The following describes how to get a RSS Feed up on the web, and what is possible and what is not with an RSS feed.

• Naming your RSS file - Your file name does not have to be rss.xml You can name it to whatever you like, although the .xml extension is important for your editors to know just what file the software is dealing with.
  Now that you have the file - what do you do with it? Take the file and place it in your Web directory where everyone can get to it. Lets say we named the file "ballchain.xml" and we move it to our web directory under the address of www.janisjoplin.com/rss/ballchain.xml. Now we know and the rest of the world will know where that file is.
  Don't put it in a secured or password directory UNLESS you are only granting secure, password access to it to specific people.

  Now before releasing this RSS feed to the world you MUST make sure it is valid. There are many validating engines out there. One very good one, which will pick up every small mistake, but it is good is at: http://www.feedvalidator.org.
  When you have an error it will lead you to the pages that explain your error. You should get into the habit of validating your feed EVERY TIME you change the RSS file.

• Now a "RSS" button, .that's easy. If you want to just go to a sight with the button already, and since it is public domain just copy the image with your browser. Move it over to your Web, and put in on your page where you will offer RSS to the world. Then add an href command to the button, so that when a user drags it into their aggregator the correct file will be grabbed. The code will look something like this:

  <a href="www.janisjoplin.com/rss/ballchain.xml"> < img order="0" src="www.janisjoplin.com/rss/rss.jpg" WIDTH="48" HEIGHT="14">

  You also have the option of going to a site where you can create your own button. One such internet site is:

  http://www.lucazappa.com/brilliantMaker/buttonImage.php

  There you can make a standard size RSS button with your own logo on it.
• Now you have the file and logo and the hyperlink to your RSS feed on your main page. Now you have to go out and Submit your feed address to the RSS Feed Directories. There is also software that will do this for you as well. Instead of listing the many RSS feed directories here, just Google or Yahoo for "RSS Feed Directories" and submit your RSS URL to them. Remember the URL to your feed is NOT your home page. It is rather "www.janisjoplin.com/rss/ballchain.xml".
  Now you want the major search engines to know about your feed.
  • Yahoo - http://publisher.yahoo.com/promote.php is where you begin. In the end you will have your very own Yahoo RSS Feed button for your feed, which Yahoo will give you the code to add to your web page as well.
  • Google - http://www.google.com/intl/zh-cn/webmasters/addfeed.html and again in the end you will have an RSS Google button to add to your feed.
  • MSN is a bit trickier. For some reason they keep the information on registering your feed with them a secret. http://rss.msn.com/publisher.armx will tell you how to do it.
  Once you get more sophisticated you will see the Newsgator button and a bunch of others. Since Newsgator is one of the major players in the market you should check them out at http://www.newsgator.com
• UPDATE Your Feed - Now you created your xml file, uploaded that and the image to the web, submitted your feed, got a whole host of RSS feed buttons, from Google, Yahoo, MSN and NewsGator. Now all you have to do is make sure that you update your content on a fairly continuing schedule and that your RSS feed is constantly available.