At the Start…

When building your first blog, twitter account or website, sometimes it can be hard to write all the content yourself, especially if you have no writing skills. And more so when you have limited time and are working a full time job and have a family to attend to and support. This guide will show you what RSS feeds are all about, as well as how to install them on Twitter and Facebook.

So what is an RSS Feed?

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. It’s a piece of code that updates content on a website, blog, Twitter and Facebook pages. It’s a great way to get up to date information for your site users. You can have it updated ‘as it happens’, ‘once a day’ or once a week’. And all for free too. Your content options are News, Blog Posts, Videos and Discussion groups.

Setting up an RSS Feed for Twitter, Facebook

Having to update information on your Twitter page or Facebook wall can be a time consuming task. First you have to read through dozens of news articles, YouTube videos and monitor lots of discussion groups.

Alas, there is an easier, automated system you can use. And at no cost, just about an hour or two of your time. Using Google Alerts and another couple of free online tools, you’ll be all set up in no-time. It’s a pretty basic setup.

STEP #1: Basic Keyword Research

First find out the top keyword phrases in your niche market. Using the free keyword research tool at adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal enter your top three to five broad keywords, one at a time, and for each one. After you do the search, the top 100 keyword phrases are displayed. Choosing the top two for each of your base keyword groups, open up your notepad and copy/paste your keywords and save to desktop.

STEP #2: Setting up Google Alerts RSS Feed

Next go over to google.com/alerts and in the ‘search terms’ textbox, enter your first keyword from the list you just created, preceded by allintitle: for example:

allintitle: KEYWORD PHRASE1

Now select the type of alert you wish to feed. I recommend varying this for other keywords – it’s up to you. Now choose once a day for each of your keywords, and only the best keywords, and select the deliver to feed option, then hit the button.

STEP #3: Obtaining Your RSS feed Code

You’ll be presented with the list of your alert feeds next, so follow the link to create another alert for each of your keywords. Now open up the notepad file with your keywords you saved earlier. Click on the orange icon next to the link for using the Google Reader. You’ll see a new browser open up, displaying the XML code. Now we don’t need to understand all of it. Simply highlight and copy the http link for this RSS feed, and copy it to your notepad file. Do this for each alert.

Here’s the link code you’ll need shown highlighted below:

Google Readertag:google.com,2005:reader/user/05298211196547701748/state/com.google/alerts/16143275445321857510Google Alerts – world news2011-06-09T20:16:46Z-tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/061157d80f5d9e37Feeds for Google Alerts2011-06-09T20:16:46Z2011-06-09T20:16:46Z

STEP #4: Sign up for Bit.ly and get an API Key

An API key is a long password code that allows the Bit.ly online service update your Twitter and Facebook Accounts on autopilot, at times allocated by you. So go to bit.ly, sign up for a free account. Once your account is set up, read over the start-up help files and obtain your API key. Copy/paste your API key to your notepad text file, as well as your bit.ly username.

STEP #5: Get Set Up with TwitterFeed.com

TwitterFeed.com is a free web based tool that delivers all your tweet messages on a schedule basis. So get registered there then click on the Create New Feed button. Name your feed, then paste in the RSS link for your first feed. Choose the advanced Settings link, and set your feed to update every 3 to 6 hours. Remember Twitter only allows 50 tweets a day at time of writing, so don’t abuse it or they’ll suspend your account for a couple of weeks or more

For the Post Content option, choose select title only, because you don’t want page descriptions showing up in your Twitter tweets, which are limited to 140 characters, including all links. Then back on TwitterFeed, check the box on the right labelled post link. The API login and key from your notepad should be copied and pasted here, so that the links can be shortened by bit.ly and posted to your Twitter page and/or Facebook wall page.

Now click the button for step two. This section allows you to configure access to your Twitter or Facebook for the feed updates. Just click the links and enter in your details.

STEP #6:

Repeat Step #5 for Each of Your Google Alerts RSS links

And that’s it. Check your Twitter profile page the next day, to see if the automated tweets are there. If not, go back and check all your settings and retry. If still you have problems, contact the websites you’ve been using to automate Twitter posts.

The Downside of Using an RSS feed

The only problem with using RSS is that you’ll be leaking out links to other vendors affiliate programs, rather than monetizing the links yourself. So it’s best not to link to other people’s blog pages, but set up Google alerts for news items and videos only. It’s better to send out tweets or wall posts that link to your word press blog page or articles on a web site you own. Monetize your web pages with Google Adsense, affiliate program adverts or link to an email squeeze page.

Author Bio: Get Your Blueprint for Getting Set Up within 2 Hours Watch the free 10 minute Success Video Here: http://www.codewareonline.com/email-signup/rssfeeds.html

Category: Internet
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