This can actually be done fairly easily. This post is going to give you a quick and simple method to do this.

The code you see below is the default settings from the free version of Feed Commander using an RSS feed from www.feedcommander.com.

Any or all of the bold red highlighted areas can be removed to allow your stylesheet to control the display.

The result removing all would look like this:

Editing that piece of code, and changing the feed url saves a ton of time, and the display will already follow the styles of the site it’s being displayed on. Create a feed once, edit, and save for future use.

Claiming your blog at Technorati is supposed to be a simple task, but as other blogs are reporting, there may be some problems.

Go to Technorati, log in, click edit next year screen name in the top right, then go to the third tab, “Blogs” to stake your claim, and follow the directions.

I just went through the process with this post, and seemed to be having a problem too.

Okay – that failed twice – now I’ve claimed the blog using their “simple method” which involves entering your admin username and password there at Technorati.  That’s something I would have preferred not to do, however, I did want to claim his blog as my own, and it seems to have worked.

The Basics of RSS Newsfeeds

RSS can be read as, “Rich Site Summary” or “ Really Simple Syndication”. Both phrases mean essentially the same thing. An RSS newsfeed is offered by a website as a way for readers to conveniently access information from the website as it is posted.

An RSS newsfeed works in the same way that a stock ticker does. You anonymously subscribe to newsfeeds and they are delivered to your computer automatically. There’s no need to visit each individual website for that day’s information, it is delivered directly to you via the RSS feed.

Who Is RSS For?

RSS is for everyone. Anyone interested in keeping up with current information on any number of topics can benefit from RSS newsfeeds. RSS eliminates the need emailed newsletters. No more wading through your spam mailbox every week to retrieve a newsletter with information that you requested from a website. Once the requested information is subscribed to by a user, the RSS reader collects and stores it, for perusal at your leisure. You can archive it, read it immediately or just let it collect dust until you choose to delete it.

How Do I Get An RSS Newsfeed?

There are an endless number of possible applications for RSS newsfeeds. One of the best uses of an RSS feed is to place it on your personalized search engine homepage. With a few steps, you can be reading RSS newsfeeds almost immediately.

The first step is to get an RSS newsreader or aggregator. Some of the most popular forms of newsreaders are available from Google, MSN and Yahoo. If you already have an account with one of these sites, sign in and start adding feeds to your home page.

The next step is to collect the information that you want to keep up to date on. You can either use the specialized RSS feed search option or just enter a basic search for websites that are relevant to your desired topic of interest.

You add content either by clicking the “add stuff” link or by copying the URL of the website and pasting it into the add box. Once you have added your desired content from various websites, you can drag and drop them so that they appear in an order that is convenient for you. You can delete any items and add them back later at any time. RSS feeds are free.

These instructions are generalized for all search engine home pages. I will be posting specific, step by step instructions for personalizing home pages on Google, Yahoo and MSN in another article.

Starting with a personalized home page is the easiest way to get your feet wet with RSS newsfeeds. Once you have mastered the search engine homepage, you will be ready to move on to a stand alone RSS aggregator application. RSS is a wonderful, time saving tool. The fact that RSS is free and easy to use is just icing on the cake.

What is an RSS feed and an RSS aggregator?

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”, or for “Rich Site Summary” which in essence works like a newspaper subscription. You find a blog or news site that you are interested in reading daily and you subscribe to the site’s RSS feed.

The content is converted to an XML format (that’s why the text looks like a jumbled mess when you click on the RSS logo) and can be read by an aggregator as it checks for additions to the content of an RSS feed subscription at set intervals, delivering up to the minute information right to your computer. Pretty slick!

An RSS aggregator is an application that collects all of your RSS feed subscriptions and displays the results for you to review at your leisure. It saves previous postings and can even download them to your PC for offline viewing.

What are some uses for RSS feeds?

One very popular use for RSS feeds is simply convenience. You can collect all of your favorite blog entries and news stories automatically, saving precious time spent on the Internet. No more waiting for pages to load and scanning through your favorites folder for each website. Just like the morning newspaper, they are waiting on your PC’s doorstep each day.

Another use for RSS feeds extends beyond recreational reading. Businesses can use an RSS feed to keep up with industry news and what the competition is doing in a minimal amount of time by subscribing to a series of important, relevant feeds.

Placing an RSS feed on your website also increases your visitor traffic if for no other reason than the ease of use. An RSS feed also has been shown to increase your organic SERPS results. In the world of Internet marketing, such a tool is a literal goldmine. An RSS feed can give you an edge over the competition and when used as a dynamic viral marketing engine, an RSS feed can significantly increase a company’s revenue.

Similar syndication formats have cropped up from time time in the past, but they never caught on in popularity because they were not user friendly and were designed to work with only one type of aggregator that may or may not be compatible with other syndicated content that you were interested in.

The beauty of the RSS feed is its universality and simplicity. The XML code is easily read by any number of aggregators and placing an RSS feed on your website is easy to do and subscribing to a feed requires only basic computer knowledge.

RSS is here to stay. Embracing the reality of the usefulness of RSS can help your business thrive on the Internet.