RSS and RSS Aggregators Have Drawbacks

RSS is also known as Really Simple Syndication. It is a method of sending blogs and online publications to your subscribers.  Anyone interested in your information can subscribe through a blog reader service also known as an aggregator.  This makes it easier for your interested subscribers to accumulate blogs from multiple sites.   There are a number of aggregators on the Web, who can consolidate and organize your subscriber’s choices and selections of desired blogs and information.  Among them are as follows:

Ø  Feedlooks

Ø  NetNewsWire

Ø  SharpReader

Ø  Liferea

Ø  AmphetaDesk

Ø  FeedDemon

Ø  FeedReader

Ø  NewsGator

Ø  NewsWatcher

Ø  News Is Free

Ø  Novobot

Ø  Radio UserLand

Ø  rss2email

Ø  Straw

Ø  dynamicobjects spaces

I have used the feed reader and it seems to work well to aggregate any blogs that I have subscribed to as I browse the Web.  It is a very useful tool to collect our classroom blogs as well as other blogs that we might be interested in throughout the Web. 

RSS feeds are being used by online influencers and news providers to distribute their content.  The reader strips out the formatting and puts the information in a uniform usable format for organization and inclusion into your own blog or webpage.   The uniform formatting makes I easy to organize and more usable for inclusion. 

When you include this information in your own website or blog, Search Engines penalize your SEO status for using “duplicate” information.  It is best to use original content that is relevant to your subject matter.  If you are attempting to generate users to your site this method may not help because you’re advertising and formatting has been stripped out leaving only the content.  You can also have the information sent directly to your email, if you wish.

It is a good provide your readers with a way to subscribe to your content, however? It does have drawbacks, especially if you are trying to generate ad revenue by drawing people to your Website or Blog.

Week 1 Blog Topic #2: Can I get a resource?

Since this is my first blog post I thought that a good starting point would be to provide an online resource that can help me and, anyone else, become better at website design.  I sometimes think that an online community is quite helpful in accomplishing this objective. 

SitePoint.com is a great location to get collaborative information on how to do many different things regarding web design.  In particular, I really think that the Cool Web Design Effects Tutorials are very informative.  The site also has many publications for sale that can help enhance your learning of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, ASP.NET, and other web technologies.  The reference section is really helpful in directing you toward these sources of information.

SitePoint has a Blog section that contains specific categories that are very helpful: Technology, Design, Business, Community, and Podcast. 

The Technology category is diverse and has input from the entire community, and can help in keeping your code ratio cleaned up, with a multitude of technology strategies and subjects. 

The Design category can help even the worst artist (namely me) move closer toward becoming more professional. 

I really like the Business category.   It contains tips on running a freelance business and opinion and ideas on managing clients, increasing productivity and being successful with your web business.  That is what I find most appealing about this site; it includes the business aspects to help you along, while many other web design sites do not include this important feature.

Today more and more businesses have become socially conscious, and SitePoint has grasped that aspect firmly within its website and business model, contained within the Community category of the Blog section.  Along with the social responsibility, there are personal help articles to increase your ability to cope with the rigors of web design.  

Round out the offerings with podcasts so that you can take along news and informational interviews and lectures about the Internet and Web development.

Sitepoint.com has a wide range of Products, Courses, Forums, Blogs, Articles, References and even a marketplace to buy and sell websites, get specific work done, and exchange elements of web design for money.  It is all about the people in this online community that helps make it stand out as a great resource.

All in all, Sitepoint.com is a well rounded informational community collaboration system that can guide you toward the resources necessary to continually improve your web design skills, abilities, and knowledge base.  I highly recommend taking a look at this excellent online resource.  When you go to the site you will notice that it is a simple design that has all the information at your fingertips.  It is not a pretty site, but it is quite functional.

Cheers,

DanielJ