WordPress Permalinks, Feeds and Subscriptions

In this article, Linda tackles some issues that can help others notice your blog through the use of Permalinks, feed and subscriptions.

Shortlink URL

I mentioned this topic in the previous article, and you can build a shortlink URL from your post as you publish. This is a convenient option to using the shortlink services such as bit.ly or TinyURL. You can read more about this shortlink service at the WordPress blog.

The shortlink is useful when you want to publicize your blog post in social media tools such as Twitter, which allows only 140 characters. If you wanted to use a long URL in Twitter, you might make it difficult for someone to retweet your message, as the retweet might then carry more than 140 characters.

Feeds and Subscriptions

Although this topic may not seem related to permalinks, you might realize down the road that the URL to your article is difficult to find, or that it does not make sense to someone who is unfamiliar with your blog. WP Codex offers a complete run down on feeds, with information about the feed that WP provides with its format.

When you read this content, you may begin to realize that your feed, no matter what you choose, is read by various options such as categories, tags, or date of publication, for example. In the case of the Web site, Writers' Seminar (http://www.writersseminar.com/), I chose to use the basic feed for the site and the full text, which can be chosen at "Settings >> Reading" in the WP dashboard.

This is an exercise, so try it on your own site to see what happens:

1. Take some of the URL examples for feeds from that WP Codex page on feeds and drop one into your browser's address bar to see what happens in your case.
2. In my case, the code for the feed URLs (wp-rss.php, wp-rss2.php, etc.) all redirect to this: http://writersseminar.com/feed/rss or http://writersseminar.com/feed/atom, and the page only shows what I included in the excerpt for any given blog entry.
3. If you have already built your site and ignored the feed option in the process, you may see a link on your site for "Subscriptions." Click on that link, and you will end up at a page similar to the one for Writers' Seminar:

Note the arrow above, that shows the subscription service for this site. When you click on that link, you'll see this:

The arrow above shows the options that readers can use to read your feed, including an option for Outlook, if they use that email service. These are the only options that your readers have to follow you, and some are quite comfortable with those options. To expand your feed options, you might want to use a service like Feedburner (which now is part of Google – and you can read more about how to use Feedburner at this Google Help Page) or RSS Mix. The latter service combines your feed into one option. But, I like Feedburner, as I can truly expand my writing into full-length pieces for readers who want that option delivered to their mailboxes.

For instance, the online newspaper, Appomattox News, does not have a print version. For some reason, this irks some readers in that area. I have yet to fully educate those readers how to achieve a print version, simply by signing up for the RSS feed. If you go to Appomattox News and click on the "Subscribe" button, you will be redirected to my Feedburner feed for that site, where you can read the full newspaper by article, last one posted first, including images.

Note the arrow above, which points to the email option. When you click on that option, the Feedburner tool allows you to subscribe to your email address, no matter the email service that you use. When you subscribe, the day's news will be delivered to your email box, complete with images (if you allow this option) and full news stories (I selected the full article in the "Settings >> Reading" area of the WP dashboard). This is one way that news blogs can cut on printing costs, especially if they carry a few stories per day.

I could use the shortened teaser option for the feed, forcing the reader to come to my site to read the 'rest of the story' as well. But, since I know that many readers are part of that "digital divide," where they cannot download video and other bandwidth-heavy options, I offer an alternative to the site. If you decide to do this as well, you might want to know that you can add advertising to your feeds at this time.

Note that the person can see what time I posted that last article. The link in the title leads directly to the page where the article resides, too. While this has nothing to do with permalinks, you might notice the URL at the site when you click on that title. This is what it looks like:

http://www.appomattoxnews.com/2010/surprisingly-unhealthy-foods-what-to-choose-instead.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ApppomattoxNews+%28Apppomattox+News%29&utm_content=FeedBurner

Ouch! That is a long URL, and one that is not conducive to spreading around on Twitter, for sure. But, you can see that the permalink that I originally built is right there, untouched. For most computer-literate people who want to spread that URL around, they would either use a shortlink service or merely use the permalink up to the question mark shown after the "html" part of that permalink. This is what most of us would hope, at any rate. There's no getting around it otherwise. Additionally, that permalink might create a subliminal message, providing the article title and, at least, the year that the article was published along with the URL for the domain.