readers | Croncast - Life is Show Prep

Make better RSS feeds by not making them

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:00:20 -0400

Did you pick the content of the RSS feeds that you are syndicating from your site right now? Or did you let your readers pick?

Within reason my guess would be that most of you answered, yes then no. I know on my sites, even this site, I would have answered the same.

The solution isn't to create more feeds. The best solution is for publishers to create no feeds at all. Let your readers make their own.

Here are a couple examples why this is a better method for content syndication than relying on your own editorial skills.

Example 1: How not to do it.

Don't get me wrong on this, CNET is offering nearly all of its content up for syndication. This is an excellent strategy to create value from older content. However, do readers really need the option of subscribing to 100 plus predefined RSS feeds? Simply, no.

Finding feeds for the topics you are interested in is difficult. The worst of it is that you can only access them individually, i.e.; you want 10 of feeds, copy and paste them one by one into your feed reader. Sounds like a party to me. If you have more skills you might use a service that rolls all of them up into one feed for you. I would guess that about three people have done this.

Why overwhelm your readers like this? And besides, it is pretty intimidating for someone new to the RSS game. Shouldn't they be able to access your content in a way that makes it relevant to them?

Example 2: How to do RSS right.

What you see above is one of two flavors of how to let your readers pick what they receive in RSS feeds. It's a simple and easy to use text input that allows readers to enter keywords and phrases that they want in their feed. There's nothing fancy, easy access to old content in the straight-forward way that RSS is delivered; updates of the newest items first and set number items in the feed, usually twenty-five.

What the second screen shot shows is the magic of thinking differently about RSS feeds. This image demonstrates what happens when someone clicks on the 'advanced' link. The reader is then given control over every aspect of the RSS feed. They choose the content, when it is delivered, how much content, in what order (none of this newest stuff first mumbo jumbo - great use for episodic content) and how many updates to get at a time.

Who is better to choose than the person doing the consuming? RSS needs to be like Burger King where a customer can have it their way.

When this concept is applied to large volumes of content the value of it increases with each new article or podcast. Imagine if you could have this type of access at the NY Times or with your local paper. Even the obits from 30 years ago are now of value again. Value to the reader and value to the publisher with ad inventory.

The future of content syndication isn't in prescriptive channels created by publishers. The future is in the subjective choices of the consumer. They neither need or want every product that you have to offer.

We need to be smarter about our syndicated content via RSS and take into consideration how to make that user experience more satisfying. Whether it is by allowing users to pick topics or order of updates, something needs to change. Why? Because it is all about attention; the premium of which is measured in subscribers, influence and the influence of those subscribers.

Tags: RSS CNET readers consumers interaction

And you're a giant nerd.

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:51:23 -0400

Scott appears to be correct.

He sent me an email yesterday to say that he and Pete had a conversation about something. Which evidently happens on occasion. From the email and attached screen shot I deduced that the discussion was about Google indexing RSS feeds and linking directly to them and how that sucks. 'Cause it does.

Don't get me wrong I love Google for indexing feeds. Seriously, it rocks. They are leading in this area.

Let me show you what's going on:

1. Scott searches at Google for an awesome party in Chicago called "The Deaf Chicago Party" (remind me to ask him about this) and the first result is Croncast.

The first thing to pay attention to in this image to pay attention to is the green URL - http://www.croncast.com/keyrss/Chicago party.rss. Yep, it's a RSS feed and not a web page. To which I say, "right on." However, 99.9 times out of 100 when when someone clicks through and RSS link in Google they get a face full of XML or an ugly feed. Click the link above to see.

2. Scott clicked on my link to the RSS from Google and and something magical happened. See the screen shot that he sent me:

He ended up at my site not looking at a bunch of XML or having his browser ask him if he wants to subscribe to my feed. He was taken directly to a page within my site that has relevant posts from our podcast and blog for the topic he was looking for . . . maybe, probably not really since I don't know what 'The Deaf Chicago Party' is. And, apparently, Google doesn't either. Let's just call it serendipity.

The summary to my detective work can be boiled down to what I figured out a few months ago:

1. Google loves RSS feeds filled with new stuff
2. I love RSS feeds filled with my new and old stuff
3. People like information on topics of interest
4. I created RSS feeds by post tag but also allow them to be created by readers/listeners dynamically (see #3)
5. I did some quick SEO on these feeds to make their titles and descriptions relevant to topic
6. Finally, I coded the feeds to check if user was coming from Google or other search engines
7. Google sends bot and indexes said feeds
8. Someone searches at Google for a topic like "tijuana vasectomy" - just got a hit for it yesterday
9. That someone clicks the link and ends up at site with the exact same items in it that were in the RSS feed without all the feed related hassle

It's not a perfect system but one that I think is way more acceptable to a user than clicking a link in a search engine and getting put into a feed. In many cases being dumped into a feed isn't going to get you to the content you wanted anyway because it has been pushed out by newer items. When I put someone into my site from a feed result in a search engine they then have the ability to find their topic right there. If not, they an internal site search that will find what they are after. The coolest part to me about it is that once they have made it to the site I then offer them the feed for their topic, just in case this is truly what they were after.

Tags: giant nerd google rss keyword rss feeds dynamic rss tijuana vasectomy

Making use of my Google Reader shared feed

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:37:04 -0400

The 'kris is reading' section of the site is now fully functional. Go and check it out. I'll be here when you get back.

Glad to have you back.

So what the hell was that, right?

I have finished up, for now (some touching up to do), what I think is a pretty cool way to use a shared Google Reader feed. I think I stumbled upon an interesting concept that enhances sharing information online and makes it more personable.

The history of how I got to this point is at the end of this post. I'm going to try to describe what you just saw the best way I can. Here goes nothing:

1. I parse my Google Reader shared feed and cache it in a database. This is done with a script that runs on a cron every two minutes to get new items - post title, description and timestamp
2. I stamp the item with the current time that I most likely read the item
3. This is cool - I run a script to generate keywords (subjects) from the shared item. The script needs to mature a bit but it is pretty effective.
4. I then pull the cached posts up in to the 'kris is reading' section of the site and order them by the time that I read them. Really the only way to organize them coherently since the post timestamps vary based on the author's time zone
5. I display the keywords below each post. Each keyword is a link that will search all of my other shared items for related posts. Each keyword has a link to technorati. Each keyword is an entry into RSS feed for that keyword subject.
6. I have added a 'Search my read items' function so that you can search my shared items for whatever you like. If you want to find items that I have read about about ceratin topic like, Facebook, you can.

What's happening is that I am giving you, the reader of my shared feed the ability to use me as a content filter. And the best part is that you didn't have to ask me to read up on a given topic that you are interested in. I didn't have to add it to a to-do list, I was already doing it. And now I'm able to give you access to it in a few ways:

1. Here's everything that I have read and shared from Google Reader
2. Here's everything that I have read - now search it by subject
3. Here's everything that I have read - now subscribe via RSS to a subject (keyword) and get updates every time I read an item about your subject without ever having to come back to my site

The other really cool part is that the source publishers benefit from my sharing adding the drill down with search, keywords and keyword feeds.

In this scenario I have become a 'social filter', so to speak. Then my readers get to step up to the plate and filter even further. A 'hyper-social filter', so to speak. I am able to share an item from a publisher that my current readers might have never found. Possibly (and possibly in the same sense that someone might find your content in search engine or directory) my readers will visit the publisher's site and subscribe to the source feed.

In a strange way it gives an individual like myself the chance to create a low threshold directory with the ability to be distributed simply by marking items that I like. It takes Google Reader to a new place beyond a feed reader and makes it a platform for syndication. Google Reader becomes a powerful tool to create new channels of distribution for content that usually meets its end on a subscribers computer. Now it has legs.

How can I see other people using this? Tons of ways.

1. The same way that I am using it to create a history of my own reading with the ability to share right down to the topic level.
2. By individuals respected as gate keepers like librarians. Example - whether the source feeds were running on their library content or the internet they could mark items from those feeds and then give the feed based on a topic to a patron, i.e. happy computer savvy student who doesn't need to come back and ask for help again.
3. Could be used to share information behind a firewall from corporate blogs. Great way to fatten up a corporate knowledge base by picking and choosing from your qualified authors.
4. You could create micro-repositories based on topics
5. A million other ways that I haven't thought of yet. Not even quite sure I could come up with a million.

How I got here:

A few months ago, before Rick split to California, the full Naperville nerd posse was together one last time. I was busting out a story about how I was parsing out my Google Reader shared feed and displaying it for site visitors on my 'kris is reading' page. I was way stoked about it. But like many times in the past, it came to light that Rick and beaten me to this with the 'links' section of his blog. He was taking his shared feed, burning it and displaying it on its own page and in his blog navigation. Brilliant!

My consolation, instead of being first (important in nerd circles), was that I had learned how to do this with my own code . . . a valuable prize I am finding out.

So about a month ago I changed up the code to cache my shared feed items. Which was good for two reasons:

1. I could display more than the 25 items in the feed
2. I would have a historical record of what I was reading in my own blog.

And, again, I was not first again. Damn it! This step was inspired by the Tumblr link blog of Josh Bancroft. Seeing the posts cached and the ability to navigate them 20 or so items at a time was brilliant. I could see a ton of stuff that Josh was reading but also see what was motivating him enough to write posts from.

Should I know better than to try be first in doing something? Yes, but my nerd side does get the best of me sometimes.

I doubt that I am first in working over a shared feed this way but it was fun to build and I am sure it will be useful in making something else. Hell, maybe it will inspire someone else to do something cool.

Tags: Google Reader shared feed kris is reading Josh Bancroft link blogs

Hey Blogliners, I fixed your feeds. I think.

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:25:56 -0400

My apologies as this turned into a mild nerd rant. Thanks to the Bloglines users who dropped me a line to let me know about this.

Dear Bloglines Users and Bloglines Employees,

I have now hacked all of my feeds to work properly in Bloglines. Bloglines users saw this problem begin about two months ago now, but I finally thought of a good way to make this happen with the minimal amount of work. That's not to say that it wasn't a pain to update all the feeds and create all new ones.

For those of you that still experience constant updates of the feeds even after you have read an item PLEASE SEND ME THE FEED URL and I will fix it ASAP. I know you got to get your Croncast! :-)

For the record, I want to state that this problem is not a Croncast feeds problem, but a Bloglines problem.

It started when I added dynamic ads to the feeds. Dynamic in this sense that odds are nearly 100 percent that the ad will be new every time the feed is loaded. This is way bad for Bloglines. They ignore the post's time stamp (part of the RSS spec to let aggregators know that an item is new or has been updated) in favor of updating user accounts when the post copy has been modified. Say for example a new ad in an old post. So every 30 minutes or so when Bloglines would come and get the feed content on behalf of a user and there was a new ad . . . poof, our subscribers would get an update that there was a new item in the feed. Uh, no. Same post new ad.

Why not just go with the time stamp? Got me. Not using the time stamp seems silly. Maybe they think they are doing publishers a favor by updating the content in a feed in case there is a spelling error that gets fixed or you fired up the thesaurus to come off like a smarty pants.

Whatever the reason is - they should stop doing it and simply notify their users when an item has a new time stamp like the rest of the feed readers on the planet. This way I could run ads in feeds that help me cover my server costs and not create special 'bloglines only' feeds.

Tags: Bloglines constant updates Bloglines/3.1 rss time stamp rss feed ads

More Croncast, the more better . . .

Mon, 21 May 2007 14:30:51 -0400

Not always. Wanted to take this moment of your time to apologize for the double and triple downloads that some of you have been experiencing.

I mentioned there might be an issue because I updated all the feeds with new some new elements and well . . . the readers and iTunes are treating everything as new.

Tags: RSS updates Feeds Gone Wild double downloads podcast laugh

Catch up with us while we are on break

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 09:18:23 -0500

For those of you with a desire to catch up with the show while we are on hiatus (cause that is what they call it in the biz, ha!).I have created some really kick ass automated RSS feeds that do some cool stuff.

The first is the catch up with us in 22 days. The podcasts are sent one for every weekday in March. The 22 archive shows were selected by Mike Marusin, Betsy and myself as a retrospective of what a Croncast listener might like to hear again and a newbie should hear for the first time, like the vacation shows.

The second is a feed that will send you a new show every weekday until we quit doing the show. Seriously, it will just keep sending you a new show every weekday out of the archive from with the date you sign up. Enjoy!

Feel free to ping me or leave a comment with any feedback you might have.

Catch up in 22 weekdays

Catch up in 22 weekdays RSS

ARCHIVES - There are a few ways to download archived shows besides clicking the green "download" button for every single show.

1. This way is kind of cool . . . one show sent to you every weekday from our first show all the
way to most recent. Chances are you won't catch up to the newest shows with this feed but
it is a way to get a Croncast every weekday to brighten your morning commute!

Get this feed (only available from the Archives Page).

2. Start from the very beginning and load up! Subscribe to each one of these feeds to
to download the archives. I would do one RSS feed but it exceeds the "valid" size limit
of 200k used by most readers. How's that for nerdy?

Novemer 8, 2004 to April 31, 2005

May 1, 2005 to October 31, 2005

November 1, 2005 to April 31, 2006

May 1, 2006 to October 31, 2006

November 1, 2006 to Today!

3. Stream a playlist with iTunes, Windows Media Player or WinAmp

Tags: moderated media consumption Croncast archive feeds catch up in 22 days mm rss feeds moderated media feeds moderated media rss

100k on the way!

Wed, 24 May 2006 21:16:41 -0400

Not dollars! I wish. But we will cross the 100,000 RSS feed hits since the new site went live on April 9th. I am nerd excited.

The picture above is from my homebrew RSS stats app. Nice, eh? It tracks all of our feeds, well the 2 old ones (the one that redirects to Feedburner and the one read by Feedburner) from the last site and the 5 new ones. Since the new 5 have gone live we've picked up on average 53 unique readers of those daily. So from April 9th until today we've gained at least 53 new listeners . . . yes!

How do I know? I'm a stats junkie with enough code under his belt to get dangerous on the tracking tip.

The really big deal is that the website itself is envious of the RSS feeds and wishes them death. The day that I started running the stats to track the total RSS hits and even the unique hits the light went on. The RSS feeds receive nearly five times as many unique visitors in a day than Croncast.com!

UPDATE: It happened.

Tags: 100k RSS Croncast podcast stats

Croncast - Betsy and her husband Kris 128

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 05:30:56 -0400

Croncast - 2005-09-28.mp3

Show: #169
Length: 27:14
Format: mp3
Bit rate: 64 kbs
Size: 12.4 mb

Croncast - Betsy and her husband Kris 128

Show Notes

Tom Davies' entry is going to be tough to beat
Sign of Aging when you use
"Guess what I read in Readers Digest today"
As a conversation starter
What kind of job Betsy could get if she started today?
Kris thinks I would be pulling animals off tin roofs in Lousiana
The secret lives of men
Kris believes he is completely controlled by women
Kris thinks I should start a shopping blog
Von Maur rocks
Rude people call at dinner
Though Kris won't just hang up
Further proof that he is controlled by women
Ashton Moore

More voting? Really more voting? No way.

How can I vote some more? I can vote everyday for Croncast?

Answers: Yes, yes, yes, and yes!

How?

Click the green button at the bottom of this page.

New Contest!!

Send Betsy the a story of the funniest thing that ever happened to you and you could win . . . this set of fabulous Vintage Collector Edition Pac-Man glasses that are near mint quality!

The contest ends on Friday October 7th and the winner will be announced on Monday October 10th. Good luck! Betsy will pick the winner.

Tags: kris betsy croncast thinks women