In addition to my blog feed, I have started a feed of CYBERSTARS® blogs. In doing so, I have found that subscribers are typically on services that do not have built-in ways to include an RSS feed. So the frequently asked question is “How do I place the RSS feed on my Blogger sidebar?”
For those that want to take the cheapest, easiest route to blogging, Blogger is it. However, with the simplicity of setup comes a lack of features that should be common in all blogging software including RSS feed inclusion. If you spent the money on the pro version of Blogger or use a personally installed system, you have an easier way to do this. If you have a free Blogger.com account or are using another free blogging service that doesn’t directly support including RSS feeds, read on.
For real estate professionals, or any profession-related site for that matter, it’s important to only include highly relevant links and have highly relevant information. One way to do this is by adding an RSS feed of headlines or links to your sidebar. Unfortunately, many of the turnkey hosted services do not provide an easy way to do this.
The two main ways of including an RSS feed in your sidebar are via:
- A dynamic include via a server script (can’t be done on Blogger)
- Javascript
RSS Feed via Server Script
The first way, although the best, is simply not possible on Blogger because they (and many of the free blog hosts) do not offer this option. Server-side scripting (usually written in PHP or ASP) is usually the best option for search engines. These scripts can deliver updated, via RSS, HTML links to your visitors AND to search engines. This can be a huge benefit to you and the sites that you link to. You can do this if you use your own software such as WordPress.
Using Javascript for RSS Feeds
If you’re using Blogger, javascript is your only option. To use javascript, you either need to know how to write some fancy javascript code, or know how to follow directions and use one of these services:
Need more help in getting setup? Do have other suggestions for getting feeds on your sidebar? If you’re already doing this, please share how you do it!
