- Do you have a site with lots of categories?
- Do you think that some of your readers are only really interested in one of your categories?
- It is quite possible that you will get more subscribers to your site if you offer a tailored RSS feed for one or more of your featured or special-interest categories.
Case Study: A Niche within a Niche
Our site Beyond 2012 HQ has several categories relating to the Year 2012 and beyond.
- There are many predictions and prophecies for the year 2012 – fortelling of change, possibly even the end of the world as we know it.
- Topics range from the end of the Mayan calendar and global warming to spiritual ascension and survivalism.
It is quite possible that somebody interested in survivalism (that is surviving a disaster by preparing with emergency kits and survival training) will not be interested in spiritual ascension.
One group of readers thinks the worst and is buying freeze-dried food and the other is meditating daily to connect with their spiritual guides to get assistance with the transation to the 4th or 5th dimension.
If the survivalist keeps getting emails and entries in their reader about topics they are not intersted in, they will quickly unsubscribe and may never return to your site. After all, no matter how ‘good’ your site it, people forget which sites they go to – even if it was one they liked.
Solution: Creating separate RSS feeds for individual categories
A very simple 2 step solution…
Step 1:
First you’ll need to know the “id” of the category you are interested in. Here is an image showing you how to do this.
- If you need to see a larger image – click on the image and return to the post using the “Back” button.
Step 2:
Create the following line of code to use with a text or image link
http://yourURL/?feed=rss2&cat=id
The “id” is the number found in step 1 above.
For example – the customized feed link for the Tips & Tricks category on Thesis Theme HQ – the category this post belongs to – is…
http://thesisthemehq.com/?feed=rss2&cat=11
When you click on the below link (that uses the above code), you are taken to your RSS page – I use Google Reader
Click here to subscribe to the RSS feed for Tips & Tricks on Thesis Theme HQ
Inspiration for this post: My Web Solutions – WordPress Category RSS feed
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I can understand your way of thinking of trying to make it available for specific categories, but I would rather like to encourage my users/readers to subscribe to my full rss feed.
They might miss something information that they are looking for. You never know. I subscribe to rss feed via email and then check which posts I want to read and comment on.
.-= George Serradinho´s last blog ..Funny: Yoga for Drunks =-.
How would you set this up so that the multiple feeds were available on one page?
Great Tip!
.-= Chethan´s last blog ..Facebook: Account Temporarily Unavailable! Affects Millions of Users =-.
Thanks to this site… even at the first try is so confusing but at the end i make it.. i’m happy to visit this site again and look for new post… on the archive box.
I’m using this technique to create an RSS feed for a specific category in my blog to upload to itunes. Unfortunately the feed brought in every post instead of just the category, have things changed with the newer versions of Wordpress?
I can’t comment on WP 3.0 yet. Waiting for Thesis 1.8 before I upgrade. Stay tuned.
Somone, absolutely the piece of information I was looking for. However, I was wondering about where the ideal place to have a feed link to any particular category. All of my websites use Thesis, of course, I would not even consider anything else, but, my first thought about where to place this sort of link would be on a dedicated category page, and all of my sites have not evolved to have such pages. Would you suggest, maybe a widget on the home page with a list of category feed links?
Thanks, and again, great post,
D. Morgan Henley
I have seen individual RSS links for categories in the sidebar used to great affect. You could also send new subscribers to a thank you page that has RSS links for separate pages in case that suits them better. If you have very different categories separate RSS works well. But, if you have closely related topics you would probably want your subscribers to read all of your articles – and get to know you as well.
Ok, so what am I doing wrong here? When I click on the link above for your tips & tricks category, i end up on a page with a bunch of text/numbers like a raw feed. So what do I do from there. Also, the link directs me to this link rather than the one I see when I hover over your link above. I am sure I am doing something silly or obvious to everyone else, so I’m very sorry if I am asking you to state the obvious, but I’m anxious to do this on my own site, and worry others will have the same occur and I won’t be able to direct them properly…help!
Also, would you mind telling me how I might add this handy little check box for notification of follow up comments, I love this option! thanks in advance, from a non-savvy blogger!
I get through to the tips and tricks page without any problems. You may want to clear your cache and try again.
Re: the subscibe to comments – it is a plugin by the same name.. here’s a link to it on WordPress http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/
I’m using this technique to create an RSS feed for a specific category in my blog to upload to itunes. Unfortunately the feed brought in every post instead of just the category, have things changed with the newer versions of Wordpress.
Umm, I didn’t know. I have since stopped using an RSS feed for specific categories (I started specific blogs up for each stray topic). If you do work it out, feel free to share with a link back to your blog of course.
I see when I hover over your link above. I am sure I am doing something silly or obvious to everyone else, so I’m very sorry if I am asking you to state the obvious, but I’m anxious to do this on my own site, and worry others will have the same occur and I won’t be able to direct them properly…help!
I’m not sure what it is that you need help with. Please explain.
I’m using this technique to create an RSS feed for a specific category in my blog to upload to itunes. Unfortunately the feed brought in every post instead of just the category, have things changed with the newer versions of Wordpress.
soo my rss button is having the same problem yours is…. when i click it says “This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.” Ideas on a fix for this?
There is currently a problem with WordPress 3.0 and category RSS feeds. Stay tuned for updates at the WordPress Codex site: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/category-specific-feeds-not-working-in-wordpress-3
Good work! I always like to leave comments whenever I see something unusual or impressive. I think we must appreciate those who do something especial. Keep it up, thanks
Helen Olsson.