Leverage Your RSS Feed

Chances are your RSS or Atom feed template has a section that includes likes like these:

<MTEntries lastn="15">
<item>
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title>
<description><$MTEntryBody encode_xml="1"$></description>
<link><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$></link>
<pubDate><$MTEntryDate format_name="rfc822"$></pubDate>
</item>
</MTEntries>

If so, you're missing out on something very, very powerful.

Let's make two assumptions:

• Your feed will be republished

• You don't know where your feed will be republished

You have an opportunity to "brand" each entry you publish in your RSS feed with additional, static content that you control. When your RSS feed is republished, that content will be included.

The magic happens here:

<description><$MTEntryBody encode_xml="1"$></description>

Why include only the body?

Here's the equivalent segment from the Ask Leo! RSS feed:

<description>
<$MTEntryBody encode_xml="1"$>
<![CDATA[<p>Continue reading
<a href="<$MTEntryLink encode_xml="1"$>"><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></a><br/>
<a href="http://ask-leo.com">Tech Questions?</a>
<a href="http://ask-leo.com">Get Answers!</a> -
<a href="http://ask-leo.com">Ask Leo!</a> ... by Leo Notenboom<br/>
<a href="http://newsletter.ask-leo.com">Leo's Answers Newsletter</a> -
<a href="http://ask-leo.com">Ask Leo!</a> in your inbox every week.
</p>]]></description>

Examine that carefully. All I've done is added to the template some static text - encoded for XML - that appears at the bottom of every item in my RSS feed that adds:

• An explicit "Continue Reading ..." link (not all news readers make this option obvious).

• Branding and keyword targeted links back to my site (guess who's currently #1 for "Tech Questions" and #4 for "Get Answers"?)

• An engagement link, encouraging newsletter signups.

So, in the RSS feed entry for Why am I not getting some emails in my MSN Live Hotmail account?, we get the entry body (which in my case is a "tease" to read the rest of the article) followed by this:

Continue reading Why am I not getting some emails i n my MSN Live Hotmail account?
Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

As you might imagine, while I've used only some simple static text and links, which I believe are appropriate and inoffensive to my target audience, the gates are actually wide open for anything that most feed readers might display.

Regardless, it's an opportunity for some simple, easy and quick content distribution.

Posted May 15, 2008