How to subscribe to this Blog and to other RSS Feeds

Subscribing to this Blog and RSS Feed's is a simple process.

How you do it depends on two factors - 1 - The browser software you use and 2- The RSS Feed reader you use.

Modern browsers now detect when a web page has RSS Feed content. When the browser detects that there is an RSS Feed, it will usually show a highlighted orange icon in the browser.

Below is a summary of how to subscribe to feeds offered from three popular web browsers - Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. Please note that you can click on any of the images below to make them larger.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer v7 - Below is a screen shot of Microsoft's Internet Explorer v7 - the orange circle highlights the RSS Feed icon. Simply click the RSS icon to subscribe to the feed.








A new screen will open showing the feed - Click the link on this screen to subscribe, confirm your subscription and a new link will appear prompting you to view your feed.


Firefox Browser shows a variation of the RSS Feed icon in the address bar (as shown below). Firefox is a very popular alternative to Internet Explorer and has a superb range of add on tools which prove invaluable.










When you click on the Firefox RSS Feed icon, a new window appears, offering you to subscribe to the feed by selecting your favourite RSS Feed software (Shown below).












Opera Browser is a little more sophisticated and provides inbuilt utilities for handling RSS Feeds (Icon for subscribing is shown below). Opera is also very lightweight, has some great utilities and takes just a minute to install.









When you click on the RSS Feed icon in Opera, Click "yes" to confirm your subscription to the feed and then Opera will take you to its own inbuilt RSS Feed Reader.











Opera's inbuilt RSS Feed reader -








It will auto-update subscribed feeds and show you a preview pane so you can read each feed article in turn without having to open multiple windows.
















Subscribing to feeds puts you in control of what information you want to see and saves you time too.

If your are still unsure of how it all works, pop into Mansfield Hive and we'll be happy to give you a quick demo.

Hive "Creative" makes front page news

Hive "Creative" Ian Carter from Cohort 6 has many strings to his creative bow.

Not only is he masterful with a variety of languages and a consummate word smith, he has music and song writing skills and video editing too.

We reported on the Hive Blog a short while ago about the school video Ian made for his son's primary school, well now it's made front page news in the Derbyshire Times. Well done Ian. Free press and word of mouth publicity are certainly helping Ian move his business forward.

Naturally, his great language skills, music and song writing skills, video and software applications mastery puts his business into a very credible position to help other Hive Businesses to market themselves more effectively.

For more information about how Ian can help your business grow contact him direct by email.

RSS - What it is, How it works...

When Mike asked me to write an article on RSS Feeds, I got all excited and thought of all the wonderful techy, nerdy things I could write about!

But then, I had to consider my audience and the fact I was writing a blog and not a book!

Looking around the Internet, I found a really good article on creating an RSS Feed, so instead of re-inventing the wheel, I'll refer you to that. Wiki How

In addition to that article... go to the WIKI How homepage and enter RSS in the search box and you'll get a number of articles on using your favourite browsers with RSS feeds. Great stuff!

Mentoring & Support - If you have problems in understanding all this, come back to us and we'll show you how with a one to one mentoring session.

RSS is simple really - you configure a file or software that you embed into your website and your audience requests to read that information through RSS reader software. - You write - they request to read and thats all it is!

What is technically different about RSS compared to a web page, is that most web pages are written in HTML, whereas RSS feeds are written in XML. Ugh? Whats that mean? You may well ask! Well, HTML is a language used for presenting and formatting information and XML is a language for sharing information (usually through software applications).

So, away from the technicalities and back to the conceptual side of things; When you make the most of RSS you can feed information which is written once on your website and have it featured through multiple portals. Great!

Handle information once and publish it a thousand times over - Dynamically! That's what makes it a truly efficient and wondrous marketing tool!

Making the most of RSS in business marketing

Here's how I use RSS Feeds as a professional web developer (not just someone looking to read individual RSS articles about interesting things)... Let me show you an example that demonstrates how "sexy" RSS can be....

I own a number of websites (as you may well know). Each week, I get information added to my websites by registered users and I also add information myself. However, I don't always want to keep copying information from one site to another, so I make use of the function that RSS Feeds provide, to share information on the portals I have through the XML technology.

Here's the example...

I have four websites - Alfreton News, Alfreton Online , Alfreton Fellowship and Alfreton History (the latter is still in development).

If you look at each site in turn you (Do it now), will find an RSS feed link on each. Go through each site, find the link, click on it, read some of the info and familiarise yourself with some of the content.

Now... on the Alfreton History portal I have used a different approach to RSS, I have pulled the feeds through from the other three sites! Click here to see this happening.

So, from the viewpoint of just using RSS to read the information that you want to read, consider it from a marketing perspective of pushing information around the Internet to get more people to read and link to the sites that contain your "Messages" that form your Internet Marketing Strategy.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog or if it's been useful to you - please leave a comment below.

Women In Enterprise

Last week, David went up to Worksop to present our exhibition stand to the North Notts College Women In Enterprise exhibition and workshops organised by NBV. Time was limited for the attendees, but we did manage to get to speak to a handful of new start hopefuls who made enquiries about our ninth cohort which begins on Wednesday 7th May.

If anyone has referrals for the next cohort, please do pass on our details or refer them to apply online at mansfieldhive.ntu.ac.uk.

We have widened the scope of the course and now accept developing and emerging businesses onto the programme.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog or if it's been useful to you - please leave a comment below.

What is your Strategy?

As a new start-up business your initial strategy is researching and obtaining the evidence that your idea will work and having an initial plan to start the business.
What next?

Well you will try to make your idea work in line with the business plan that you have spent the past few months developing - it must be correct - you've done all this research to prove it.
Well the proof is in the eating -or in your case can you get a regular stream of customers.
You will probably find out that this is easier said than done. The ones who said in your market research that your idea was brilliant and they will buy it, now make excuses and this is very depressing. What do you do?
Well the first thing is not to give in. But remember to listen - this is still market research. Try to identify new opportunities to get a sale. Do they want it in different form , at a later date, what else can you do to raise money?
It may well mean that you end up doing something completely different for period. This may lead to new opportunities - don't be concerned about this - your business plan is a changing document and this may well be the correct direction for you now.
The old adage that "If I were you, I wouldn't start from here" is very true. It just means that you have to experiment to find out where you actually have to start from to be a business success.

Another perspective is to re-look at where you want to be now that you have found a new starting point.
What strategy do you now have to have to achieve this?

Please ask us to help you with this - that's what you will pay your royalties for!

It may also be an opportune time to redo a SWOT on yourself and the business as it is now.
What are your strengths and weaknesses, your opportunities and external business threats.
You can develop this further by comparing these 4 with each other.

• match your Strengths with Opportunities - these are Real Opportunities
• Match Opportunities with Weaknesses - these are possible Opportunities if you can overcome your weaknesses
• Match Threats with Strengths - these are only potential Threats - build on your strengths to overcome them
• Look out for where you have Threats and are Weak in critical areas - what can you do about it?

Good luck and if you need help in developing a new strategy - ask

Michael

Congratualtions to Cohort 8 for their hard effort in completing the programme.
Paul Beasley it starting ShreddyBed a horse bedding material made from shedded cardboard, Linda Wild is starting her graphic design business Wild Ideas,http://www.lindawildideas.co.uk/
Carol Jennings & Tony Porter are still finalising the design of their businesses but will be up and running in a month or two. Rita Bridina will be enrolling onto a physiotherapy course to get her qualifications. In the meantime she is studying all forms of massage and will soon be able to de-stress you - more details to follow.
Mark Palfreyman has started developing a website where you will be able to buy your favorite gadgets http://www.ecogadgetonline.co.uk/
Liz Askew is still working on the design of her buisiness and looking for funding- watch this space for more details

Congratulations also to Ian Carter of Cohort 6. He has written, recorded, played, shot, edited and everything else - a video of a song for his son's school http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gEgGYc69ja0 You can see him in action as a barn dance caller at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vruy4OQUh4w and second, calling with a three-piece band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5fwwejvvzE. If you think that Ian can help you promote your business with a video, song, music or podcast, contact him at iancarter50@gmail.com

Cohort 9 starts in a few weeks, if you know anyone who may be interested, ask them to call Michael on 01623 600829 or apply through the website, http://www.mansfieldhive.ntu.ac.uk/

Finally we are looking for funding for our continuation. It would help if participants could add their reviews of the programme in our Google Maps pages - http://maps.google.co.uk/ - Search for "Mansfield Hive" - Click on "Reviews" and "Write a Review" - Thanks - all testimonials gratefully receive to support any funding bid.

Bye for now - Michael mansfieldhive@ntu.ac.uk