Why?
A feed is a file hosted like a web page, but instead of being loaded in
a browser it is loaded in a feed reader. It’s composed of items which
are links to different pieces of content. Those items can be anything
from YouTube videos to Tweets, and when clicked on in the feed reader
they will be opened based on what they are (such as YouTube videos
being loaded in the YouTube app unless the user configures otherwise).
Most feeds are generated by a platform/service, such as a feed
generated by YouTube that lists a channel’s video as they are created,
but a feed created by a content creator could include anything and
everything that the content creator wants to include in it and is not
restricted to one platform or service.
Content Mixing
This has a number of benefits, the first of which being a custom feed
with content hand picked by the creator opens up a lot more
possibilities. Say somebody is a YouTuber who mostly posts videos on
YouTube, and each time they do they add it to their feed. But, then the
have a collaboration or guest appearance on another channel and want to
share that. Or maybe they plan to do something like a giveaway, but
want to avoid strict rules on it by operating the giveaway on another
platform. Or maybe they have one foot out of the door on YouTube but
are still getting the best ad revenue there and want to continue to
drive traffic to their YouTube channel, but also want to be able to
switch their “main” platform on a moment’s notice. Or maybe they just
wrote an article for an outlet and want to link to it. The ability to
have at least a portion of people consuming content via a feed would be
great in allowing a creator to step outside of any particular walled
garden and provide different content or different formats without
having to scrap the idea of any particular service.
Creator Control
Secondly, and in my opinion more importantly, it would be your part of
the web. Especially if you’re hosting it with a domain that you own,
delivering content from your own setup means that you’re outside of any
walled gardens and not beholden to any one company or group. I’m not
necessarily going to defend everyone who gets kicked off of platforms,
but take the case of Coffeezilla for example. As far as I’m aware he’s
a pretty tame guy, and the only people he’d upset are probably the
scammers he looks into, but for whatever reason one night the bots
deleted his account. He got his account back soon, but the ability to
control your own content delivery system in a case like that could be
very handy. Even if your backlog of content dissipated, and even if it
was resolved eventually, to be able to get the word out and carry on in
the mean time could be great.
Plays Nice with other Setups
Last, of course, it wouldn’t need to disrupt anything else already
going on. If you post mostly on one platform, you can share it to your
followers or subscribers and then those who want to follow you through
the feed get the benefits, and those who don’t still have the exact
same situation as they had before. This isn’t some zero sum setup where
it causes problems for anybody who doesn't want to use it.
How:
So, if I’ve peaked your interest you might be thinking that it’s worth
considering if it’s not too hard or problematic to set up. Well,
luckily, it’s not. You have three different ways of going about this,
from easiest to hardest, and while I feel the more work you put in the
more benefit you can get out of it, luckily even the hardest isn’t more
than two or three minutes of work tops per piece of content you put out.
The first way of going about creating a feed to share your content
would be to setup an account with a service that allows a feed to be
created,
which I refer you to my writing on how to create a feed for anything.
Something like a Mastodon or Hive account where you can share contents
from all sources would allow you to get a feed where you can add any
content you would like. The upside is it’s quick, easy, and free; but
of course while providing the first benefit of stepping outside a
walled garden it lacks the second benefit of being in your control.
Secondly, you have the option to set up a platform of your own that
automatically creates a feed, preferably using a domain that you own in
case you need to move hosts without disrupting your feed’s link. This
could be by creating something like a self hosted WordPress blog or
Mastodon instance where you share content you create. Using YouTube as
an example again, you could likely set it up to automatically share all
YouTube videos posted while also allowing the manual sharing of all
other content you wish, or you could manually share all content each
time you post it.
Last, you can also just create a feed file and place it on a server.
Check out my instructions on doing so here. Each time you create content all it would be is a couple
copy and pastes to add a new item to the feed. In this case you have
the most control over how the content is provided and displayed of the
three ways mentioned, and assuming you own the domain that points to
the file it’s your own corner of the internet that you built from
scratch and have total control over.
All content in /tutorials is
licensed Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike
unless otherwise specified. Feel free to share it around and re-use it,
but please give me credit if you do so (and would love if you sent me a
message or something). You can also
send me a tip if you found this helpful, but no
pressure - this is a hobby.
Contact Me:
Mastodon @natebowie@mastodon.social
Twitter @NathanBowie6