<p><span style="font-size: small;">This post first appeared on a Forum thread, but as notifications for Forum topics aren't currently working, I've posted it here so that everyone can take advantage of RSS feeds to subscribe to another member's blog.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">You can subscribe to anyone&rsquo;s blog using RSS. I&rsquo;ve found the best way to do it is to first install a little programme on your machine called Feedreader. Get it from here:<br /><a href="http://www.feedreader.com/download">http://www.feedreader.com/download</a> it&rsquo;s free.<br /><br />It is very easy to install. Once you&rsquo;ve installed it, open it and then go to the blog you want to subscribe to. Look for the little RSS icon, it&rsquo;s next to the Description of the blog either right or left hand side. It is coloured orange and has some wavey lines on it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">Click this. In all probability you&rsquo;ll see the feed url suddenly appear in your Feedreader programme.<br /><br />If not you&rsquo;ll need to copy and paste it into the field. Forget the Subscribge 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&amp;pid=5">http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/bl ... _rss&amp;pid=5</a><br /><br />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 that blog is updated the posts will appear in your Feedreader.<br /><br />I've subscribed to David and Maureen's blogs and their first 5 posts appeared as if by magic! You can use this programme for any RSS not just the Writelink ones.<br /><br />The draw back is you will have to open Feedreader to know whether the blog has been updated or not, but at least you can see all the blogs you subscribe to at a glance.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><br />Various other parts of the site have RSS which you can add to your Feedreader.&nbsp; All the Article sections for instance have it so, for instance, you can subscribe to the Short Story contest section and have the latest contests appear in your feedreader as soon as they are posted without even having to visit the site.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">Don't just use it for Writelink though, it really is a great little tool to gather all your important updates together in one place without continually zipping all over the web.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-size: small;">Quite by accident I've stumbled on the Forum RSS feed url.&nbsp; You won't find it on the Forums itself, at least I couldn't, but if you have downloaded Feedreader, click New from the file menu and add this url:</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/phpBB3/phpBB_rss.php</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">I've tried it and it works.&nbsp; The only problem is you will get ALL Forum posts, not just the ones that you are interested in.</span> <img src="plugins/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" /></p>

<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Well that&rsquo;s not strictly true, but following on from my last posts, it&rsquo;s obvious that a lot of Writelinkers do not really understand RSS or just what it can do for them.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Actually, until quite recently, I was one of them, but now I&rsquo;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&rsquo;ll share what I know with you!<span>&nbsp; </span>(I&rsquo;ll tell you how to do that in a minute!).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>So what exactly is RSS?<span>&nbsp; </span>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.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>I&rsquo;ll explain how and why in later posts, but for now, let&rsquo;s get the basics out of the way.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>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. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Alternatively you might see a text link saying something like: RSS Feed or Subscribe to our RSS Feed or perhaps just Feed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>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.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Clicking any of these will show you a very basic web page.<span>&nbsp; </span>This should display a list of all the posts that are in that feed.<span>&nbsp; </span>By subscribing to the Feed you can be kept informed of when new posts are added.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Subscribing can be done in several ways, but all require a Reader.<span>&nbsp; </span>There are web based Readers such as the Google Reader and desk top Readers which deliver the Feeds straight to your computer.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>We&rsquo;ll look at all the options in later posts, but to get you started, I&rsquo;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.<span>&nbsp; </span>These are generally free and you can get a good one from here:<span>&nbsp; </span>http://www.feedreader.com/download</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Once you&rsquo;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.<span>&nbsp; </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>In all probability you&rsquo;ll see the feed url suddenly appear in your Feedreader programme.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>If not you&rsquo;ll need to copy and paste it into the field. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>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&amp;pid=5">http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/blogs/?action=get_rss&amp;pid=5</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>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!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>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.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>It get&rsquo;s better though!<span>&nbsp; </span>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 &ldquo;ping&rdquo; and a popup message appears to let you know there is a new post to read!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>By the way, it isn&rsquo;t just the blogs that offer RSS.<span>&nbsp; </span>All the Article sections have the facility as well.<span>&nbsp; </span>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.<span>&nbsp; </span>We will also be adding RSS to the Arena and Arena Challenges.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>The Forums also have RSS, although it isn&rsquo;t visible on the site at present.<span>&nbsp; </span>Fortunately I have the url!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><a href="phpBB3/phpBB_rss.php">http://www.writelink.co.uk/community/phpBB3/phpBB_rss.php</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Leave a comment if you get stuck and I&rsquo;ll try and help!</span><span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Next post, using RSS to attract visitors to your blog.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Hopefully you will now have a good understanding of what RSS feeds are and how to set one up, (if not you&rsquo;ll need to read the previous post).<span>&nbsp; </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">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.<span>&nbsp; </span>You can also subscribe to any feeds you find elsewhere on the web so you certainly shouldn&rsquo;t be short of something to read during the dark nights!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">So far, so good, but RSS feeds are not just news gatherers.<span>&nbsp; </span>They are just as valuable as a promotion tool.<span>&nbsp; </span>You can use feeds to attract new readers to your blog which is what we&rsquo;re going to look at in this post.<span>&nbsp; </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">First though, you need to have a little understanding of why this works which means explaining some search engine technology.<span>&nbsp; </span>I&rsquo;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&rsquo;m one of them!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">What I do know is, to get your information on the coveted first page, one of the things you need are &ldquo;back links&rdquo; from busy, content rich sites.<span>&nbsp; </span>There are many other things that have a bearing on how your page ranks with Google, but we&rsquo;ll leave those alone for now!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">So what is a &ldquo;back link?&rdquo;<span>&nbsp; </span>Simply put, it is just another site linking to yours.<span>&nbsp; </span>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!<span>&nbsp; </span>If you look at this site you will see that there is a link to <a href="../">www.writelink.co.uk</a><span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>This is a &ldquo;back link.&rdquo;<span>&nbsp; </span>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.<span>&nbsp; </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">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.<span>&nbsp; </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">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!<span>&nbsp; </span>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.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">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.<span>&nbsp; </span>Are you getting the idea?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Now here is the most important sentence in this post!<span>&nbsp; </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #ff0000; font-size: small;"><strong>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!</strong></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">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&rsquo;s how important they are.<span>&nbsp; </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">There are lots of ways to get back links which we will look at in future posts.<span>&nbsp; </span>For now though add your blog RSS feed to a good RSS directory.<span>&nbsp; </span>There are hundreds of these, most of them pretty useless!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Here are some of the best.<span>&nbsp; </span>It&rsquo;s tedious adding your feed, but the more you can add to the better!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.feedest.com/feedAdd.cfm">Feedest.com</a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogoculars.com/add-blog">Blogoculars.com</a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.2RSS.com/">2RSS.com</a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.rssaround.com/submit.php">RSSaround.com</a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.plazoo.com/en/addrss.asp">Plazoo.com</a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://free-rss.page2go2.com/free-rss-directory/rss-add.html">Page2go2.com</a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.feedooyoo.com/ref.htm">Feedooyoo.com</a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.rssmicro.com/feedsubmit.web">RSSmicro.com</a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://feedfury.com/submit">FeedFury.com</a></span></li> <li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.octora.com/add_rss.php">Octora.com</a></span></li> <li><br /></li>

<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">After all those RSS directories in the previous post, I&rsquo;m sure you now know your Writelink blog RSS feed off by heart and could probably recite it in your sleep!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Well that is all to the good as you will be using that url to post RSS feeds to social networking sites.<span>&nbsp; </span>Actually you are all ready using a social networking site so this isn&rsquo;t something you are encountering for the first time!<span>&nbsp; </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Writelink is a niche social networking site, (aimed at writers) so I hope you are making the most of the Friends feature?<span>&nbsp; </span>You can invite anyone to be your Friend by visiting their Profile and clicking the Befriend link about half way down the page on the left.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">I&rsquo;ll cover this in greater depth in another post, but for now let&rsquo;s take a look at external social networking sites as these are a good way of gaining back links to your blog which is what this series of posts is all about.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">The spotlight today is on Twitter, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/">www.twitter.com</a> <span>&nbsp;</span>as this is a very easy site to use, especially for members who are struggling to get to grips with the many features that social networking sites have, (including us!).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">The idea behind Twitter is very simple.<span>&nbsp; </span>Create an account and then post very, very short messages in response to the question, &ldquo;What are you doing?&rdquo;<span>&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">The site gives you the opportunity to invite friends to follow your posts or &ldquo;Tweets&rdquo; as they call them and since your &ldquo;Tweet&rdquo; will appear on the site&rsquo;s home page, you will also pick up other readers, especially if you have written a good profile which explains your interests</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">The best thing about Twitter is the fact you can include web links and RSS feeds which will of course link back to your Writelink blog.<span>&nbsp; </span>As you can imagine, there is an awful lot of rubbish posted to Twitter, do you really what to know that lazydave is having a beer with Tom?<span>&nbsp; </span>Of course not, but if your blog posts are interesting and useful, you will soon pick up a following.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">I started a Twitter account about a month ago and dismissed it as a big time waster, (which it is if you are not careful!).<span>&nbsp; </span>Researching these posts however has made me change my mind somewhat as within adding my blog RSS feed I see that I had 6 visitors within half an hour of posting!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">O.K. enough of that, lets get down to the nitty gritty of getting your RSS feed onto Twitter.<span>&nbsp; </span>You can&rsquo;t just login to your Twitter account and find a handy link saying add RSS!<span>&nbsp; </span>That would be nice, but it isn&rsquo;t currently available.<span>&nbsp; </span>You have to use an external source, but don&rsquo;t worry it is very easy.<span>&nbsp; </span>I got 5 feeds added to my Twitter account within 10 minutes.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>ENTER TWITTERFEED!<span>&nbsp; </span>(www.twitterfeed.com)</strong></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Twitterfeed automatically twitters your RSS feeds to all of the tweets, (other Twitter members) following you on Twitter.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">It is very easy to create an account, but you must have a Twitter account first so make sure you have the details to hand.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">I created a new account, but you can use an OpenID account.<span>&nbsp; </span>The site will explain what that is.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">1.<span>&nbsp; </span>Create and Login into your <a href="http://www.twitterfeed.com/">www.twitterfeed.com</a> account.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">2.<span>&nbsp; </span>Enter your blog&rsquo;s RSS feed.<span>&nbsp; </span>You can add as many feeds as you like and they don&rsquo;t necessarily have to belong to you.<span>&nbsp; </span>Any information that you want to share can be added as long as it is through a RSS feed.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">3.<span>&nbsp; </span>Choose the frequency of the Twitterfeed. You can send posts every 30 minutes or once a day. If your Twitter account has lots of followers, I think it best to confine to once a day otherwise you might put people off if flooded with notifications.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">4. You have the choice of posting titles and or descriptions.<span>&nbsp; </span>My feed displays both.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">5.<span>&nbsp; </span>You can also add a prefix to feeds you are creating.<span>&nbsp; </span>Useful if you have more than one blog, e.g. Blog A, Blog B etc. <span>&nbsp;</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span>6.<span>&nbsp; </span>You can set the update numbers that the feed adds to Twitter at each session.<span>&nbsp; </span>One of course is the minimum, but you could send as many as five</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">It takes anywhere up to an hour for the first posts from you feed to appear on Twitter, but I&rsquo;ve found its usually around 10 to 15 minutes.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">One nice feature of <a href="http://www.twitterfeed.com/">www.twitterfeed.com</a> are the stats.<span>&nbsp; </span>As long as you select bit.ly when asked to select a short url, you will see some very basic stats for your feed.<span>&nbsp; </span>E.g. how many people clicked your links.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Here are the links you will need:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Twitter &ndash; <a href="http://www.twitter.com/">http://www.twitter.com</a><span>&nbsp; </span>(If you don&rsquo;t all ready have a Twitter account).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Twitterfeed &ndash; <a href="http://www.twitterfeed.com/">http://www.twitterfeed.com</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Here&rsquo;s my Twitter page so you can see a working example of RSS postings.<span>&nbsp; </span>(Click some of the links and you&rsquo;ll find yourself back on Writelink!).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Sue Kendrick on Twitter - <a href="http://twitter.com/writelink">http://twitter.com/writelink</a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>Next post:<span>&nbsp; </span>RSS on Facebook</strong></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">If you have a Facebook account you can easily add your Writelink blog RSS feed so that when you add a posting to your Writelink blog, it will appear on your Facebook wall.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Apart from easily updating your non-Writelink friends about your activities, adding RSS to Facebook will also make a good back link to your Writelink blog and hopefully result in more traffic.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Here&rsquo;s what you do:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">1. Login to Facebook</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">2. Click Notes on the side navigation menu</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">3. On the Right side under Note Settings you will see Import a blog. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">4. Click this and you will see a form which you will need to complete.<span>&nbsp; </span>It&rsquo;s all self-explanatory so you shouldn&rsquo;t have any problems, just remember you will need your Writelink blog RSS feed url.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">5. When all the fields have been completed, click Start Importing and your RSS feed should appear on your wall.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">That&rsquo;s it, job done!</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>