What You Should Know About

More and more companies are using RSS as a means to communicate, so having an RSS feed that is professional and well polished will help differentiate your company from your competition. What does a RSS feed professional? Follow these simple steps to Polish your RSS feed and take it to the next level ... 1. feed image add an image to your RSS feed. The image is displayed by many feed readers every time your feed is displayed. This will help build and strengthen their brand or image in the minds of people who read your RSS feed. Add a picture to an RSS feed is relatively easy, and adds a level of professionalism. 2. Images and Links to add pictures and links in the RSS feed. The process of adding images and links to the description field of an RSS feed is really quite simple, if you are using software to manage your feed, while it may be somewhat complicated, if you hand-coding your feed. Incorporate images or hot links in the feed content will allow your readers to explore further and dig deeper into your content. An additional benefit is, of course, the additional links back to your website from all Web sites that choose to publish or your feed content is displayed. 3. Validatewell-formed code is important to ensure that all RSS readers can read and display your feed. But it is also very important for another reason ... nothing is more embarrassing or unprofessional than an RSS feed is broken or stops working. Use software to manage your feed creation, and validate your feed on a regular basis. 4. easy to Subscribe make your RSS feed is easy to subscribe. Include traditional RSS icon or an indicator of the entire site so that site visitors can easily find and subscribe to RSS feeds. Include basic guidance on how site visitors should subscribe to your RSS feed. 5. Auto Discovery add "auto-discovery" code in the HTML header of your site. Many RSS aggregators include an auto-discovery feature, which allows them to automatically detect when a site offers an RSS feed. If you want visitors to your Web site uses one of these news readers, would you immediately know that an RSS feed to your content is accessible from your Web site. Instantly create auto discovery 6 code-http://www.feedforall.com/autodiscovery.htm. Favicon adds a "favicon" for your site. Favicons (short for "Favorites icon") is typically a small version of a company or the logo of the site and appears in the URL of the user's Web browser. When a user bookmarks a specific Web page that contains a favicon, loads this Web page customized icon in the user's browser. Because the favicon is usually appears next to the address of Web site, it may act as a small logo or icon, which visitors can use to remember the site or the site address. RSS feed directories and search engines will often use a favicon next to an RSS feed listings. So make sure that you have one on your site; Otherwise, you have nothing else than a generic icon next to your feed. Webmasters can establish brand by creating a favicon for your website. Here is a free service from 7 HTMLKit: http://www.html-kit.com/favicon. Subscription to always your own Feed Subscribe to your RSS feed, so you can see, see visitors on the site. It is not necessary to incorporate the above elements in your RSS feed will result in additions of a more professional and polished RSS stands apart from competitors in News aggregators and RSS folders. Spending a few extra minutes here could easily do more attention to your feed. About the author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing and publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.