This pesky RSS buisiness

Well, since I'm documenting my own learning curve, I figured I'd bring you into the loop on my latest thoughts relating to all things Mikeiscool . As some of you may know, I've only recently taken the plunge into adding an actual functioning blog to my site. In addition to learning more than I expected to learn about blog software/hosting/design, I'm now studying the tip of the RSS iceburg.

For those uninitiated, RSS is an acronymn that stands for a number of things, depending on who you ask, but "Really Simple Syndication" seems to be a popular choice. Bascially, an RSS feed/channel is a way of letting the various search engines out on the internet that your blog is out there, and gives a brief summary of its contents and most recent submissions. It never occurred to me that there would be a special method of referencing specifically a blog versus the usual methods of getting your website listed on a search engine. I'm quickly realizing the potential value of having added a blog to this page. I didn't know that a dynamic page (like a blog) along with some well placed RSS feeds could drive more traffic to a site.

You must understand, I'm a musician first (see also "starving artist") and the primary reason I even began making a website was so that I could have at least a "semi-pro" website to send people to if they were interested in licensing some music from me. I write songs and compose soundscapes constantly, and have many that area available for licensing. Once I got my page up, I began the arduous journey of trying to get it listed on the search engines. Well, like most things in life, I found that "for a fee" I could have that done for me. But as a "starving artist" and a new dad, I am not able to spend money to get to the top of Google . Plus, I don't need to be at the top, but if someone searches for "music composer" or something, I'd at least like to be mentioned somewhere in their results.

Well, now I'm realizing that if I have a marginally interesting and topical blog, if I can properly submit my RSS feeds, I might stand an even better chance of being able to be found if someone in the world searches for "mikeiscool" or "mikeiscool productions" etc etc. (By the way, I picked this domain name as a toungue-in-cheek attempt to find a domain name that wasn't already taken. I thought it'd be funny to see if it was taken, so when I saw it was free, I grabbed it). While I concur that the design of RSS files is "really simple", this business of submitting them is not. This is most likely due to the fact that there are so many people out there trying to rig the system so they can spam the hell out of anyone they want, that the process of RSS submision had to be made into the epic saga that is has been.

The other interesting portion of this working experiment should be seeing what (if anything) changes to my site traffic, and if my antique of a webserver can handle it. You wouldn't believe the hardware (term used loosely) I'm using to host my page. Perhaps I'll familiarize you with my own Hal 9000 in a future blog. Well thanks for tuning in. I'm off to give Lily her bottle.