Sean J Connolly - IT Strategist & Commercial Photographer

Well as the title of my Lens says I am a specialist IT Strategist and Commercial Photographer. This means that I work with technologies such as JavaScript, HTML, XML, CSS and .NET to name but a view in order to help companies make better use of IT to make their business more profitable.

I thought I would mention this as part of my daily job I offer a free IT Strategy Consultation. Yes you heard me its free.

So why dont you get yourself over to my website www.potissimus.co.uk and book your consultation now.

I also work as a commercial photography, so if you have any photography needs please get in touch http://sjcphotography.potissimus.co.uk/ or call me 07966 506 919

Hope you like the flash header

Whilst I think on about that if anyone out there has any technical issues about general web stuff, feel free to drop me an email. I do spend a lot of time on groups, mainly Google Groups. But if you have a particular issue you cant solve, just drop me a line - sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk

TTFN

I bet like most people you have had problems with the new Ebay Partner network and getting your adverts to appear on your Blogger Blog.

Want to know how?

Its all in the coding. See my not just ajax blog for Ebay and Blogger and how to get your code to work.

What is RSS?

RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication. Sounds scary but it is a simply a cut down version of your main content.

The most common use for RSS is news articles, and what RSS is kind of like the good stuff without all the bells and whistle. If you visit your local news website, you will see all the nice styling and images that make it look good. Now if you look at the RSS in a browser or RSS client, then its just a cut down version, mostly text, audio or video only version of the main content.

For an example of the difference just open the following links in your browser

NotJustAJAX - the actual blog     NotJustAJAX - the RSS Feed

As you will see from the above examples the RSS content is really just a cut down version of the main content.

Why is RSS referred to as a Feed?

The reason why RSS is known as RSS Feed is simply because it constantly feeds information into your RSS client once you have subscribed to a Feed.

What Can I Put in my RSS Feed?

Your RSS Feed can be of 3 main types text, audio and video.

For an example of an audio RSS Feed - Listen to our tips to sell your house podcast

For an example of a text only RSS Feed - Subscribe to our Weekly Website Tips

For an example of a video RSS Feed - watch our How to Use Buzz Properties podcast

So Now What? How Do I Create My RSS Feed?

Most modern blogging clients such as Blogger, Word Press will do all the leg work for you, all you need to do is look at the bottom of the page of your blog and you will see the RSS Feed link.

Now what I would suggest is that you make use of the many services out there to, what is called burn your Feed {this just means create}, the one I use personally is FeedBurner. Then all you do is enter the details of your website or blog and FeedBurner does the rest for you.

With FeedBurner you can also track and monitor your RSS Feed, and if you want to turn your feed into a podcast and submit it to ITunes, it will let you do this as well.

For an example of an RSS Feeds turned into a podcasts listen to following in ITunes

this is an audio Podcast on our BuzzProperties.co.uk website - Tips to Sell Your House - The Podcast

this is a video Podcast of our BuzzProperties service - HowToUseBuzzProperites

NOTE - the above examples require ITunes installed on your machine

So Now You Have your RSS Feed. Now What?

You need to get the word out. The easiest way is to put your RSS Feed link on your website, and in your email signature.

You also want to submit your RSS Feed to RSS directories, our use ping.in to get the word out.

What are RSS Directories?

RSS Directories are simply directories listing lots of RSS Feeds and you can search for feeds in the directories by a variety of different ways. The largest RSS Feed directory is Apple ITunes Store.

Some other RSS directories are

RSS Network

Feed Plex

Complete RSS

For more RSS directories check out my blog NotJustAjax.blogspot.com which is updated as I find more directories. So If there are none listed when you visit check back later.

What Does a Feed Look like?

Ok if you must a raw RSS feed is an actual XML file, and looks like the following.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Potissimus Weekly Website Tips</title>
<description>Providing free weekly tips to get the most out of the web.</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 7 Apr 2008 0:00:01 GMT </pubDate>
<copyright>Copyright 2008, Potissimus Ltd</copyright>
<ttl>300</ttl>
<managingEditor>sean.connolly@potissimus.co.uk</managingEditor>
<webMaster>enqruiries@potissimus.co.uk</webMaster>
<image>
<url>http://www.potissimus.co.uk/images/top_banner.gif</url>

</image>
<item>

<title>Welcome to our weekly tips</title>
<description>First let us thank you for subscribing to our weekly tips, the aim of the tips is to help you get more from the web. Without spending a fortune.</description>

</item>
<item>

<title>Tip 7 - Use your friends and others</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[There is no better way to promote your website than word of mouth. Whether this is simply your friends
telling each other about it, or by actually putting a recommend a friend link on your site, to allow people
to recommend you website to their friends, its all good. And in marketing speak, this is known as viral
marketing.
]]></description>

</item>
<item>
<title>Tip 8 - Use online promotion</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[Be sure to make proper use of online schemes, such as Google Adwords, or Yahoo Overture. There is
one word of warning, well two really<br><br>
1 - <b>Set A Budget</b> - It is too easy to use these scheme and allow the costs to spiral. Make sure that
you make use of the budgeting tools provided, to stop you paying more than you wish.
<br><br>
2 - <b>Tailor you Campaign</b> - This may sound straight forward, but more too oftern people will not pick
keywords that are targeted, for example use the word Ford cars sales rather than car sales, this will give you
a better return on your investment (ROI) and help turn a click into a sales, without your money sailing away.

]]></description>

</item>
<item>
<title>Try our new DMS Service</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[We have just finished the redesign of our DMS service, www.file-manager.co.uk. We have also added
some great new features<br><br>
1 - <b>Read Only Document Storage</b> - Now you can have a central document store for all your documents,
and give anyone read only access. This may be legal disclosure documents, general company information, or
any other document you wish to access from anywhere without people being able to make changes to it.
<br><br>
2 - <b>Group and Single License</b> - You can now manage your own account, and create your own individual user areas
without the need to pay for single user licenses for each user.<br><br>
3 - <b>Email document Sharing</b> - You can share your documents with anyone at the click of a button.
<br><br>You can either<br><b>a</b> - send the actual document as an attachment directly from DMS
<br><b>b</b> - Send a view only link to your document, to allow others to see the document simply by clicking a link in an email.
<br><br>Try DMS now to see these great features in action.

]]>
</description>
<link>
http://www.file-manager.co.uk
</link>

</item>
<item>
<title>We are hiring</title>
<description>
<![CDATA[We are currently seeking marketing individuals to help promote our DMS service. There will be a
basic salary plus up to a 25% commission. If you feel you have what we are looking for either send us your cv at
hr@file-manager.co.uk or use our onsite contact form and we will get back to you.

]]>
</description>
<link>
http://www.file-manager.co.uk/contact.htm
</link>

</item>

</channel>
</rss>

This look scary but this is an exert from our News and as you can see in the browser or your client it really only contains the important necessary information.

I have just started podcasting and use the podcastudio featured below. It is so great and good fun just to say what you want to the world.