RSS is a great way to link to blog content with a feed reader such as Microsoft Outlook, Google Reader, MyYahoo, NetNewsWire, SharpReader, or even the customizable feed panels on the MyBasicISP portal home page. 

Definition: RSS means “Really Simple Syndication”

Setting up Microsoft Outlook to receive RSS feeds:

1) Select menu item Tools > Account Options…

2) Select the RSS Feeds tab. Click New…

3) Enter the URL for the blog feed you want to receive. Click the Add button.

4) In the RSS Feed Options screen, the Feed Name should auto-populate with information Outlook receives when it connects to the feed. You can change the Feed Name if you desire. This will be the name of the feed folder under the Outlook directory: Mail Folders > RSS Feeds.

Click the OK button.

Setting up Google Reader to receive feeds:

1) Log in to Google Reader  with your Google account or select Create an Account. You can log in using your Gmail account if you have one.

2) Click Add a Subscription and enter the RSS feed URL in the textbox and click Add.

Note: Further help can be found at http://www.google.com/support/reader/?hl=en.

See BasicBlog article “Customizing your MyBasicISP Feed Panel”

Note: When adding the URL for an RSS feed, be sure you are viewing the XML document. Your browser will recognize this as a feed and display a yellow feed panel at the top of the page. MyBasicISP blog feeds will end with “?feed=rss2” example:http://www.myBasicISP.net/blogs/BasicBlog/?feed=rss2.

Ping Services, also known as Update Services, are a way for you to let other people know when you have updated your blog. Each time you submit a blog post, MyBasicISP will submit a notification to any of the Ping Services listed in this interface. This can help your search engine ranking by having multiple sites referencing your blog. People browsing a Ping Service site like Technorati or Sphere will be able to find your most recent blog posts.

To add a Ping Service, simply enter the service URL in the text box and click “Add Service”. Once added, a ping service can be updated or deleted.

Note: Each Ping Service will need to be added individually.

There are many Ping Services available. Here is a list of some of the most common or widely used XML-RPC Ping Services:

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping

1) While logged-in, select Profile next to your login status display.

Note: If you are not a logged-in portal user, you will not be able to customize the Feed Panels on the home page.

2) Select the Feed Panel Settings tab.

3) Enter a new Panel Title and click the Add Button.

4) Make sure the newly added panel is selected. The selected panel will be highlighted.

5) Under the RSS Feeds section, enter the URL for the RSS Feed you want to add.

Click “add” next to the URL line to make it stick and to open a new line.

Note: Adding more than one feed will add Tab Controls to the feed panel with each feed under a separate tab. In this case, you will want to have a Name for the feed. “Name” is what will show in the tab.

When finished adding feeds, click the Save Panel button in the footer of the Edit Panel.

Warning: If you forget to Save the Panel, your newly added feeds and setting changes will be lost.

When you Save your Panel, you will see a Panel Preview towards the bottom of the page. This is how it will appear on the Portal Home Page. Adjust the panel settings as needed and Save Panel to view your changes.

6) Reposition your feed panels by dragging and dropping the panel icon.  This determines the order the panels appear on the Portal Home page.

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Login and navigate to your blog by choosing My Blog on the navigation menu in the header. You should see an Admin panel in your blog window with several options. Choose the Blog Settings link.

You will see the following settings form. This is also accessible from the Blog Settings tab of your Profile page.

Blog Info:

Blog: This is simply a display of the link to the root of your Blog. If you want to share your blog with others you would use the URL this link points to.

Blog Title: The Title is displayed in the header region of your blog. Often, just a few words to name your blog or help describe what your blog is about.

Url: By default, this "slug" (or URL friendly name) will be assigned to you. The URL can be changed at any time but this will cause links to your blog to break. Warning: It is advised that if you must change this, that you make the change early on. Using the Extract From Title button will create a unique URL based on your blog's Title. Note: The URL-friendly name cannot have any spaces. Spaces will be replaced with a hyphen if submitted. Example: The name “Basic Blog” (with a space) will result in the URL-friendly name “Basic-Blog” and the URL for this blog would be http://www.myBasicISP.net/blogs/Basic-Blog

Description: This is a short line that helps describe your blog and is often displayed beneath the blog Title in most blog themes. By default this will be shown, if you wish to not show the description simply uncheck the Show description in header check box.

Theme:

All blogs begin with the default theme. We have provided several theme options for you to choose from. Note: this can only be change from accessing the Blog Settings from the blog Admin panel. You will be able to Preview the Theme before saving the settings.

Connections:

Contact Email: By default, this is the email address associated with your MyBasicISP portal login. You can change this to direct blog email, to another email account.

Comments: By default Comments are Disabled. If you wish to allow your blog viewers to post comments to your entries, select either Registered Users Only or Anyone. For instance, “BasicBlog” is targeted for the MyBasicISP community of registered users so Comments are set to Registered User Only. Only those logged in will be allowed to make comments. As the name implies, “Anyone” will allow comments from anybody that reads your blog even if they are not logged in to the MyBasicISP portal.

Moderated: By default, the Moderated box is checked which means you will have to moderate or review all comments made to your postings before the comments are made public. This is also useful to filter out “Comment Spam”.

Pingbacks: These are automated comments sent from one blog to another to indicate when a link to or from your blog has been made. Send will deliver a pingback comment to another blog you reference in your blog. Receive will allow your blog to receive a pingback comment from another blog that references your blog.