RSS Exploitation

RSS is a very potent and powerful resource for exploiting Ring of Fire networks.

There's a couple of popular definitions for RSS:
  • Real Simple Syndication
  • Rich Site Summary

RSS was created by Netscape back in the 1990s as a quick and easy way to syndicate content from one site to another. Despite what many bloggers claim, RSS wasn't originally intended to be read in "RSS Readers". It was created to take content from one site and display it on another.

Don't be intimidated by RSS. It's basically just another way to format content, like HTML or PDF does. A typical blog creates two versions for content: an HTML version you view in a web browser and an RSS version which is used to create a summary of content on another site or to view in an RSS "reader". Nowadays most modern browsers have an RSS reader built in.

However, as said above, RSS is really "simple" and has a lot of limitations. For example, it pretty much only uses images, text, links and very basic formatting. But it's this simplicity that makes it so powerful. It makes it very easy for programs and sites to read RSS and to display it on other sites.

Another use of RSS to to display newly added content to a blog or site. Typically, RSS will contain only the most recent content which is another reason why it's so great to use for syndicating content from one place to another on the Net.

Note that I said "typically" above. RSS can be manipulated in a number of ways and doesn't always have to display the newest content.

You can also make an RSS feed yourself and add just about anything (within the coding limits) you want. The RSS feed doesn't have to use content that's already been posted somewhere else. If you create your own RSS file, you can add any content you wish.

Many of the Ring of Fire/IFTTT sites create an RSS version. Many other sites can import and display an RSS feed. For us, this means we can we can set up sites in our Ring of Fire that can be used to automatically update other sites that accept RSS and don't work with IFTTT.

For example, your Youtube channel has an RSS feed that displays the most recent videos you've uploaded to your YT channel. This means that any site that accepts RSS, you can automatically update the site with links to your Youtube channel and videos.

There's other benefits for using RSS feeds: Submit and Ping

This can be a bit confusing, but submitting and pinging RSS feeds are a little different.

You submit an RSS feed to RSS directories. These are sites that collect and share RSS feeds, making it easy for people to find and use RSS feeds. You only need to submit the URL to an RSS feed to the directories one time.

You ping an RSS feed when it has been updated to tell various sites that there's new content and "come check it out". You want to ping feeds whenever you have new content, but generally not more than once a day, or your feed could be seen as spam and banned.

To repeat:
  • Submit the RSS URL to directories only one time.
  • Ping the ping sites whenever an RSS feed has been updated, but no more than once per day.

Note that the RSS directory sites and the RSS ping sites are two totally different lists of sites and should be treated differently.

Creating Your Own RSS Feed

We're used to having RSS feeds created automatically for us, but It's actually pretty easy to make your own RSS file using a text editor. You can put in pretty much anything you want, then upload it to a website.

Pro: You can put in pretty much anything you want, then upload it to a website.

Con: It won't update automatically.


5 Simple Rules for Making Your Own RSS Feeds

You shouldn't use the following five special characters:

Use instead
"
"
'
'
<
&lt;
>
&gt;
& &amp;

The & character (ampersand) will often come up in URLs. When it does, just replace it with &amp; and you'll be fine.

Verify RSS - RSS is very strict and it gets flaky when using certain characters. After you upload your RSS, use this site to verify your feed:
http://feedvalidator.org/

Tip: Check and see if the Tuelz programs will work on your PC. If so, use the RZZ Tuel to easily create your own RSS feeds that will validate without worrying about special characters.

More Info on How to Create an RSS feed:
http://www.xul.fr/en-xml-rss.html


Get Your RSS Feed URLs (and add them to your spreadsheet)

Take the URLs below and change the letters IN CAPS to your own username or ID. After you change the RSS URL, be sure to check the URL is valid by copy/pasting it in your browser. If valid, paste the RSS URL into your spreadsheet.

Note: Unfortunately, Youtube (Google) recently changed their RSS feeds. The RSS feed used to contain the thumbnail image, as well as the description for the videos, the the video titles, etc.

Now, the YT RSS feeds now only contains the video titles. I guess this is what is called "progress". The good news is, the titles are in the form of a link, so we can still use the YT RSS feed for our channels to build links.

Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?user=CHANNELNAME-OR-ID

Wordpress.com
https://USERNAME.wordpress.com/feed/

Wordpress - Your self-hosting blog
http://YourDomain.com/?feed=rss
-OR-
http://YourDomain.com/feed/

Blogger
http://USERNAME.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Tumblr
http://USERNAME.tumblr.com/rss

Delicious
https://previous.delicious.com/v2/rss/username

Diigo
http://www.diigo.com/rss/user/USERNAME/tw

Pocket - Be sure to turn off privacy settings: http://getpocket.com/privacy_controls/
http://getpocket.com/users/USERNAME/feed/all

Storify
https://storify.com/rss/USERNAME

Pinterest
https://www.pinterest.com/USERNAME/feed/rss

Rebelmouse
https://www.rebelmouse.com/feeds/USERNAME.rss

Here's a pretty good article on how to get an RSS feed for a number of social sites (Note: The Youtube directions no longer work):
http://www.labnol.org/internet/rss-feeds-directory/21242/


Create FeedBurner Feed

Add the RSS URL to your YT channel into Feedburner.

After "burning" your YT channel RSS feed, click on its link, then:

1a Click "Optimize" tab
1b Click "SmartFeed"
1c Click "Activate" button to "Make my feed compatible with any feed reader application."

2aClick "Publicize" tab
2b Click Pingshot
2c Click "Activate" button to "notify interested services when my feed changes"

Repeat with another feed or two from a YT property, such as your Blogger feed.

Add your Feedburner feeds to your spreadsheet.


Get RSS Feeds For Sites That Don't Have RSS Feeds

Google Plus
http://plusfeed.frosas.net/
http://gplusrss.com/
http://rss2lj.net/g+

Create RSS from Twitter
https://twitrss.me/

Article on how to create your own twitter feed
http://www.labnol.org/internet/twitter-rss-feed/28149/

How To Create an RSS feed for LinkedIn Group
http://blog.knotlink.com/post/124191314055/creating-rss-feed-for-your-linkedin-group

Fetch RSS - Will convert pages to RSS. Free version limited to 5 RSS feeds. Works with Twitter and Facebook. Need to create an account.
http://fetchrss.com/

Create RSS from Web Page
http://feed43.com/upgrade.html

Create RSS from Web Page
http://www.balluche.fr/html2rss.php

Create RSS from Web Page
http://feedity.com


Free Online RSS Directory Submitters: (One Time)
http://theim.org/onlinersssubmit/
http://www.bulkpinger.com/free-rss-submit-online/


Essential Directories to Submit RSS Feeds (One Time)
http://www.newsisfree.com
http://www.feedster.com
http://www.icerocket.com
http://www.feedbite.com
http://www.feedage.com
http://rssfeeds.com

Tip: When creating accounts at the RSS directories above, check to see if they give you an account page that displays your feeds on a web page. If so, you can build links to you account page to pass even more link juice.

Secondary - Pick a few from the list below (One Time)
http://www.rss-specifications.com
http://rssmicro.com
http://www.feedcat.net
http://www.plazoo.com
http://www.bloghub.com
http://chordata.info
http://www.rssbus.com
http://www.feedmailer.net
http://plak.co.za
http://www.rssbuffet.com
http://www.rssfeeds.org
http://www.realtyfeedsearch.com
http://www.rss-feeds-directory.com
http://www.goldenfeed.com
http://www.wingee.com
http://www.balirss.com
http://www.feedvault.com
http://feedfury.com
http://www.feedlisting.com
http://www.codango.com
http://www.devasp.com
http://www.oobdoo.com
http://ngoid.sourceforge.net
http://findrss.net

Bulk Pingers (Every time there's an update, no more than once per day)
http://www.bulkpinger.com/ping/index.php
http://www.bulklink.org/
http://www.pingfarm.com/
http://backlinkping.com/


ScrapeBox
- Scrapebox is considered a "blackhat" tool by many. However, it has many legitimate uses, including using it to create and submit RSS feeds.

You can find discounts for Scrapebox by doing a google for Scrapebox discount.

http://www.scrapebox.com/rss-xml-feed-creator - How to use Scrapebox to create RSS feeds.

http://www.scrapebox.com/rss-submit - How to use Scrapebox to ping an RSS feed. Scrapebox says it "submits" RSS feeds, but it really just pings them.


Camouflage Content

"Camouflage" is what I call using content and links from other sites to mask and blend in with our own content and links so we don't appear to be pure spammers.

The idea is to "mash" (combine) your own RSS feeds with feeds created by others to generate a single RSS feed.

It's actually harder to find good quality RSS feeds than you may think. Either the content is junk or they don't update often enough, or both.

When finding feeds to use as camouflage, it's best to go very general in relation to your niche/keywords. For example, if the theme of your YT channel is "dog training", then try to find RSS feeds about "animals" and "pets".


Probably my favorite way to get RSS feeds is to create RSS Feeds using Google Alerts.
  1. Go to Google Alerts and type in a general keyword.
  2. Click the "Show Options" link
  3. For "Deliver to", select "RSS feed"
  4. Customize the other options if you wish
  5. Click "Create Alert"
  6. Click on the RSS icon and you'll be taken to the feed.
  7. Copy the URL of the feed from your browser's address bar.


IMPORTANT NOTE: Google uses Atom for creating feeds from Google Alerts. Atom is similar to RSS and does the same thing, except it uses different "code". This means it isn't as compatible with other things as RSS is. This is OK as most of the mash up services work with Atom and RSS. Since we only want to use Google Alert feeds in mash ups with our own RSS feeds, this shouldn't be an issue. Just note if a service has an issue with the Google Alert feed, it's likely because it's an Atom feed and not truly an RSS feed.


I've found Bing.com to be better at finding RSS feeds than Google. Try going to Bing and using a search such as:
List of YOURKEYWORDS RSS Feeds

Search Bing and Google for:
YOURKEYWORDHERE + blog 

...and find quality blogs with RSS feeds.


Here's a big list of LiveJournal RSS feeds:
http://www.livejournal.com/syn/list.bml

List of News Feeds:
http://www.uen.org/feeds/lists.shtml

Some feeds from the US gov:
http://www.loc.gov/rss/

Use the site parameter in a Google search to find blogs that have RSS feeds.
site:blogspot.com keywords
site:wordpress.com keywords
site:livejournal.com keywords

Add "blog" to your Google/Bing search to find blogs that have RSS feeds.
keywords blog
keywords + blog


Make RSS Mashups - A "mash up" combines multiple RSS feeds into a single feed. Use these services to mash your Ring of Fire account feeds with camouflage feeds.
http://www.rssmix.com - Atom feeds OK
http://chimpfeedr.com - Atom feeds OK
http://feedbite.com - Atom feeds OK
http://feedkiller.com



RSS Promotion Summary:

Your RSS
Camouflage RSS =>
Mash RSS URLs => Submit Mashed RSS URLs to Essential RSS Directories => Find Public Profile Pages and Feed Pages
Select 2-5 of your own Ring of Fire RSS feeds for each mashup.

Add a couple of camouflage RSS feeds for each mash up.

Repeat until you've used all of the RSS URLs for your Ring of Fire accounts.



http://www.rssmix.com
http://chimpfeedr.com
http://feedbite.com
http://feedkiller.com


http://www.newsisfree.com
http://www.feedster.com
http://www.icerocket.com
http://www.feedbite.com
http://www.feedage.com
http://rssfeeds.com

Optional: Submit to a secondary RSS directory or two just to add variety as you create additional Ring of Fires.

See above for a list or secondary RSS directories.
Check for your public feeds page and your profile account pages at the RSS directories where you created accounts.

Add these URLs to your spreadsheet.

Build links to these pages using your other Ring of Fire accounts.






Navigation

Intro

Preparation and Set Up
Semi automation
Organization
spreadsheet

Create Accounts
Social Stacking

Create IFTTT Recipes
 Recipes
 Strategies
 More Recipes

Collect and Ping RSS

Advanced Strategies
Link Resources
Automation Tools

Parasite and Web 2.0

Video SEO Thunder
 Youtube On Page
 Optimization

Marketing Plan and Resources

Secret Bonus
Tuelz
Content Multiplying