As RSS news syndication gains popularity among users, new ways for publishing RSS are emerging. In this article, I examine the three most popular methods, and help you decide which one works best for you.
1. Blogs
Weblogs, or blogs, as they are commonly called, are the primary reason RSS gained
popularity. In fact, one of the earliest uses for RSS was for bloggers to monitor
other blogs for updates.
Most blogging systems will produce RSS newsfeeds automatically. All you need to
do is enter content, and the blogging software will build a newsfeed based on the
information you enter. No extra work is needed. Just add content to your blog, and
you have a newsfeed.
But there is one major disadvantage to using a blog for publishing RSS: you do not
have complete control of the RSS output. Most blogging software will simply take
an excerpt of your blog entry (eg, the first 15 words), and use that to create your
RSS item. As you can imagine, this can lead to problems. The first 15 words of a
blog entry don’t always capture the essence of that article.
2. RSS Publishing Software
Because of the inadequacy of blogs as a reliable and accurate RSS tool, new stand-
alone software was developed. This software has one purpose: to provide the user
with an easy way to create and publish RSS newsfeeds from their desktops. No
longer do you have to write a long article in your blog to produce RSS feeds. All you
have to do is enter a title for your news item, and (optionally) a couple sentences to
describe that headline – and your feed is better than the blog-produced feed.
Examples of RSS publishing software for Windows include FeedforAll (http://
www.feedforall.com) and Newzalert Composer (http://www.castlesoftware.biz/
NewzAlertComposer.htm). Mac users have their own tool in Orangebox for
Macintosh (http://www.globalsyndication.com/orangebox-for-macintosh).
3. Online RSS Publishing Systems
While subscribers to feeds generated by RSS software enjoyed the simplicity and
clarity of the new feeds, some publishers began to run into problems that came with
the publishing software. They missed the convenience of blogging’s online
publishing that allowed them to add news -- regardless of whether they were at
their home computer.
News publishers wanted the accessibility of online blogging with the accuracy of RSS
publishing software. The new demand lead to the emergence of online RSS
publishing systems such as FeedServer RSS Hosting (http://
www.globalsyndication.com/rss-hosting). This new format of RSS publishing allows
webmasters to login to an online control panel and publish their news – without
having to worry about restrictive software licenses. Since most online RSS
publishing systems run on a subscription basis, you can make use of the free trial or
subscribe for one month and evaluate if the service meets your needs.
Author: Josiah Mackenzie
Previous article: 29 December 2006
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