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This post is part of the blog series Beginner’s Guide to Running a Successful Website. Visit the blog series index for more information pertinent to this topic.

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a growing technology that is becoming more commonplace on the Internet. It is just one of many forms of Web feeds, albeit the most popular at this point in time, that is used to publish recently updated content. RSS is most commonly used for websites that has frequently updated content such as blogs or news.

How RSS Works

Just like an HTML file, an RSS feed is basically another file hosted on a website. (There is technically more involved, as the RSS file is dynamically created upon being requested by the Web browser since content is frequently created, but this for the sake of simplicity, you can assume it is simply a file.) Many websites include an easy to recognize icon like the one on the left. Clicking on the icon will display the RSS feed, at which point it can be added to the feed reader of your choice.

What is a Feed Reader?

A feed reader, or aggregator, is an application used for easily finding and reading recent content published by multiple RSS feeds. Many types of feed readers exist: some are Web-based applications, while others are required to be downloaded and installed onto a computer prior to use. Furthermore, feed readers display RSS feeds in various formats, which makes finding a feed reader a matter of preference for the sake of personal utility.

Several examples of popular feed readers include Google Reader (pictured below), Bloglines, and Netvibes.

Benefits of Using RSS

Using RSS makes it easy to find recently published content. Once added to a feed reader, numerous sources can be scoured without the necessity of visiting each site for which you have subscribed to an RSS feed.

Drawbacks of Using RSS

The drawbacks of utilizing RSS feeds lie primarily in the hands of the website serving them. By providing RSS feeds, a website is potentially receiving less visitors, and in turn has a decrease in relevant statistics. Often, stats such as website popularity and pageview numbers directly correlate to the type of advertising and sponsorship a website receives.

To resolve this, advertising in RSS feeds is becoming more popular. For example, Text Link Ads offers Feedvertising, a means by which banner ads are integrated into the bottom of RSS feeds. Additionally, Google — the company behind the popular advertising duo AdWords and AdSense — recently acquired FeedBurner — a website used for copying feeds for the sake of subscriber tracking and advertising. As a result of this acquisition, many suspect Google will provide a strong advertising solution in the near future.

Resources & Tools

• FeedBurner. Burns (copies) your feed, and allows for tracking to determine feed popularity and usage for any given day.
• Bloglines. A Web-based RSS reader that at one point was considered the most popular available. Bloglines is still used by various monetization sites to determine a blog’s popularity.
• Google Reader. A newer Web-based RSS reader that has recently become very popular.
• Yahoo! Pipes. A free Web-based tool for creating RSS “mashups” (a single source of data created from multiple sources of data).
• RSS in Plain English. An informative video that helps to explain the RSS technology.