Here's how it works: Just follow the step-by-step instructions below, and every time you post a new blog on ActiveRain a story summary & link will automatically appear on your Facebook & Twitter pages, and the story will also be promoted on Digg to maximize your search-engine value. BTW - If you like this post, PLEASE repost it or forward it to a friend to help other agents on ActiveRain!
STEP #1: Get your ActiveRain RSS feed
Every time you publish a new blog post on your ActiveRain account, a summary of what you've written and a link to the blog-posting are automatically published in your RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. ActiveRain does this specifically to let you promote your blog online, so no worries about connecting this with other sites!
First, go to your main ActiveRain blog page - the one with a list of all your postings on it. Scroll halfway down the page, and on your right you'll see an "RSS 2.0" link. Copy the location of the RSS feed for your site from this link to a text editor or email message so you can use it later.
Having trouble? The URL for ActiveRain blogs is http://activerain.com/blogs/USERNAME/rss, where the "USERNAME" is your login or username. So my blog is http://activerain.com/blogs/timventura/rss, and yours is probably the same, except that it has your username instead of timventura. Why not try putting your own login into that URL, pasting it into your browser, and see if it shows your RSS feed? If it does, then copy that URL down & save it for later!
STEP #2: Setup a TwitterFeed Account
This step is easy & free - you'll need to visit http://www.twitterfeed.com and sign up for the service. What's Twitterfeed? Basically, it's a task scheduler that automatically scans your RSS feed for new stories every few hours, and posts them to whatever forum you tell it to when it finds them! Tens of thousands of people currently use this to post RSS content to Facebook & Twitter, so it's a good choice for posting stories from your ActiveRain blog.
STEP #3: Setup A New Feed on TwitterFeed
Now that you've got a Twitterfeed account, you've got to create a new feed in it. Basically, this means that you have to tell Twitterfeed where it can find your RSS feed, and then which services (Facebook & Twitter) it can post those stories to.
Click the "Create a New Feed" button at the top-right hand side of your Twitterfeed dashboard, and follow the instructions below to add a feed. This is a 3-step process that takes about 30 seconds to complete. You're going to want to name your new "feed", paste your RSS feed into the URL text-box, click the "Continue to Step 2" button (see the image below)...
Next, you're going to want to tell Twitterfeed where to publish your RSS feed details. First click the Link to "Twitter" shown below, and Authenticate (Login to your Account). After doing this, you'll need to do the same thing for Facebook. This might seem a little challenging, but all it requires is clicking a link & logging into your account for each service, so there's no technical work required. When you're finished, click "All Done"!
You're almost there! Right now you've got your ActiveRain blog connected to both Twitter and Facebook, so every time you publish a blog your social networks will get updated. But what about the rest of the Internet? Well, Digg gets great search-engine ranking, so let's show your blog to the rest of the world by connecting to that!
Step #4: Create a Digg Account
Go to http://www.digg.com and create a new account. Basically, Digg is a promotion engine: you submit a story to Digg, and users of the site can automatically rate & review it. However, Digg also has amazing search-engine value in Google, which opens up your blog to an entirely new audience. If your story is highly-rated in Digg, then it'll get a TON of visitors - but even if it isn't, you'll still get traffic from it!
Step #5: Add Your RSS Feed to Digg
Login to Digg, and click the little down-arrow right next to your profile pic - that will let you access the settings menu, where you can then go to the "Import Feeds" page using a link on the left-hand side of the page. Simply paste your RSS Feed into the text-box and select a category for your blog (I use "Business").
Next, you'll need to verify your feed - basically, Digg is going to give you a little code that you need to paste into a blog posting. So open up ANOTHER window and create an ActiveRain blog post containing this link. (Don't close your Digg window, because you'll need it again in just a moment) You can put it into the title or the body of the blog posting, or you can edit one of your recent postings to contain it.
After you create or edit your ActiveRain blog to contain the verification code, go BACK to the page with the "Verify Now" button and click it...and that's it! I've also put some step by step instructions in the picture below:
Finishing up
You're all done! Now, every time you post a blog on ActiveRain, it will also show up on Facebook and Twitter. If you see double-postings, it's possible that you connected Digg with Facebook & Twitter, which means that your postings show up directly from ActiveRain and also as a pass-through from Digg (you can disconnect FB and Twitter publishing for Digg in the Settings page, which will fix that).
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