By using a blog hosting service, like blogger, you can use RSS without knowing anything about this web feed format. That makes many people think they 'must' use a blog hosting service in order to use RSS. But, they don't have to.
It's Simple...
Using RSS is very simple. You need to:
- Make a file based on one of the protocols (XML or ATOM for example)
- Upload the file to your server
- On normal web pages seen by visitors, add a subscription link. (A subscription link is just a link pointing to the file you made at Step 1.) (More about RSS
)
If you use a blog service, this is done automatically. Also, RSS files will be configured to feed the newest entry to your blog. But, if you RSS by yourself, you can feed any content from the Internet. You can even talk to other webmasters and feed each other's content. In this way, your content gets more exposure. (You can feed multiple URLs in one RSS file, so you can feed yours and other websites' content together.)
Blog on Your Site
Some people might still say, "I want to blog." You can blog right at your own website. To have blog, you only need to post content in reverse chronological order. (That's the definition of blog.) For example, on my freebie index page, content is listed by category, so it isn't blog. If I make another index page that lists the same content in reverse chronological order, that's a blog. Practically, you can forget about Internet jargon and call your archive of content "blog" no matter how it is organized. Visitors will like it as long as you frequently publish new and interesting content.
Promote Your Site
There is nothing wrong with blog hosting services. You have your own domain name and website, so why not use them? Promote your own site, not somebody else's. This also looks more professional.
© July, 2009