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RSS feed

  1. 5700words
    Member

    What icon or thingie should I put in my Sidebar to allow visitors to get an RSS feed / Subscription to my blog? I am not clear about this because I see those icons but notice that they are for getting feeds from other blogs onto my blog, which is not what I want to do any more.

    Or is it that if someone want an RSS feed from my blog, they themselves have to get their own RSS feed icon and use it from their blog? This is a confusing issue. I wish someone would write instructions on them for rank beginners.

    Lornakismet

    The blog I need help with is lornakismet.wordpress.com.

  2. thesacredpath
    Member

    See my reply in the other post.

  3. thesacredpath
    Member

    This thread: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/rss-feed-wont-show-although-i-followed-wordpress-instructions?replies=4 .

  4. t3ck
    Member

    Here is a link to a video that will explain RSS in Plain English
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

    You put the RSS feed button on your site then when a reader clicks the button they can subscribe with their RSS reader of choice.

    Here is some Free RSS Icons your welcome to look at and use
    http://www.iconfinder.net/search/8/?q=rss

  5. 5700words
    Member

    Wow..... I went to the bottom link and saw some very nice looking icons. I like the one in gold because that goes with the colors of my blog. But ...... I have no idea what to do with it, how to get it onto my Sidebar, etc.

    I am looking at this lovely icon and am totally lost.

    ~Lorna
    ____________________________________

  6. 5700words
    Member

    To t3ck: (Thank you for your help.)

    I clicked the link below (the YouTube video) and it was perfect for me. It was simple so that a newbie could understand. (Nothing taken for granted would be a wise way to go with me. :-) )
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU
    ..................................................................................................

    But how do I use those great looking icons.

  7. 5700words
    Member

    To t3ck

    I looked thru those icons and like this one (below) but do not know how to get it onto my Sidebar with all of the information required.

    <img src="http://lornakismet.wordpress.com/files/2009/08/rss.png" alt="RSS" title="RSS" width="64" height="64" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-7425" />

    Oh for goodness sake. I thought that putting in HTML code wou ld show it, but it does not. Well, so it is the rectangular orange box that says RSS and has a white rainbow over it. It is 64 x 64.

    Lornakismet

  8. thesacredpath
    Member

    You replace the image URL in the code with the URL of the uploaded image as I have below:

    <a href="http://lornakismet.wordpress.com/feed/"><img class="alignnone" title="rss feed" src="http://lornakismet.wordpress.com/files/2009/08/rss.png" alt="rss feed" /></a> <a href="http://lornakismet.wordpress.com/feed/">Subscribe to my feed</a>

  9. 5700words
    Member

    Dear Sacred Path -- I am lost.
    1. I do not know what is the IMAGE URL.
    2. I do not know which code you are referring to. Is it what I typed in above?
    3. I do not know how to identify the URL of the uploaded image.
    4. Is the uploaded image the rss feed icon? If so, how would I know what it's URL is? I thought that a URL is like an address in the Internet. I see it here sitting, downloaded, on my desktop, and I see no URL for it. 8-(

    I feel like a loser idiot right now. 8-(

  10. thesacredpath
    Member

    You have already uploaded the image to your media library, and the URL of that image you posted above.

    Replace the code you put into the text widget before with what I have above, which has the new image code in it.

    You are going to notice that the RSS icon you downloaded has a very wide white border which will cause the text to be misaligned. To correct the misalignment, you would have to edit the RSS image and crop the white background/border out of it. I have absolutely no idea why anyone making a web icon would do that. You always crop close, and you always do a transparent background so that it will work with all background colors.

  11. 5700words
    Member

    Oh! I think that I might be wise, then, to just keep the rss icon that is on my blog right now! Thank you for your help, Sacred Path. I know that I am kind of slow in figuring things out.

    ~Lorna
    ____________________________________

  12. t3ck
    Member

    @thesacredpath The icon should of not had a white boarder their images are in PNG format

    @lornakismet
    After following these simple instructions you will have a working RSS Icon on your blog that will direct your readers to your RSS Feed

    After you find a icon you like you click on the icon then you will be directed to a download page where you can download the icon after you download the icon to your computer.

    Open the "WP Editor" by clicking "New Post" then upload the image (Icon) to your WP blog then click insert in to post now click on the image then the edit icon then in the link section add this link.
    http://lornakismet.wordpress.com/feed

    after doing so while still in the image editor click "Advance Settings" then scroll down and add 0 in the border section now click save and click the "HTML View" then "Copy" the "HTML Code" then "Paste" it into a "Text Editor" then click save.

    .P.s. If you would like to link the icon to a Feedburner account then just replace with the new link.

  13. md2010admin1
    Member

    t3ck,

    Are your instructions suited for the online WordPress.com site?
    Or just the downloaded WordPress software installation (on local or hosted)?

    Thank you.

    Daniel

  14. md2010admin1
    Member

    t3ck,

    Okay, I figured it out. However, I still have a question now that I understand how inserting that RSS icon & feed url works.

    Can I move this into a sidebar rather than have it as a post? (Wouldn't this post move with every subsequent post and eventually move off the front page?)

    Thanks.

    Daniel

  15. raincoaster
    Member

    Put it in a Text widget in your sidebar. All instructions in this forum are ONLY for blogs hosted at WordPress.com, by the way.

  16. md2010admin1
    Member

    Excellent. Thank you very much.

    Daniel

  17. thesacredpath
    Member

    @t3ck, my bad on the white background, the background is actually transparent, but the canvas size is twice as large as the actual icon. It showed up white for me in one test blog because I have so many CSS hacks going on with it right now.

    This is what the image actually is: http://flippintestblog.wordpress.com/files/2009/08/lor-rss.png . See how much larger the canvas is than the icon?

    Because the canvas is twice as large as the icon itself, this is what happens when you put it into a sidebar with adjacent text (alignnone): http://flippintestblog.wordpress.com/files/2009/08/lor-rss-txt.png , and this is what it looks like with alignleft: http://flippintestblog.wordpress.com/files/2009/08/lor-rss-txt-left.png .

    The icon has to be edited and the canvas reduced if you are going to use text to the left or right of the icon. If you center the icon with text below it, it still looks funny since the text ends up too far away from the bottom of the image (in my opinion).

  18. t3ck
    Member

    @thesacredpath

    Thanks for the follow up I agree the boarder around the image is to wide and would require cropping the text wrapping looks horrible IMHO.

  19. 5700words
    Member

    Dear t3ck........ You write such good instructions, really, but that part about ”After you find a icon you like you click on the icon then you will be directed to a download page where you can download the PNG format after you download the
    image to your computer.“ confused me because as I see it, you are saying I should download X and then download Y -- two things, rather than just one thing/icon.

    After reading the part about the border being too wide, I think I'd better stick to the rss icon I have now, because I am not at that level of expertise where I can fiddle and hack at things. (I WISH I WERE!)

    Thank you for your help. Your icons are terrific.
    lornakismet

  20. cousinbrandon
    Member

    For the love of God, can someone make this easy for me? I'm essentially computer illiterate when it comes to code. For the life of me I can't figure out how to properly do an RSS feed. Please, PLEASE walk me through it from the very first step until the last.

  21. raincoaster
    Member

    1) give us a link to your blog, starting with http.

  22. cousinbrandon
    Member

    @raincoaster:

    Here you go...
    http://cousinbrandon.wordpress.com/

  23. cousinbrandon
    Member

    For the record, here's what my RSS widget looks like, in terms of what I entered. Again, shouldn't this be working properly:

    RSS: Subscribe

    Enter the RSS feed URL here:
    http://cousinbrandon.wordpress.com

    Give the feed a title (optional):
    Subscribe

    How many items would you like to display?
    10

    Display item content?
    Checked

    Display item author if available?

    Display item date?
    Checked

  24. t3ck
    Member

    @lornakismet

    Sorry about that I fix the tutorial for future reference.

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