How To: Using RSS to Take Advantage of Additional Opportunities

A feature that many WordPress (and Blogger) users overlook is the ability to use RSS in other ways than just delivering your posts to others. RSS can be used infinitely used to improve the way people view your content or others’.

WordPress RSS Widget

Now, for this post, I will be referring to the WordPress method of installing widgets, although you can easily use widgets provided from other sites, not just those associated with the blog platform. From within the Appearance > Widgets area, you can add an RSS widget to your blog’s sidebar. 

The main purpose of RSS is not solely to help promote and distribute your content, but to add functionality to how content distribution works.

Using the RSS widget, you can place your RSS feed, normally located at http://blogname.com/feed/rss or your comments feed, located at http://blogname.com/comments/feed. All you need to do is place one of these URLs using your blog’s link into the widget that you have placed in your sidebar, along with a title. This widget is not for promoting your feed, but for displaying content, i.e. your post titles or comments.

Now, RSS doesn’t stop with comments or titles of posts from your own blog. You can place content form any site using this widget.

Here are some other ways to utilize this feature:

• Twitter - Place links to updates or replies using the specified Twitter RSS feed.
• News Feeds - If you run a blog centered around a specific topic, you can place links to another site/blog, so you don’t have to worry if you are unable to cover all the stories.
• Other Sites - Personally, I see no reason why any site that has a non-static website should provide RSS feeds, even if they aren’t hard-coded into the website (available in the address bar). They make it easy to provide status updates, links to posts, and changes to content on the website.

Conclusion

By utilizing the RSS widget functionality, you can greatly extend the way your readers interact with your site. Remember, RSS is not a bad technology to learn how to use and implement. It might not be the most exciting thing to implement, but once you do, it can greatly benefit your website and the long-term success of your blog.