Writelink ... many writers ... one community, online creative writing community for freelance and creative writers

THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO RSS, COMMUNICATION AT ITS BEST!

Well that’s not strictly true, but following on from my last posts, it’s obvious that a lot of Writelinkers do not really understand RSS or just what it can do for them.   Actually, until quite recently, I was one of them, but now I’ve done a bit of research, I can see that we are overlooking one of the most powerful features this site has to offer so subscribe to my blog and I’ll share what I know with you!  (I’ll tell you how to do that in a minute!).   So what exactly is RSS?  The initials stand for Really Simple Syndication which is just a way of saying that it is a method of gathering information from a variety of web based sources AND perhaps more importantly for those of use who want to attract readers to our blogs, a way of making OUR information easily available to the whole of the web.   I’ll explain how and why in later posts, but for now, let’s get the basics out of the way.   When you visit a website or blog, you will nearly always encounter either the RSS symbol, it is a small, orange icon which looks like the image in the gallery.   Alternatively you might see a text link saying something like: RSS Feed or Subscribe to our RSS Feed or perhaps just Feed.   All the Writelink blogs carry the orange symbol which you will find either near the top right or left hand column depending on how the owner has set up their blog.   Clicking any of these will show you a very basic web page.  This should display a list of all the posts that are in that feed.  By subscribing to the Feed you can be kept informed of when new posts are added.   Subscribing can be done in several ways, but all require a Reader.  There are web based Readers such as the Google Reader and desk top Readers which deliver the Feeds straight to your computer.   We’ll look at all the options in later posts, but to get you started, I’m going to suggest you download and install a desk top Reader, which is how I like to receive my Feeds as they have the advantage of not having to visit the websites if there is nothing in the feed to interest you.  These are generally free and you can get a good one from here:  http://www.feedreader.com/download   Once you’ve installed it, open it and then go to the blog you want to subscribe to. Click the little RSS icon then look in Feedreader and select New from the File menu.    In all probability you’ll see the feed url suddenly appear in your Feedreader programme.   If not you’ll need to copy and paste it into the field.   Forget the Subscribe options in the drop down menu, look in the url field in the browser itself, you should see something like this: <a href="blogs/?action=get_rss&pid=5">http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/blogs/?action=get_rss&pid=5</a>   That is the url to my blog. Note rss is in the path. You just paste this into your Feedreader programme and hey presto! Every time my blog is updated the posts will appear in your Feedreader!   I've subscribed to a lot of members blogs and their first 5 posts appear as if by magic in my Feedreader! You can use this programme for any RSS not just the Writelink ones.   It get’s better though!  The programme runs quietly in the background while you are working on other things, but as soon as a posting is made to one of your subscribed feeds, it lets out a “ping” and a popup message appears to let you know there is a new post to read!   By the way, it isn’t just the blogs that offer RSS.  All the Article sections have the facility as well.  If you want to keep abreast of new markets or contests subscribe to their RSS feeds and the update will appear in your Feed Reader which depending on your settings, could be almost immediately.  We will also be adding RSS to the Arena and Arena Challenges.   The Forums also have RSS, although it isn’t visible on the site at present.  Fortunately I have the url! <a href="phpBB3/phpBB_rss.php">http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/phpBB3/phpBB_rss.php</a>   Leave a comment if you get stuck and I’ll try and help!   Next post, using RSS to attract visitors to your blog.

PROMOTING YOUR BLOG WITH RSS – The basics

Hopefully you will now have a good understanding of what RSS feeds are and how to set one up, (if not you’ll need to read the previous post).  You should now be able to read any of the Writelink members blogs you care to subscribe to plus, Writing articles, fiction, poetry and non-fiction competition posts and Forum posts.  You can also subscribe to any feeds you find elsewhere on the web so you certainly shouldn’t be short of something to read during the dark nights! So far, so good, but RSS feeds are not just news gatherers.  They are just as valuable as a promotion tool.  You can use feeds to attract new readers to your blog which is what we’re going to look at in this post.  First though, you need to have a little understanding of why this works which means explaining some search engine technology.  I’m sure everyone understands the concept of Google and his pals, but few fully understand how they sort the pages that make up their listings and I’m one of them! What I do know is, to get your information on the coveted first page, one of the things you need are “back links” from busy, content rich sites.  There are many other things that have a bearing on how your page ranks with Google, but we’ll leave those alone for now! So what is a “back link?”  Simply put, it is just another site linking to yours.  E.g. I have a website called <a href="http://www.folkonthefarm.co.uk/">www.folkonthefarm.co.uk</a> where I run various terrestrial activities to remind me that there is a life outside the ether!  If you look at this site you will see that there is a link to <a href="../">www.writelink.co.uk</a>   This is a “back link.”  On <a href="http://www.folkonthefarm.co.uk/">www.folkonthefarm.co.uk</a> it is a clickable graphic, but it could be a simple text link.  This particular back link is the url to Writelink, but it could just as easily be a RSS feed which is what we are concerned with in this post.  If there was a suitable feed on Writelink which would fit the Folk on the Farm activities, I could grab the RSS feed url, (that is the one that you have been using to add other members blogs to your feed reader) and insert it into one of the Folk on the Farm web pages and hey presto!  All news in the feed from Writelink would appear on the Folk on the Farm web site and updates every time the feed on Writelink is updated. You can set the feed so that only a teaser sentence displays which means anyone who wants to read the rest of the item has to click back to the originating site.  Are you getting the idea? Now here is the most important sentence in this post!  IF YOU CAN GET YOUR RSS FEED ON OTHER GOOD QUALITY SITES THEN YOU WILL HAVE GAINED SOME VERY VALUABLE BACK LINKS AND A GOOD CHANCE OF INCREASING TRAFFIC! This post is slanted towards the Writelink blogs which get spidered by the search engines simply for being part of Writelink, but as an aside, if you are setting up a new blog or website elsewhere, getting quick back links will get your site picked up by the Google a lot quicker than without back links, that’s how important they are.  There are lots of ways to get back links which we will look at in future posts.  For now though add your blog RSS feed to a good RSS directory.  There are hundreds of these, most of them pretty useless! Here are some of the best.  It’s tedious adding your feed, but the more you can add to the better!   <li><a href="http://www.feedest.com/feedAdd.cfm">Feedest.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.blogoculars.com/add-blog">Blogoculars.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.2RSS.com/">2RSS.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.rssaround.com/submit.php">RSSaround.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.plazoo.com/en/addrss.asp">Plazoo.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://free-rss.page2go2.com/free-rss-directory/rss-add.html">Page2go2.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.feedooyoo.com/ref.htm">Feedooyoo.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.rssmicro.com/feedsubmit.web">RSSmicro.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://feedfury.com/submit">FeedFury.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.octora.com/add_rss.php">Octora.com</a></li> <li> </li>

ARE YOU GETTING THE WORD OUT?

I think most of us have realised by now that as writers’ it isn’t too difficult to write a book, but selling it, even if you do get a main stream publishing deal, isn’t a doodle!   Using the web would seem to offer a way forward and it is true that there are a lot of people doing very nicely selling, not just books, but all kinds of products and services.    Unfortunately, as a lot of us have discovered, it isn’t as easy as it seems and it is pretty easy to get ripped off!  There are all kinds of people out there claiming to have the answer which is why I found this ebook, 279 Days to Overnight Success by Chris Guillebeau interesting.    If you are seriously thinking about using the web to promote your book or service or anything else for that matter, I can really recommend it.  It is well written and doesn’t try to sell you anything.  Even if you are a bit more experienced, you will still learn a thing or two.  Hope it helps! <a href="http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/overnight-success" title="279 Days to Overnight Success">http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/overnight-success</a>

SPREADING THE WORD WITH EMAIL SIGNATURES

Making good use of the email signature facility that is available through Outlook Express was another item touched on during our last Chat session.  I'm not sure how many members realise what a useful feature this is and what a great promotional tool it makes.   It's very easy to add a signature to all your out going emails which can be used to promote your books or services.  If you are bloglancing you will probably find some of the code snippets for your products can also be added as a signature.   There's a detailed article under Articles/Writing Articles on how to set up a simple email signature. <a href="../mod_articles/article/7035">EMAIL SIGNATURE MARKETING - AUTHORS SIGN OFF WITH A FLOURISH!</a> <script src="http://cdn.widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertWidget.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"></script>

ARE YOU A PEANUT WRITER?

I certainly hope not!  The reason I'm bringing this up is because I've had a couple of emails this week from new writers asking about content providing sites.  Co-incidently this has also cropped up on the site recently so I thought I'd update an article I wrote a couple of years ago when the very same questions were being posed. Both the emails I received wanted to know whether you could make any real money from writing for them.  Some writers can and some do, but most do not! In fact, if you are not careful you can spend hours and hours crafting quality articles which may or may not earn you a few dollars.  In view of this, you going to expect me to advise you to steer clear of these sites and look for more lucrative opportunities. Wrong!  You can make some good money posting articles to these sites, but not in the way they intend! Take a look at the article, <a href="http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/mod_articles/article/7089" title="Writing For Money Or Writing For Peanuts">Writing For Money Or Writing For Peanuts?</a> to find out more!

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
29	30	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Gifts

Awards Center

Home

Members

Videos

Adverts

chat

Music

Photos

Blogs

Forums

Resources

Challenges

Directory

Search result

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
29	30	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
29	30	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
29	30	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9