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About Us 2007 is when I began creating niche stores. Many kind and giving people shared their knowledge with me, making it easier to improve my sites. I have gathered much of what I've learned and put it here, on this site, as a way of giving back. It is my hope that this site will help you improve your niche stores and sites, too. ~ Rochelle
How to Add a Single RSS Content Page to Your Site
Posted by
Rochelle in Fresh content is an important aspect of any store but even more so for niche stores. New content helps give visitors a reason to come back. It also helps search engines know that your site isn’t stagnant and this means they will come back often to index your site. The more pages are indexed the more pages will show up in results for search engines.
BANS member Mark wrote a mod to automatically add RSS feeds to a content page within a niche store. For the life of me I can’t find the page where he gives instructions on how to do this or I would post it here but I did write my own instructions for this. Mark – if you see this and remember what page this comes from please let me know and I’ll add the link here.
My instructions to add a single RSS content page to your site: | |
Step One | |
| Find the URL for the RSS feed you want to use. If you don’t know how to find an RSS feed then type ‘RSS feed directory‘ into your favorite search engine and search through the directories for a feed. | |
NOTE: Make sure you click the RSS subscription button. This may be found after a URL or there may be a RSS link somewhere, such as at Google News: After you click the RSS button you should see a page that looks similar to the image below. There will be an option to subscribe to the feed (don’t do this) and results for the feed showing below. It is this URL that you will use for this mod: | |
| Step Two | |
| Download rss-files.zip files, save them to your computer, and unzip them. | |
Step Three | |
| Use an FTP to upload the unzipped files, ex-rss.php, parser.php, pear.php, and rss.php, to your site’s root directory (where your site’s index.php is located). (Click here to read about my favorite FTP.) | |
| Step Four | |
| Edit ex-rss.php (click here if you don’t know how to do this) with the following changes: | |
| |
| Save changes. | |
Step Five | |
| Log in to your site’s Admin and click on the ‘Content Pages‘ tab and ‘Create New Page‘ link. | |
| Create a new content page and name it something like, “Niche Items in the News,” but change Niche Items to whatever your RSS feed results will be about. | |
| Save page. | |
| Step Six | |
| Note: Skip this step if you did the Permalink or Mark’s Sitemap mods. This is a duplication of code used in these mods and adding it again will cause a fatal error on your site. | |
| Click the ‘Template‘ tab and ‘header.php‘ link for the template you are using. Copy the contents of rss01.txt and paste it ABOVE the </head> tag. Save changes and view your site for errors. | |
Step Seven | |
| Decide if you want any text added to your RSS content page (added via the Page Content section) to be displayed above the RSS feed results or below them. | |
| |
| Step Eight | |
| Copy the contents of rss02.txt and paste it to one of the following: | |
| |
| Change the following bits of code before you save your changes: | |
| |
Step Nine | |
| Save changes and view site for errors. | |
done | |
That’s it!
Your site now has freshly updating content that search engines love to see.
If you decide you want to add additional RSS content pages then read my instructions on how to do that here.
Rochelle
54 Responses to “How to Add a Single RSS Content Page to Your Site”
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[...] If you want to just one RSS content page then you can read my instructions on how to do this here. [...]
Hi Rochelle,
Got a bit stuck. Did everything, but no news showing… I think it could be my editing of the ex-rss.php file. I just put the my news url in once, near the top, the keywords i had to use to get it, and the number 6 instead of the 20. I can’t think of anything else. Should i leave the “$feedurlend = ”; untouched? Then a little lower there is “$url = $feedurlstart.$newsearch.$feedurlend;” and lower still “$url = $feedurlstart.$singleKey.$feedurlend;”. I just left those, is that right?
Sorry to be dense! I’m not too bad at editing, but I have never had to manhandle (womanhandle) an rss feed mechanism before, and don’t have a clue what makes it work or not work….
Lyn – Yes, you should leave “$feedurlend = ”; untouched.
Is there much content for the RSS you chose? It is possible that there isn’t anything because there may not be any recent posts.
I’m going to send you an email.
Rochelle
Lyn accidently used the wrong URL for her RSS URL. I added a note in step one about what the page for the RSS URL you should use looks like.
Rochelle
Step one says to click the RSS button on the URL of the feed you want but this may not always be correct. I followed these instructions and got my RSS feed from Google News. In this case clicking the RSS icon on the URL bar brought me to an atom feed, not an RSS feed. I should have scrolled down and clicked the ‘RSS’ link on the left sidebar.
So, check the URL you are using to see if it says RSS or ATOM. If it is ATOM then you need to go back and get the RSS subscription link and verify that it says RSS at the end. (It may or may not be in capitals.)
Some RSS URLs have the ‘RSS’ or ‘ATOM’ at the end of the URL but not all. Some have it mixed in the middle.
Rochelle
Hi Rochelle,
Nice script you have done here.It works fine on my site with a couple of excpetions.One is personal and thats just the color of the link to the news item,can I change that? And the other is odd text characters appearing in the news text. This — for instance,how can I get rid if this if at all?
Alan – I wish I could claim this script as mine but I simply wrote the instructions. BANS forum member Mark (aka meetmydomains) is the creator of this.
I don’t know for sure about the link color but you might try the instructions at http://www.nichestorestrategie.....your-site/ to see if this works for you. I don’t know if it will or not.
As to the strange characters, the only thought I have is that they may be coming from the original links and may have nothing to do with this script. To my knowledge the script is simply bringing the links to your site. I don’t think they change anything within the scripts. But I really don’t know for sure.
Rochelle
Hi Rochelle,
I tried the color change as suggested but to no avail.Seems a shame that its not that simple
As for the odd characters it seems that the text in the links is fine,just not showing up on my site as correct.
Ok, I’ve gone over every step to make sure I haven’t missed anything, and all I’m getting on my content page is the number 1. Is that supposed to happen?
Noelle – I’m sorry for not responding sooner but we were out of town.
The number 1 will show up regardless of your results. If there are no results you will see it at the top, as you are. If there are RSS results you will see it at the bottom, but I bet most people haven’t noticed it. Why does it show up? I don’t know. But it doesn’t hurt anything so I haven’t pursued it with Mark, who wrote the mod.
Now, onto why you aren’t seeing any RSS results. I’ve found there are two reasons for this (though there may be more). First, I’ve found that the wrong RSS URL will cause no results.
Or, I’ve found that the URL may be correct but there are simply no results. Go back to where you got the URL and see how recent the newest results are. If there are very few updates to the RSS then you may not see anything and need to choose a different RSS feed.
If you are comfortable doing so you can post the URL you are using here and I’ll take a look at it. Or you can ask me to send you an email so you can email it to me and not share the RSS feed publically. Of course, you can choose to decline this offer and that’s ok, too.
Rochelle
The RSS feed URL I tried is below. I also tried cutting the URL off after the “rss” but both gave me the same result. There appear to be a lot of results, but it doesn’t list the times of each post, so I’m not sure.
Thank you very much for your help!
http://news.search.yahoo.com/n.....p;eo=UTF-8
[...] Step Twenty-Two Add RSS feed Content Pages. [...]
[...] code you added from permalink 03.txt and save your changes. This code is duplicate code from the RSS Content Page mod and is not needed [...]
[...] Skip this step if you did the Permalink or RSS Content Page mods. This is a duplication of code used in these mods and adding it again will cause a fatal error [...]
I’m getting an error no one has mentioned yet:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_MUL_EQUAL in /home/xxx/public_html/mydomain/themes/theme1/header.php on line 41
Any thoughts? I’m using a custom theme
Suzanne – I have to admit that I’m clueless when it comes to deciphering what error messages mean. It is possible that the problem comes from a custom template but I’m not sure about that.
One possibility is if you have other mods on your template. If so, there is the possibility that one of the other mods is conflicting with this one. Also, did you add the permalink or sitemap mods I have listed here? If so, make sure you didn’t add the duplicate code to your template (see the note in step six above). If you did, try deleting it and see if that clears up the error.
If nothing else you can post a message in the BANS forum and see if one of the members will know what this is and how to correct it. If you do get an answer will you post it here in case someone else runs into this problem?
Thanks once again for your great instructions Rochelle.
It worked great on my new V3 bans site. Thanks
Easy to follow instructions as always Rochelle!
I successfully added an RSS feed to my latest V3 BANS site.
Just wondering, is it possible to add some space between each link feed?
Thanks,
Jamie
Jamie,
I had the same question and after looking into I was able to figure it out. Modify the ex-rss.php file. At the very end of the of the file look for this.
?>
<a href=”" target=”_blank”>
modify it by adding a break. so the code will now look like this.
?>
<a href=”" target=”_blank”>
Jamie,
This isn’t something I’ve done so I don’t have an answer for you.
Robert,
Would you please clarify? The modified code you wrote looks the same as the original code so I’m not sure where the modification is or what it looks like.
Thank you,
Rochelle
i wanted the feed in one of the sidebars which i managed to do, but when i check the page at http://www.validator.w3.org to see if if the syntax is correct, the page has a lot of errors, can anyone throw any light on that as to where i begin to sort out those errors.
Jeffers,
Unfortunately I have no idea how to correct any syntax errors. You might want to post a question about this either on the BANS forum or Mark’s forum.
Rochelle
Rochelle,
You are the best. Period.
I’m a complete newbie with a general understanding of how to follow instructions and edit basic markup, and I got my RSS page up first try, zero errors, using BANs 3.
I have had a couple of problems, which have nothing to do with Rochelle’s excellent instructions. I am posting this in case anyone else has the same problems.
I could not get the news feed to show. When I replaced ‘earnhardt’ with my keyword ‘golf’, I got a blank page. Eventually, I decided to leave everything in the code as it was and then I got earnhardt news showing on my site. What a relief, I now knew that I had not make a mistake! So, I deleted ‘earnhardt’ and did not replace it with a keyword, I left it blank with the quote marks next to each other and, I now have golf news showing on my content page.
I have not been able to solve the 2nd problem. The news feed is ignoring the fact that I inserted ‘15′ in the search results section of the code. It is giving me all 25 results. I am not concerned because they are all golf stories, but if anyone knows why this is happening, I would like to know.
With regards Roberts code above, I believe the answer is as follows:
from this –
?>
to this –
The break () is actually in the middle of the line of text. I have done this on my site and it works.
Denise
Sorry, the code will not show up. All you need do is add to the end of Robert’s code above.
Denise
I don’t understand HTML but it deletes when I submit the post. You need to add (br) to the end of Robert’s code but using the correct small pointy brackets (sorry about the really amateur description!!!).
Denise
(fingers crossed that this post will work)
Rochelle, here’s an issue…I found full feeds of my blog, yours, and several others on a certain Niche Store Strategies commenter’s site. There’s nothing that attributes the article to the original blog owner, so it looks like the content belongs to her when actually she’s scraping other’s blogs.
This made me rethink how I’ll use RSS feeds on my blogs/sites. I had been thinking full feeds would be cool, but now I feel ripped off.
I don’t mind if someone uses my content, but I don’t want it stolen, so I added a WP feed copyright plugin I downloaded at http://blog.taragana.com/index.....tom-feeds/
Kay
SEO Divas last blog post..Get Positive Search Results for Your Business
Kay,
I totally agree with you about it being bad to rip off other peoples blog entries and pass them off as our own. I can say in all honesty that this is not what this mod does.
This particular mod finds blog entries and posts the title and a snippet of the article. It is fully credited to whoever wrote the entries and all links go to the original blog for those who want to read the entire posts.
As to scraping from this blog, if I send you an email would you disclose the URL of the blog doing this so I can block that person from this activity? And I appreciate the link to the plugin. I’ll be installing that shortly.
Rochelle
You bet! If you know how to prevent someone from scraping your blog, please let me know how. The plugin only adds a copyright so the original owner gets credit, and states the fact that the article is being published without permission.
I’m glad this mod posts a snippet only – I’ll give it a try on my BANS sites. Thanks for all your explanations of how to do things with our sites – you’ve been a huge help to me.
Kay
SEO Divas last blog post..Get Positive Search Results for Your Business
Kay,
I just sent you an email. The plugin I use to block sites from stealing my posts is called WP-Bans and can be downloaded from http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming.php
The plugin is new so I haven’t yet banned any sites. This will be a great test to see if it works.
Thank you,
Rochelle
okay I added this feed below and nothing shows up. Is the feed correct?
http://topiphonenews.com/?feed=rss2
Never mind I got it. Works perfectly
Thanks Rochelle, I can’t wait to try this!
I just re-did my main site and added a blog, so the blog scraping info is of interest to me too. I have some questions about this.
For instance, wouldn’t the search engines spot it as duplicate content, and ding her? Can they tell which is the original and which is the scraped content? How does the mod prevent scraping – by blocking cut/paste, or some other means?
Seems to me that a determined scraper who’s after your content will get it any way they can, even if they have to retype the thing.
Alice,
What I have been told regarding site scraping is that Google (and other search engines) are able to see a timestamp for all content, so they are aware of which site has the original content and which sites are duplicating the content. So, theoretically we would be ok if our content is being scraped. But I can’t confirm anything I just said to be truth as I’m still learning this whole blogging thing.
And, yes, if someone wants your information bad enough s/he will find away around anything roadblock you put up.
Rochelle
Thanks Rochelle,
This really adds a lot to my site. Just read your excellent instructions and POOF it’s working.
The feed I found is relevant to my site, though not an exact match for my keywords, but it’ll be of interest to my visitors if I ever get back on Googles good side.
Thanks Again,
Mike
Hi Rochelle,
Just been able to successfully add an rss feed content page. All went well except that I changed the number of results shown to 9 however all results are showing (approx 30).
Do you know how this can be rectified. I tried putting the single digit ‘9′ in and I also tried ‘09′ same result for both.
Thanks for any help you can offer
Shelley
Sorry, I don’t know how to change this for you. Mark, at http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com, is the one who created this mod so you might ask him.
Rochelle
Very cool mod – thank you. Having one problem though…The feed is showing up fine but it is not updating, i.e. current. I have the same feed going into an rss reader on another site and it has already updated a few times.
Is there anything anyone can think of that might solve this issue?
Thanks and all the best,
David
David,
The only thing I can think of is that your browser might be caching your RSS feed page, causing you to see outdated information. You might try clearing your cache and seeing if that makes a difference.
Perhaps someone else may be able to suggest another possibility.
Rochelle
The reason why all results are being displayed is because there is no iterator in the foreach loop. You will need to add “$n=$n+1;” to the foreach loop without the quotes in the last line of ex-rss.php before the closing bracket } and putting a “return;” statement without the quotes after the closing bracket will get rid of the “1″ that is being displayed after the rss feed. I have been unable to provide an example because the php code is not displaying properly.
Hi Rochelle
Here is an interesting one, my original site was historicalfirefighting.com which unfortunately was deindexed by google. I have built a new site incorporating wordpress and bans with bans in a folder. I have a redirect 301 from my old site to new works fine. I would like to add the rss feed. How do I add the feed is it to the root which is wordpress or the store folder which is bans, I would appreciate your help Rochelle.
many thanks
Dave
Dave Weltons last blog post..I’d Like Your Input
Dave,
I’ve pondered this one all afternoon. To be honest, I have not tried adding an RSS feed to any of my wp/BANS sites, so I honestly do not know.
That being said, I do have a thought about this. It is just a thought, so if you try it please share your feedback.
I would add the feed to the BANS part of your site (which looks great, btw). I think it would work following the above instructions, just use the BANS folder instead of the root folder.
My guess is that you want to add a blog page to something like, “Firefighting News,” and have the RSS feed results show there. If so, you can create a blog page, but leave it blank. There is no need to add anything with my idea. Save the page. At this point, if you click the page you will see a blank page.
But, if you add a redirect to the RSS news feed page on the BANS side of your site, you can redirect people from your blog the BANS easily. It would be a seamless redirect, because both BANS and blog are using the same template.
If you decide to try this you can see instructions for creating the redirect, involving the .htaccess file, on this site. If you need help finding it let me know.
If you do this, and it works, I suspect you will need to “reinstall” the BANS side of your site. You wouldn’t actually reinstall it, but you would need to follow the steps to add the new blog page to the BANS side.
This might seem a bit clunky, but I’ve actually done this myself. It is pretty easy (even if it doesn’t sound like it) to redirect and it works well.
If anyone reading this knows of a better way to accomplish what Dave wants to do, please share.
Rochelle
Rochelles last blog post..Guest Blogger Wanted – Squidoo
i dont understand this. i had this thing working with a good yahoo rss feed but today the feeds will not show. i checked the feed url and it shows updated info but all i get is a blank webpage?
any ideas??
Jeff
JEFFs last blog post..Guest Blogger Wanted – Squidoo
Jeff,
I’ve seen this happen before on my sites. Assuming you haven’t made any changes to your site, I don’t think it is anything you did, and the feed will likely return soon, if it hasn’t already. Unfortunately, I do not know how to prevent this from happening.
Rochelle
To remove the “1″ that always appear at the end of feed listing. Change this line:
echo include(“ex-rss.php”);
to
include(“ex-rss.php”);
in “rss02.txt”.
Wonderful! Thank you so much for figuring this out.
Rochelle
thank you for the detailed instructions. without it, I can’t get my BANS site to have custom RSS feeds.
Thanks! Rochelle;
In step 5, save the new page empty?
Also what should be placed in “page url” of the new page? Should the address of the feed be placed here? Thanks again! Lanna
Lanna,
It has been a while since I’ve done this, but I do believe the page you save in step 5 is empty. It will populate with information from the RSS feed you select.
Re: “Also what should be placed in “page url” of the new page? Should the address of the feed be placed here?” Forgive me, but I’m not sure what you mean by this. The URL for the RSS you choose is added in step four.
Rochelle