LinkMoney.org

Archive for September, 2008

If you have been struggling to learn the answer to the question, “How do I put an RSS feed on my web page?” This post will explain the RSS Data Feed, and how to install it on your WordPress Blog web site.

For months I have been trying many different methods to try and learn how to make the RSS Subscribe button work properly, and then would get exasperated and move on to something else. I now “get it.”

RSS Explained in Steps:

Dave Winer, a software developer and entrepreneur in Berkeley, California is referred to as the pioneer of RSS (Really Simple Syndication.) There are other common terms for RSS but this is the official one.

RSS Data Feed:

Typically a publisher inserts some code in the website, usually behind the various forms of RSS feed buttons that you see on almost all websites, and the users of the website can register with an aggregator program that is commonly called a “News Reader.”

There are dozens of different types of News Readers and for this example we will discuss the one that is provided for free by Google, called the “Google News Reader.” Go figure.

When someone reads a web post that they are interested in and want to follow the author in future posts, the user subscribes by clicking on the “RSS Subscribe” button and then selects which News Reader they want to use.

Then in the future every time the publisher puts out new content the post is sent right directly to the subscribers News Reader. You may unsubscribe at any time.

How do I Put an RSS Feed on My Web Page?

For the purpose of this article we will discuss Feedburner, which is a company that is now owned by Google, (go figure again,) and the publisher has to sign up for a free account, and then “Burn a Feed.” What that means is that there is a box to type the url of your blog into, and then Feedburner will return a unique identifier feed for that website that can be used in the HTML code for subscribing.

For instance; for this website at LinkMoney.org the unique identifier returned is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/linkmoney/mvZE.
You should copy your new feedburner feed code to a file somewhere for future use. I mean your new code, not the example above.

Then comes the fun part. Depending upon which theme you are using for your WordPress Blog, you may already have a widget that is all set up to just place your feedburner feed code into, or you may have to build the HTML code yourself and install it in a “Text Box Widget.”

By now you no doubt know what a widget is for your WordPress Blog and you use them to insert nicely formatted sections of data for your readers enjoyment, such as Recent Posts, Archives, Blogroll, advertising block ads, etc.

If you see a widget box in your theme that is marked RSS Feeds, do NOT use that one to build your RSS Subscribe button. That one is used for publishers that want to automatically receive generated content from other publishers to be displayed on their own Blog.

So here is what you do. Select a “Text Box” widget, and click on the edit for that widget. Here is where you will paste some HTML code that includes an image of your RSS Subscribe button and a piece of code that actullay does the subscribing to the feed.

Now we shall discuss how to build the proper HTML code for this button. This is very similar to the post that we presented previously about “How to Make a 125 Banner Ad.”

The following example has a piece of bold text that says “Subscribe Here” within the display box. You do not have to do it exactly the same way, for instance you can use the title bar of the text box widget to say something like “Subscribe via RSS.”

The code <center> and </center> just positions the button image within the center of the text box on the final web page area.

<b> RSS Subscribe Here: </b> <br>
<center><a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/linkmoney/mvZE”>
<img src=”http://[***note this is the url where your image is hosted]” alt=”subscribe via rss” />
</a></center>
<br>

[***Note: the above note is where you insert your own unique url to the image.]

Then the second main part of the code shown, <img src=, is where the image is located. You may elect to host the image any where you wish. Just remember that wherever it is hosted it should be a reliable website or server that is on all of the time, otherwise your image might not display at all if that server is down for some reason or other.

As I explained how to host an image on Photobucket in the previous article about How to Make a 125 Banner Ad, I would suggest you go there to read the procedure. You will probably do better by parking the image on the same hosting server that your WordPress Blog is hosted on, but I have not done that yet.

Now when a reader wants to subscribe, all they do is hit the Subscribe Button and they will have your new posts directed to their News Reader. Really Simple Syndication indeed! I trust this helps you to understand RSS Data Feeds.

To those of you that might read this and say it is elementary, I say that is exactly what most of the new Bloggers need. All of this crud does not come easy to me and I think I am in the majority. So when I make a new discovery and learn how to do something after countless hours of trial and error, I try to simplify the description and write it up for the readers of LinkMoney.

From emails and comments I know that many people do appreciate this information and that is good enough for me.

Now if you find this post of interest you want to SUBSCRIBE with my nice big RSS Subscribe button at the top right of this page.

If you want to subscribe by email, go ahead and then in a future post I will explain how to set your email subscribe box up using feedburner also.

I’m Rich !

Here is how you can set up a no-cost 125X125 Banner Ad on 5,000 websites very quickly. ( No-cost as in FREE ! )

Just set up a free account with 125exchange.com

Then you upload your own 125X125 banner ad for your website and it gets immediately posted on 5,000 websites.

Then you create a place on your website for a 125X125 banner ad, and insert their code and you get revolving ads that you can make relevant to your website topic and everything is a free trade.

If you don’t know how to make your own 125 banner ad, I wrote a Blog post about it a while back on my LinkMoney dot org website.

Here is the link: How to Make a 125 Banner Ad

This is an excellent way to cross-promote your Blog with other like-minded Bloggers.

Rich Hill

Subscribe via RSS:

We have had an RSS Subscribe method for some time, but readers were not able to find it easily. We now have a nice big RSS button that works very well. We want you all to subscribe and keep up to date with our postings as they come out.

Three New Plugins:

LinkMoney now uses three new plugins; KeywordLUV, Show Top Commentator (widget version,) and we also added Lucia’s Linky Love. These plugins will put some minimal restrictions on when and how do-follow juice is awarded to commentators.

These new features, such as CommentLUV, KeywordLUV, Show Top Commentator and Lucia’s Linky Love offer benefits to both the Blog being commented on, and to the commentator. The Blog gains more traffic because readers are encouraged to make comments, and the commentator gains a backlink that is keyword rich when the comment is relevant, not spammy, and offers value to the Blog post.

The minimal restrictions installed require a commentator to leave more than a certain number of comments (right now the number is very low, subject to change if necessary,) before gaining LinkLUV. That keeps the hoards from just skimming through the web and finding places to drop their drivel.

Networking:

These new features added to the LinkMoney (dot org) Blog are installed to encourage readers to network with like minded readers and to share information as well as building some traffic generators.

I wrote a previous post about CommentLUV plugin.

Sources:

These plugins are discussed with great clarity on the following Blogs:

More Than Scratch the Surface

Andy Beard’s Ultimate List of Dofollow Plugins

Lucia Liljegren’s Big Bucks Blogger

Karol Krizka’s Show Top Commentator widget

Andy Bailey’s CommentLUV plugin

Backlink Policy:

If you find this Blog of interest or help to you in some way, we would REALLY appreciate receiving your backlink. Send an email to richhill at linkmoney dot org to let us know about your link, you will receive two links back from some of my other Blogs. That way they will be one way links and according to many people they might have more weight than a two-way link.

We reserve the right to reject inappropriate link sites.

This is just what we all need. The headline reads:

“Good news for Bloggers. There may be a pill that lets them watch their computer screen and get their exercise, too—without moving a muscle.”

I just read this report on the website newexercisepill.com.

See, there’s hope for all of us yet!

Read the latest about this story and other Exercise Pill News .

The wordPress plugin CommentLUV is now installed for an undisclosed testing period.

You will get a link to your website using a keyword that you select by leaving comments on this Blog.

Normally when you leave a comment on a site they ask you for your name, email address and website url. This Blog will keep doing the same thing, however you can choose the keywork or phrase that you want to use by putting it in the name box.

Let’s say your name is Gertrude Blatz and you have a website named LadiesHouseholdFurnishingsAndClothing dot com. Normally you would put “Gertrude” or “Gertrude Blatz” in the name box.

Now let’s say you want to become known as a specialist in and to get high rankings for the keyword phrase “leather pocketbooks.”

Now instead of putting your name in the name box use the keyword phrase “leather pocketbooks.” That way when a reader finds your comment of interest and wants to see what type of a website you have they will click on the keyword phrase to go to your website and you just received a free vote in ranking.

Here’s the deal. This is an experiment and I might pull it at any time for any reason, but you can be sure that if you intend to spam or scam this generous offer I will wish a POX upon you and all of your goats.

Keep the comments relative to the subject, make them interesting and helpful and you will gain great benefits. No one likes negativity so keep it upbeat.

Thank you Gertrude for letting me use you as an example.

Rich Hill

ps: Chris Guthrie has posted an excellent article on back scratching.

See also: CommentLUV, KeywordLUV and lucy’s Linky Love here.