Feed Writer 2

RSS Tutorial for Beginners

1. What is RSS / podcast and how does it work?
2. Download and install Feed Writer
3. Create a new feed
4. Add basic meta data to the feed
5. Add feed items (episodes)
6. Publish your feed online
7. Do more with Feed Writer

1. What is RSS / podcast and how does it work?

RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works - such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video - in a standardized format.

An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URI or by clicking an RSS icon in a web browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds. RSS allows users to avoid manually inspecting all of the websites they are interested in, and instead subscribe to websites such that all new content is pushed onto their browsers when it becomes available.

RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved from as early as March 1999, it was between 2005 and 2006 when RSS gained widespread use, and the RSS icon was decided upon by several major Web browsers.

[Source: Wikipedia]

The following schematic shows the conceptual structure of an RSS feed:

A podcasting feed is a special type of RSS feed with extensions for the purpose of distributing audio content which is partitioned into "episodes". Every feed item (= episode) inside a podcasting feed, contains an URL (Web link) that points to an MP3 file which contains the audio content of this specific episode. To sum it up, a podcast is an RSS feed with links to MP3 files with the actual audio content. Common applications such as iTunes or Zune are capable of reading podcasting feeds and make the audio content available on the computer or synchronize it to mobile devices such as MP3 players or phones.

2. Download and install Feed Writer

In order to create your own RSS or podcasting feed you need to install Feed Writer first. You can download a free trial version from this Website. If you want to create a podcast, you will also need a tool to create the audio content. We recommend Audacity, a free audio editor application which allows you to record and remix audio files on your PC and lets you export the result as MP3 file(s).

After you have installed Feed Writer, start the application to begin with the creation of a new feed.

3. Create a new feed

Feed Writer allows you to create stand-alone feeds (as shown in this tutorial) but also supports the creation of feed projects. A feed project however lets you manage multiple feeds at the same time as well as any accompanying files such as enclosures (e.g. MP3 files for podcasts). The project management feature can also be used to upload your feeds and files to a remote (S)FTP server with one click.

To create a new standalone feed (XML file) click on "New Feed" in the "Home" tab of the ribbon menu.

When creating a new feed or a new feed project, you have to choose the feed format (type) for this feed. The most common format is RSS 2.0 but Feed Writer also supports Atom feeds and several other feed formats. You can always change the feed format at a later point of time by using the feed format conversion feature of Feed Writer (see the "Feed Type" button in the "Feed" tab of the ribbon menu).

In this example we will create a podcasting feed. So choose "Podcast" and enter a name and a location where the feed is going to be stored on the local hard disk.

4. Add basic meta data to the feed

After you have created a new feed, the feed is shown as new tab in the application. You can open, create and edit multiple feeds at the same time. By clicking on the tabs, you can switch between the currently opened feeds.

By default, the "Feed Properties" view of the newly created feed is shown. This page allows you to enter some basic meta data about your feed, e.g. its title, a short description as well as several other information. All fields with a red caption label have to be filled out in order to create a valid feed that conforms to the official RSS specification.

After you have entered the meta data of your feed, you can start adding feed items (episodes in case of a podcast) to your feed.

5. Add feed items (episodes)

Click on "Feed Items" in the ribbon bar in order to switch over to the feed items view. The feed items view shows a list of all items inside the current feed. Due to the fact that you have just created this feed, the list of course empty. Click on "Add Item" to create a first feed item.

The feed item editor dialog which appears then lets you enter a subject for the new feed item, plus several additional information. The description field contains the text that is usually shown by feed reader applications below the subject line of a feed item. You may use the built-in WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) HTML editor to create formatted text (bold, italic, etc.) but plain text will also do.

Since you are creating a podcast feed, it is important that every feed item (episode) links to an MP3 file. You have to create such a file using an external application (see section 1 for details) and upload it onto a Web server. In the "Enclosure" tab of the feed item editor, you have to specify the URL of the MP3 file, e.g. http://www.example.org/feeds/content/episode01.mp3

Click on "Get Size and MIME Type" to automatically add information about the size and the type of the referenced file. In the "Podcast" tab you can add additional information that describes your episode. This information is later used by iTunes and other podcast applications to display details about your feed and your episodes.

6. Publish your feed online

When you save the feed, the XML file is stored on the hard disk of your local computer. You may either open this XML file with a text editor like Notepad to view the code generated by Feed Writer or you can simply click on "Source Code" in order to see the XML code of your feed. But don't worry - neither you nor your users will have to deal with this XML data. It is interpreted by feed readers and podcasting applications.

In order to make your feed available to the public you have to upload the XML file to a Web Server. You can use an external FTP application for this purpose or use the "Save to Server" feature in the "Feed" tab of the ribbon bar of Feed Writer. In order to connect to your server, you have to enter the login credentials of your FTP server.

Once the feed has been uploaded you can distribute the URL to the feed's XML file to your users so that they can subscribe to your feed using their favorite RSS reader, browser or podcasting application. In order to make things a bit easier, you should add a hyperlink to the feed in your Web page.

Feed Writer also has a publishing wizard that helps you to create the necessary HTML code to embed your feed into your Website. There are three different ways how to do that. Each one is also explained in the publishing wizard of Feed Writer.

7. Do more with Feed Writer

As mentioned before, Feed Writer is a very powerful but yet easy to use application for creating and maintaining RSS feeds and podcasts. By using feed projects, you can easily manage multiple feeds as well as enclosures that belong to your feed items. A built-in FTP synchronization allows you to automatically update the feeds and the enclosures on your server with a single click.

Feed Writer also allows you to copy and paste feed items from different feeds into new feeds. This is very helpful if you plan to add content from other feeds into your own ones (mix).

Feed Writer is available as free trial version that allows you to try out everything. If you like Feed Writer and plan to use it for your feeds, please purchase a license. A license includes free updates and free technical support for one year!