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RSS/Blog It!

RSS/Blog It! converts your SBI! site into a blog. Every time you create or modify a Web page, those changes are distributed through RSS to the world. RSS/Blog It! even automatically pings every major RSS/blog engine and directory.

RSS/Blog It! automatically builds/updates your blog page and your RSS feed for you, and pings all the necessary resources to let them know -- every time you modify your site!

If you're unfamiliar with RSS, or you're not sure how to best position your RSS feed and your site blog, the RSS series in the TNT HQ will give you everything you need to use both tools effectively.

Setting up RSS/Blog It! is as simple as answering a few questions and inserting a few "bloglets."

Blog Page

This first section requires answers to three questions...

• Do you want to Site-Blog?
• How many Web pages (or items) do you want your blog page to list?
• Do you want to add the date to each item?

Question #1 -- Do you want to Site-Blog?

You can RSS your site without offering a visible Site Blog. To understand the difference between "pure RSSing," Site-Blogging, and Dedicated Blogging, visit this important "3 levels" post in the Blog It! forum.

If you do not want to offer a Site Blog, uncheck the checkbox. RSS/Blog It! will still publish and ping an RSS feed, effectively distributing your site via RSS to those who want to subscribe to it. However, no blog will appear on your site.

If you choose "Yes" (in most cases, you should), SBI! converts the RSS file into a blog. This Web page will be a TIER 2 Web page that appears as a button on your NavBar (unless you leave the NavBar button name blank) and as a text link at the bottom of your home page if you choose to have a Table of Contents (i.e., it becomes a typical TIER 2 page).

Tip: You do not have to name the new button on your site's NavBar "Blog." Change the button's name to "What's New" or "News" if that suits your audience profile better.

When you create your blog page, you'll note that each item in the blog is followed by a link to the full Web page or bloglet destination. This link is called a "Permalink." We include that blog-specific terminology (short for "Permanent Link") because Search Engines look for that word as a "hook" to help them understand that this is a blog.

If you put a check in the checkbox to Site-Blog, the page expands to show several more fields. If you're using SiteBuilder, complete those fields to set up your site blog. (There is a separate help file for those steps.) At the top of that Site Blog Web Page section is the full URL for your site blog page.

If you're uploading your own HTML, you'll enter your own Title, Headline, META tags, and introductory text into the page that you create in your HTML editor. Then you'll add the ***SITE-BLOG*** tag where you want your site-blog to begin. You'll also add the ***RSSIT*** tag where you want your RSS box to appear (see this Upload Your Own HTML help for more about this tag).

Question #2 -- How many Web pages (items) do you want your blog page to list?

Your RSS file automatically includes your last 50 pages (if you have that many) to maximize reasonable exposure to the Search Engines. What about the humans?...

When folks subscribe to the RSS feed, they see the number of pages they want to see, since they set the number of items in their RSS readers. But you set the number of items to show on your site blog page.

Set this to a reasonable number, based upon how many pages you have on your site, and how often you update your pages. For example, if your site has 20 pages and you update or create new content only periodically, set your listing to about 5.

Set to the higher range if your site is large and you build/edit at least 3-4 pages per week. Be realistic with this setting.

Keep your human visitors in mind with this setting. They do not want to see dozens of listings on your blog -- info overload! A smaller number of select items (10 and under) will very likely increase the likelihood that they will investigate your blog.

Your basic choice boils down to...

1) User Focus -- Show a small number of items (5-10), for maximum human attention.

-or-

2) Search Engine Possibility -- List 30 pages. This might increase the number of pages that get spidered and listed when engines visit the actual blog page. Experience has shown that the engines love SBIers' Blog It! pages, often spidering them within hours or a day.

It's your choice.

Question #3 -- Do you want to add the date to each item?

(Note: An "item" = a Web page in your RSS file and on the site blog.)

If you choose "Yes," the date will be added to the subject of each of your items. So a subscriber to your feed will see the Title and Description of each item, along with the date it was created or modified (for example, "Sept 29, 2008 Best Anguilla Hotels"). This is a good choice if you update or create new content on a regular basis.

Also, your blog page will be formatted to show the full date of each item (ex., "September 29, 2008").

If you're only updating your site occasionally, leave this box unchecked. The last thing you want your site blog visitors (and your RSS subscribers) to know is that your material is dated or not updated regularly.

NavBar RSS Box: Appearance

You can display up to six buttons to help people subscribe to your RSS feed. This section allows you to choose...

• the background the buttons sit on
• your headline and its style
• whether you want a help icon or text link, and
• how many buttons you want to display.

For example...

Width of Your RSS Box

Your RSS box can be 90% of the width of your NavBar, centered. Or it can be the Full Width of your NavBar. If you plan to customize the headline (see below), and use a long headline, go for the Full Width option. This will give you the most room for your headline text.

Background for Your RSS Box

Select Transparent to have the background the same color as your left margin. (If your left margin isn't as wide as your NavBar buttons, the RSS box may sit "on top" of two different colors.) Select White to have a white background. Or select Choose Color. A color palette will appear. Click on the color you want to use. In all three cases, the background is surrounded by a thin black border.

Do You Want a Custom Headline?

The default headline for your RSS box is...

Subscribe To
This Site

It also has a text link question mark for the help. If you would like to edit that headline, change it completely, or change the help link, click Yes. The page will refresh, displaying these three options...

• Enter the text of your custom headline. Keep it short, as you don't have much room inside the RSS box. Or you can keep the default message, and add a different help link.
• Choose whether you want the headline bold. If you make it bold, you may have to shorten a new headline. Always preview before making your final decision.

• Select which question mark you want to show next to your headline...

  • A text link, without bold.
  • A text link, with bold.
  • A small image of a question mark.
  • A large image of a question mark.

Select the Optional RSS Buttons You Want

Add a check beside each button that you want to add to your RSS box, below the orange orange. Your options are...

• Add To Google which lets your visitors add your RSS feed to their Google home page or Google Reader.
• Add To My Yahoo! which lets visitors add your RSS feed to their My Yahoo! account.
• Add To My MSN Button which lets visitors add your RSS feed to their MY MSN account.
• Add To Bloglines Button which lets visitors add your RSS feed to their Bloglines account.

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If you're uploading your own HTML and want a custom RSS box, click here for instructions on adding the above four buttons, including the code to use. Otherwise, simply add the ***RSSIT*** to your pages (or to an include) wherever you want the default RSS box to appear.

NavBar RSS Box: Behavior

The Behavior section lets you set how you want your RSS box to behave on your site. Your options here include...

• on which pages you want the RSS box to appear
• whether you want the box to appear above or below your NavBar
• what happens when someone clicks on the orange RSS button, and
• whether you want to use a FeedBurner feed instead of the SBI!-provided feed.

Your Feed URL

Once you have set up RSS/Blog It!, you will see your feed feed URL here. It's provided for easy access if you want to create a FeedBurner feed. If you upload your pages and want to build a completely custom RSS box, you'll find the feed URL and the URLs for all the optional buttons on this help page.

On Which Pages Do You Want the RSS Box?

RSS/Blog It! will automatically add the orange RSS button () to the pages that you indicate. Your choices are...

• All pages (the default)
• Home Page Only
• Home and second tier pages
• None

If you upload your pages and add either the ***NAVBAR*** or ***RSSIT*** tag to your pages, this decision about which pages the RSS box will appear on affects you. If you design a custom box, you can ignore this option, as your custom box will only appear on pages where you add the code.

Do you want the RSS box above or below your NavBar?

SBI! will add the RSS box either above your first NavBar button (and above your e-zine block, if you use one) or below the last NavBar button. Choose whichever option works best for your site.

Choose Neither if you do not want the buttons to appear on any of your Web pages or if you want to control the location and appearance of the RSS box by using your own HTML. Click here for instructions on how to create your own HTML to do that, including the code for all the buttons.

Orange RSS Button Action When Clicked

(Left-)clicking on the orange RSS button delivers the URL of the RSS feed. Some newer browsers have built-in RSS readers, so clicking on the button will display the contents of the feed as a formatted web page.

For older browsers, which many users still have, visitors need to right-click (control-click on a Mac) this button so they can copy the URL of your feed and then paste it into an RSS reader. But many people do not know that they need to right-click on the button.

So we let you select what will happen if a visitor left-clicks on the link.

• URL -- This delivers the URL of the RSS feed file. Use this if a large majority of your visitors are RSS-savvy, or if most of them use RSS-ready browsers.

• Default New Window -- This opens a new window with a default RSS explanation.

  Most people still do not know what that orange RSS button is for. So this option adds a help link just to the left of your RSS box headline. This link goes to a page that provides background information and instructions. It's an important user-friendly feature.

  If your visitor right-clicks on the RSS button, that means he's savvy and will copy-and-paste the correct feed URL successfully. If the visitor left-clicks, however, an alert message intercepts and guides him through the correct process.

  Unless your target market is composed of sophisticated Web marketers or other tech-savvy people, select this option to introduce, explain and "sell" RSS-subscribing to your visitors.

  SBI! creates this explanation page for you, including clear instructions on how to subscribe.

• Custom New Window -- This opens a new window with your own personalized RSS explanation.

  Choose this option for the same reasons as choosing the default explanation. It all works the same way. The only difference here is that your personalized explanation page will open in a new browser window.

  Create that page using your HTML editor, following these Reminder instructions. (Yes, you can also do this in the block-by-block SiteBuilder. However, if you know this much HTML, it may be simpler to follow these instructions.)

  1. Create the page. You probably only want to make minor modifications (ex., add a small logo and some text changes). If so... modify the wording and the source code of this sample default page according to what you want to say.
  2. Now, upload it. Test its URL in your browser.
  3. Then copy the full URL and paste it into the box that appears when you select Custom New Window. If you're using the ***NAVBAR*** tag, RSS/Blog It! will change the help link URL to your custom page URL. The RSS button then behaves as described above.

Use a FeedBurner Feed?

If you want to replace the SBI!-provided feed URL with one from FeedBurner, add a check to Yes. Another text box will appear. Type or paste in the URL that FeedBurner provides.

Once you finish the RSS/Blog It! building process by clicking on the RSS/Blog It! button at the bottom of the tool page, SBI! will change the URL discussed above (in Your Feed URL), and change the URL for each of the buttons in your RSS box. It will also change the code in the help file for custom RSS buttons, and in the RSS Box Code section of the Upload Your Own HTML module.

Using a FeedBurner Feed for Your RSS/Blog It! Feed discusses the steps to set up a FeedBurner feed, and why you might want to use one (including using AdSense for Feeds).

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Click here for background information on marketing your RSS feed.

Special Inserts ("Bloglets")

Here is where RSS/Blog It! goes "one blog step" beyond Site-Blogging. Use "Bloglets" to insert additional items into your RSS feed/blog without creating or modifying one of your content Web pages. A few examples...

• Make a brief comment about the news in your field, with or without an off-site link.
• If you have journalistic instincts and are fairly well placed, report the news.
• Make a time-sensitive announcement about a terrific new product related to your niche (including your affiliate link).
• Talk about a great new site in your area, one that complements yours and that your readers would enjoy.
• Insert any one of many possible mini-articles with monetization potential (ex., new villas with introductory pricing, surprise announcement of land available for sale).

This is closer to traditional blogging... shorter, time-sensitive/perishable, journalistic additions. You may not have the time or inclination for full, "Dedicated Blogging," but what about a "cut-down" version?

Bloglets are quick, easy, and monetizable. Who could ask for anything more? So how do you create them?

Use the Special Inserts feature, AKA "Bloglets."

Inserted items "jump" to the top of your Site Blog through your RSS feed, just like new or modified Web pages.

They don't jump the queue if you edit them later. They rotate down the list until they disappear.

Tip

• A bloglet is time-sensitive. It cannot and should not replace your Web page content. So if you have something to say that takes more than a few paragraphs and is not time-sensitive, turn it into a Web page instead.

Why Use Special Inserts (Bloglets)?

Basically, bloglets give you terrific, simple, "mini-blog-ability." You're already feeding your site through RSS. Now you can "ad hoc" editorialize without creating a separate Web page.

For example, if the owner of anguilla-beaches.com just read some hot news about Anguilla, she could add it to her feed by inserting an item. If she found a new site she loves, she could tell folks about it.

It's a great way to increase your feed's perceived activity if you only create one Web page per week. And it provides you with the extra flexibility you need to add some running commentary and/or send folks to interesting spots outside of your own site.

Bloglets are the 80-20 feature that gives you superb personalization, customization and flexibility for your blog.

Another excellent use is to recycle your site's "greatest hits." Use a bloglet to bring back an oldie-but-goodie. Remember, most people never see your entire site, and they forget even if they do! So recycle your best efforts!

Of course, use bloglets for special one-of monetization opportunities that do not "deserve" a full Web page.

Tip

• There are all kinds of ways to use Special Inserts to add an extra dimension to your RSS feed. However...

  Your bloglets must be consistent with the positioning you developed (above) for your blog -- remember C T P M rules! And that "C" must have a voice, a spin... a consistent position.

Editing/Deleting Special Insert Items ("Bloglets")

You can edit any item that is still in the current RSS rotation. Just click the "edit" link and make your changes. This editing does not affect the RSS feed or the blog Web page.

Ditto for "delete." Bloglets basically delete themselves, as far as your visitors are concerned. They get pushed downward by newer Web pages and bloglets until...

1) They don't show on your Blog page (according to how many items you have set to be shown).

2) They fall to #51, so are no longer in your RSS file. At that time, anyone who set his/her RSS reader to read 50 items (which is unusually high) would not see it either.

Tips

• Don't want a bloglet to disappear? Turn it into a Web page. That way the page stays on your site forever.
• If you want a bloglet to disappear from your Blog page and off the RSS file sooner than its normal expiration rotation, eliminate it by clicking on the "Delete this item" link.
• Finished with a bloglet? If it's not visible anymore (#51), SBI! automatically deletes it.
• To preview what a bloglet looks like on your page, click on the Preview button.

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