Blogger Feeds as Sitemaps with FeedBurner (and Google Webmaster Tools)

...if you have a site whose original feed redirects traffic to FeedBurner (for example, if you use Blogger redirection, or you use our FeedSmith plugin for WordPress), you will need to give Webmaster Tools the address of a feed that does not get redirected as a sitemap source.

For Blogger users, the following general feed URL format should always work:

http://mybloggerblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?redirect=false

For WordPress FeedSmith plugin users, use this URL format:

http://www.mywpblog.com/?feed=rss2

For other platforms, other feed URL variations that are not redirected are what you need to provide.

(from FeedBurner Forums).

Atom verses RSS Feeds

The Case for Atom

Embracing Atom now gives you broad compatibility with any standards based system, and in the future should keep your feeds adaptable and compatible with future technologies and tools.

Feeds in the Atom Syndication Format (atom 1.0) will have the widest possible uses, compatibility and longevity of any current syndication feed format. Atom is already a widely supported syndication format, and in the future a full-fledged protocol, that is already in development, ...for using XML (Extensible Markup Language) and HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) to edit content... an application-level protocol for publishing and editing Web resources belonging to periodically updated websites (from
The Atom Publishing Protocol Memo).

Video Intro to the Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub):

RFC5023 details the Atom Publishing Protocol.

Atom, not RSS

[Atom has] been through a standardization process organized by an international standards body and there is an RFC that describes exactly what an Atom feed is and how you should parse it.

RSS is only "standard" in the sense that there are lots of people using various flavors of XML that claim to be RSS. There isn't even agreement as to who "owns" RSS 2.0 - Dave says he does, and the RSS Working Group says they do. Now there are 2 versions of the same "standard" floating around

(from Jason Lefkowitz's comment on technologyevangelist.com).

Facebook Status on Twitter

If you have many social networking profiles, you have many different places you can update your status message. Consolidation of status messages let's you put your status where you want to in the way you want to put it there, and then lets others access it how and where they want.

Having your Facebook status automatically update Twitter can mean updating one less site manually, and that means more time for other things. Read how to have your Facebook status automatically update your Twitter status on internetducttape.com. Basically you do this:

• use a Yahoo Pipe to strip off your name
• set up TwitterFeed to put the status into your Twitter status

The only downside I can see is a delay in the update to Twitter.

The consolidation of any number of social networking account statuses should be possible if:

• the primary account you want to update manually has a status feed (likely in RSS)
• you can figure out how to change the contents of the primary feed (e.g., using a site like Yahoo Pipes)
• the statuses you want to update automatically can be modified programatically, either on the site (like Facebook's ability to import a feed's posts as notes), or with a third party site (like TwitterFeed)

Feed Validator

If you are doing something that requires you to raw code a feed, either RSS or atom, feedvalidator.org can check your work. It validates quickly, and provides useful tips on how to fix your feed if it's broken.

Submit Your Feed to MySpace News

Since MySpace is big, their news pages may be a way to open up any of your syndicated content to a new audience. You can submit your suggestions for inclusion.