We have been talking about how to create a blog here on My Newbie Blog.  In our last article we began to discuss the importance of content.  In this article we want to continue to discussion in regard to adding quality content to your site.  While you are developing your own content, you can often build readership by presenting useful content from other sources on the Internet.  One of the ways to do this is to take advantage of RSS feeds that are available from some popular sites.

We took three hours this afternoon and took a site from bare bones to looking presentable by adding a new theme, adding some RSS feeds, adding some video feeds, and utilizing some plugins and widgets.  We also designed a logo and added some 125 ads.  The site is called Current Events Online and it now looks like this:

If anyone visits the site now, they could spend a long time looking through all of the information available.  What we will do now is begin to add some articles over time.  This will allow us to develop the site while at the same time keeping people who come to the site before all of our own content is on the site. If you visit the Current Events Online site you might think that it has been around for a long time.  The lack of articles is not readily apparent because of the impact of the RSS feeds.  We have used a theme that will allow us to add our content as featured articles which can be developed over the next weeks and months.  This can be a very helpful way to develop a site and establish an Internet presence.

I keep working away on the list I started called 50 Things to Do to Start a Blog from Scratch. I am sure you would like it all to happen quicker, but there is a lot to do to start a blog. I have been working on getting the RSS feed burner installed. RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication. It is a way for people to sign up to receive posts as you write them. There is also an email option for the same service. Working through the process is also an opportunity to begin to work with widgets. I think the blog is looking better all the time, I am sure your blog is looking better too, but it’s definitely a lot of work to start a blog from scratch.

Installing the RSS Feedburner

To install the RSS Feedburner you need to go to the Feedburner website.

Take some time to read the information on this site. This link will take you to the Learn to burn your WordPress feed.

Click on the WordPress button and you will get the following screen.

At this screen click on the Create your WordPress feed (selfhosted/WordPress) option. You will then see instructions you need to follow. I have copied the instructions here for your convenience:

For the best results using FeedBurner with your self-hosted WordPress site, we recommend the FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin (originally authored by the awesome Steve Smith). The plugin will detect all ways to access your feed (e.g. http://www.yoursite.com/feed/ or http://www.yoursite.com/wp-rss2.php, etc.), and redirect them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. It will forward for your main posts feed, and optionally your main comments feed as well.Installation

Download the plugin, then follow the instructions below to begin forwarding all WordPress feed traffic to your FeedBurner feed.

1. Copy the plugin file, FeedBurner_FeedSmith_Plugin.php into your default WordPress plugin directory, wp-content/plugins/ .

2. Activate the plugin by logging into your WordPress administration area, clicking Plugins, then clicking Activate at the end of the “FeedBurner FeedSmith” row.

3. In the WordPress administration area, begin the configuration by clicking Options and then the FeedBurner FeedSmith sub-option.

4. Follow the links to create your FeedBurner feeds, or if they already exist, simply fill in their URLs in the boxes provided.

Note: If you currently use the old, 2005-vintage version of the Ordered List FeedBurner plugin that generates a FeedBurner-specific URL (an example: www.yoursite.com/feedburner_838196/), that URL is no longer available or necessary. You will have to reset your FeedBurner feed’s Original Feed address to now use your standard blog feed address. Additionally, you should examine any .htaccess files that control access to your WordPress installation’s content and remove any existing references that forward or redirect your feeds, as these references will no longer be necessary.

5. Verify your URLs in the text entry fields, and click Save.

Now all of your WordPress feed traffic should be redirected to FeedBurner.

Deactivation

To deactivate automatic forwarding of your feed traffic to FeedBurner, deactivate the plugin via the Plugins section of your WordPress Administration control panel.

Thanks to Feedburner for those directions. They worked pretty well for me. If you need to review the process for installing a plugin take some time to read 5o Things to Do to Start a Blog from Scratch - Part 3. Once your plugin is installed and activated we need to set up some widgets.

Using Widgets to get your RSS setup.

It’s time to learn about Widgets. Go the WordPress dashboard, click on Presentation and then on Widgets.

You should also see the Default Sidebar box.

Below this are the available widgets. You can drag the widgets into the sidebar and they will become the widgets you see on your blog.

In order to get the RSS installed you need to add a couple of text widgets. Scroll down the page until you see the Text Widget box.

For this exercise increase the number to 3 and hit the save button. You should now have 3 Text Widgets in your Available Widgets box.

Drag the 3 Text Widgets into the sidebar box.

Now go back to the FeedBurner website. At the top of the page click on the sign in option and at the sign in screen type in the information you set up earlier when you started the feedburner process. You will be taken to your account screen.

Now click on the title of your blog and you will go to the options screen.

Click on the publicize tab. You will see the following options.

I used three of these options. I did the Chicklet Chooser, the Feed Count, and the Email Subscription. I will guide you through the Chicklet Chooser and then you should be able to do the other two if you want. Go ahead and click on the Chicklet Chooser.

I chose the large chicklet to publicize the RSS feed. Once you click on a choice scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see some code.

Copy this code. To copy the code put your cursor anywhere in the code. Press the Ctrl and A keys to select the text. This should highlight the text. Then hit the Ctrl and C keys. Your text is now copied. Go back to the WordPress dashboard and press Presentation and Widgets. Go to the Text 1 Widget. Press on the icon

and you will get a blank Text 1 box.

Type in a title in the top line. Something like RSS Feed. Then put your cursor in the text box and press the Ctrl and V keys. This should paste the code you copied from feedburner into the box. The text box should look like this.

Close the box and press Save Changes. Now go and view your site. You should see the chicklet on your blog. Repeat the process with the Feed Counter and with the Email Subscription service. Congratulations! Thats two big things on the list for starting a blog from scratch. Let me finish with what might be a helpful note. If you remove the Meta Widget from your blog you will quickly figure out that you lost your login button. All you need to do to log in to your blog is to add /wp-login.php to the end of your blog address. For example I would enter mynewbieblog.com/wp-login.php This takes me to the login screen. Have fun. Change your widgets around. Keep experimenting with themes. Get comfortable with making changes!