Using RSS Feed Directories
| Driving more traffic to your Web site isn't the only way to get more people to click your XML or RSS button. You can also submit your feed to RSS feed directories. RSS directories are targeted to people who are looking for RSS feeds, so they're a great place to list your feed. Here's a starter list of directories (also in Chapter 2, "Grabbing RSS with Readers"):
Unfortunately, there are no "big three" RSS directories that correspond to Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search. To submit your feed to the RSS feed directories, you're usually stuck doing it yourself unless you want to use software to do it for you. Submitting a Feed YourselfA good place to start submitting your RSS feed is www.syndic8.com, one of the most popular RSS directories (Figure 8.18). After you register, go to the submission page at www.syndic8.com/suggest_start.php. Figure 8.18. After registering with Syndic8, you can submit your RSS feed. You can also register at Search 4 RSS (www.search4rss.com), the RSS search engine (Figure 8.19). All you have to do is to supply the URL of your RSS feed (that is, the URL of your RSS feed's XML file). Figure 8.19. Adding a feed to Search 4 RSS is easy. You can also submit your feed to a directory of RSS feeds at RSSfeeds.com (www.rssfeeds.com/suggest_wizzard.php). RSSfeeds.com doesn't like to receive automated submissions from software, so you're asked to enter not only your feed's URL, but also an anti-automation code that appears in a graphic (Figure 8.20). Figure 8.20. Simply fill out the fields to add a feed to www.rssfeeds.com. RSS Network (www.rss-network.com), another directory site (Figure 8.21), lets you specify not only your feed's URL but also a category and a subcategory. These categories help the right people find your feed. Figure 8.21. To add a feed in RSS Networks, start by selecting your feed's category. You can find another RSS directory at 2RSS.com (www.2rss.com). Scroll down the main page below the search area and you'll see a section for adding a new RSS feed (Figure 8.22). Figure 8.22. In addition to the URL of your RSS feed, you can specify a category and description in 2RSS.com. FeedBurner (www.feedburner.com) is another site that publicizes RSS feeds. FeedBurner also lets you track the number of hits your RSS feed received, which is useful. Google now has a feature that lets you search blogs that have RSS feeds (http://blogsearch.google.com). As of this writing, there is no URL to submit your blog to this feature, but Google promises to add a URL in the future. As you can see, there are many places to submit your RSS feed if you want to do it manually. Tip There are plenty of other RSS feed directories that you might want to use. You can find an excellent starter list of directories and the URLs to those directories at www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/. Submitting a Feed Using SoftwareIt can be a chore to submit your RSS feed to directories at multiple sites, so, as you might expect, you can try using software to rescue you from this chore. Here are some of the options (note that these are not recommendations). RSS Submit, which you can buy at www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html, is supposed to submit your feed to 80 RSS and blog directories (Figure 8.23). Figure 8.23. RSS Submit comes in three versions: Personal, Professional, and SEO. RSS Submit has various levels, starting with the Personal Edition ($44.95 as of this writing). RSS Submit's company, Ksoft, claims it is the most powerful RSS feed promotion tool available. Another submission software package is RSS Planter ($29.95), at www.rssplanter.com/software/ (Figure 8.24). Figure 8.24. RSS Planter offers a free trial so you can test it before you buy. Feedshot (www.feedshot.com) is designed to publicize blogs with RSS feeds. It has a free option for submitting your feed to eight directories, and a $3 option to submit to 19 directories (Figure 8.25). Figure 8.25. FeedShot is a blog-submission site. Here's one that's free: RSS Announcer, which you can find at www.rssfornewbies.com (Figure 8.26). Figure 8.26. RSS Announcer is free. |
