How to Publicize an RSS Feed

What do I do once the feed is in place?

[cabbagehead]

I've created an RSS feed file that references my articles on my site. What must I now to to ensure that my RSS file is available in whatever outlets RSS consumers look to for RSS feeds? How do people know my feed is out there?

[AustinMexico]

There are basically two ways to let people know you
have an RSS feed available.

First, you want visitors to your site to know they
can get updated info through a feed ... that 'keeps
them coming back' because they see the new content
listed in your feed.

To notify site visitors, you need an XML logo linked
to the feed -- I recommend putting this on every page,
though some folks only put it on their homepage.
Visitors may arrive on any page through a search-engine,
and never see the home page.

Also, add a relative link in the page header, like:

<LINK REL="alternate" TITLE="Shared RSS" HREF="//example.com/feeds/Computers/Data_Formats/Markup_Languages/XML/rss.xml" TYPE="application/rss+xml">

(replace < with the less-than sign of course)

Browsers like Firefox will put a little RSS icon at
the bottom of the window, where users can use a single
click to add it as a 'Live Bookmark' which is like a
titles-only RSS viewer in your bookmarks.

Once you have your own house in order, go to your
favorite search engine and type in 'rss directory'
to find the dozens of on-line directories of RSS
feeds, and submit yours.

[edited by: werty at 2:00 am (utc) on Nov. 8, 2004]
[edit reason] Changed the url to example.com [/edit]

[cabbagehead]

AustinMexico - excellent tips. thanks!

[monkeythumpa]

Is there anything I can automatically ping whenever new content is created? I remember reading about this when RSS was relatively unknown. Back then I thought "This is a worthless technology, why would I use this?" Hindsight is 20/20.

[bill]

MovableType pings these three sites by default whenever you add new content:
blo.gs
weblogs.com
technorati.com
There are more around if you look, but these are a good starting point.

[eurotrash]

I've said it before in this forum. if you Furl it you will get at least one link.

I have now noticed that if I type in my name to the search box, the first result on Google is my Furl.

[chrisnrae]

Here ya go [masternewmedia.org].