Customer Reviews

Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds For Dummies ®

5 star:		(5)
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3 star:		(3)
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I just finished reading Ellen's book. For a year or more, I have seen webfeeds on some websites, and those little XML and RSS buttons showing up everywhere. For the life of me (and I'm pretty technosavvy), I just couldn't put it all in context. This book lays it out concisely and makes a compelling case that news and webfeeds are the next communication phenomenon, likely to be as ubiquitous as faxes and email.

I'm not always a "Dummies" fan, but this one rocks! My website will have a feed very soon and I'm already thinking of many ways to use this new technology in creative marketing efforts and to deliver content in a more useful way to our clients.

Colorado divorce and family mediator, Lawrence King, J.D.
Divorce Resolutions, Colorado Center for Divorce Mediation

Being a sometime web developer, it is important to keep up with the latest web technologies. If you have never heard of RSS or are not that familiar with it, I recommend this book as a great introduction to what RSS is, and how you might use it in a website.
It is not expensive, and is a good foundation in that it explains the basics of news feeders and how they are used, but doesn't go into a lot of technical/code information. In other words, if you want to code your own newsreader, find another book. On the other hand, the author does explain how to syndicate any item you want for RSS.

I love this book, it has broaden my horizons. I didn't know anything abour rss until i read this book, I'm now well on my way. If you are looking for a book that will teach you the basics of rss and that will get you started on your rss project, this is the book. Because of the vast amount of information in this book, you will actually be more confident in any rss project you start, even if you are just looking to buy another book on a related topic. This is the perfect book to start working on syndicating websites and rss, or just to understand why it works.

I should be finished this book in about two days. It has been very helpful and specific and a vast improvement on some others in the Dummies series. Ellen Finkelsrtein has done a good job and crafted a good book. I particularly like the wayu she says: go to this web site and do this this, So I go to the webiste and bookmark ans I find it very valuable.
feedvalidator.org was one such site. I went and it complained soem of my taigs.com blog was not properly validated: litle things like a ">" i na closing tag omitted. So I fixed them. Without this book, they would still be broken. The little things add up in this game.

Another thing: she does not waste time explaining irrelevant basics. She sticks to her topic and does not squander time telling you how to install this, that or the other. She also divides up the programming bit from the take it and go bit. There is an acompanying site which gives you the code to write your own feeds. All in all, I concur with the earlier reviews and give it top marks.

Before I read this book I had no idea of what the "point" of blogging was all about. Sure, I knew the technical details, but the whole thing just didn't "congeal" in my mind and make any practical sense.
After reading this and a couple other books over my summer vacastion, now I get it! Finkelstein does a wonderful job of not only providing an introduction, but enough supporting material so that I knew what to do with it. If you'd like to figure it all out yourself, get this and the companion Buzz Marketing book and give them a read. Then join in the fun! Highly recommended.

The best part about this resource is that it assumes nothing. It takes a complete novice and explains that RSS means really simple syndication. Then it goes into the value of having changing content, the need to choose an RSS that is not only compatible with your content, but will add ever-changing, relevant content. I am using the resource to be sure that I have an accurate understanding of what it is, who it helps, how it helps, when to use one, and how to subscribe to an RSS Feed.

While I do like this book, and basically agree with most of the reviews here, I was frankly suprised that during the discussion of RSS with Blogs, WordPress was left out. Not even an entry in the index.

Blogger, Movable Type, TypePad, LiveJournal, etc were all discussed. How can you leave out WordPress, one of the Major players in the blogging market? Maybe not a big deal, but it does make me wonder what else was left out?

The author took much too long in getting where she needed to go. I wanted a "how to" book from the getgo and this was not it. I did not need to wade through all kinds of minutia to get to the heart of the matter. I wanted to sit down and do a rss feed and she took about 5 unnecessary chapters to get there.

I have read a few Dummies books, and rather like them. I needed to learn more about RSS, as I didn't know anything at all. My problem with this book is that is seems kind of disorganized and perhaps overly broad and doesn't zero in on the important information quickly and succinctly. On the one hand, to be fair to the author, having read the book, I do understand what I need to about RSS. But I really think it could have been said in less than half the pages, and get the reader much more quickly to the point. There's a lot of "chatting" kind of "happily" that just should have been edited out. Having read the book, the points a reader would need to know could be summarized in a very small book, maybe 80-100 pages, and I don't like that I had to spend time reading far more pages than necessary. But the information is in there. I haven't read anything else on RSS, so I don't know if there is anything better (more tightly written) out there.