converted into JavaScript for placing on your website or blog.
Member Feeds:
Only XML feed for articles is available for your own articles on your profile page on the left side at the end. In the same way as APSense feeds, your own articles feed can be fed to an XML reader or JavaScript Code be placed on your HTML pages on your websites or blogs.
Feeds for your own RevPages
Remember, the APSense Widget is useful on your own websites or blogs. Why would your visitor place your APSense widget on his website?!
For generating your own XML feeds when ready made feeds are not available like in the case of your own RevPages, you can follow the following method-
1. Write the XML code on your notepad. Name the file as "File_Name.xml"; Save it under "All Files" and; Select encoding as "UTF8".
2. Upload the XML file to any FTP server or choose a free one like: File Manager.
3. Click on the XML file uploaded and copy the URL from the browser. This is the XML feed of your RevPages.
4. If you want the Javascript Code, visit rss-to-javascript.com and feed the XML feed in the converter.
5. Copy the generated JavaScript code and place on your website or blog. You may also give away the script to your visitors for placing on their websites and blogs for viral effect.
Example:
I have taken my friend, Salim's RevPages as an example and written the following code:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.apsense.com/user/salim594
http://www.apsense.com/page/dx-studio-32
http://www.apsense.com/page/free-monthly-websites-2
http://www.apsense.com/page/listwire-the-free-autoresponder
http://www.apsense.com/page/wibiyas-web-toolbar
http://www.apsense.com/page/deltamax
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can copy the code and modify the Title, Link and Description. If you need a model sample, CLICK HERE.
I saved the above code in NotePad, named the file as "salim-rev-page.xml"; saved it under "All Files" and; selected encoding as "UTF8".
Then I clicked on the XML file and copied the URL of the XML feed from the browser: http://business-website.webs.com/salim-rev-page.xml
Next, I fed the URL of the XML Feed at: http://www.rss-to-javascript.com/p/RSSRDF-Converter___138.html
Please fill the required information as under:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
URL: http://business-website.webs.com/salim-rev-page.xml
Show Channel?: YES
Show "Simplified" Channel? YES
Number of items: 5
Show Item Descriptions?: YES
if yes, how many characters (enter 0 to show the complete description): 150
Show Item Posting Date?: YES
Link target?: _blank
Font: Default Stylesheet
Font Size: (You may choose these after some practice)
Font Color: (You may choose these after some practice)
Background Color: (You may choose these after some practice)
Use List Elements: YES
Click on "Generate JavaScript"
Copy the script. The code in this example for Salim's RevPages is:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"
"
"-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have placed the above code in a RevPage to illustrate what has been achieved. Have a look here: RSS Feed of Salim's RevPages.
You can adopt the above method for web page. Care must be taken to avoid using special characters in the description tags.
Note: If you wish to update, include another latest article and remove one oldest article in text notepad file. Then save it as .XML, under all files and UTF8 encoded. The file name should not be changed. Again upload to the File Manager of FTP server and save with the same name. No need to again generate the JavaScript Code!
2 people like it
Comments (5)
Mohann Krish
6
Creating your own set of RSS feeds hardly takes any time. It will be useful as a giveaway to content-hungry blogs and websites. Your articles and thereby your websites and blogs get noticed quickly. You don't have to depend on any available feed.
Mohann Krish
6
@Deb: Do one step at a time or daily. I want to show there is no great technical stuff in this. To begin with download the Model Sample. If you give it a try, I'll feel successful in this effort!.
@Paula: I am sure you will give it a try!
Paula van Dun
16
Retired
Thanks for this tutorial. Especially i like the one for personal feeds. To be honest i will not use the default ones from apsense at this time sice they would include revpages of doubtful programs.
Deb Simpson
7
Health/Fitness Advocate
Very detailed article and I'm sure it works very well. I think it's just a little over my head at this point. There is still a lot of technical stuff that I am trying to grasp when it comes to blogging, ranking, backlinks, pingbacks, etc. Sometimes it all seems very confusing. Once I get a little more experience I will give it a try. Thanks for sharing.
Mohann Krish
6
The program might appear frightening but it is in fact very simple. I hope members understand the importance of RSS feeds and its viral effect.