Posts Tagged ‘RSS’
If you’re going to start a new WordPress blog, using the famous 5-minute install, there are several things you need to keep in mind in order to get the most out of your blog after installation. Below there are 10 tips for you, they are not necessary but will help keeping your blog safe and sound for visitors. Use this list as a check-up for future installations.
1. Change the Admin Username/Password and Manage Your Authors
When you installed WordPress, and are at the last step, it gives you some random password you will never remember. The username will always be the same, which is “Admin”, so that’s no problem. However you still need to change it since it gives hackers 1 less thing to worry about when they are looking for your login information. At the end of this post you can find some answers giving by my Twitter followers.
2. Edit Permalinks
example.com/?p=320
Will your url’s look like after a fresh install. This is probarly the worst SEO friendly url WordPress can offer you.
There are several options you can choose from, and to have an effective url you should either go for “Day and Name” or make a custom structure yourself. You can find this option in Settings -> Permalinks.
There are several command lines you fill in in the custom structure, such as %category% - %day% - %monthnum% - %year% - %author% - %tag% , to name a few. Read more about using Permalinks here.
3. Upload Your (New) Theme and Activate It
The provided default themes by WordPress are in my opinion old looking and outdated. There are some really good themes on the WordPress.org site, I suggest getting a free one from there untill you aren’t satisfied with the theme anymore and you outgrown it. But those are really good starter themes.
4. Add Your Categories and Change the Default
Notice the default category “uncategorized”, this category is automatically added so all posts not categorized into something will end up here. You can change this in: Posts -> Categories, and click “uncategorized” to edit it. Name it something you use alot, like a main category for your blog.
5. Activate Akismet
If you host your blog yourself and not on wordpress.com, you will need to create an account there to get your code to activate Akismet. The API code given is different for each account, but is not related to a blog, so you can use the code on any blog hosted somewhere else if you like. If you are uncertain about on how to get a API key, then click the “what is this?” link.
6. Install Google XML Sitemaps (plugin)
A short summerization for this plugin: Google XML Sitemaps generates a sitemap for your site, allowing major Search Engines to easily index your site. Every time you edit or add a post, the sitemap will modify itself correctly.
Firstly, download the plugin. After you installed it, head over to Google Webmaster Tools and there you will need to verify your site that it uses a sitemap. Once that’s done, you can then click the “Add Sitemap” link from the first page and put in the URL to your sitemap, which will be in our case: http://www.duoblogger.com/sitemap.xml
7. Install WordPress Database Backup (plugin)
If anything should happen to your blog, be it hacking or just deleted something you wish you didn’t. One plugin can save you from this and it is WordPress Database Backup. You can even set it so that it will backup your blog every hour/day/week and e-mail it to you!
8. Test Your Blog With Dummy Content
To completely show your blog and it’s capabilities, it is handy to get some sample posts with all the visual things, blockquotes – lists – comments – tags – parent categories and sub.
Download the sample content from WPcandy. Upload it in: Tools -> Import -> WordPress.
9. Add your RSS feed to Feedburner
First edit your RSS settings. Settings > Reading and you can edit how many posts you want to show in your RSS feed and whether they should show the full post or not.
Now you want to burn your feed with Feedburner. Feedburner will provide you with stats on your feeds and automatically ping services so your new content is updated immediately along with a whole host of other services.
Once you have signed up to Feedburner, change your feed subscription link in your theme. Place the following code between the head tags.
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Feed Title" href="YOUR FEEDBURNER URL" />
10. Add/Activate your Analytics
Keep track of your visitors and traffic sources. I recommend Google Analytics. For a more detailed Google Analytics Guide I would like you to read this too on Duoblogger.
What did other Twitterers say?
@abledragon from Wealthydragon.com said: ”Install my list of plugins, set up and customise my theme then sit back and stare in wonder at my handiwork..! :)”
@fahad1991 from Techonodorm.com said: “Actually, changing permalink structure is the very first thing along with installing plugins.”
As the title suggests, I hear from alot of people that they aren’t using RSS because either they do not know what it is, and what to do with it.
What is RSS?
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” which over time has been evolved from RSS 0.9 (which was called: RDF Site Summary back then) to RSS 2.0 of today. To summarize RSS in short: It is a web format (technology) which keeps you updated on your favorite sites.
Back in that time you would have to bookmark every website you liked. And it was really time consuming to go through all the sites to see if they were updated.
Now this was a good opportunity for sites like Feedburner (as for nowadays they are working together with Google and you can export your feedburner accounts to Google instead, see this link here), Bloglines and Newsgator to shine. They presented us with a solution and so it came that they are popular.
How To Use RSS?
To make use of it you would need a RSS Reader. I suggest Google Reader or Bloglines, both of them work a little bit like an E-mail provider because you see how many new (unread) updates you have per site you have subscribed to at any time you want.
After that, start looking for an Icon like this on any website you find, mostly blogs have it for example. After that you can sign up for the RSS and there you go :)
Why Use RSS?
I’ve been asking around Twitter and came back with some answers from bloggers which are in the scheme for a while:
@bryancheung from ByZone said: Well, I use RSS for keeping up to date with blogs, and an easy way to find the posts that I want to read, and usually the posts I like, I tweet about, and of course, comment on it.
@Naerin from CycLys said: I use RSS so that I don’t have to weave my way through 50 websites to read the content I want to see.
@DanTanner from Index Options Trading said: RSS feeds create backlinks and backlinks create pageranks and traffic…
@Gertmellak from Gert Mellak said: I’m using RSS to keep track of changes on a huge number of websites relevant to my business areas.
@Slavingia from Pixel Jig said: Because then I can read the news when it comes through, rather than checking and being disappointed with no new content. also great for sites that aren’t updated often (so you get alerted to a post months later immediately) with superb content.
Still Don’t Want To Use RSS?
If the above video and explanation still doubt your mind. Many sites often give you the option to subscribe to E-mail instead, which should be a lot more trusted medium for providing information to you. Of course you can unsubscribe any time you want, and your e-mail address will be kept private. There is really nothing you can lose, you should just try it out and if you don’t like it just stop using it
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Our RSS feed
Now that you know what are RSS is you probably want to know how you can subscribe to our blog. That’s actually pretty easy have a look on the picture. On our right sidebar we have an image “Subscribe to RSS”. Just click that image and you will be forwarded to our feed.
On the page you were forwarded to you can select the program you would like to use to read our feed. We made the best experience with the “Google Reader” and “Netvibes” and recommend you to use them as well. Neither netvibes nor the Google Reader need to be installed on your computer, you just need an account on their website and you can start reading your feeds everywhere on the world.
You could also use the email feature which sends our updates directly to your email. No, we will not use your email to send you annoying newsletters – you will only receive our updates from which you can unsubscribe whenever you like.
Alternatively you can check out our hompeage and enter your email address in the box on the top right directly. That would instantly subscribe you to all our updates.
Our favorite readers
Both of us have been using RSS for quite some time now and are really satisfied with it. We are able to stay up to date on all subjects that interest and are important for us.
That’s especially important when you are blogging because you always need new ideas for your blog and you need to stay ahead of others.
Thanks a lot for subscribing and we hope that you will enjoy our fresh content!
From 1000 subscriber to 400 and so on? How does that happen, and why?
- Why does my Feedburner subscriber count fluctuate so much?
- Are people unsubscribing and subscribing as much as my Feedburner counter says?
- I notice your Feedburner counter goes up and down each day – why?
- My RSS Subscriber Counter Goes Down Every Weekend – Why?
This week, Hendrik from California Blog and DonkeyBlogger (now part of duoblogger) asked me how, and why his feedburner count goes up and down. Since I didn’t knew the exact answer to this question, I went and did some research on this matter.
Here’s how I found the answer to this question:
I found the answer quite simple via google: (check the link in the last paragraph)
“When we report a subscriber number, that represents the total number of individuals who had the feed requested on their behalf on that day.”
Most of these subscribers fall into one of two groups:
- those using a stand-alone feed reader
- those using a web-based feed reader
In the case of stand-alone feed readers, that user has an application running on their computer which activates the feed repeatedly throughout the day. We look at characteristics of those requests, and differentiate between repeated requests from the same person (as indicated by regular polling intervals, consistent IP addresses, and common user agents) and different requests (where one or more of the previous data points vary).
In the case of web-based feed readers (My Yahoo, Google Reader, Bloglines, Pageflakes, etc.), those services retrieve the feed repeatedly throughout the day, but do so on behalf of multiple people. Almost all of these services report to us how many of their users are subscribed to the feed. At the end of the day, we tally up how many stand-alone feed readers are subscribed, and add them to the web-based users. The end result is the total subscriber number we report. (I’m leaving a few details out; check the link below for a more complete answer.)
The fluctuations are almost always due to people using stand-alone computers who don’t turn their computer on, or don’t load their feed reader on a given day. If their feed reader doesn’t ask for the feed that day, we don’t see them, and consequently don’t include them as a subscriber.
Finally, for a more comprehensive look at the various components of a subscriber report, there is a post on this found on Labnol. I have to say; it’s from 2006 but you can’t say it aint informative. It also makes some important comments on “Reach”.
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Hendrik
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