RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It's a system whereby a web site can create a newsfeed of the articles on the site. This newsfeed is like a constantly updating list of the latest articles. If you monitor the newsfeed, you can have copies of the articles available to you without having to visit the original website. People can monitor an RSS newsfeed. So can other websites. It's not the same as subscribing, because you never register with the provider, as you would with a mailing list. You stay anonymous. If you monitor the RSS newsfeed, then you will see updates automatically.

Because it is newer technology, not all websites have RSS newsfeeds, but you will start to see more and more of them. For example, the New York Times, the BBC, and CNN all make their articles available via newsfeed.

In general, the first thing you need is something called a News Reader. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.

Once you have chosen a News Reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want. For example, if you would like the latest BBC News Entertainment stories, simply visit the Entertainment section and you will notice an orange RSS button on the left hand side.
If you click on the button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways, including by dragging the URL of the RSS feed into your News Reader or by cutting and pasting the same URL into a new feed in your News Reader.

Some browsers, including Firefox and Opera, have functionality that automatically picks up RSS feeds for you. For more details on these, check their websites.

Here are the major steps to publishing a RSS feed The outline steps are

1. Sit back, STOP! & Think. (How is that for step one?)
   1. Do you have information that should or would go into an RSS file? Remember that the unwritten rules of RSS is that you must update the file with "new" and more "current" information if not hourly or daily, but at least on a fairly common basis. No one is going to want to keep your RSS in their reader if the information they see every day for the next month is exactly the same as the day before it.
   2. Additionally, though some people do this, it really is NOT good practice to put long essays into an RSS feed. What you want is the first line or description of an object, idea or news. Hook the person so he clicks on the topic in his reader, reads the summary, clicks again and finds himself on your web page.
   3. Do you have the time to do it? There are millions of Blogs out there that were started with the best of intentions. One entry, two entries, three entries. And then they die. Why? Because the author/owners simply had no clue about the dedication demanded and time needed to update their Blogs on a regular basis. They also had no idea just how difficult he competition was to get people to read those Blogs. The same is true with RSS. You start a feed to get readers, or to pass on information to the web. You need to understand this is going to take time and patience and work. This is not a one-time one-shot one-pie-in-the-sky deal.
2. Your depth of Technical knowledge You will need to become familiar with the following terms and understand them and perhaps learn some very simple things in how to program them.
   • RSS
   • XML
   • HTML
   • CSS
   • Atom
   • RSS Readers
   • RSS Parsers
   • RSS Validation
3. The Actual Work
   1. Preparing the file - You will need a template RSS file (let's call it rss.xml though it can have any name you choose as long as it is in xml format.)
   2. Understanding the Template and what information goes where
   3. Putting the information into the template - Each piece of information you have will go into specific [headers] and you must understand the RSS structure in the XML file to get that right.
   4. Validating the Template - A crucial aspect. Unlike HTML, RSS is very, unforgiving. It does not like deviations from the norm or from the basic format laid down. Getting it right can be the most trying and frustrating part of the process.
4. You will have to place the rss.xml file on your web site or somewhere on the web where people can get to it.
   1. Insert into the page a XML/RSS or RSS - Valid button.
   2. Hyperlink your file to the RSS
   3. Submit your file under the correct category to RSS directories.
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5. How many people will pick up your RSS? Surprisingly, the answer here is still very vague. There are some ways of tracing the numbers, but none are foolproof, and most are very convoluted.
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