Finishing Up

To finish it off we now only need to add XML and RSS defining tags at the begging and the end. The RSS tag will vary depending on the RSS version you choose to use. This is how the opening tags will look like:

            <?xml version="1.0"?>
            <rss version="2.0">

And this is how the closing RSS tag will look like:

</rss>

Congratulations! You have finished making an RSS file. Our example RSS file now looks like this:

            <?xml version="1.0"?>
            <rss version="2.0">

<channel>     

<title>Mobile Phone Enthusiasts</title>
            <description>We report the latest and hottest in mobile phone trends.</description>
            <link>http://mobilephoneenthusiast.com</link>

<item>
<title>Free Phones from Nokia</title>   
<description>Nokia is giving away free phones as part of its new promo. Included is one year’s worth of unlimited calls.</description>
<link>http://mobilephoneenthusiast.com/nokiapromo.html</link>
            </item>

            <item>
<title>Apple iPhone Unveiled</title>   
<description> Steve Jobs has finally unveiled the new Apple iPhone. The phone is a mobile phone, ipod, and PDA in one.</description>
<link>http://mobilephoneenthusiast.com/iphone.html</link>
            </item>

            </channel>

            </rss>

Now be sure that you don’t forget to save your file in an XML format.

RSS Validation

After this you of course want to make sure that your RSS feed works. To do this you can make use of RSS feed validators. Some examples of good RSS feed validators are: Feed Validator, RSS Validator, W3C Validator, Redland RSS 1.0 Validator, and RSS 1.0 Validator.

RSS Syndication

Hooray! Your RSS feed works. A good feed is useless if no subscribes to it so now it is time to syndicate your content. All you need to do is submit your feeds to various websites and post a link to the feed on your website for visitors who might want to subscribe to your site.