Blog Tipz

Although many browsers and blog platforms automatically create feeds for your content, sometimes the feed becomes damaged or you simply want to create a feed for a site that doesn’t have one.  HTML scraping, or the process of extracting data from the websites allows you to create feeds from nearly any website.  The feeds are then free to use for your personal use, to keep up-to-date with any website.

This post provides several ways to manage, maintain, and organize your feeds, as well as ways to create feeds for any website.

Manually Installing or Configuring Feeds on Popular Blog Software

Blogger

To redirect a feed, go into the Settings | Site Feed tab of your blog, then input your FeedBurner or other feed URL into the text box next to the “Feed Direction” area.  Finally, click Save Settings and your content/RSS feed will be redirected from your Blogger address to the one you have inserted.

You are also able to provide different configurations of your feed under this tab, including Full, Short, or No feeds for blog posts, blog comments, and per-post comment feeds.  These are found by selecting the Advanced Mode, in which you may also input a feed footer.

Adding a Feed to Blogger (Template Tags):

To add a feed to the sidebar or any other location of your site, refer to this page in the Blogger Help area.

Full Site Feed Address:

Atom 1.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
RSS 2.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Comments-only Feed:

Atom 1.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default
RSS 2.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=rss

Label-specific Site Feed:

Atom 1.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default/-/labelname
RSS 2.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=rss/-/labelname

Individual Post Comment Feed:

Atom 1.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/postId/comments/default
RSS 2.0: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/postId/comments/default?alt=rss

Drupal

Setting up Drupal feeds is easy with this guide on how to migrate your content to FeedBurner for redirection.

WordPress

Instructions for setting up, changing addresses, and managing your WordPress feeds can be found within the WordPress Codex.

Default WordPress Feeds:

RDF/RSS 1.0 feed – [sourcecode language='php']http://blogtipz.com/feed/rdf/[/sourcecode]
RSS 0.92 feed – [sourcecode language='php']http://blogtipz.com/feed/rss/[/sourcecode]
RSS 2.0 feed – [sourcecode language='php']http://blogtipz.com/feed/[/sourcecode]
Atom feed – [sourcecode language='php']http://blogtipz.com/feed/atom/[/sourcecode]
Comments RSS 2.0 feed – [sourcecode language='php']http://blogtipz.com/comments/feed/[/sourcecode]

Feed URL Locations:

Files

http://example.com/wp-rss.php

http://example.com/wp-rss2.php

http://example.com/wp-rdf.php

http://example.com/wp-atom.php

Addresses

http://example.com/?feed=rss

http://example.com/?feed=rss2

http://example.com/?feed=rdf

http://example.com/?feed=atom

Custom Permalink Addresses

http://example.com/?feed=rss

http://example.com/?feed=rss2

http://example.com/?feed=rdf

http://example.com/?feed=atom

Custom Category Feed Addresses

http://example.com/wp-rss2.php?cat=42
or

http://example.com/category/categoryname/feed

Movable Type

RSS Template guides for Movable Type can be found here.

20+ Services and Pieces of Software for Converting HTML/Content to RSS Feeds

Services that require a subscription or had websites that appeared to be promoting the product as trial ware were not added to the list.  These services and products can be used for free or with an account.

1. Feed 43 (Feed For Free) – Allows you to convert any web page to an RSS feed on the fly.  Feeds created by the service are supported in several popular browsers, and there are also paid options available for creating paid feeds and taking advantage of more features.  As an account is required to use the service, it may be worthwhile to note that the paid services ($29, $49, $89/year) support an increased feed update interval, don’t have a ‘Delivered by Feed43 service” tagline, support a higher number of news items per feed, and have a higher search pattern complexity.

The procedure of setting up a feed is quite simple:

1. Find a web page with the content that interests you.
2. Create a new feed with your account, which will point to that web page.
3. Define search patterns and output templates in feed parameters for this feed, and get the link to your feed.
4. Subscribe to this feed or share it with others.
5. You can also protect the feed with a password.

2. Dapper – (The Data Mapper) allows you to get any content from the web, providing more traffic to your website by licensing and distributing your content.  it allows you to create a content feed from any website, then convert it to a Dapp XML, RSS Feed, Google gadget, Netvibes Module, Google Map, iCalendar, or Image Loop.  You can even take content from other RSS feeds to convert it into those formats.  The main benefit of creating a Dapp is that you can collect sample pages, content, and save feeds for viewing later.  View a video demo of how to create an RSS feed using the service.

3. Feed Generate – This site generates RSS feeds for any URL with text links.  It claims it is perfect for online stores that cannot generate RSS feeds for new items.  One of the only caveats of the service is that it is ad-supported, otherwise it is $8.95 a month (quite a hefty price) for a simple service.

4. FeedFire – For free, FeedFire allows you to generate feeds for any site without any technical knowledge.  It can convert any website into a fully formed and coded RSS feed.  Requires a registration to begin creating feeds.

5. Feedity – Enables anyone to create an RSS feed for any website for free.  You can track website changes in real-time, pull content for mashups, publish feeds on your website, and combine and aggregate multiple RSS feeds.  An API is coming soon and several features have recently been added to the service (Blog).  Plans range from free (w/ or w/o account) to Premium ($39/year) to Pro ($369/year) with more feeds, items per feeds, no ads, an increased feed update interval, feed aggregation, and redundancy.  6. Feedwhip – “The easiest way to create RSS feeds and get email updates for your favorite web sites.”  No configuration is required – simply input the website address that you want to convert into an RSS feed.  You can set specific times of the day to check for updates, filter out particular words or phrases, filter objectionable content, and generate a list of all the changes to a website for the past week.  You may also create an account to manage your feeds.

7. FeedYes – Automatically generates feeds for any website on the web.  You must register and log in if you want to manually create feeds or save them.  FeedYes will work with nearly any website, except those that are built in frames, Flash, or using link text instead of contextual text.

8. Ponyfish RSS Feed Builder – This service allows you to convert any site into an RSS feed.  You simple point input a website address into the form, then follow a few steps to create a feed.  Again, a variety of plans are available, ranging from free (w/ or w/o account) to Platinum at $60/year.

9. RapidFeeds – Create RSS feeds, publish, import, and manage existing ones, update and schedule your feeds, broadcast your thoughts, and start podcasting with Rapid Feeds.  There are many additional features, which would create a long list.  To keep it shorter, you can also add a button so others can re-syndicate your feed, re-syndicate and display RSS and Atom feeds of your choice on your own website, and password protect your private and paid feeds.  Read their blog for updates.

10. RSS To JavaScript – This tool allows you to republish your feed (RSS, RDF, or Atom) into any webpage, blog,or content management system.  Various features include first time visitors, site news, latest updates/changes, and user registration for your feeds.  There is also a tool to style the page/feed.

11. RSSPECT – This tool makes syndication and RSS easy.  They offer three kinds of feeds, so you can add a feed to anything you find online.  No ads appear on any feeds, and more than half a million RSS entries have been managed by the service to date.  A premium account is available for $2/month, providing a higher feed limit, more frequent automatic updates, and full customization.

12. Feed Commander – A small tool to create a free RSS feed “in as little as 90 seconds.”  You receive complete control over the RSS feed you display on your website and it is fully configurable.  Two version of the tool are available – free and paid, but the free version requires a link back to their website at the footer of each post.

13. RSS Viewer – A tool that simplifies the process of creating an RSS feed.  You can manage and view RSS feeds or combine up to five of your favorite sites into one feed.  The main negative aspect of the service is that it doesn’t allow you to use your own feeds (that I am aware of), instead major news sites.

14. FeedPublish - Create your own RSS feed – update and distribute as many feeds as you’d like.  The service is completely free, but requires an account.  You can add channels and items, track statistics, and customize your feed using the powerful features.  There is absolutely no software to download, as your feed is managed online.

15. CoffeeCup RSS News Flash – A trial-ware program (21 day trial, then $34.00 | Vista, XP, Media Center only) allows you to add your news to your website or news from other sites using Flash.  You can add links to other pages, save space while improving the look of your site, and add styles to the feeds.  

16. RSSxl – A not-so-slick tool to generate an RSS 2.0 feed from nearly any webpage.  The interface may not be the most advanced and eye pleasing, but does the job, although you may not use it for commercial use and you must also agree to a long list of terms (mostly standard).

17. Ice Rocket RSS Builder – The IceRocket RSS Builder allows you to easily create RSS feeds for websites, making it easy to add topics, links, and content, then publish the feed to your web server with a single click.  Free, but requires registration.

18. Web2RSS – Turn nearly any page into an RSS feed, and receive updates from the website, no matter how it is published.  Using Regular Expressions, you can make the feed even more precise, otherwise this is a simple tool to use, considering that the main page only consists of two main steps.19. WebRSS – A tool that allows you to quickly track, market, and create RSS feeds for free.  Other services on the website include the ability to place any feed and convert it to display fresh content on your website or blog, or host any RSS feed on your personalized start page for free.

The site is fairly clean and organized, and makes the process simple to create a new feed.  It even markets it to the major ping servers and more.  Account required for managing feeds.

• Create RSS feeds, import, and manage existing feeds.
• Track your RSS feed distribution by day, week, and month.
• Validate your feed.
• Display any RSS or Atom feeds on your website or blog.
• Convert RSS feeds to Javascript, PHP, ASP, or HTML.
• Customize colors of RSS wrappers.
• Display weather feeds, news feeds, affiliate feeds, and more on your website.
• Create your own hosted start page with a personalized web address.
• Add any feed to this page.
• Use WebRSS to customize how the feeds are displayed on this page.
• Show only the feeds you want to display and share your feeds with others.

20. Fedafi Online RSS Feed Builder – Easily create a RSS 2.0 feed by completing the form on the website, and place the .xml file on your server or website.

As always, it is important to remember the leader in feed distribution, FeedBurner, which allows you to easily distribute your feed even if you decide to move your blog and your RSS feed URL, as well as provides feed subscription tools and tracking.  However, it requires a defined RSS feed to be created on your server/website.

Conclusion

While these are services to convert and distribute content from your site to an RSS/Atom feed, they are basic solutions if your site requires a feed to syndicate your content.  It is more beneficial to properly set up an RSS feed (nearly all major blog systems have a system built-in) for readers to subscribe.  However, many of these are beneficial for use with sites you wish to create an alternative feed for (keeping track of changes to shopping websites, for example).  

Are there any other services that you have come across that complete this task?