RSS Feeds Aren't Theft — They’re Distribution

If someone asks whether publishing an RSS feed just gives content away for free, the honest answer is “yes.” But that’s the wrong question to ask.

RSS’s final word — Syndication — means broadcasting elsewhere. That’s the entire purpose. Subscribers read your content in their RSS readers, and because RSS is XML, it doubles as a lightweight programmatic API. That enables practical use cases like displaying a list of recent posts on a different site.

But content isn’t a physical asset. Scrapers exist; expect them regardless. Omitting an RSS feed doesn’t stop scraping — it simply makes you harder to reach by people who’d otherwise receive your content willingly.

Why Distribution Beats Protection

Consider the alternative. If you dislike the idea of work appearing anywhere other than your own website, skip RSS. But the cost is high: your work already struggles to find an audience. Building fences around it seldom helps that.

Exposure Matters More Than Exclusivity

Think through the real-world comparisons:

  • Readers are more likely to buy a webcomic they laugh at daily because it’s free and accessible than one hidden behind a paywall before they know if they’ll like it.
  • Clients trust consultants who openly demonstrate their expertise and are a publicly verifiable expert, not ones whose homepage is only a pricing sheet and a phone number.
  • Readers trust recommendations from blogs they deliberately subscribe to because they like the content and writers — not from sites they randomly land on.

An RSS feed is an invitation: “I’m happy to meet you where you are.” If your audience prefers a reader, an aggregator, or another site, that’s fine — what matters is that they read your work at all.

Beyond personal gain, RSS asks a larger question: what kind of web do you want? One with interoperable possibilities, or one of walled gardens?