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Instant Squidoo Using RSS Feeds

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A Lens Building Experiment - Create a Squidoo Lens With RSS Feeds

In summer of 2010 I decided to experiment with using RSS feeds on Squidoo to create a mashup lens from various content sources. I'd already created lensographies and collections of featured lenses, so this type of Squidoo RSS compilation is a new way to feature my lens content with more substance than a Featured Lenses or My Lenses module offers.

The technique I used in this lens can be used to create lensographies, lensography collections, lenses with content from Squidoo plus your own external content sources. I'm not only using my own RSS feeds to demonstrate the concepts and how-to information for this experiment, I'm also pulling in RSS feeds from a wide range of sources including my Zazzle store. On Squidoo, you can easily do that by using RSS modules, Blogger modules, Flickr, and many other of the pre-built feature modules that snag content from the Web and present it on your lens.

For this lens, I'm using RSS feed links from my arts and crafts lenses to aggregate (woah, that's a big word for gather all together) my most popular DIY crafts content and present it as a collection of lenses similar to a lensography, but with more content in the description.

More RSS Info and Tips

Under the Hood with Real Simple Syndication (RSS)

RSS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"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.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. ..."
Free RSS News Feeds directory and free RSS News Widgets - Feedzilla
Free RSS news feeds directory & free RSS news widgets for you to read or add to your website and blog.
RSS Tutorial for Content Publishers and Webmasters
This tutorial explains the features and benefits of a Web format called RSS, and gives a brief technical overview of it. It also includes information
on a similar format called Atom. The reader is assumed to have some familiarity with XML ...

How to Make a Squidoo Lens with RSS Feeds from Other Lenses

It's not hard to create an RSS mashup lens like this one if you use the RSS modules available within Squidoo to pull the content from any lens you want. You can use your own lens, or other lenses ... it's like having a giant publishing system on your computer. I think this might be a cool way to create a group on Squidoo or to build a cookbook, how-to handbook or put together a collection of my favorite lenses on any topic for easy access.

I used the RSS: Include Your Blog module to build the content feeds for this lens. Here's the first one, featuring my Rocket Moms lensography.

NOTE: You can't add a Squidoo lens URL directly to the RSS module, but I found another way to add Squidoo RSS feeds to a lens. I'll share my little hack here for you to try.

First you need to find and copy the RSS feed link for your lens. To locate the feed URL for this and each RSS module I've used on this lens, I viewed the lens I wanted to feature, then clicked on the RSS symbol at the top of the page.

The click opened a new window for me that presented the opportunity to add the link to an RSS reader (in my case, it's Google Reader) - and also displayed the feed link. I highlighted and copied the feed link URL (right click and choose save link address or copy shortcut or something similar depending on your browser) then pasted that URL into the RSS feed module data entry box so Squidoo could find and to grab my content.

RSS for Beginners

Amazon has many good RSS tutorial books, articles and papers in both print and KINDLE versions.
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RSS Example 1: Rocket Mom Lenses by Pastiche

My Session 1 Lensography RSS Feed

I have a lensography for my Rocket Moms Session One lenses, and it includes a plexo for other Rocket Moms to add their lenses. I thought I'd find a new way to feature that lens content using the RSS connector. The RSS feed I'm using gathers content only from one lens, and the feed only has a single entry - so there's just one headline.

The RSS feed setup I tested in this lens example pulls in the entire intro section from the lens, so you get a very good preview of the lens content - more than you would be able to see if I used either the Featured Lens or My Lenses modules. The RSS feed setup also doesn't bring in the original lens graphic but it does show included graphics I embedded into the introduction paragraph. That makes this presentation of the included content a bit different from the other lens-featuring modules. Notice that blue stripe divider graphic? It's actually part of the lens feed from the Rocket Moms lensography.

I think this technique could be used to build a lensography for a set of lensographies.

Settings Used for This RSS Example

URL: http://www.squidoo.com/xml/syndicate_lens/rocketmoms-lensography-pastiche

Headlines to show: 1

Excerpt: Everything Available

Update Frequency: 1 day

Display HTML? Yes

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Crafts for Kids - a Pastiche Lensography

A second RSS feed example

This lensography recently won a Purple Star. It connects all my kids crafts lenses on Squidoo. The photo for the lens doesn't appear, but the photo credit text does because it's part of the introduction text in the Kids Crafts Lensography lens. Let's see how the feed looks in this second RSS feed experiment.

Settings Used for This RSS Example

URL: http://www.squidoo.com/xml/syndicate_lens/crafts-kids-lensography-pastiche

Headlines to show: 1

Excerpt: Everything Available

Update Frequency: 1 day

Display HTML? Yes

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Building a Lens with RSS Feeds

Is This Clever ... or Not?

Now that you've seen my first experiment with RSS lens-building in action, what do you think of the technique?

RSS to create a lens is smart use of syndicated content

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This is a cool way to create a lensography compilation

davenjilli says:

totally clever

ForestBear says:

It's a great idea

kwj says:

What an interesting idea, I must give it a try

artbymichelle says:

Very clever!~ I have to try this! :) Thank you for sharing this info!

says:

It really is a great idea. I'm only surprised I didn't think of this first.

kougar says:

Sounds good, I am going to give it a try.

chrissuard says:

definitely a good way to add content.

This is the lazy person's way to build a lens

christydeena says:

I like the use of RSS on a lens, but only in moderation. I get a little overwhelmed when there are so many topics and links to click on that I can't remember which is which... even if they are all relevant, helpful & informative.

 

Pastiche Family Portal

And a third example of a Squidoo lens RSS feed

Pastiche Family Portal is my web site offering hundreds family-related topics and articles from recipes to crafts to child care to saving money plus thousands of free printables, coloring pages and clip art. I wrote about the web site in an early Squidoo lens to market it to a wider audience; and I update the Pastiche Family Portal Squidoo lens seasonally to bring visitors to my web site.

This third example RSS feed pulls the content from a recent Squidcast for this lens. I'm guessing if a lens has no 'casts the RSS defaults to the introduction text, but if there's a squidcast, it snags that as the RSS feed. Pretty nifty, and makes sense that the 'cast would have the most recent information for a given lens.

Settings Used for This RSS Example
URL: http://www.squidoo.com/xml/syndicate_lens/pastiche-family-parenting-portal

Headlines to show: 6 (but there aren't yet 6 squidcasts, so it will show all that are available)

Excerpt: Everything Available

Update Frequency: 1 day

Display HTML? Yes

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Bookmark this Lens

It's a handy RSS tutorial you may find useful

If you think you might try out the ideas in this RSS experiment lens in the future, why not bookmark or favorite it now so you can find it again easily? If you found the information helpful, please consider showing some Squidoo love with a Squidlike or Thumbs Up.

Add this to your lens »

Bookmark and Share

Leave a Comment - I'd Love to Hear Your Feedback

Lensmasters, please share your thoughts here

I hope you found this lens a quick read and a fairly straightforward tutorial. I'd love to hear your opinions and suggestions.

Have you found a new way to use RSS modules to create a lens?

You must be a Squidoo lensmaster to comment here - after all, this lens is about insider tips for lensmasters. If you're not already a Squidoo member, you can join Squidoo now - and then leave a comment on this or any other of the million-plus Squidoo community lenses.

  • TamaraKajari May 25, 2012 @ 3:43 am | delete
    I'm still learning about RSS, but Iive just added my feeds list below. Thank you for that possibility.
  • FunNaturePhotography Apr 15, 2012 @ 2:47 pm | delete
    Thanks, fantastic information here!
  • MoringaWorkoutWarrior Mar 24, 2012 @ 6:56 pm | delete
    Omg....what a great lens. So much useable content you have shared. Wondering how long it took to put this all together. Many thanks and a big hug! :)
  • ForestBear Mar 20, 2012 @ 5:43 pm | delete
    Thank you for a great tutorial. I'm just looking at creating a lensography so this is very useful. Bookmarked!
  • artyfax Feb 17, 2012 @ 6:42 pm | delete
    I think I may be beginning to understand this RSS and how to use it finally, thanks for the info
  • dellgirl Aug 17, 2011 @ 1:35 am | delete
    Great lens here, you have tons of valuable information! Thumbs up and lensrolling to my personal MS Word lensroll (doc) for future reference.
  • Tipi Jul 4, 2011 @ 6:41 pm | delete
    I was going to add my RSS lens below, but its not working. Will be featuring this on my lens, because you have so much information that I'll want to read it again. Thank you.
  • kwj Mar 26, 2011 @ 6:43 am | delete
    Something I hadn't really thought of. I must give it a try.
  • chrissuard Nov 17, 2010 @ 12:16 am | delete
    Nice Lens, thanks for making this.
  • DecoratingforEvents Oct 13, 2010 @ 9:44 am | delete
    Great tips! I'm new to the RSS feeds thinking and appreciate the help! *Blessed
  • WendyKrick Jul 22, 2010 @ 10:37 am | delete
    This is a great idea. I really need to do more with rss feeds.
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About Pastiche

The 20th Century G33k Grrl

If you're interested in following my Squidoo-centric blog you can find me on Blogger.
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List Your RSS Feed Lens

Show Off Your Mashup Lenses

If you've created a Squidoo lens built from RSS feeds of your own from lenses, blogs, web pages and other RSS sources, list it here!

I want to add a bigThank You to lensmaster Poddys from whom I got the idea for this experiment. Poddys built an incredible showcase lens from RSS feeds using his online content sources on Squidoo and elsewhere online. Read Poddys' RSS lens to learn more and get new ideas for aggregating your diversified online content with RSS mashup feeds on a Squidoo lens.

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My RSS Feeds - Poddys RSS Lens

Since I have a lot of lenses on Squidoo as well as more...0 points

3

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Kim Giancaterino RSS Lensography

Many lensmasters have created lensographies to cat more...0 points

4

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Rss Feeds - Tamara Kajari

Welcome to my RSS feeds list. It includes all my S more...0 points

RSS for a Zazzle Store

Send Visitors to Your Products to Earn Commissions

This gallery comes from an RSS feed that pulls featured products from my Zazzle store.If you have a shop at Zazzle, you can learn how to build and use custom Zazzle RSS feeds for your shop or any other shop.

Squidoo Mug mug
Squidoo Mug by SquidGear
View more Squidoo Mugs

Feb 26, 2012 @ 11:37 amBoston Celtic Shamrock Swag Tees from Image Factory Graphics Gifts and Custom Tee Shirts: Zazzle.com Store:
Boston Celtic Shamrock Swag Tees by imagefactory
Feb 26, 2012 @ 11:31 amSt. Patrick's Day Parade Shirt - Chicago Shamr... from Image Factory Graphics Gifts and Custom Tee Shirts: Zazzle.com Store:
St. Patrick's Day Parade Shirt - Chicago Shamrock by imagefactory
Feb 26, 2012 @ 11:25 amNYC St. Patrick's Day Swag T-shirts from Image Factory Graphics Gifts and Custom Tee Shirts: Zazzle.com Store:
NYC St. Patrick's Day Swag T-shirts by imagefactory
Feb 26, 2012 @ 11:20 amPhiladelphia Irish Swag Tee from Image Factory Graphics Gifts and Custom Tee Shirts: Zazzle.com Store:
Philadelphia Irish Swag Tee by imagefactory
Feb 26, 2012 @ 11:02 amFiesta Mandala Jigsaw Puzzle from Image Factory Graphics Gifts and Custom Tee Shirts: Zazzle.com Store:
Fiesta Mandala Jigsaw Puzzle by imagefactory
Feb 26, 2012 @ 10:50 amShamrocks Rainbow Treasure Box Premium Trinket Box... from Image Factory Graphics Gifts and Custom Tee Shirts: Zazzle.com Store:
Shamrocks Rainbow Treasure Box Premium Trinket Boxes by imagefactory
Feb 26, 2012 @ 10:26 amSecret Garden Mandala Puzzle from Image Factory Graphics Gifts and Custom Tee Shirts: Zazzle.com Store:
Secret Garden Mandala Puzzle by imagefactory
Jan 12, 2012 @ 9:53 pmDesign Your Baby Onesie Tee Shirt from Image Factory Graphics Gifts and Custom Tee Shirts: Zazzle.com Store:
Design Your Baby Onesie Tee Shirt by imagefactory
Dec 12, 2011 @ 3:10 pmThanksgiving Drink Coasters from Image Factory Graphics Gifts and Custom Tee Shirts: Zazzle.com Store:
Thanksgiving Drink Coasters by imagefactory

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Pastiche

... somewhat geeky grandmother who publishes free coloring pages for adults and kids and clip art at www.leehansen.com and www.clipartandcrafts.com. G... more »

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