Media training 101 for small businesses

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Great news: you just scored a big press interview to promote your business. The story will expose your brand to the perfect new audience and drive meaningful traffic to your website. So…don't blow it. Yes, just as quickly as the excitement for the opportunity arrived, the realization that you now have to do an interview sets in. I get it—press interviews can absolutely be intimidating. The resulting coverage represents a significant opportunity to acquire new customers, drive sales, or raise awareness, and you want to be sure to represent your brand well and really compel the audience to check out your company. On top of that, you have to contend with adrenaline and nerves in the moment. You may be thinking, "So many other business owners are so polished and articulate in their interviews. How am I going to pull that off?" Deep breath. A successful interview is usually the result of good media training: preparation and practice in advance of an interview. I've tr
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How to Find the RSS Feed URL for Almost Any Site

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RSS isn't dead, but it is harder to find RSS feeds than it used to be. Browsers no longer point them out, and websites rarely prominently link to them anymore.

And yet, most sites do offer RSS feeds. Here are a few ways to find those feeds, quickly, when Googling just doesn't cut it. We'll also show you how to create your own RSS feeds for apps that don't offer them.

How to Find the RSS Feed URL for Most Websites

A shocking number of websites are built using WordPress—around 30 percent of the top 10 million destinations on the web. This means there's a good chance that any website you visit is a WordPress site, and all of those sites offer RSS feeds that are easy to find.

To find a WordPress RSS feed, simply add /feed to the end of the URL; e.g., https://justinpot.com/feed. I do this any time I visit a website that I'd like an RSS feed for—it almost always works.

If it doesn't work, here are a few tricks for finding RSS feeds on other sites.

  • If a site is hosted on Tumblr, add /rss to the end of the URL. Like this: https://example.tumblr.com/rss
  • If a site is hosted on Blogger, add feeds/posts/default to the end of the URL. Like this: example.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
  • If a publication is hosted on Medium, add /feed/ before the publication's name. So medium.com/example-site becomes medium.com/feed/example-site
  • YouTube channel pages double as RSS feeds. Simply copy and paste the URL for the channel into your RSS reader. You can also find an OPML file for all of your subscriptions here.

Find an RSS Feed for Any Site by Checking the Source Code

Did none of the above tricks work? You can try finding an RSS feed by checking a web page's source code. Don't panic! It's easier than it sounds.

Right click an empty space on the website you'd like an RSS feed for, then click View Page Source (the exact wording may vary depending on your browser).

View page source in Chrome

Now search the code by pressing Ctrl+F (Windows, Linux) or command+F (Mac). Start by searching for rss, like this:

Finding an RSS URL in web page source code

If searching for rss doesn't work, try atom instead. Look for an RSS URL, as you can see above, then copy it into your feed reader.

Create Your Own RSS Feeds with Zapier

Some sites simply don't offer RSS feeds, which is disappointing, but you can use RSS by Zapier to create RSS feeds with data from 1,500+ apps.

For example, you could create RSS feeds for Twitter:

Or Instagram:

Or even various Google services:

These are just a few examples. You can create your own custom RSS feed that pulls in just about any information you can imagine. Get started here.

Want to learn more about RSS? Check out our list of the best free RSS reader apps, or read about things you had no idea RSS could do.



from The Zapier Blog http://bit.ly/2x262XX

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