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Making an RSS Feed

02 Sep 2010 | By

Making an RSS Feed

What Is RSS?

How does RSS syndication work? Say you publish a new web page about a particular topic. You want others interested in that topic to know about it. By listing the page as an “item” in your RSS file, you can have the page appear in front of those who read information using RSS readers or “news aggregators” (explained more in my sidebar article, RSS: Your Gateway To News & Blog Content). RSS also allows people to easily add links to your content within their own web pages. Bloggers are a huge core audience that especially does this.

What does RSS stand for? There’s a can of worms. RSS as introduced by Netscape in 1999 then later abandoned in 2001 stood for “Rich Site Summary.” Another version of RSS pioneered by UserLand Software stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” In yet another version, RSS stands for “RDF Site Summary.”

History buffs might be interested that there’s been some rivalry over who invented RSS. This is why we have both different names and indeed different “flavors” or versions of RSS. Mark Pilgrim’s written an excellent article, What Is RSS, that charts the different versions with recommendations on which to use. I’ll also revisit the version choice you’ll need to make. But first, let’s look more closely at some basics of what goes into any RSS file.

How Easy Is RSS?

I’ve been exploring RSS because it was time that Search Engine Watch offered its own stories in this manner. I’ve read several tutorials about making a feed, and they generally suggest that it is easy. They often offer code that you can “cut-and-paste” and link over to specifications that I actually don’t find that clear.

For example, the RSS 2.0 specification has an “cloud” element that’s optional but which a lay person might still wonder if they should use it. Meanwhile, heaven help the person who stumbles into the RSS 1.0 specification and its complicated RDF syntax.

Sure, making an RSS file IS easy for many. If you understand HTML, you’ll probably understand enough to do a cut-and-paste from someone else’s RSS file to make your own file. Don’t know HTML? Start a blog, because several blogging tools automatically generates RSS files.

As for those non-technical people using WYSIWYG page building tools or personal home page building systems, have faith. Even you can build an RSS file from scratch, as long as you dispense with some of the extra features you probably don’t need. We’ll go through how to do this below. Later, I’ll also mention some tools that will even do some or all of the work for you.

The RSS File

At the heart of an RSS file are “items.” No matter what version of RSS you settle on, your file will have to include at least one item. Items are generally web pages that you’d like others to link to. For example, let’s say you just created a web page reviewing a new cell phone that’s being released. Information about that page would form an item.

To enter your item into the RSS file, you’ll need three bits of information:

* Title

* Description

* Link

The title and description of your item need not match exactly the HTML title tag of the web page that the item refers to, nor the meta description tag, assuming you use these (don’t know what they are? See my How To Use HTML Tags article). You can write any title and description that you think will describe the page. However, using your page’s title and meta description tag certainly makes it easy to copy and paste to build your RSS feed.

In the case of our example page, let’s say this is the information we settle on to define it as an item:

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I’ve been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html

Now we have to surround that information with XML tags. These are similar to HTML tags, with the exception that unlike with HTML, there’s no set definition of XML tags. Anyone can make up a particular XML tag. Whether it is useful depends on the program that reads the resulting XML file. In the case of RSS feeds, they have their own unique set of XML tags that are defined. Use these correctly, and then anything that reads RSS will understand your information.

Did that make your head spin? If so, don’t reread — just carry on to see how simple it is. First, open a text editor like Notepad. We’re going to build our RSS file using it.

For your title, you need to start it with the tag, then follow this with the text of the title, then end with the tag. It looks like this:

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

For your description, you do the same, starting out with the opening tag, then following with the actual description, then “closing” with the tag. Now you have this:

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I’ve been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

Next, we add the link information, beginning with , following with the actual hyperlink, then closing with . That gives us this:

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I’ve been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html

Now there’s one more thing we need to do. We actually have to define all this information as forming a particular “item,” which we do using a special item tag.

You place the opening item tag, at the top or start of all the information we’ve listed. You then place the closing item tag, , at the bottom or “end” of the item information. The finished product looks like this:

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I’ve been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html

Congratulations! You’ve now made your first item. There’s a bit more to do to finish our RSS file. First, what if we have other items we want to syndicate? Then we simply add more item elements, just as we did above. You can have up to 15 items. New items tend to be inserted at the top, with old items removed from the bottom, to make room for new stuff.

With our example, let’s see how things look if we add two more items:

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I’ve been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html

Sanyo Tablet PC Amazes!

I was dubious about the new Tablet PCs, but then I saw the latest from Sanyo. Wow, cool looks and it works!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/sanyotablet.html

Canon MegaTiny Digital Camera Too Small

OK, there is a limit to just how small is too small. Canon’s MetaTiny, no larger than a quarter, simply is too little to use properly

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/metatiny.html

Having defined items we want to distribute, we now have to define our site as a “channel.” You’ll use the same tags as with the items: title, description and link. However, this time the information will be about your entire site, rather than a particular page. That means our channel information would look like this:

All Gadgets Reviewed

If it’s a gadget, we review it. Learn what gadgets are hot and what’s not!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com

Now, how does something reading our RSS file know that the information above is for our “channel” when it looks just like item information? Simple. As long as we don’t surround this information with an opening and closing tags, it won’t be seen as item information but rather as channel information. That gives us this:

All Gadgets Reviewed

If it’s a gadget, we review it. Learn what gadgets are hot and what’s not!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I’ve been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html

Sanyo Tablet PC Amazes!

I was dubious about the new Tablet PCs, but then I saw the latest from Sanyo. Wow, cool looks and it works!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/sanyotablet.html

Canon MegaTiny Digital Camera Too Small

OK, there is a limit to just how small is too small. Canon’s MetaTiny, no larger than a quarter, simply is too little to use properly

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/metatiny.html

There are a few last things we need to do. First, we need to add a tag at the very top of the file saying that this is written according to the XML 1.0 specifications. Right under this, we also have to say what RSS version we are using.

So far, everything we’ve done is compatible with UserLand’s popular RSS 0.91 version. However, it also matches UserLand’s latest RSS 2.0 version, as well, so we’ll define the file as meeting that specification. This will allow us to add other neat features in the future, if we want.

Finally, after the RSS tag, we need to add an opening “channel” tag. That gives us this at the top of the file:

At the bottom of the file, after all the items we want to syndicate, we have to insert a closing channel and RSS tag, in that order. Those look like this:

This means our complete file looks like this:

All Gadgets Reviewed

If it’s a gadget, we review it. Learn what gadgets are hot and what’s not!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com

Nokia 3650 Combines Phone And Photos

I’ve been playing with the new Nokia 3650. Finally, someone has got the combination of a cell phone with digital camera capabilities right!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/nokia3650.html

Sanyo Tablet PC Amazes!

I was dubious about the new Tablet PCs, but then I saw the latest from Sanyo. Wow, cool looks and it works!

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/sanyotablet.html

Canon MegaTiny Digital Camera Too Small

OK, there is a limit to just how small is too small. Canon’s MetaTiny, no larger than a quarter, simply is too little to use properly

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/metatiny.html

Mind Blowing Options

Everything shown above is the bare basics you need to create a file and start syndicating content from your web site. However, there are additional things you could do.

For example, rather than your entire web site being a “channel,” you could actually have different content from within the web site be defined into separate channels. That’s something I’m not going to explore in this article, but some of the resources below will guide you through this, when you feel more comfortable.

As hinted at, RSS 2.0 allows you to insert all types of additional information into your feed. It can make your head spin to look at these and decide what to use. The easy answer is, don’t bother with anything you don’t know. Not every aggregator supports all the options offered. As long as you provide the minimum information suggested above, you should be fine.

Did I Choose The Right RSS Version?

Earlier, I’d mentioned there are different versions of RSS. Even though we entered the bare minimum of information, it turned out that we were able to have a file that was easily considered to be RSS 2.0, the latest version promoted by UserLand and which is widely used.

Indeed, the Syndic8 site reports that the most popular format of RSS by far is RSS 0.91 — and though we’ve used RSS 2.0, our file as shown is entirely compatible with RSS 0.91. In short, we’re in safe company.

What about that RSS 1.0 version that I said was complicated. Well, it is complicated. However, some people might want to make use of some of the special capabilities that it offers. If you are interested in it, then check out the official specification.

Saving The File

Now that we’re done adding to the file, we need to save it. But what name shall we give it? I’ve looked and not seen any guidance on this. I imagine that’s because as long as the file is valid (more below), it probably doesn’t matter what it’s called.

To make my own decision for Search Engine Watch, I decided to imitate what I saw out at UserLand, which promotes the RSS 2.0 standard that we used. UserLand’s example feeds all ended .xml, so let’s do the same. As for the first part, that really can be whatever you like. For our example, let’s say we just call it feed.xml.

Now that our file is saved, we can place it anywhere we want on our web server. Let’s say we put it in the root or home directory. Then the address to our RSS file would be:

http://allgadgetsreviewed.com/feed.xml

Validating The File

Now our RSS file is done, but did we do it right? To find out, we need to validate it. Use the aptly named Feed Validator service. Simply enter the address to your RSS file, and you’ll be told if everything is OK — or if there’s something wrong you need to fix.

How about a quick preview of how your new feed actually looks? Then pay a visit to Wytheville Community College News Center. Again, enter your feed URL, and you’ll see the clickable headlines and story descriptions nicely assembled inside a box.

The service will also generate a JavaScript code that you can post on your site. Anyone copying the JavaScript can automatically have your feed syndicated into their pages — pretty neat!

Get Syndicated!

Now that your file is validated, you want the world to know about it! To make this happen, visit the RSS directories and search engines listed in the RSS: Your Gateway To News & Blog Content article. They generally offer submission pages, where you can inform them of your feed.

You also want to make sure people who come to your web site see that you provide a feed. It’s very common to post a link to the feed somewhere on the home page of a web site. If you have a dedicated news page, you may want to put it there, as well.

You can link to your feed with an ordinary HTML link. However, many sites use a small orange XML icon to link to the feed. I’ve also seen some sites use blue RSS icon. I could find no standard about using these. So, to be safe, I did all three with Search Engine Watch. Look on the home page, and you’ll see how it’s done (and help yourself to the icons, if you need them).

Finally, it’s good to “ping” one of the major services that track when web logs and RSS content changes. By doing this, you ensure that other sites that monitor these know to check back at your site for more content.

Weblogs.com is one of these major sites. Enter your site’s name and the URL of your feed into the manual Ping-Site Form, and it will know you’ve updated your feed. The Specs page explains how to set up automatic notification.

blo.gs is another major change monitoring site. It is supposed to receive any changes that come from Weblogs.com, so you shouldn’t need to notify it separately. However, if you want to be on the safe side, it’s easily done. Use the ping form, which also explains how to set up automatic pinging, as well.

Tutorials & Resources

RSS Headline Creator allows you to skip coding and manually choose the number of headlines you’d like to include in your file, up to the 15 maximum allowed. Then a form with boxes that you fill out will be made. Enter the right information, then push the “Make The Code” button. Your RSS file’s code will be generated, for you to copy and paste into a text editor and save.

How To Get Your Web Site Content Syndicated is a Dec. 2002 tutorial by Kalena Jordan and Dan Thies from which I drew inspiration to get my own feed going.

Syndic8′s How To Section lists a variety of tutorials that discuss how to build RSS files.

Content Syndication with RSS is a book by Ben Hammersley that was just released in March 2003. I haven’t read it, but everything I’ve heard is that it should be excellent.

RSS Resources Directory from UserLand categorizes helpful information related to RSS, in different categories.

Postscript: Search Types: Blogs & Feeds and SEO: Feeds are sections of the Search Topics area available to Search Engine Watch members with lots of information on the topic of feeds since this article was originally written.

http://freeadvertise.co.nr

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Career Coaching: Seven Mistakes to Avoid When Making a Big Career Change

31 Aug 2010 | By

Career Coaching: Seven Mistakes to Avoid When Making a Big Career Change

Are you considering a big change in your career? Do you feel let down, bored, burned out? Maybe you think there is something bigger and more meaningful that you are meant to do. Perhaps your company downsized you into this predicament. Regardless of the reason, there are some common mistakes to avoid while you evaluate and select new career options. Avoid these pitfalls and you can stay motivated, keep your balance and move forward successfully.

Mistake #1 – Making Decisions in Haste

Tempted to just quit and wing it? Everyone is now and then, but unless you just can’t stand your current situation another day, resist! Instead, write down everything you hate about your current situation, then one by one, look at the most intolerable issues and see how you can turn each around to make it more tolerable for the present moment.

It is easy to get so excited about the future that you decide to forge ahead without a plan and hope everything naturally falls your way after that. It will require more energy to sustain your new career and make it work well for you than it will to identify and start it. It is better to come from a place of higher energy and stability than to start out already burned out or worried about how you will pay the bills. Consider seeking the help of a qualified career coach, life coach or career counselor to help you identify your next career path. An objective, trained third party can help you strategize and phase it in for the best results and the least amount of heartache.

Mistake #2 – Ignoring the Finances

“I can’t stand this any longer! I would rather eat dog food than put up with this another day!” Whether you are pursuing a new career voluntarily or involuntarily, you must pay the bills. Do pursue your dream. Do look for the career that brings out the best in you. If you have plenty of savings, good for you! Resist the temptation to go through it and be left without. If you have a dream, by all means hang on to it! But if it won’t realistically get off the ground for three years, find another way to earn a living in the meantime. The need for income is a reality you cannot ignore.

Mistake #3 – Filling Your Head with Negative Stuff

What do you read? What do you view on television or the Internet? With whom do you spend free time? When you’re looking at making big life and career changes, you need lots of positive energy around you. If you spend time with negative people or fill your mind with anything that isn’t useful, guess what? It fills you with negative energy. Instead, surround yourself with people and things that give you positive energy and encouragement. Read books that motivate and encourage you. Go places that inspire you. Do everything you can to be what you want to be like after you land the next great career opportunity, and you will be more likely to attract it into your life!

Mistake #4 – Getting Bogged Down by Decisions

If you’re an intelligent person who has enjoyed any measure of success, chances are there are a lot of different choices you could make in your next big life or career change. Clients often tell me they are overwhelmed by all of the thoughts and ideas that keep running through their minds. And as the overwhelm sets in, it is very easy to just shut down. As we work together, I remind clients when making tough decisions to ask themselves, “Is this going to move me forward?” If the answer is yes, proceed. If the answer is no, either revise the decision or drop it entirely.

Mistake #5 – Not Having a Plan

There are two reasons this is important. First, life is unpredictable and it is dangerous to relinquish security before the next career arrangement is lined up. Second, changing careers is a lot like dating. You are always more desirable when you are unavailable. You are more attractive to a prospective employer if you are already working. And if you have already lost your job either voluntarily or involuntarily, it is even more important to have a plan so that you are then more likely to achieve it. If you see success, you will be successful. (Conversely, if you don’t have a plan, how will you know when you’ve succeeded?)

Mistake #6 – Ending your Preparation Too Soon

All I can say here is, prepare, prepare, prepare. If you’re looking at several possibilities, don’t immediately drop one when another looks good. Think about all of the big tests you have taken in life (college entrance exams, finals, certification exams) and how you prepared for those. Did you study way in advance and take a big, long break before taking the test? Or were you still reading the material as you walked in the door on test day, wondering if you could still be better prepared? When you’re embarking on a new career or life change, give it all of your available energy, skills and attention. If you have a goal in mind, resist relaxing when you think you almost have it. Prepare and stay sharp right up until the day you start. This will help keep you from losing confidence at the last minute.

Mistake #7 – Getting Discouraged Too Easily

Does this happen to you when you face hurdles in the midst of your goal? Instead of giving in to the pain, pay attention to what specifically is making you uncomfortable and make adjustments to get you through. For example, if you’re in career transition and you find that it is painful to go through the tedium of making phone calls, sending resumes, going on interviews where the competition is tough, etc., find the formula that gives you a break without stopping the process. Try devoting an hour or two each morning to these tasks and letting it go for the rest of the day, or only making a certain number of phone calls or interview appointments per week so that when you’re finished, you can feel good about giving yourself some time off. Don’t stop. Adjust.

Remember, a career change is a life change. You didn’t arrive at your current level of education and experience overnight, and don’t be disappointed if you don’t immediately uncover “the thing” you want to do next. Allow yourself time and space to explore and make an educated decision. Get the help you need along the way (i.e., career coach, career counselor) to help you do it strategically, not emotionally. If you avoid these mistakes you are much more likely to end up in a new career that complements and fulfills your life.

Gwen Jewett is a Life and Career Coach and Selfgrowth.com Guide to Career Coaching, living in the Dallas area. After 14 years as Executive Director of a 12,000-member national healthcare association, she voluntarily left to pursue a more balanced life. Since 2001 she has helped many clients make their career and personal life stop working against each other and instead work in complement. www.coachgwen.com

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How to Get Started Making Glass Bead Jewelry

30 Aug 2010 | By

How to Get Started Making Glass Bead Jewelry

To start creating your glass bead jewelry first setup a proper workstation. A proper workstation is one that will allow you to be both creative and productive. Glass bead jewelry making is meticulous, yet fun and enjoyable work, so you will spend many wonderful hours designing your creations. Therefore it is important that your workstation provides you with proper lighting and comfortable seating. 

 

Next, you will need to have lots of handmade glass beads, so you won’t run out of beads in the middle of designing a piece of jewelry. Handmade glass beads are more uniquely design and finer in quality than cheap machine made beads. The best place to get handmade glass beads is directly from an experienced glass bead jewelry artist, such as DK Designs.biz. An experienced glass bead jewelry artist saves you both time and money by creating the unique glass beads for you. So you don’t have to worry about learning the art of making glass beads or incurring the extra cost for the required equipment.

 

Finally you will need to have the following materials if you don’t already:

 

Heavyweight flexible beading wire – for stringing your glass beads. For maximum flexibility a 49 strand beading wire works best.

 

Sterling silver clasps either lobster or toggle clasp – to securely fasten your glass bead necklaces or bracelets. For earrings you will need sterling silver or gold earwire.

Sterling silver is recommended so you don’t have to worry about tarnishing.

 

Swarovski crystals – in a variety of colors to place between beads and help create unique designs. Swarovski crystals add sparkle power and value to your handmade jewelry.

 

A variety of pliers – round nose, chain nose, flat nose, a good pair of nippers, and a cripper. If you are just starting out as a jewelry artist and you are not able to obtain all of the needed pliers at once then you can initially get by with just the round nose and chain nose pliers.

 

Now that you have the minimum supplies and tools you need to get started creating your handmade glass bead jewelry, it is time to start designing. If you are finding it rather difficult to create your first jewelry pattern, it is a good idea to attend a class about making glass bead jewelry. The best classes are those taught by actual jewelry artists. If you would like to attend such a class, visit DK Designs.biz.

Diane has been beading for over 15 years, and has traveled and attended many beading conferences and workshop learning many different beading techniques. She has learned the art of Lamp Working 9 years ago creating glass beads with glass rods and a torch which sparked her creativity to produce varied and unique jewelry designs. Diane’s creations can be seen on her DK Designs.biz and at art and craft shows throughout the southeast.

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Guide On Making Perfumes From Home – High Converting

29 Aug 2010 | By

Guide On Making Perfumes From Home – High Converting
50% Commission Per Sale. Hot Product In An Exciting And Popular Niche. Easy Converting Product On How To Make Great Perfumes For Next To Nothing And Sell Them For Big Bucks. Ideal Home Business
Guide On Making Perfumes From Home – High Converting

The Sweet Smell Of Success.
Make Your Own Fragrances For Fun And Profit!
The Sweet Smell Of Success.

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How to Get Started Making Silver and Gold Jewelry for Profit or Fun.

10 Apr 2010 | By

How to Get Started Making Silver and Gold Jewelry for Profit or Fun.

 

Jewelry making has long been an art form passed on from father to son, all the way back to ancient times; people have adorned themselves in Silver, Gold, and Gemstone Jewelry,

African tribes, the Native American Indian tribes and numerous ethnic tribes have used Bone carved pendants, Animal Ivory, Bird feathers and Seashells, to fashion accessories to use as jewelry.

Today we give our Jewelry titles ,such as Ethnic Jewelry ,Tribal Jewelry ,Antique Jewelry, Fashion Jewelry and so on .In this article we are going to Talk about Designer Hand made jewelry ,How to make it either for fun or for those really keen students how to do it and make money from your hobby .

Right lets get going .You have two options to start with, you can either buy raw silver from your local distributor, or find a Jewelry Manufacture that will supply you with the materials, there is a choice between 925 or 985 in the grade of silver you buy, I prefer to work in Fine silver 985, but you may find this a little difficult to buy. For the purpose of this article we are going to choose the second option and buy our material from a reputable Jewelry Manufacture and we are going to start with making a simple Sterling silver 925 pendant with a Turquoise cabochon Gemstone.

The majority of tools needed can be purchased form a good hardware store and some of the more hard to find items you will be able to get from either a Silver Jewelry Manufacture or Supplier.

Your heat source can be either a gas bottle with extension hose and flame adjusting nozzle or as we use in our workshop a petrol bellows and hose set with adjustable nozzle, its important witch ever set you buy that you can regulate the flame and heat .Next comes the hand tools you will need a small brass hammer, tweezers about 7inches long, small tin snips, brass block 4inches by 4inches and 1inch thick ,rags,2part epoxy, battery acid, fine grade file , a flexible shaft grinder and a ceramic base to heat your silver on ,here is a handy tip a house brick and unglazed roof tile work just great. That should be enough for you to get started.

Step1 is to cut a strip of silver slightly wider then the thickness of the turquoise and long enough to wrap around the diameter of the gemstone, and carefully cut it so as the 2 ends meet tightly around the gemstone.

Step2, take your solder and place a small amount of flux on the two joins, heat the silver strip till red, apply the solder carefully, and it’s joined. If you haven’t done any soldering before try a few practice runs first, you will be able to use that silver later on.

Step3, take your sterling silver band and place it on a flat piece of silver plate, check that the turquoise still fits, then as in step 2 apply flux and solder the band to the plate.

Step4, remove the excess silver with your tin snips and sand off any rough edges.

Step5,decide on a shape for your bail and cut it out of silver accordingly, bend into shape .now solder that to the pendant ,and while hot dip the whole pendant into a small jar of acid ,rinse in a jar of clear water and dry.

Step6, Place your turquoise into you silver and carefully trim away any surplus silver. Once your happy with the fit you can sand the silver again with fine grade emery paper, give a small amount of epoxy to the inside of the pendant and insert the turquoise stone .Now take a spoon and using the back work it around the pendant to give a snug fit with the silver and allow to dry.

Step7, Using your flexi grinder insert a polishing cloth disc, add some silver polish and buff the silver to the required finish.

The principles above are applied to all silver work; no it’s up to the imagination of the jewelry designer and skillfulness of the jeweler.

My wife and I have been manufacturing silver jewelry for over 10yrs ,we have successfully helped hundreds of wholesalers and retailers reach there market goals through our custom making jewelry services ,with our monogrammed jewelry made from fine silver985 % if you would like to contact us go to http://www.silver925-wholesale.com

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Public Speaking – The Art of Speech Making

01 Jan 2010 | By

Public Speaking – The Art of Speech Making

How do you speak naturally while all those people are watching you?

This document covers hints and tips on public speaking and presentation skill, dealing with public speaking nerves and anxiety, public speaking skills and public speaking techniques, public speaking training.

Common Fears of Public Speaking

What happens when you have to speak in public?

Did you know that public speaking tops the list of phobias for most people? Not spiders or heights – public speaking – speech in public!

Well, if you didn’t know that, we bet your body does. It will do all kinds of unpleasant things to you when you have to stand up and face a sea of faces with the hope of getting your message across in a compelling and interesting way.

Your hands may sweat and your mouth goes dry. Your knees may shake and a quaver affects your voice. Your heart may race and those well known butterflies invade your stomach.

When all that happens most people don’t think of getting their message across in a compelling and interesting way; they just think of getting off the ‘stage’ as quickly as possible!

Have we frightened you sufficiently yet?

It’s normal

We don’t really mean to frighten you, just remind you that your body reacts ‘in extremis’ when put under pressure, and for most people, public speaking is just about the worst pressure they can be put under.

It’s normal to be nervous and have a lot of anxiety when speaking in public. In a way, it’s less normal not to have nerves or anxiety; in fact, to feel you have a phobia about public speaking.

Why do we get Public Speaking anxiety?

Fight or flight

Our bodies are geared to fight or flight from ancient time – fight that mastodon or get the hell out of the way. We don’t have too many mastodons around these days, but the body still reacts as though we do. So, if we have to get up and speak in public, all that adrenalin and noradrenalin goes coursing through our bodies – way more than we need.

We can’t run away (well, we could, but we’d be out of job pretty quick if we did it too often), so our only option is to fight. But in terms of speaking in public, it can be hard to define just what we’re fighting.

Why does public speaking do this to us?

Good question. You’d think that for most people, being given the opportunity to impress their audience would be a fantastic one. There you are in front of a group of people, the spotlight is on you and for the length of time you’ve been give, the world is yours.

Or is it?

The very fact that the spotlight is you is enough to trigger every fear, anxiety and phobia you’ve ever had about public speaking.

Here’s why

You may be judged by all those people, and judged badly
You may feel like a fool
You might make mistakes and loose your way
You’ll be completely humiliated
You’ll never be as good as _________ (fill in the blank)
‘They’ won’t like you
‘They’ won’t ‘get’ what you’re trying to say

How to overcome fear of Public Speaking
What good are Nerves

Public speaking may not be comfortable, but take our word for it, nerves are good. Being ‘centre stage’ is not a good place to feel too comfortable.

Nerves will keep you awake and ensure you don’t get too complacent. Hard to feel complacent when your heart is beating so hard you’re sure everyone watching you can hear it.

If channelled well, nerves can make the difference between giving a humdrum presentation and giving one that keeps people listening.

Get your attention off yourself

It’s very tempting to keep focused on how you’re feeling, especially if you’re feeling really uncomfortable. You’ll start to notice every bead of sweat.

To make your nerves work for you, you need to focus on just about anything other than yourself. You can distract yourself by paying attention to the environment in which you’re speaking and seeing how you can make it work for you.

Once you’re actually in front of your audience, pay attention to them. If you can, notice how people are dressed, who’s wearing glasses, who has on bright colours. There will be dozens and dozens of things you can pay attention to help you trick your mind into not noticing what’s going on with you.

Anything will do and you will find that the less you concentrate on how you are feeling and the more you concentrate on other things, the more confident you will feel.

How to build confidence in Public Speaking

Your audience can be your friend

Unless you know you’re absolutely facing a hostile group of people, human nature is such that your audience wants you succeed. They’re on your side!

Therefore, rather than assuming they don’t like you, give them the benefit of the doubt that they do.

They aren’t an anonymous sea of faces, but real people. So to help you gain more confidence when speaking in public, think of ways to engage your audience. Remember, even if they aren’t speaking, you can still have a two-way conversation.

When you make an important point pay attention to the people who are nodding in agreement and the ones who are frowning in disagreement. As long as you are creating a reaction in your audience you are in charge.

Keep them awake

The one thing you don’t want is for them to fall asleep! But make no mistake public speaking arenas are designed to do just that: dim lights, cushy chairs, not having to open their mouths – a perfect invitation to catch up on those zzzzs.

Ways to keep them away include

Ask rhetorical questions
Maintain eye contact for a second or two with as many people as possible
Be provocative
Be challenging
Change the pace of your delivery
Change the volume of your voice

Public Speaking Training

Get a coach

Whatever the presentation public speaking is tough, so get help.

Since there are about a zillion companies out there all ready to offer you public speaking training and courses, here are some things to look for when deciding the training that’s right for you.

Focus on positives not negatives

Any training you do to become more effective at public speaking should always focus on the positive aspects of what you already do well.

Nothing can undermine confidence more than telling someone what they aren’t doing well.

You already do lots of things well good public speaking training should develop those instead of telling you what you shouldn’t do.

Turn your back on too many rules

If you find a public speaking course that looks as though it’s going to give you lots of dos and don’ts, walk away! Your brain is going to be so full of whatever it is you’re going to be talking about that to try to cram it full of a whole bunch of rules will just be counterproductive.

As far as we’re concerned, aside from physical violence or inappropriately taking off your clothes, there are no hard and fast rules about public speaking.

You are an individual not a clone

Most importantly, good public speaking training should treat you as a unique individual, with your own quirks and idiosyncrasies. You aren’t like anybody else and your training course should help you bring out your individuality, not try to turn you into someone you’re not.

Hints and Tips for Effective Public Speaking

Here are just a few hints, public speaking tips and techniques to help you develop your skills and become far more effective as a public speaker.

Mistakes

Mistakes are all right.

Recovering from mistakes makes you appear more human.
Good recovery puts your audience at ease – they identify with you more.

Humour

Tell jokes if you’re good at telling jokes.
If you aren’t good, best to leave the jokes behind.
There’s nothing worse than a punch line that has no punch.
Gentle humour is good in place of jokes.
Self-deprecation is good, but try not to lay it on too thick.

Tell stories

Stories make you a real person not just a deliverer of information.
Use personal experiences to bring your material to life.
No matter how dry your material is, you can always find a way to humanise it.

How to use the public speaking environment

Try not to get stuck in one place.
Use all the space that’s available to you.
Move around.
One way to do this is to leave your notes in one place and move to another.
If your space is confined (say a meeting room or even presenting at a table) use stronger body language to convey your message.

Technology

Speak to your audience not your slides.
Your slides are there to support you not the other way around.
Ideally, slides should be graphics and not words (people read faster than they hear and will be impatient for you to get to the next point).
If all the technology on offer fails, it’s still you they’ve come to hear.

You can learn to enjoy public speaking and become far more effective at standing in front of a group of people and delivering a potent message.

When it comes to improving your public speaking skills we have three words:

practise, practise, practise!

Jo Ellen and Robin run Impact Factory and have trained thousands of people in the art of Public Speaking for events from Wedding Speeches through to Key Note Conference Speeches.

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