Newsreader subscription to rss feed

More and more people keep up-to-date with their favourite blogs through the use of Newsreaders. Recent statistics from FeedBurner suggest that the top 5 (Google Reader, myYahoo!, Bloglines, Netvibes & Newsgator) account for more than 95% of all views and clicks. Related (but different) to newsreaders is the increased use of browser-based subscriptions (i.e. Firefox Live Bookmarks and Internet Explorer 7.0). In the box below, I provide links for the top 5 that you can simply click on to subscribe, plus an AddThis link you can use for any of the other smaller newsreaders out there:

Subscription via newsreader:

Add to Bloglines | Add to myYahoo | Add to Google Reader | Add to Netvibes | Add to Newsgator | AddThis (other newsreaders)

Subscription via browser:

Click here to access the feed direct then use your browser subscribe button from the menu bar.

Subscription by email

Whilst somewhat "retro", subscription by email is actually quite a recent introduction to the market. Most of us visit our email first (before anywhere else) during a typical computer session. Many like the convenience of having posts from their favourite blog sent direct to their email inbox. We make direct use of the FeedBurner email subscription service for our blog feed:

Subscribe via email using:
Newsreader Email Subscription Service

Syndication of content using javascript

Now for the really useful stuff! If you are a webmaster and wish to syndicate our content for use on your site, you have come to the right page! This simple method makes use of the CARP generated javascript which we host on our own site:

<script src="http://www.seo-expert-services.co.uk/ses-carp.php"></script>By request, we can provide almost limitless customisation of your javascript feed, using the excellent FeedSweep hosted service (contact us to find out more).

Syndication of content using PHP script

Subscription by PHP script is the choice of the true webmaster professional (running Apache webservers). Why? Well, contrary to much of the rubbish you read on the internet, Search Engines do not always "love" content rich RSS feeds. Or rather, they do not love them if they are wrapped in javascript (as is the case with 95% of all syndicated feeds on the web). However, by using embedded PHP script, your web page will render all the text and links from the originating feed (so search engines will find and index it all).

Whilst not for the total novice, PHP script inclusion is really not so very difficult. We talk you through, step by step, how to syndicate our feed by PHP below:

Firstly, you need to edit your .htaccess file and add a single line (which tells your Apache server to include PHP scripts in HTML output). For 95% of all web servers, this line will be one of the following two different options:

AddType x-mapp-php4 .html .htm
AddType application/x-httpd-php .htmlSecondly, you need to include the following script in your web page at the location where you want the feed to appear:

<?php
require_once 'http://www.seo-expert-services.co.uk/ses-carp.php';
?>

By inserting this PHP script (without any further modification) you will render the feed you see below this paragraph. By request, I can provide webmasters with their own customised scripts to fit your site style (e.g. with dates removed or extra line breaks). Here is the raw rendering:

[CaRP] Can't open cache file.

[CaRP] Failed to open file: /home/expert/public_html/Joomla/carp/autocache/47c97b9b8caab3f39d63329dfce4ccc6

[CaRP] Can't open remote newsfeed.

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