Bloggers often have lists in their sidebars to their most popular stories. Using the RSSmeme API it is now simple to generate a list of your most shared stories. Nearly every blogging platform comes with a built in widget that that grab an RSS feed and put it in your sidebar. Here’s how to get a list of your most shared stories using RSSmeme:
- Find your source id. The best way to do this is to use the RSSmeme search to find one of your stories titles. For instance; this blog’s id is 3816.
- Build your URL. The format is http://www.rssmeme.com/api/?output=atom&order_by=-feed_count&source=3816 (but be sure to replace my source id with yours). This tells RSSmeme to give us a feed ordered by the amount of shares for your blog.
- Create a RSS widget in your blog. Here are the Wordpress instructions. Put the URL you generated in step 2 in the widget.
- Save and enjoy!
That widget will auto refresh with your most shared stories! You can see mine to the left.
Of note is the fact that users will have no idea that you are using RSSmeme to generate this widget. I gain nothing from this; consider it a present to the blogosphere!
Please let me know if you are using it!
