Mambo RSS Feeds - Planning Delivery

RSS feeds can be useful for marketing Mambo sites. RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") feeds deliver content to site visitors who want to stay up to date with your news (which is why they are sometimes also called "news feeds") and your latest content. You can set up feeds through the Syndication component within Mambo and have them delivered through either a direct link to your feed or through LiveBookmarks which appear in the address bar of a browser.

The default Mambo feeds contain partial content which is taken from the frontpage only, however there are many RSS extensions available from 3rd parties to extend the functionality of your feeds. If you wish to build up a loyal following of regular readers it is worth installing an extension that provides full feeds. One that I recommend is Run Digital RSS from Robert Deutz. This works with every version of Mambo 4.6 and gives several options for how you want to deliver your feeds.

The most important consideration is whether you want to provide full feeds or partial feeds. Full feeds (the entire content item) are the most user-friendly. If you have regular readers they can keep up-to-date with your latest content using feed readers, without having to visit your site. Feed readers often make your content accessible on mobile devices such as PDA's and mobile phones. If you do not provide a mobile-friendly template for your site this can be a good way of reaching people who use mobile for their web reading.

However, while full feeds are the most friendly to human readers, they also carry the risk that your content can then be published in full on someone else's site. Forget duplicate content - if your feed is popular you could find your content reproduced on dozens of other sites. (More information about duplicate content coming soon, so check back here to read about the implications of this).

The alternative is to offer a partial feed, with content restricted to the number of words you set. This will potentially annoy readers who are then forced to visit your site so they can read the whole article. When deciding which type of feed to use - partial or full - you need to consider the purpose of your feed. While forcing people to visit your site to read the article may sound good, its important to remember that most people use feeds for the convenience of being able to quickly read content and a large proportion just won't bother visiting the site to read the rest UNLESS the article is unique and very compelling.

So, you need to think about what you are trying to achieve by providing RSS feeds. If you are trying to build up readership then provide full feeds so they can choose how and when to read your content. If you are trying to use the feeds as a "teaser" in the hope of encouraging people to visit your web site, then use partial feeds. There are pros and cons to each and its up to you to decide which delivery method best suits the goals of your site.