October 29th, 2008 · 2 Comments
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Last month I wrote about RSS Widgets under utilized. One of the suggestions I had for quick, fresh content which could be updated daily was to create an RSS Feed using Twitter Hashtags. The only thing I didn’t like about the idea was the hashtags showing up on every post to the feed.
There is a lot you can do to tailor your RSS Feeds with this plugin. The feature I like the most to compliment the idea above is the ability to trim characters from the feed. For example if I tweet a hashtag “#FNRR showing a friend how to use hashtags” The hashtag shows up at the start of the Feed, but using the KB Advanced RSS Plugin I can tell it to trim off those first 5 characters. The result, I get just the tweet and new content on my blog.
There are a lot of different ways this idea could be used. For example, I have a friend here in Tucson who performs weddings and holds receptions. His blog is My Tucson Wedding. The other day over lunch I suggested he could have a big screen projection set up to display an RSS Feed so messages could be displayed to the couple on screen from the people at the reception using Twitter and hashtags.
I like the idea of using hashtag tweets for quick notes and updates of information pertaining to a particular blog. I currently have three RSS Widgets set up to display hashtag feeds from Twitter on various blogs.
If you want to take more control over your RSS Feeds showing up on your blog I suggest you check out the KB Advanced RSS Plugin.
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Tags: Plug-ins
September 27th, 2008 · 9 Comments
Widgets were built into the basic structure of Wordpress about a bazzilion versions ago. One of those widgets native to Wordpress is the RSS Widget. It is a very powerful tool for WordPress bloggers but I don’t see it being used very often.
We all know that fresh content is one of the things Google bots love. Feed them regularly and they will return to eat more often. But is isn’t always easy to keep fresh content ready for the hungry little bots and like birds if you don’t keep the food our they will find other places to eat.
Using RSS Widgets
One way to keep things changing is through the RSS widget. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started.
Author Multiple Sites RSS Feed
If you author more than one blog you could be feeding content back and forth between them in an RSS Widget. It is easy to copy your feed into the widget and select the number of post you want in the feed. This way every time you publish a new post you create new content for both blogs.
You can Feed Any Feed
If you can feed it you can put it in an RSS Widget. Want to let the readers on your blog know what you are tweeting about on Twitter. You don’t need a widget from another source. You can put your twitter stream in an RSS widget and display it on your blog.
I’m not saying this is a good idea. From some of what I’ve read in tweets you wouldn’t want that on your blog. But it illustrates it can be done.
RSS Feed a Hashtag
Hashtags are used in Twitter to create a kind of thread. You simply put a # in front of number, letter, combination there of and you have a hashtag anyone starting a tweet with the same hashtag make it search able for that particular tag.
You could create a hashtag, create an RSS feed for that tag when searching for it on Twitter then past the feed URL into an RSS Widget on your WordPress blog. This allows you to tweet specific information to your blog by including a hashtag. Probably better than your entire Twitter stream being displayed.
Multiple Blogs, create a hashtag for each blog and you can tweet directly to the specific blog, Micro blogging within your blog. Creating fresh new content on the fly.
RSS Feeds are Good Food For Bots
These are just a few ways you can use the RSS Feed widget built into Wordpress Widgets. If you want to see some of these widgets in use check out For No REal Reason I’ve got several of them running on that site including a hashtag widget.
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Tags: Real Estate Blogging
