RSS Feed – Soup Tins on a Waxed String

What is an RSS feed?

It is a simple way to send content from one website to another.

Closed Circuit TV
The concept is like a closed circuit TV that takes pictures from one room and displays it on a monitor in another room. This technology can be used in several ways: e.g. security and seminar room overflow (many university courses are delivered this way).

The content could be text, images, audio or video. Text is most common and audio is the next developing field.

There are three parts to the RSS feed - the sending site with the content, the connecting software, and the receiving site that displays the content.

Soup Tins on a Waxed String
It is modeled on the child’s old homemade telephone made of the two empty soup tins joined by a waxed string. One soup tin is the sending site, the other tin is the receiving site and the waxed string is the connection.

The websites at either end could be a regular website or a blog.

The connection is almost as simple as the waxed string. It is a copy of the feed page in an XML file. The receiving page simply looks at this XML (feed page and displays it or part of it on the receiving page). The software is the wax on the string that does the magic part.

Here is an example:

This blog has several RSS feed links at the right side of the main page. Click on any one and it takes you to the XML file for the particular style of feed. The simplest is XML.

On of the websites that receive an RSS feed from this blog is http://www.mustfeed.com/

This website is a good example of a website that is entirely composed of RSS feeds. Using RSS feeds on the receiving end is a great way to capture and display relevant content that changes often. The owner of this site chooses which feeds he will display.

http://www.mustfeed.com/ is a website that specializes in displaying financial and business information.


Marketing Point

Using RSS feeds is one more way of getting your message out. You can offer your site as a feed to get your message on other websites. You can also collect relevant information on your website from other sources for your clients.

Please feel free to use an RRS feed from this blog to send valuable content to your website.


George Torok, co-author
Secrets of Power Marketing