RSS feeds are xml files updated on a regular basis which people subscribe to within RSS readers. The information carried on them is normally up to date and they are normally found on news sites and blogs, basically sites which are updated regularly and which people might like to be up to date with. In this article I will go through creating an RSS feed; they can be created in two forms: dynamic - this is where dynamic server side pages are created to query databases to display the new information automatically and require no manual intervention for the data to be displayed; manual - this is where a basic xml file is created and which has to be updated manually.

The Basic RSS Format

RSS feeds are made up of several different elements and tags which create the final document. The following is an example of an RSS feed:

As you can see the XML version used is the first thing to be declared within the document, the second being the beginning of the RSS tag which means the beginning of the feed; including both of these within your feed is important since a browser will use these to work out that it is an XML file which contains an RSS feed. Click here for an example of an RSS 2.0 feed.
The feed itself is contained within a ‘channel’ tag - some browsers output RSS feeds into a styled, readable format and this tag is important to ensure that browsers which have this capability are able to render your feed in this way. The first few lines within this tag describe your feed and contain information such as the title of the feed, a description of it, the language in which it is written as well as the last time it was updated.

After that the different items of the feed are shown - these are displayed within ‘item’ tags and there is no limit on the amount of these which you can have in one feed. The basics needed to structure an ‘item’ tag are the ‘title’ and ‘description’ tags which ensure that the item is outputted into a readable format.

Dynamic RSS Feeds

Feeds of this type require a server side page such as a PHP or ASP page be created to query a database so that the up to date information be displayed. This process requires no manual intervention and is completely automatic. To begin with you need to make sure that your page is outputted to the browser as an XML document, to do this you will need to add a header response line to the top of your page, and make sure that it outputs the page in the ‘text/xml’ format. The rest of the feed is outputted like the example above, except
Manual RSS Feeds

These feeds are ‘.xml’ files which are updated manually and always take the form of the feed displayed within the first section of this article. You should only opt for this type of feed if you aren’t going to update often as updating it can be a timely procedure.

Your First Website

Creating your first Website is really exciting and this article will help you to create your first Website that will lead its way to success. First I will give you some rough key ideas to what your Website should deliver and then go through them in more detail.

• Your Website should have a domain name that is attractive, and will want people to find out more about.
• Your Website should be unique content-wise and updated regularly.
• Your Website should provide something for the visitor, maybe a service or a bargain - for them to want to visit your site again.
• Your Website should have an appealing design, staying as clean as possible and being easy to navigate around.

1.) The first part of starting a Website is having a nice domain name (or site name), a name that tells the visitor in a basic fashion what the site will offer - or what they should expect. A domain name that has just “123.com” doesn’t really explain what the site is about. You need to think of a name that is unique to your Website, a name that isn’t too obvious - but a name that is, a) appealing and gets the person want to visit the website, b) not too long, otherwise the visitors won’t remember the domain name to come back to it, c) explains what the Website is in a nutshell and d) isn’t too obvious - for example a domain name “freesharedresellervpswebhosting.com” is too long, too obvious, too hard to remember - and not appealing at all. Some Websites have short domains like “aaa.com” rather short domains are nice - and rememberable, but unless it’s for AAA batteries - or a company called AAA - it’s not much point. Now, maybe your site or company is called Keyboard Designs, Ltd? How about a domain name called www.keyboarddesigns.com. Although it’s a really long domain name - it’s your company name - and your clients will remember your company name as it’s important to them.

2.) Having content updated regularly is incredibly important if you want your visitors to come back to your Website - and another reason is if you want search engines to keep indexing your Website. Having unique content is important because if you copy other peoples content - or do content similar to others - doesn’t give you a good impression, does it? Provide content that is interesting and will want the visitor to visit your site again. Getting profits out of your site is essential, but adding advertisements everywhere around your site isn’t recommended - because it hides all the interesting content that a visitor wants to see. Another point is adding popups to your site distracts people, especially popups that force visitors to go to another Website - most visitors will press the ‘close browser button immediately after they get popups - and besides, most popup blockers are getting more efficient now.

3.) Having Websites like a blog all about you is very nice - but to be honest, the visitors will eventually get bored and never return. A personal Website is fine, however you want to offer the visitor something - like a service or possibly a competition. These way visitors will want to keep returning. Making a Website aimed at the visitors - maybe an advice column where visitors can get advice and ask questions - is another way of interacting with your visitors. In the long run it’s best to have a Website that keeps updating - like a games Website with more games - which will get your visitors keep returning.

4.) Lets face it, having a Website with an unappealing design is, well… unappealing - and your visitors won’t want to come back. Just imagine, you visited a Website that just has a few links and some content. If there was 2 websites identically the same - one with design, the other without - which one would you prefer to visit? - Exactly. Sticking to designs that has colors that can join each-other easily is best. What I mean by this is having colors that don’t “hurt the eyes” when it’s looked at. Keeping the design as clean as possible is really essential, you need to make sure your designs look the same or similar in most major browsers. Some browsers will render code differently so your designs may look “weird” in one browser, while looking fine in another. Check in many browsers to make sure your design and site looks fine in all major browsers. The browsers that are used the most are Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Opera, Netscape Browser and Safari Browser.

Thank you for reading the article and I hope you have learnt something new out of it, and put these suggestions into action. Remember, if you need super fast Web hosting please feel free to call us on 0808 262 0455 or contact us from http://support.eukhost.com

The following are the steps to follow in forum marketing which will help you to grow the business:-

a. Find a forum in the niche you want to market to

b. Check to be sure the site allows you to create a forum signature with a link to your business

c. Set up an account

d. Create a forum signature that includes the following information: your name, website/business name, web address, contact info (if any), description of the website/business (DO NOT USE A SALES PITCH - e.g. The Best Car Parts Shop Around - that stuff is useless). Be descriptive!

e. Find the forum introductions section (most good forums will have one) and tell people about yourself. Talk about your business, but don’t just drop a sales pitch. Let people know what your interests are in the topic beyond your business.

f. PARTICIPATE! Become an active member of the forums. Help others on the site. Get involved in the debate. POST, POST, POST! In time, the members will see you as an expert in the topic. With more posts, your site/business will have more exposure, and you will see results.

g. If the forum has an area for members to advertise in, use it. (if not, don’t post ads on the site; just use your forum signature and your knowledge to do the selling for you)

h. Volunteer to become a moderator on the site (forum administrators will often be willing to trade advertising for good moderators). In addition to the opportunity of getting more exposure, moderators are typically given more respect and looked at with even more authority then other members. With this comes more clicks and more business!

i. Find other forums in the same area of interest and repeat steps 1-8.

Give this a try and it will surely help you to grow your business. Start with the eUKhost forum which is full of talented peole and will help you in all respects.
http://www.eukhost.com/forums/

ATB

Writing a good, informative and catchy article is very essential for a blog or if it is to be published or submitted elsewhere. Here are some useful points which will help make the article interesting and helpful for the readers.

- To know the audience is very essential so it is imperative to identify what kind of readers are being targeted as they will be from different demographics and it would be important to communicate with them at their level.

- You may start an article with a teaser by applying the inverted pyramid style which will summarize the main idea of the article and will make the reader wonder on the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ aspects of the article.

- Go paragraph-wise and go for shorter paragraphs than the long ones as readers fell lazy when they face up with huge mass of text. Readers do get engaged to shorter paragraphs more but along with being short and to the point the article also has to interesting no matter if it is a little long then.

- It is a good practice to bold the selling points of the page. Bold the points which exactly states what is going to be accomplished from it. Use of bullet point lists is best and is also catchy.

- Talk about the advantages and not the features as it works better. Try being personal and tell them your story as that works for many types of readers. Having a genuine guarantee and backing up of your claims is a great way to gain the trust of the reader.

- Uses of simple and short sentences are always advisable and avoid difficult words for general readers especially if you are targeting an audience from various geographical locations.

- Improve your copy by doing the A/B split (two versions) test and check which works; as there is no other way to know for sure what the customer wants to hear/read.

- Using a bit of humor and engaging the readers with real life examples are good ways to keep them attached to the article.

- The headline or the title should be very well chosen. People read the longest articles and letters if they are attracted to the headline.

- Stick with all facts and figures on proof base only and avoid feathery or over ambitious claims. A reader should never feel a loss of reliability from the article by you being more promotional and less enlightening.

The big search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask) introduced the Sitemaps protocol earlier this year.

In its simplest form, a sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL: when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site, etc.

That information helps search engines to more intelligently crawl your site. The Sitemaps protocol is a standard that makes it easier to create a sitemap that can be parsed by all search engines.

Some webmasters reported problems with duplicate content after adding a sitemaps XML file to their web sites.

The content of their websites appeared on dubious websites that had nothing to do with the original sites. The content of the original websites had been duplicated on many other sites. The result was that the original sites might have received ranking penalties due to duplicate content.

Some search engine spammers used the sitemaps XML files to easily find contents for their scraper sites.

A scraper site is a website that pulls all of its information from other websites using automated tools. The scraper software pulls different contents from other websites to create new web pages that are designed around special keywords. The scraped pages usually show AdSense ads with which the spammers hopes to make money.

The new sitemaps XML files make it very easy for scraper tools to find content rich pages. Although the original intention of the sitemaps files was to inform search engines about every single page of your web site, they can also be used to inform spam bots about your pages.

You might have the most attractive looking design for his website, and you may be selling the most competitive product and services on your website but what about the traffic of your website. Is it good enough to generate enough sales of your products and services? The most exciting and attractive website design to sell the best of products and services would be useless if you do not have enough targeted visitors to your website. Website visitors are a key to the success of any online business as they are the one’s who will increase your sales and take your business to the next level. You need to find a way to promote your business to the online world and acquaint web users about the existence of your website. Getting your business recognized globally is an arduous task but the rewards are largely satisfying.

One good way to spread the word about your business is website submissions to various online directories, free as well as paid directories. Directory submissions are a great way to increase the traffic of your website and also getting higher rankings in the Search Engines. Web Users refer such directories to find useful information about any given products. Similarly Search Engines target web directories for useful information in order to identify useful websites. By submitting your website to web directories you’re indirectly showcasing your business and website to the online world. Submitting website to major Web directories, increases the link popularity of your website, enhances website rankings in all the major Search Engines, increases the traffic of your website, generates more sales of products and services and showcases your business to the online world.

There are many different types of Web directories on the Internet If you perform a search on the web with the keyword “Web directory” you will be delighted to find a bunch of targeted web directories. Some of the web directories are comprehensive in nature like Yahoo directory, DMOZ, Best of the Web etc. On the other hand there are many, which are targeted to a specific subject such as health related directories, travel and tourism, Internet related directories etc. You should make sure that the web directory you are submitting to has a decent Google PageRank. It’s all about selecting the right Web directory and indirectly increasing the popularity of your website in the Search Engine.