So, you want to be a syndicated writer. OK, now what?

Presumably, you've got a body of work in hand, and plan to churn out more content at a regular pace, maybe once a week, maybe more. But how do you get those columns and stories into the right hands? More to the point, how do you get them onto other people's Web sites?

You may have guessed, technology can help.

Before going further, though, let's make one clear: This isn't a piece about the pros and cons of third-party Web syndicators like ScreamingMedia and iSyndicate. Plenty of ink has been spilled on that front already. As these players struggle to find their own sustainable models, a writer testing the syndication waters is probably just as well to leave them alone. Assuming they don't go out of business-and you aren't tied into any exclusive contracts-you can always explore that scene later.

Instead, let's focus on self-syndication. And to do that, it's important to figure out what exactly we mean by syndication.

Since the glory days of the broadsheet, editors looking to offer relevant, compelling material have loved a bargain. And authors who retain the rights to their work have sought to wring as much mileage from it as possible.

In the print world, successful syndicated writers have typically signed on with one of the big syndication services. In exchange for marketing the content to buyers and arranging distribution, the syndicator claims a percentage of sales revenue. How big a cut they take depends largely on the clout of the writer.

On the Web, syndication takes a twist thanks to the hyperlink. In other words, in syndicating a story we could be talking about an entire article of yours appearing on, say, ModernMaturity. Or you may just have headlines and links on that site directing readers back to your own URL.

Some writers have enough drawing power to charge Web sites for the non-exclusive right to run their stuff. But for many scribes the biggest return will be in the traffic generated by option 2.

Don't get me wrong: If you can negotiate payment, do. But there are plenty of reasons beyond immediate cash compensation to want your work to appear on a variety of sites.

Kevin Savetz, a self-syndicated computer technology writer (and founder of SecondRights.com), notes that one of the biggest pluses to distributing his stories online is simply that editors are more likely to see his writing and contact him for future freelance assignments.

'You really want to have a good Rolodex,' Savetz said. 'And ultimately that's about people, not technology.'

Still, Savetz notes, using the right technology can make spreading the word easier.

To that end, two methods let writers easily provide Web sites auto-updated content. The techniques fall broadly into the JavaScript/Blog and XML camps. And while they aren't the only ways to skin this cat, they are among the simplest. (Also see, 'Content Management for the Masses.')

Two Blogs to Go, Please

A Web log, or blog is a sort of running commentary or diary posted on the Web. Typically, it includes a headline, a few sentences of description or elaboration, and accompanying links.

In fact, a blog entry can be as long as you want, from a single line to dozens of paragraphs. And if you set it up right, other sites can publish your blog in real time with virtually no effort.

Because it's popular and easy to use, we'll focus on Pyra's free Blogger.com. But similar tricks can be done with any Web log system that lets you save a valid JavaScript file.

As mentioned, there are two sorts of syndication to think about: Linked headlines and entire articles. So the budding syndicated columnist will want to set up two separate blogs to give editors a choice.

Blogger makes it easy. You sign up for the service by creating a username and password. Then you tell the system if you plan to host the blog on your own server or on Blogspot, the free one they provide. And that's pretty much it.

Once created, the big difference between a syndicated and standard blog is that you need to save the syndicated blog as a JavaScript file instead of as an HTML page. To do that, make sure in Settings that the blog filename ends in .js not .htm or .html. It's a one-time tweak. Make it at the start and you never have to worry about it again.

The other difference from a standard blog is that your template should be absolutely barebones. You want to identify where the blog entry is, and maybe the date it was posted. And that's about it. No background colors, no fancy fonts. That lets editors who use your feed adjust its look and feel to fit with the rest of their site.

You can make amendments later, but for now, delete what's in your Template and replace it with the following bit of code. You don't have to know what it means, just make sure you copy it exactly:

Save, and you're done. Post a few headlines to your blog and they're now available for editors to plug into their own Web sites. They do that by placing the following code on the page where they want the headlines to appear:

(The URL, of course, should be changed to reflect where your blog is actually saved and what it's called.)

Next time you update your blog, the editor's Web site will update as well.

The example above is for offering other sites headlines. Follow the same steps to create your second blog for syndicating a full story. An example of both kinds of blogs in action can be found here.

Is there a catch? Well yes, but a small one. A few characters freak out JavaScript, like double quotes ('). So anywhere in your blog entry that a double quote appears, replace it with a single quote ('). For more information on syndicating a blog, check out Pyra's page on the subject.

RSS: Really Simple Syndication

Now you know the concepts behind self-syndication: Taking your work, adding a bit code and posting it somewhere as a file that other sites can pull from.

Our first method used Blogger and JavaScript to get the job done. Now we'll use a technology known as RSS, which as far as you and I are concerned stands for Really Simple Syndication.

RSS is an iteration of XML, or Extensible Markup Language. But you don't have to be any kind of coding genius to use it. The trick is to set up a basic template, then cut and paste in new headlines and links as needed. Though you can use it to post entire stories for other sites to grab, the growing RSS movement is really geared toward headlines.

An RSS template is just a plain text file with some special coding at the top and a few HTML-like tags surrounding your goods. So, with Notepad or another word processor, cut and past the following into a new, blank document:

This tells other Web sites that, by golly, this is an RSS file we're dealing with here. It also identifies which version of RSS you're using (0.91, for the record.)

Next, you want to name the 'channel' of headlines you're creating; identify the name and URL of the site from which they come; provide a brief description of the channel; and state what language it's all in (whew!)

Cutting and pasting the following code can do all of that. You'd replace the red stuff with your own information:

Now the headlines. And hang in there; you're almost done.

Each headline is considered a separate 'item' in RSS. And just the way you bracketed the name of your Web site in 'title' tags above, you now want to bracket your headlines in a couple tags, too. Namely item, title, description and link tags. So next, cut and paste the following (you know the drill on the red stuff):

You can include up to 15 headlines this way. Finish up by cutting and pasting in this:

and you're done.

Save the file with an .rss at the end, upload it to you're your server and other sites can now use the headlines on their pages. (If it's not already in their system, they'll need to install a small program to convert the RSS into HTML.)

In the future, all you need to do is update the headlines and links in your file and leave the rest of the stuff alone. The changes will be reflected on your partnering Web sites automatically.

Several sites serve as aggregators of RSS feeds. They're places editors can go to browse content and see what they might like to include on their own sites. It's a smart idea to register with these. Two good ones are My.Uuserland.com and XMLtree.

Why would I want to do any of this?

For the greater glory of you, naturally. Say you're a writer and you've got a Web site where you post your stories. Now say you've got a few friends who are also writers, also have Web sites and also post their own work.

If Joe lets you put a few of your headlines on his site, and Mary does the same, and you offer each of them a comparable slice of real estate on your site, chances are you're each going to get some new traffic.

And then suddenly you are a syndicated writer, and can use that as a calling card with future sites. After all, it's one thing to ask the AARP to carry your work when they don't know you from Adam. It's another story altogether when you can say, 'Right now my work is on a half-dozen sites around the Web' and you can show them the proof.

Similarly, a few writers covering the same or complimentary fields could band together to provide a syndicated feed of, say, European arts stories, or wireless telecom coverage, or Los Angeles political commentary-and then shop that around to other sites. The possibility for new alliances and even business ventures quickly becomes heady.

And in a sense, what choice do you have? Profit aside, as a writer, 'You need to make sure that people know about your content and come to see it on your site,' says Mike Krus, who co-runs the terrific NewsIsFree content aggregation site.

'A lot of the most interesting content that passes through NewsIsFree?is provided by people writing opinions, columns [and] reviews in web logs,' Krus says. Through self-syndication tools like JavaScript and RSS that material can be distributed painlessly to an exponentially larger swath of the Net's reading public.