NEW! AuctionBytes NewsFlash RSS Newsfeed

[dsteiner]

AuctionBytes will be providing a live newsfeed of our NewsFlash stories. What exactly does that mean? Well if you would like to add some content to your web site, there will be a way to copy and paste a few lines of code into your web pages, and receive our newsflash right on your site.

You can also receive NewsFlash stories right to your computers by downloading a free feed reader.

For more info: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y203/m09/abu0102/s04

David Steiner

[justonce]

Hi....I went in a downloaded this program and it's a snap. I now have AB direct to my computer. I can also see where this could turn into a great marketing tool, community maker and really enhance a web site.

Here's what I would like to know.

How do I go about making my web site's catelog page a newsfeed? I plan to up date that page all the time.....at least once a week.....and I have a what's new page that might be good to feed as well....not to mention to newsletter for buyers on how to be smart and safe.....I might like to feed all three.

Would it be possible to make a kind of circle of people in the same biz....like book sellers.....who have a page that feeds where when you are on my site you can read what 's new and interesting on say 25 or 30 other books sellers sites (ones that I have chosen).

How do I make a newsfeed on my web site?

This is way better than links.....this could be like really weaving a group of individual web owners together for the benefit of all.....could be fun and profitable.

What do you think?

Best, Franci
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Justonceonline.com

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead

[dsteiner]

Hi Franci,

Creating an RSS feed for your own content is pretty simple. What you would probably want to do is create a page where you put your articles - or better yet, if you have more than one article, keep them on separate pages for archival purposes. That way each story will have its own URL. There are other methods as well, but I'll just concentrate on this one for now.

Each story will have a TITLE, LINK and DESCRIPTION (optional). An RSS file is simply a text file that points to the location where these are located on your server. Here's a sample of what an RSS feed would look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<rss version="0.91">

<channel>
<title>Franci's Feed</title>
<link>http://www.yoursite.com/newsletter/issues.html</link>
<description>Franci's Tips for Book Collectors</description>
<language>en-us</language>

<item>
<title>How to Find Books Cheap</title>
<link>http://www.yoursite.com/newsletter/issues/issue_1/article_1.html</link>
<description>Insert Article Here</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

That's pretty much it. Once you have all your stories in a file like this (each story is an item) you save and upload the RSS file to your server - always naming it the same, and uploading it to the same location, so that people subscribing to your feed can easily locate it.

You can practice, if you'd like, using some AuctionBytes stories, putting it into the format I showed and uploading it to your server, then enter the URL of your feed into Feedreader, and see if it shows up. There's a cool article by Stephen Downes called How to Create an RSS Feed With Notepad, a Web Server, and a Beer at http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/website/view.cgi?dbs=Article&key=1059503386 that is a very good tutorial on setting up an RSS feed for yourself.

To answer your other questions - I think the potential of RSS is limitless, and imaginative uses of this technology will be received very well!

Let me know if that helps, and if you get a feed going, post it here and we can check it out.

Dave

[Ina]

Here's a nice explanation of RSS:

http://www.eevl.ac.uk/rss_primer/
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Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes.com