Last week, in the discussion about whether to use full or partial RSS feeds, one of the arguments for partial RSS feeds was that bloggers wanted to entice their readers to click over to their site so they (the blogger) would have more pageviews and thus more revenue for their traffic-based ads. That conversation leads directly to this week’s topic: how can you include ads in your RSS feeds? (The discussion of whether you should include ads within feeds can take place in the comments; I’m just giving you options.)

Types of Advertisements for RSS Feeds

When you choose to put ads on your blog(s), there are a few options. The two most widely-used types of advertisements are traffic-based ads (e.g., BlogHer Ads) and pay-per-click ads (like Google AdSense). If you are using traffic-based ads, you’re paid based on the number of pageviews your blog receives, not how many times readers click the ads. If you’re using pay-per-click ads, it doesn’t matter how many pageviews you have, you’re only paid if a reader clicks on the ad.

If you choose to include ads in your RSS feeds, the options currently available are mostly context-based pay-per-click ads resembling the Google AdSense model. This is a list of some of the companies that can help you monetize your RSS feed:

• Google AdSense for Feeds provides context-based ads. Since Google owns Feedburner, you can easily include Google AdSense inside your feed if you’re currently signed up with Feedburner. Just log in to your Feedburner account, click the Monetize tab, and follow the directions.
• CrispAds offers context-based ads and will let you choose what ads are included with your content.
• Feedvertising uses text-link ads. You have the option of approving or denying specific ads.
• Pheedo Inc. allows you to control the keyword filters and specific advertisements being shown in your feed. Here are some examples of Pheedo ads within feeds. You can use Pheedo with your Feedburner feed.

What to Consider Before Including Ads in Your RSS Feed

It’s tempting to include ads within your feed(s) because it’s a potential revenue stream. However, I strongly encourage you to consider three things before you make your final decision:

• Are the ads being served relevant to your blog’s content? If you write a blog about organically grown food are your contextually-based ads coming up with sugary breakfast cereal advertisements? If so, your audience may be put off by the ads and unsubscribe to your blog. Or, worse, your credibility is called into question.
• How many ads will appear within the feed? Readers don’t like it when they can’t find the content they’re looking for because it’s buried between ads. When ads take over your RSS feed (or your blog, for that matter), you may be losing the focus of your blog. You’re almost certainly ticking off your readers.
• Are the ads clearly marked so readers don’t confuse ads with blog content? Readers don’t appreciate being duped (see the bit about credibility above). Beyond that, though, with the new FTC guidelines in place, as a blogger, you have an obligation to make sure your content and ads are clearly separated and aren’t confused.

What Do You Think?

Advertising on blogs is fairly common these days, but, all in all, RSS feed adversing really hasn’t taken off. I don’t know whether that’s from

• a lack of advertising options within feeds,
• the fact that most blogs using RSS ads are making very little money
• the perception that it may be difficult to set up feeds to serve the ads, or
• bloggers simply don’t consider RSS as another revenue stream.

As a blogger, I can certainly understand the draw of adding another revenue source to blogging, but as a reader, I’m not sure I’m excited about that possibility. Although I read much of my news from within my feed reader (at least cursorily), I do click over to the actual site to read more thoroughly and comment. If my feeds are cluttered with ads, I may opt to stop reading a blog completely rather than wade through the distraction of ads.

What do you think? Would you include ads within your RSS feed? Do you mind reading feeds from blogs that include ads with the RSS?

Read the entire RSS series on Blogging Basics 101:

• Part 1: How do I burn my blog’s RSS feed with Feedburner?
• Part 2: How do I set up my blog’s RSS feed via e-mail?
• Part 3: How do I find and install a custom RSS button on my blog?
• Part 4: Should I offer a full or partial RSS feed to my readers?
• Part 5: How do I include advertisements in my RSS feed?

photo credit: larskflem

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When you offer an RSS feed to your readers, you have the option to deliver either a full or partial feed to your readers’ feed aggregator. A full feed is exactly what it says: it delivers the entire article (pictures, video, and all) to the readers’ aggregator. Your audience can read the entire article in a feed reader without clicking over to your site. A partial feed delivers only a snippet of the content — usually a sentence or two. If the reader wants to continue reading, she has to click over to your site to finish the article.

Depending on your role (as blogger or reader), you may have a different point of view about full and partial feeds. Bloggers who want to encourage traffic or need traffic (perhaps because they are part of a traffic-based ad network — meaning they get more money if more people visit their site) would prefer readers click over to their physical site so may opt to use partial feeds. On the other hand, many people subscribe to hundreds of feeds, all aggregated to one place: their feed reader. Those readers generally prefer to do all their reading on one page and so prefer to subscribe to full feeds.

As you decide whether to use partial or full feeds, here are some things to consider:

• What’s your measure of success? What’s more important to you as you measure your success as a blogger: traffic or subscribers? Sure, if you have traffic-based ads, blog visits are important. If you’re more interested in reaching a wider audience, though, isn’t the number of subscribers more important? I would argue that, although the ads may be a nice income, very few people are getting rich off of them. These days when you discuss someone’s online presence it’s talked about in terms of influence. Your subscribers are the audience you’re influencing. The more people who subscribe to your blog, the more people you can reach with your message.
• Where are your readers reading you? Two years ago, most people read their feeds sitting at their computer. Now that smart phones are so common, many people are reading feeds on the go. Robert Scoble, who was once a supporter of full feeds, argues that these days you need to post partial feeds because they’re easier to use on smart phones. On the other hand, LT at The Heresy disagrees and says she likes to have entire articles to read on her smart phone. She says, “Some [bloggers] argue that they don’t want their content divorced from their blog design, and I understand that. However that extra click is really starting become annoying as I read blogs on devices other than my main computer or when I’m not connected on high speed. I love reading blogs on my smart phone, but if I have to click through to view the whole post in the browser I generally won’t. Over The Air connections are much slower than highspeed, even on 3G networks. Smaller screens make it much more difficult to read in a browser.” Which leads me to my next point . . .
• What do your readers want? If you don’t know who your audience is, ask them! You can put together a quick blog post or survey (I usually use Survey Monkey) and ask readers how they’re reading your site (e.g., on a computer screen or on their smart phone), whether they prefer full or partial feeds, and whether they click over to your site from the RSS feed to join the comment conversation. Use their feedback to help you make your final decision about whether to offer full or partial RSS feeds for your blog.

More Discussion About Full or Partial Feeds

The debate over full or partial feeds has been going on as long as I can remember and it’s unlikely to dissipate now. My hope is that you’ll find out what your readers want and consider catering to them in this area. Here are more articles that may help you make your decision:

• Are You Serving Up Full or Partial Feeds to Your Readers? by Virginia DeBolt at BlogHer. Virginia did a quick and dirty experiment last year to see whether, after having offered a full RSS feed for years, if she changed to a partial feed she’d see an increase in her blog’s traffic from people clicking through. Her stats program did show a steady increase in blog visitors. What she couldn’t tell from her analytics program, though, was how many people unsubscribed from her blog because of the change in the feed option.
• Art Blogging: Should You Offer Full or Partial Feeds by Nicolette Tallmadge at The Crafted Webmaster. Ms. Tallmadge explores some of the reasons readers prefer full feeds, then gives you ideas of how to encourage to readers to click over to your blog when you do offer full feeds. Her ideas are to
  1. Offer an e-mail newsletter
  2. Give RSS subscribers exclusive offers just for visiting your site
  3. Place actionable items at the end of your posts to encourage RSS subscribers to click through and comment or interact in some way.
• Say Bye Bye to Full RSS Feeds by Allen Stern at CenterNetworks. Mr. Stern’s article focuses on how media sites like The New York Times and Information Week are using partial feeds to increase monetizable traffic to their sites. He writes, “Naturally readers will make a lot of noise if their favorite blog removes full feeds. From our research in the CenterNetworks Labs, we’ve determined that the typical “noise” period on the Internet lasts two weeks. After that readers will be clicking links in partial feeds and will read the content on the full, chock full of ads media site.” Of course, what works for big business isn’t necessarily what works for regular, everyday bloggers. This goes back to my suggestion to know what’s happening in the social media world, but know what’s happening with your own readers as well and make adjustments.

My Two Cents: I Prefer Full Feeds

I fall on the full-feed side of the fence. Full feeds help my workflow. Every morning (and throughout the day), I open my iGoogle home page (which houses a box with my Google Reader) and read new posts. I click on the titles that interest me, read the article in a pop-up window, then, if the article is sharable or I want to comment, I open it in a new tab. I may have 10 tabs open by the time I’m finished going through my feeds. Then I read the articles more in-depth and go from there. I can hear you now, “But if you’re opening the articles and reading them, why not just use the partial feed and click over?” Because the partial feed is too small. I can’t tell a thing from three sentences. I’m not going to waste my precious alone time in the morning clicking over to articles that don’t interest me. If I have a full feed, I can scan the entire article to see how it pertains to me, then decide whether I want to click over for a more detailed evaluation.

What do you think? Do you prefer full or partial feeds when checking your feed reader? Do you, as a blogger, offer full or partial feeds to your readers? Let’s discuss in comments.

Melanie Nelson writes tips and instructions for bloggers at Blogging Basics 101. She shares tech-related articles every day on the Blogging Basics 101 Tumblr blog.

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Step 1: Find a Customized RSS Icon

Before we can start, you’ll need to find the icon you want to use. Doing a quick Google search for “free social media icons” will net you some places to start, but for the sake of time, I’ll point you to a list of links for those icons: Mega Collection of the Best Free Social Media Icons for Bloggers and Designers via WPBeginner. That list has over 50 links to designs that will surely speak to you on some level or match your blog more closely than the standard orange RSS button. When you find the one you like, click on the link and you’ll be taken to the page where you can download the icon set. Once you’ve downloaded the icons, make a note of where they’re saved on your computer so you can find them later.

You may find that the images you’ve downloaded are too large for your needs. If that’s the case, you can use an image editing program to re-size the icons.

Step 2: Find Your Feed URL

Now we need to figure out your feed URL. In a previous article I showed you how to set up a Feedburner account for your blog so you could track your subscribers and offer e-mail RSS feeds. Today’s instructions assume you have a Feedburner feed. You’re going to use your Feedburner feed address when we link your new icon.

1. Log in to your Feedburner account.
2. Click on the name of the feed you want to work with.
3. Click on Edit Feed Details.
4. Make a note of the Feed Address (http://feeds.feedburner.com/YOUR_FEED).

Step 3: Put It All Together

Using a Custom RSS Icon with a Blogger Blog

Blogger blogs have a footer that says, “Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)”. This is a link for readers to subscribe to your blog with their feed reader. However, I think you’ll agree that having the subscription at the bottom of the page is not optimal. We want it to be easy and obvious for your readers to find your RSS feed and subscribe. It should be placed at the top of a column for easiest access.

1. Log in to Blogger and click Layout.
2. Click Page Elements.
3. Click Add a Gadget in the sidebar. A new page appears with your Blogger Gadget choices.
4. Scroll down and choose Picture. The Configure Image page appears.
5. Type your Feedburner feed URL into the Link text box. (You can leave the Title and Caption boxes blank.)
6. Choose the image you want to use, either from your computer (if you downloaded the image to your hard drive) or from a URL (if you saved the image to a third-party image host like Flickr or Photobucket).
7. Click Save. You return to your blog’s Layout page.
8. Click Save again.

Using a Custom RSS Icon with a TypePad Blog

1. Log in to your TypePad account.
2. Upload the icon you want to use to your File Manager. Once it’s uploaded, find the name of the icon in the list of files and click on it. Make a note of the URL. You’ll need it in step 4.
3. Go to Library > TypeList and make a new Notes or Links TypeList (either is fine).
4. In the NOTES field type in the following code:
   

   <a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/YOUR_FEED”><img src=”IMG URL” alt=”subscribe via rss” /></a>

   Make sure you change “YOUR_FEED” to your actual feed URL. Also
   change “IMG URL” to the URL you noted in step 2 above.

5. Click Save.
6. Click the Publish tab.
7. Click to check the box next to the blog(s) where you want to publish this new TypeList.
8. Click Save Changes.

You’ll most likely need to visit your blog’s Design tab so you can organize your content. Go to Blogs > Design > Content and then you can drag and drop the new TypeList to the sidebar position you want. Be sure to save your changes so they aren’t lost.

Using a Custom RSS Icon with a WordPress Blog

If you’re using WordPress.org as your blogging platform, I strongly suggest you set up an intuitive filing system for FTP. For instance, you may want to have a folder called images where you place all your icons and pictures. A filing system that makes sense to you will help you find what you’re looking for quickly and easily.

1. FTP the icon you want to use to your images folder (or wherever you upload your images). Make a note of the image’s URL (e.g., http://www.blogname.com/images/rss.png); you’ll need it in step 6.
2. Log in to your WordPress.org account.
3. Go to Appearance > Widgets.
4. Drag and drop a new Text widget into your sidebar.
5. Type a title for your widget (e.g., Subscribe to RSS) in the Title text box or leave it blank.
6. Type the following code into the larger text box:
   

   <a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/YOUR_FEED”><img src=”IMG URL” alt=”subscribe via rss” /></a>

   Make sure you change “YOUR_FEED” to your actual feed URL. Also change “IMG URL” to the URL you noted in step 1 above.

7. Click Save.

More helpful RSS articles:

• Author and Permalink FeedFlare (proof of original source for SEO) by Amanda Fazani at Blogger Buster
• Are You Making Your Life Easier by Using RSS by Sue Waters at EduBlogger
• How to Remove a Category from Your WordPress RSS Feedburner Feed by Adria Richards at But You’re A Girl

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Feedburner is the most popular tool for sharing your RSS feed. Feedburner is free, allows you to manage multiple feeds, and it’s easy to use. To include an e-mail version of your RSS feed follow these instructions:

1. Log in to your Feedburner account. If you don’t have one, you can follow these instructions on creating a Feedburner account.
2. Click on the feed you want to edit. A new page appears with the stats for that feed. This page also has tabs at the top: Analyze, Optimize, Publicize, Monetize, and Troubleshootize.
3. Click the Publicize tab. A new page appears with a list of services in the left sidebar.
4. Click the Email Subscriptions link in the left sidebar. The Email Subscriptions page appears.
5. Click the Activate button. The Subscription Management page appears and gives you a choice of either creating an e-mail subscription form or offering e-mail subscription via a link. You can place either option in your sidebar.
6. Choose either the form or link option.
   
   • If you use TypePad or Blogger, Feedburner can create an easy-to-install widget for you (just choose your blog platform from the pull-down menu and click the Go button).
   • If you use WordPress, copy the code and create a new sidebar widget for your blog.

   If you choose the form option, it will look similar to this:

   

   Your readers can simply type their e-mail address into the first box, then click the Subscribe button.

   If you choose the link option, it will look similar to this:

   

   Of course, {Blog Name} will reflect your blog’s name. When your readers click the link, the Feedburner Email Subscription Request page appears:

   

   Your readers will need to supply a valid e-mail address and type the CAPTCHA to complete their e-mail subscription request.

7. Click the Save button.

If you ever want to deactivate your e-mail RSS option, just follow the above steps, but at step 4, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Deactivate button.

Are you using e-mail RSS subscriptions in addition to traditional RSS subscriptions? How do they compare (in other words, do you have about the same number of subscribers for each?)?

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• what RSS is and why you need to make sure you’re offering it (Pt. 1)
• how to burn a feed with Feedburner (Pt. 1)
• how to offer your readers RSS via e-mail (Pt. 2)
• how to customize your RSS button and install it on your sidebar (Pt. 3)
• whether you should offer full or partial feeds (and what those are) (Pt. 4)
• what your options are for monetizing your feed (Pt. 5)

Let’s get started!

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication and it’s a way of letting your readers know when you update your site with new content. Your readers can subscribe to your RSS feed, set up an account with a feed reader (e.g., Google Reader), and then, when you update your site, the feed reader shows that content in your readers’ feed readers. This video explains RSS in the simplest way I’ve seen:

Now that you know what RSS is, how it works, and why your readers want it, you need to find out what your RSS feed is and make sure you’re providing a clear option for subscribing to your blog. Most blog platforms provide a basic feed for you when you set up your blog. These links will help you find the RSS your platform provides:

• How to find your TypePad RSS
• How to find your Blogger RSS
• How to find your WordPress.org RSS

While it’s true that you can use the default RSS your blog platform provides, most people opt to burn a feed with Feedburner. Feeburner is free, allows you to manage multiple blog feeds in one place, and provides statistics about your subscribers. Feedburner offers so many features I can’t list them all here, but I strongly suggest you take a look through your Feedburner dashboard (after you set up your account) and see what you’ve been missing.

To burn your feed with Feedburner, just follow these instructions:

1. Go to http://www.feedburner.com. You’ll see a welcome page similar to this:
   
2. Type your blog’s URL into the text box under Burn a feed right this instant. If you’re a podcaster, check that box as well.
3. Click the Next button. You’ll see a page similar to this:
   

   You’ll see the name of your blog (Feed Title) and your Feed Address.

4. Click the Next button. You’ll see a note congratulating you on claiming your feed. You’ll also see your feed’s RSS link. This is the link you’ll use when providing a subscription link for your readers.
   
5. Click the Next button. You’ll see a page similar to this:
   

   This is where you can choose additional features for Feedburner to track for your feed. Check the boxes of the features you want to include. I suggest checking them all; if you find you don’t need the stats for those items, you can change your preferences later.

6. Click the Next button. You’ll see a page that looks like this (it’s actually longer and has more info, but my screen capture cut it off):
   

   This page lists several blog platforms (click on yours to integrate your Feedburner feed with your site) and provides links for you to get even more out of your feed (Publicize, Optimize, Analyze, Monetize, and Troubleshootize).

7. Choose your blog platform from the list and follow Feedburner’s instructions from there.

After you integrate your Feedburner feed with your blog, I strongly suggest clicking around under each option (Publicize, Optimize, Analyze, Monetize, and Troubleshootize) to see what “extras” you can find that are a fit with your blog. As your blog grows, you may find that some items are more helpful than others or that some items aren’t a fit with your blog. You can turn things on and off as you see fit.

This article was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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Twitterfeed
Twitterfeed allows you set it and forget it (wow, I really hope that’s not trademarked by the Ronco guy–it’s just so snappy). By associating your blog’s RSS with your Twitterfeed account, any time you publish a new article on your blog, the URL is shortened via bit.ly and fed directly to Twitter via your Twitter account (you can also feed it to Facebook). In addition, the confirmation email I received said, “If you use Feedburner and have authorized their awareness api then you can also see those stats on your dashboard, making it easy to compare your traditional RSS distribution with Twitterfeed’s social distribution.” If you take advantage of that feature, you could find some interesting correlations.

To set up a Twitterfeed account:

1. Go to Twitterfeed.com.
2. Complete the sign-up form with an email address and password.
3. Choose whether you’d like your feed to be sent to Twitter or Facebook.
4. Connect with the appropriate account by clicking either the Authenticate Twitter (to send your feed to Twitter) or Connect with Facebook (to send your feed to Facebook) button.
5. Type in the name of the feed you want to send out.
6. Type in the URL of the feed you want to send out.
7. Click Update Feed.

If you like, you can use the advanced settings to set

• update frequency (every 30 minutes, every hour, on up to every day)
• whether to include the title and/or post description
• which service to use to shorten your links (e.g., bit.ly, SnipURL, TinyURL, etc.)
• post prefixes and suffixes

TypePad
TypePad has recently unveiled some new feature to its software. One of those features allows you to share your newest posts with Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed as they are published. To use this feature, though, you’ll need to link your TypePad account with those third-party social media tools. Just go to Settings > Sharing and choose which accounts you want to share your TypePad posts with. Right now you can only share your posts with Twitter, Facebook, or FriendFeed. Once you’ve established a connection between your TypePad account and your other social media accounts, follow these instructions for sharing your posts with Twitter (and/or Facebook and FriendFeed):

1. Write your post as usual.
2. Check the box next to Twitter (and/or Facebook and FriendFeed) under Share This Post in the right sidebar of the New Post page.
3. Save/publish your post as usual. When the post is published, TypePad will send the permalink of the article (shortend via bit.ly) to the accounts you checked.

Do it yourself
You may not want to tweet everything you post. Many people choose to tweet only posts by others or posts they’ve written themselves only if it relates to a specific, current conversation. In those cases, you can simply paste the permalink into your tweet and Twitter will automatically shorten the link via bit.ly.

You’ve probably noticed that the tools I’ve recommended all use bit.ly to shorten your URLs. It’s by far the most popular URL-shortener and I encourage you to try it out. The feature that makes bit.ly so popular, I think, is that it allows you to set up an account with them and track how many click-throughs your bit.ly links receive. If you’re tracking that information, you can really get a good idea of which social media communities are using your information consistently. You can also track which topics are more popular than others. When it comes to data tracking, the possibilities are endless. Bit.ly is just one more tool for your arsenal.

Related interesting reading:

• Twitter’s Chief Talks About Lists, Traffic and Revenue by Claire Cain Miller
• Basics: Grow Your Blog with Twitter’s List Feature by Neicole Crepeau
• Real-Time Google Reader Shares to Twitter–There’s an App for That by Louis Gray
• How to Make Your Blog and Tweets Work Together Like a Charm by Alex Cristache

This article was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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What is Google Alerts?

In Get Started with Google Alerts, Rebecca Leaman explains what Google Alerts is: “You can think of Google Alerts as a customized Google Search — on-going — that delivers the search results to you automatically. You can set up any number of Alerts (up to 1000 per email address) to help you monitor online activity for the search terms of your choice.”

How can I use Google Alerts?

Using Google Alerts for Blogging Ideas suggests using Google Alerts as a sort of writing prompt: “By using Google Alerts for your keywords and key phrases, you can find a lot of ideas for future blog posts. You’ll be led to other websites and blogs with ideas you can continue on with. And you’ll receive news and press releases on brand new items coming out that you can alert your readers to.”

How do I set up Google Alerts?

Setting up Google Alerts is a simple process–you don’t even have to have a Gmail account to use Google Alerts.

1. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts/ where you’ll see this page:
   
2. Sign in if you have a Gmail account. If you don’t have a Gmail account, you can just start filling out the Google Alert form.
3. Enter the search terms you want to track, separated by commas. You can edit this later if you find you have too many or too few terms. If you’re not sure what to track, start with your name and your blog’s name. You may also want to include keywords related to your brand and your niche.
4. Choose the Type of search you want Google Alerts to create. Rebecca Leaman’s article on setting up Google Alerts explains each type of search and what you can expect:
   • News (includes the latest news articles that mention your terms and “appear in the top ten results of your Google News search.”)
   • Blogs (includes blog articles that mention your terms and “appear in the top ten results of your Google Blog search.”)
   • Web (includes web pages that mention your terms and “appear in the top twenty results of your Google Web search.”)
   • Comprehensive (includes results from News, Blogs, and Web, etc. that mention your terms. It’s, um, comprehensive.)
   • Video (includes videos that mention your terms and “appear in the top ten results of your Google Video search.”)
   • Groups (includes posts that mention your search terms and “appear in the top fifty results of your Google Groups search.”)
5. Choose how often you’d like to receive your Google Alerts. I like to receive mine once a day simply because I’m trying to cut down on the time I spend checking e-mail. However, if you’re tracking a timely project or news story, you may want to choose as-it-happens. Likewise, if you’re just keeping tabs on something that mildly interests you, but isn’t critical, you can choose once a week.
6. Choose where you’d like the Google Alerts delivered. If you have a Gmail account, you can receive them via gmail. If you’d rather, you can receive them via RSS or another e-mail account.
7. Click the Create Alert button and finish.

That’s it. Easy and free. Honestly, does it get better than that?

This article is cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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• Blogger Finally Allows Imports and Exports via Mashable

• Understanding Content Management Systems via TechnoFriends

• Simple Way to Add AdSense for Feeds to Your FeedBurner Feed via Blogthority

• Infographics Can Help You Spread Ideas and Attract Attention via DoshDosh

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Before We Begin

You need to have the graphic you want to put on your sidebar. In this case it’s the orange RSS feed button. Follow these instructions to download the button and save it on your computer (this way you don’t pull from someone’s bandwidth and everyone’s happy).

1. Right click this image:
2. Choose Save As from the menu.
3. Choose where you would like to save the image on your computer and click Save.
4. For Typepad and WordPress you can use the image straight from your
   computer; Blogger users will need to upload the graphic to a secondary
   host (e.g., Photobucket). Blogger users, determine your image’s URL and copy it to the clipboard.

Finding Your Feed URL

Now we need to figure out your feed URL.

Blogger:

Generally speaking, the Feed URL for your site is

YOUR BLOG NAME.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=atom

Or

YOUR BLOG NAME.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

You can read an excellent tutorial on this at The Real Blogger Status.

TypePad users can read about your Feed URL in this tutorial from TypePad.

Putting It All Together

Blogger:

Blogger blogs have a footer that says, “Subscribe to: Posts”. This is a link for readers to subscribe to your blog with their feed reader. However, I think you’ll agree that having the subscription at the bottom of the page is not optimal. We want it to be easy and obvious for your readers to find your RSS feed and subscribe. It should be placed at the top of a column for easiest access.

1. Log in to Blogger and click Layout.
2. Click Add Page Element.
3. Under HTML/Java Script, click Add to Blog.
4. In the pop-up window, you can leave the Title field blank or type a title (e.g., Subscribe to My Blog’s Feed). In the Content field you will need to type in the following code:<a href=”YOUR FEED URL”><img src=”IMG URL” alt=”subscribe via rss” /></a>Make sure you change “YOUR FEED URL” to your actual feed URL. (Keep the quotes around the URL.)You must also change IMG URL to the URL you copied from step four above in Before We Begin. (Keep the quotes around the file image URL.)
5. Click Save Changes.
6. Click Save.

TypePad:

In addition to the instructions below, TypePad offers several widgets to help with RSS Subscription.

1. Go to TypeLists and make a new Link typelist.
2. In the NOTES field type in the following code:<a href=”YOUR FEED URL”><img src=”IMG URL” alt=”subscribe via rss” /></a>Make sure you change “YOUR FEED URL” to your actual feed URL. Also
   change “IMG URL” to the URL you copied to your clipboard earlier (see
   #4 under Before We Begin).
3. Click Save.
4. Click the Configure tab.
5. Under Display, click Show Notes as Text.
6. Save Changes.
7. Publish to the appropriate blog.
8. Order Content as necessary.
9. Republish blog for changes to take effect.

WordPress (from Jordan McCollum at Momma Blogga):

1. Find an orange RSS button and save it to your computer. (Here’s a really big one, which you’ll probably want to make smaller before uploading it: http://www.road2graduation.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/rss-big-small.jpg
   ).
2. Upload it to your blog or a photo website like Flickr or Photobucket.
3. Once you’ve uploaded the button, get the URL for the image. If you uploaded it to your blog, it will be under Manage > Uploads. Click on the picture of the button and the URL is displayed in the first box. Copy the URL of the image to your clipboard.
4. Go to Presentation > Widgets.
5. Drag and drop a new Text widget into your sidebar. If you don’t have a Text widget available, scroll down to Text Widgets, choose a higher number from the pull-down menu and click Save. Then drag the new Text widget into your sidebar.
6. Click on the Configure box on the same line as the Text widget you just added.  This should open a pop-up window with two boxes.
7. The first box is for the title of the Text widget.  You can make this “Subscribe via RSS” or “Read this blog in a feed reader” or anything else you want, or you can leave it blank.
8. The second box is for text.  You can enter HTML here.  To get the image of the RSS button, enter<a href=”http://YOURBLOGNAME.wordpress.com/feed/“><img src=”INSERT URL HERE” alt=”subscribe via rss” /></a>This will display the image and make it a link to your blog’s feed.  If you would like to add some accompanying text, you can insert it before the “</a>.”
9. Close the configure window (with the X in the corner of the pop-up).
10. Click Save Changes.

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Below you will find my notes from my portion of the panel. After each of the presenters (me, Michele Mitchell of Scribbit, Nelly Yusopova of Webgrrls International, and Shazia Mistry of Adventures in Motherhood) gave a short overview of some basic FAQs, we broke into smaller groups discuss platform-specific questions (i.e., TypePad, Blogger, and WordPress).

We have also compiled a Blogging Resources Document (pdf) for you to download.

In addition, you can find Nelly’s notes at WebGrrrls and Michele’s notes at Scribbit.

How do I find basic html resources to help me remember how to do things like strike-thrus etc.?

When I research information for Blogging Basics 101, I start with a Google search of key words. I also go to each of the three main platforms (Blogger, TypePad, and WordPress) and search their help files with those same key words. More often than not, I find what I’m looking for.

The following five sites are excellent resources for all bloggers to refresh your memory on how to do things like strike-throughs or add a button to your sidebar.

• Blogging Basics 101: This site starts from the beginning and walks you through everything from choosing your blog host and choosing a blog name to figuring out how to do a strike-through and customize your sidebars.
• Blogger Buster: Blogger users should have this one in their bookmarks. Everything you want to know and then some about how to manage and customize your Blogger blog.
• Edublogger: This site is specifically written for people who design, develop, and use educational blogs. However, the information spans niches and is valuable to all bloggers. The author uses many screen captures to make instructions especially easy to follow.
• BlogWell: This site offers everything from theory and design articles to HTML and CSS instruction for WordPress. It is targeted to small businesses and non-profits.
• Lorelle on WordPress: As the name suggests, this blog focuses on WordPress.org and WordPress.com blogs and how to take them to the next level. Lorelle provides tips, advice, and techniques for WordPress bloggers.

What are and how do I create permalinks?

A permalink is the link to an individual blog post. These are important because if you ever need to link to an exact blog entry (e.g., for a carnival or an archived post), you use the permalink as your link. It’s poor blog etiquette not to use the permalink.

If you don’t use the permalink, you’ll just be linking to your main blog page. The problem with that is that, as you post new blog entries, the newest entry appears at the top of your main blog page and the other entries are pushed down on the page. The entry your readers are looking for may be down at the bottom of the page or already in the archives; your reader has no idea where to find the entry! If they click over to your site expecting to see a post specific to a carnival and they see a different post, they may not take the time to find the “real” post they’re looking for.

You can find the permalink link under any blog entry. However, not all blog hosts/designs handle permalinks the same way.

• Typepad: There’s a link that actually says Permalink under the entry.
• Blogger: The link varies. It’s usually the time stamp of the post or the title.
• WordPress: Has a link at the bottom of the post named Permalink and/or the title of the post.

What kind of basic sections should I have in my blog?

I take this to mean What should I place in my sidebar? Your sidebar is your list of things you want to keep handy for your readers and for yourself. Your sidebar is offering your readers something in addition to the day’s post. However, too many links in the sidebar can clutter your design and overwhelm your audience. Keep things clean and orderly.

• Recent Posts/Most popular posts/Archives: You don’t need all three. Just choose one of these.
• Categories or Search: I find that search works well for my blogs, because I have a long list of categories. The search takes up less space and is an easy-to-install widget from Widgetbox.
• About Me/E-mail/Contact information: This is your opportunity to explain your blog. E-mail or other contact information should be readily available so your readers (or PR and marketing people) can contact you.
• RSS subscription button: Blogging Basics 101 has an entire section on RSS and installation and you can review Nelly’s notes at WebGrrrls as well.
• Blogroll (if you choose to do one)

Hosted vs. Non-Hosted?

Hosted: A blog that resides on the host’s server (e.g., Blogger or TypePad or WordPress.com).

Non-hosted: A blog that resides on the user’s (yours) server. You pay a third-party to host your blog (e.g., Moveable Type or WordPress.org).

Hosted Pros: Easy to get started because you don’t have to worry about server issues.

Hosted Cons:

• Blogger blogs can appear to be less professional
• Platform limitations (e.g., archiving can be less than
  user-friendly; TypePad can have issues with comment spam and trackback
  spam; difficult SEO)
• Less control over HTML and CSS
• WordPress.com does not allow advertising.

Non-Hosted Pros:

• Control over permalinks (articles aren’t randomly named) which can help with SEO
• Control over how archives are managed
• Control over CSS/HTML

Non-Hosted Cons:

• WordPress.org only supports one blog per installation; however, Moveable Type supports multiple blogs per installation.
• Moveable Type isn’t as malleable as WordPress.org.

How do I make a custom header?

• Using GIMP (free to download) to make custom blog banner (via Simply A Musing Blog)
• How to use PhotoShop or PhotoShop Elements to design a custom blog header (via DesignMom)

To those of you who joined us, thank you! It was a pleasure meeting
you. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have additional
questions. For those of you who were unable to attend our panel or
BlogHer ’08, please follow the links to our Blogging Resources Document and panel notes. I’d love to hear from you if you have questions!

I am cross-posting this at Don’t Try This at Home and BlogHer.com.

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