Chris;

RSS is a mystery to some, for sure.

Why not edit your post with some book links to Amazon.com about RSS? There's plenty to choose from.

Amazon link(s) needed, dude...

I agree, there are many Amazon links to RSS. Do you need me to point them out to you? I'm happy to , but I think that a current search will find more relevant, up-to-date links than anything I might post in a time-dated post.

I think RSS is about to be identified as the 2005 equivalent of 1993's posts of references to "http" on Amazon.com. I hardly think that you need me to show you the most relevant, current links.

If you do, I guess I could compile a list, but since my opinion is that RSS is about to hit the tipping point, this post is better left at general reasons for people to care - or act on.

Who else wants me to list RSS resources. With enough popularity, I'll be happy to compile a list.

Chris

ALL BC.org posts are REQUIRED to have at least one AMAZON link provided.

That's all we ask.

Otherwise, I like your post...

Heh heh. Try 0596003838.

Thank you Leon.

RJ... does that address your issue?

I'm happy to help in any way I can. I think Leon has pointed out the most relevant link at Amazon.
If you'd like more, just say the word. I'll figure something out.

Chris

No, when you are posting an article, there is a place to put an Amazon link. It creates a graphic of the product you are linking to.

Ask Eric Olsen (the publisher of this site) for more guidance...

In fact Chris your post is nothing more than an ad for your own site. Reading comprehension when you joined BC allows you to note that you're supposed to post the whole exercise, not one paragraph and a "go see more here" type link.

This post will need to become, well a post, otherwise it will be deleted tomorrow afternoon. Sorry, we're not a referral service, especially to someone with a very spam-like "Simplified Selling" Web site. (Though you look the friendly sort)

Got something to sell? Buy an ad.

Temple and RJ - I have indeed asked Eric for guidance. I'm new at the BlogCritic thing and trying to follow the instructions in his email to me.

I apologize if I have broken any rules. It was never my intent to offend you (or anyone). I'm happy to have the post deleted if it violates any community standards.

No problem at all, but if you're stll learning you really shouldn't early on dismiss out of hand the repeated concerns of those who have been here a while.

Instead of deletion, just add more from your site, because it is an interesting topic.

And a little "For more great wisdom from the master" link at the bottom of evry one of your posts is fine - it just can't be the entire reason for your post.

Just in case you're thinking "Why the heck does Temple care - it's my (non-paying, sucker's, LOL) job as an editor of the site. - Temple

Thank you for the advice, Temple. I want to follow all of the "rules". It was never my intent to offend anyone.

When you say "add more".. what do you mean, exactly? The instructions I got (this is my first post, so bear with me) were to "make your first post to blogcritics within 24 hours of receiving this - an applicable post from your own site is fine."

I wasn't trying to make my supposed "great wisdom" the "entire reason for my post", I was just merely doing my best to quickly respond within the deadline.

Again, I apologize if I offended anyone. Every community has its rules and not knowing them is no excuse. Please forgive me.

This article is what I presented in my 'application' to become a blogcritic. I'm sure that over time I'll find a way to be "right" in the eyes of this community - I just had to get something posted quickly. Presenting a bloglink seemed to be what others here do - and allowed me to meet the 24 hour deadline.

If "it will be deleted tomorrow afternoon" is the standard remedy, I accept the judgment of the community. Since my post isn't directly related to any Amazon content (and thank you RJ for finding relevant Amazon content) I didn't include a link. My article is merely "original editorial commentary" on RSS and how I believe it will mpact the online world over the next several months.

I am beginning to understand that such original commentary is not within the perview of blogcritics, and that only reviews of other writings (writings published on Amazon) is what is expected here. I accept that as the Blogcritics premise. I won't include original writings in the future and will only reference other material.

As has been suggested, I have asked Eric for guidance. While I do not wish to offend anyone, I would rather provide original information than merely review or rehash what others have poorly written.

Chris

Maybe a sample in the same area might make it clear. I recently posted a quick-and-dirty guide to using HTML tags in your posts and comments here. It doesn't purport to be an all-you-ever-need tutorial, just enough to get folks going.

Along with that post, I included five Amazon links to fer-real HTML tutorial books, for those who want to explore further. If there were more on my own blog, I could include a link at the bottom, or perhaps at the top, to the extra information, but there isn't.

Your post as it stands doesn't offer full whack on BlogCritics to the information you have to offer, it doesn't refer casual visitors onward to Amazon - but it does divert them away from BlogCritics to your own blog. (In some places, this is known as "pimping your blog," and this is frowned upon in most Web communities.)

It's not a matter of offending anyone, them's just the rules!

Like that.
And we try and avoid Amazon links without accompanying pictures.

You could also add the pictures of the buttons you had at your site, I just didn't want to get into your HTML.

- Temple

Hi Chris - before adding over here you might want to edit a couple things. For example:

They won't even know that you're "tuned in". You get the content you want, absolutely free, in complete privacy.

Because you get content without giving up your email address, there is no possibility you can get any spam.

And presto - then you get constructive feedback from TDavid who also knows what he's talking about in this regard.

:-)

this is interesting - i been gettin into the whole podcast arena, and seems you can't submit your show to these directory things without having it as some RSS feed or some nonsense. i tried finding out what the hell i need to do, but i get folks trying to sell me programs. Argh.

Hi Duke - it's not too complicated actually.

You just need to add an RSS enclosure tag to your RSS feed.

Not sure what blog program you are using but Wordpress 1.5 will automatically do this if you link to an mp3 file anywhere inside your post.

If you'd like to see an example look at the source of this RSS feed: http://www.webmastercookbook.com/wp-rss2.php

Now look specifically for this code in that RSS feed:

<enclosure url="http://blogcritics.org/mt/mt-comments.php?mode=red&u=http://tdavid3.podhost.com/wmcookbook/WMcookbook30-03182005_64k.mp3" length="23013504" type="audio/mpeg" />

Now if you ping through your blog software or manually fill out a form at a place like audio.weblogs.com/pingform.html with the name of your blog (with the RSS enclosure) and the location of the RSS feed, your podcast information will show up in the audio.weblogs.com directory.

You can manually submit to have your podcast listed by category in the ipodder.org directory as well. It's just filling out a form.

aw, TDavid, thank you, man. you rule.

A lot of people don't know anything about RSS at all (including until very recently me; I never used it or knew what it was until a month ago)

If you're an absolute newbie (no shame in that; everyone was until very recently, and most still are) to RSS, it is an invaluable tool for anyone who publishes material on the internet on a regular basis.

www.feedburner.com is a good place to start; you'll figure things out quickly there and you can set up your RSS in minutes, even if you don't know what you're doing.

Then, explore your stats, explore the forums, and check incoming links to your blog via technorati.

And you'll see how RSS is a miracle; what I love about it is your articles are no longer tethered to a website and reliant on incoming links and bookmarks.

Anybody can read you at any time, within a minute or two. Even if they've never heard of your website.

Writers used to dream about something like that, but it was too science-fiction to be believable. Welcome to the future.

I ought to add that one must be careful with the power of RSS too; once you publish, your stuff is out there. So if you make a mistake, or write something someone doesn't like, you might know within minutes.

;-)

this is exciting as all hell, but does it work for traditionally flung websites? Ie, technically my site isn't really a blog, and so i don't "publish" to it so much as just copy and paste into the nice web-builder program thing. and then, mind you, i "publish".

Hi Chris, I didn't see your post before all of the friendly suggestions (smile), but it looks great now. Thanks and welcome!

Whew...it certainly is initiation by fire around here!

Thank you Temple for fixing the original, and suggesting that I include the buttons. I *do* have access to the HTML, so I have posted the entire article.

TDavid - You are absolutely correct. There are ways to watch activity on any website. Thank you for pointing out that nothing is perfect. I agree that Feedburner will follow your clickpath and will identify what software you use to connect. Most websites also track the browsers and IP Addresses used to connect. That is, however, a far cry from knowing my email address, my annual salary and my job title, frequently required fields on a number of subscription forms. With RSS, there is no fill-out-the-form to subscribe. I predict that it will come to that if we're not careful. Watch for this as RSS hits the tipping point.

I do, however, maintain my position that you won't get spam. I have posted the entire article now, and you'll see that I made the point that "If the newsletter isn't that great or starts being an unrelenting stream of ads, all you have to do is delete the feed from your list." (You couldn't have seen that in the previous article excerpt.)

The solution is mind bendingly simple and is a far cry from the "please unsubscribe me" situation we find ourselves facing with most content delivery mechanisms.

We initiate by fire because we care. :-)

Great post, thanks.