How To Use RSS Feeds To Get More Traffic
Using RSS Feeds
I want to demonstrate how to use RSS feeds to get more traffic to your websites, blogs,, articlse and other online content. Getting traffic is essential for earning money from adsense. RSS, as you may know stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is technology that compacts your content into a stream of code that can be broadcast over the internet.
These broadcasts, called feeds, are distributed to subscribers and the content is displayed using platforms called feed readers. Webmasters, bloggers, and just about everyone online has access to free feed readers such as the one on Google.com/reader. The readers collect your subscriptions and allow you to pick and choose which content you want to read. Some display just the headline, some include a summary, and others display the full content.
Using Google adsense is a good way to monetize your website, blog, or article. But there is one flaw with relying on on this method, visitors actually have to come to your content. In previous hubs, here and here, I demonstrated how to increase your traffic with proven methods, like publishing online press releases and manually commenting on blogs and writing relevant content to submit to article directories. To adjust for the flaw, you have to bring your content to the viewer.
Push and Pull
Methods of getting traffic can be either "push" or "pull." The methods above can generally be called "pull" because you are sending out bits and pieces of information and attempting to "pull" visitors back to your content.
Using RSS feeds to get traffic can be both "push" and "pull." First I'll explain how to use RSS to "pull" traffic. Most websites and blogs can be set up to generate an RSS feed. Here at HubPages.com, each of our hubs has an RSS code generated. You can copy and paste your URL in a an RSS Validator application, and the application will tell give you the URI with the RSS feed. Once you have the feed URI you can post it in one of many free RSS distributors, try feedcat.net because you can register for free and send your feed out to whomever may be watching for it as well as track your feeds with their own tracking statistics. It is important to place your most important keyword in the headline of your content because most people set their RSS readers to only display headlines.
RSS in Plain English
Try some "pushing"
In order to earn revenue from adsense, your viewers must see the ads on your site. The problem is, now days people are subscribing to feeds from their favorite sources and the content comes them. There is still a way to get your google ads viewed by people that do not actually come to your site and that is by placing ads directly in your feeds. Google will do this for you but you need to follow their steps. Find our here at Google if this method is right for you.
Text Link Ads is a company that has developed a system similar to Googles methods but gives you a lot more flexibility. They call it Feedvertising. It allows you to place advertisements, regular links and also affiliate links inside the RSS feed.
The Feedvertising RSSadvertising offered by Text Link Ads allows bloggers to place ads in their own RSS feeds and distribute them. It works by installing some code into your blogging platform, unfortunately only Wordpress 2 users can use this service at the moment but other blogging platforms are to follow.
One more useful tidbit about RSS feeds. An RSS feed will transfer your static content into dynamic content. This means that the RSS feed will constantly update your site with new content. This is important because when the search engine spiders crawl your site it will pick up on the new content and place you higher in search priorities.
Search for websites or blogs that are relevant to your content and place their RSS feed within your own site. Here on HubPages you can place the feed in an RSS module like the one below.
 | Amazon Price: $0.00 |
 | Amazon Price: $5.71 List Price: $39.95 |
 | Amazon Price: $0.00 |
 | Amazon Price: $3.87 List Price: $24.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $0.00 |
 | Amazon Price: $0.00 |
 | Amazon Price: $7.95 |
How do you use RSS feeds?
Thanks for checking it out Capt. It's not really all that hard to do, it just takes a bit of time. If time is of importance to you then check out the cool RSS and Blog submission tool I provided in the link capsule above.
This has been the best info I've found to date on RSS Feeds... at least I understood this article and am experimenting with RSS on my Hubs now.
I look forward to reading your other Hubs.
Thanks!
No problem R.E. thank you for taking the time to read my hub. RSS feeds can be a great source of traffic and a way to get some backlinks.
thanks Richard, enjoyed your hub, and put a link on mine to yours
Thanks for stopping by Fivestar.
Just submitted your article to dig!
Thank you Celina, I'm glad I can help with your SEO
Thanks for the informative hub on RSS. I'm now off to check out your other hubs and to join your fan club. Glad to have found you.
This is hands down (and thumbs up) the best Hub I've read in terms of introducing me to a previously foreign concept - the RSS feed and how to use it - in such a way that I completely "get it" without further research. Fantastic Hub!
Thank you Tiger and thank you Staci. RSS feeds can be a very valuable tool in your SEO. Make sure that any hub you write contains an RSS feed because of it's dynamic value, the hub will automaically update making your content look like fresh content everytime the spiders crawl.
Richard, what do you think of using RSS v. News capsules in terms of providing fresh content? Is one more effective than the other? So far, I have been using News capsules exclusively to automatically update my content because I wasn't familiar with how to use RSS feeds. Would you use both of these or only one in a Hub?
Thanks, Staci
The news capsule and RSS capsule are both excellent for creating dynamic content, however by using RSS feeds you can have more control of the relevancy of what is being placed with your content. You can get very targeted feeds when you do a little investigating on your own. News capsules will only allow you to pick keywords and that's not always going to add value to your content. I almost never use the news capsules. I think I did for one of my first hubs on reducing your electric bills and it doesn't get anywhere near the traffic my other hubs get.
Richard, thank you for sharing your insight. I will be experimenting with adding the RSS feeds to several of my Hubs and comparing the traffic over the next few weeks.
You're welcome Staci, I'm glad I can help and good luck with your hubs.
thanks for the info
Hi Richard,
Thanks for the tips. I just tried validating my feed, but I got stuck at:
Missing atom:link with rel="self", in a line that the validator shows having this on it: , on the bottom of my hub page, just above the last line with on it. Any tips for overcoming this?
The validator is suggesting to add code to the hub source but we cannot do that here. HP has simplified their rss feeds and all you have to do is add ?rss to the end of the url to your hubs. For instance, the rss feed for this hub looks like this: http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-use-RSS-feeds?rss
You only need to worry about that information on the validator site if you are grabbing rss feeds from other sites.
When it comes to rss feeds I do not know what everyone is talking about however your simple video and your hub gives me some enlightenment. Now all I have to do is work out what back linking is and how to go about it. regards brownlickie
Thanks for the comment Brownlickie and dont worry, I have a guide on backlinks too.
Great hub. RSS is one of my weakest areas and I got feedcat to take my link by adding ?rss, but now it says that I need "tracking icon". How does that work with HP? Am I missing something here?
RSS Mountain was easier. :)
Thanks for coming by mkott. When you want to distribute the rss feed on one of your hubs, just take the url to the hub and ad ?rss to the end of it. HP makes it real easy for you to get the rss feeds from your hubs and you only need to use the validator if your are grabbing an rss feed from another site. Check out the example I posted just above brownlickie. It is the rss feed for this hub.
Thanks again, richard, some great info here on RSS. You have helped demystify what I thought was a diffucult subject! I am a fan!
by the way this is the first hub i read and then it brings me to many hubs form you thorugh ur backlinks lol, now i have headache. i concentrate too much I guess, but it's hard . requires a lot of time huh
Hey, thanks for this hub. This is an area that so far hasn't worked well for me, but with your hub tips hopefully I'll see a change. Thanks Richard.
Awesome hub Richard! I am following all your articles, thanks for the informative hub.
Hi Richard,
I just rad your article and it is over my head. But I have a new website for my investment firm. It is nearly completed and I want to have a RSS feed. Should I talk to my web designer at this point. I am sure it will cost me more money. Thanks for any advice.
Yes Wanda, talk to your web designer and have him add RSS discovery to your site.
Very good hub to read
Great information. Could please explain how to generate traffic from feedcat.net
Whytrends, when you submit your RSS feeds for syndication, publishers that are searching can find your work. Many professional bloggers and publishers search the RSS feeds looking to add relevant work to their sites. So, if you have what they are looking for then you will get traffic when they post links to your articles on their sites. When submitting RSS feeds, concentrate on the short description because this is all they will see so you want to entice them back to your hubs.
Thank you for the info will try it
That video is really amazing....Nice stuff
thankyou for the information, nice hub page
Oh, my goodness, there's so much to learn! Thank you for your hub. I was searching for this kind of explanation -- detailed, informative -- and easy to break into small tasks -- for small learning steps. Thanks.
This hub helped me greatly, and many others I'm sure. Thanks for this one, and I'm glad to be your fan.
These are very good tips. I learn more and more everyday.
Thank you this was extremely helpful. I've actually read this twice today. I am just beginning to understand this.
Richard, thanks for writing this. I didn't realize there was advertising that could be used in feeds. I'm bookmarking this Hub for future reference.
A nice start to at least point everyone in the right direction.
Richard, thank you so much for explaining this RSS feed business, but me being a computer dummy as I am, it will take some time for me to figure this all out. I will no doubt need help, but as you explained it will be worth the effort. I do need traffic badly. Again Richard, I have bookmarked several of your Hubs and I thank you so much for your time.
Joe
Hi and thanks for your no holds barred info on rss feed tech, but one thing that I feel the hubpages team failed to do is this,every hub you publish has its own unique url, which means that you'll have to submit every hub you publish to these feed directories, but unlike blogger and other cms, all you need to do is submit one feed url and every time you publish a new content it updates on its own. So is there any way around this problem in hubpages? Thanks
Hi and thanks for the comment chinemerem. First off, Hubpages is not a blogging site and each hub must stand on its own merit. A hub is just another term for an article. If you subscribe to an rss feed here it should be from the author's "lates" or profile feed.
Nice information on RSS feeds. I have two sites and using RSS feeds. It really is a great way to keep all your visitors on heels.
very interesting but a bit over my head atm I am new to hubpages but a very willing learner will go through it again
For some reason I get errors when I submit my URL to the to feed validator. I tried a couple different hubs and all were the same. Links are good as they are being accessed.
Any suggestions?
thanks
AF with hubs there really is no need to validate their feed. Just ad /?rss at the end of your hub url and submit that to whatever rss syndication service you prefer.
I like the way this was written. I actually had to scour through other hubs to find yours.
The video helps.
the above tips are veryhelpful for every one and easy to get good results.thanx a lot Celina.
Capt and The Kid 2 years ago
This is well written, nice and simple, yet (red-faced admit) still above me. I'll play with it later.