Joomla already offers a built-in RSS/Atom Feed function using a Core-Component, but it's really hard for new users to implement and use. Some facts about the built-in RSS Feed Component:

• You may assign a maximum number of item contents (articles), which will be shown in the Feed.
• You may only assign RSS Feeds to whole Section(s) and/or specific Category(-ies); the articles that are in those Sections and/or Categories will be displayed in the Feeds.
• You may have as many RSS Feeds as you want; every single Section and Category can have its own Feed.

It is wise to use a "read more" link in every article, so that only an intro will be displayed in the Feed.

1. Combine Joomla's Feed with the Power of FeedBurner

The best way to go is to combine the built-in Feed Component of Joomla with the free RSS Feeds service of Google called FeedBurner. From the Site of FeedBurner:

FeedBurner's services allow publishers who already have a feed to improve their understanding of and relationship with their audience. Once you have a working feed, run it through FeedBurner and realize a whole new set of benefits.

2. Let's Get it Started!

This tutorial was tested on Joomla version 1.5.12, installed with all sample data. For our example, the first thing we will do is to create a section and a category for our RSS Feed. This category will hold all our news articles.

• Now go to your Joomla administration back-end and click on the "Section Manager" from the "Content" menu.
  
• Then on the upper right corner of the screen click on "New" to create a new section.
  
• Then you see the page where you can enter the details of the new section.
  1. Here enter a title for the section, in our example "MyNews".
  2. Here enter an alias for the section, in our example "my-news".
     Don't forget to publish the section.
  
• Last click on "Save" to continue with the next step.
  
• Now click on the "Category Manager" from the "Content" menu.
  
• Then on the upper right corner of the screen click on "New" to create a new category.
  
• Now you see the page where you can enter the details of the new category.
  1. Here enter a title for the category, in our example "News Feed".
  2. Here enter an alias for the category, in our example "news-feed".
  3. Choose the right section for the category, which is the section you created before; in our example "MyNews".
     Don't forget to publish the category.
  
• Last click on "Save" to continue with the next step.
  
• Last but not least publish any of your news articles and assign them to section/category you have just created.

3. Obtain the URL of your RSS Feed

Now you have to obtain the URL of your RSS Feed. In order to do that you have to create a menu item that will point to the category you created before.

• Now go to the "Menus" menu and click on a menu module, in our example "Main Menu".
  
• In our example you have to create a new menu item in the "Main Menu", by clicking on "New" on the upper right corner of the screen.
  
• After that you have to choose a menu item type of either "Category Blog Layout" or "Category List Layout". Any of those would do just fine.
  
• Then on the next screen with the category's layout parameters, on the right hand side, select the category you created before for your news RSS Feed; in our example "MyNews/News Feed".
  
• On the left hand side you may enter the following details:
  1. A title for the menu item, in our example "My News Feed".
  2. An alias for the menu item, in our example "news-feed" (important if you use SEO!).
  3. Click on "No" so the menu item doesn't get published, unless you want the category containing your news Feed to be displayed on your website.
     
  
• Last click on "Apply" on the upper right corner.
  
• After clicking on "Apply", on the left hand side under the "Menu Item Details" and next to the "Link" you can see the URL to the category list/blog. Select the URL with your mouse and copy it; we're going to need this right away.
  
• Now let's see how your RSS Feed looks like! Paste the URL you just copied into the address bar of your browser. In our example the URL is: index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=34.
  
• Now in front of the URL add Joomla's root address, here: http://www.valandis.de/; and finally at the end of the URL add this: &format=feed&type=rss. So this the whole URL of your Feed and you should take note of it, because you will need it soon. Now press enter and you must be seeing your news RSS Feed in your favourite browser.
  

If you want to change the maximum number of articles which will be shown in the Feed, do the following: go to Joomla's administration control panel and click on "Global Configuration"; then on the first tab called "Site" and under "Site Settings" choose from the list "Feed length" the number of articles to show in your Feed(s).

4. Submit your Joomla Feed to FeedBurner

Now that you know the URL of your Joomla's RSS Feed you can easily submit it to FeedBurner, but before you do that make sure that you create a Google account.

• After you have created a Google account go to the website of FeedBurner and login with:
  1. The email you registered your Google account.
  2. The password of your Google account.
     Last click on "Sign in" to login to FeedBurner.
  
• On the next screen you need to enter the URL of your RSS Feed (the one you took note of before) and then click on next.
  
• On the next window you may enter:
  1. A title for your Feed, in our example "My News Feed".
  2. An address for your Feed, in our example my-news-feed (will be appended to the end of http://feeds.feedburner.com/)
     Then click on "Next" to continue.
  
• On the next screen FeedBurner informs you that your Feed was successfully burnt and shows you the URL of your Feed hosted at FeedBurner, in our example http://feeds.feedburner.com/my-news-feed. Then click on "Next" to continue.
  

5. Configure FeedBurner and Get your Own Chicklet

Now let's see some basic configuration settings for FeedBurner as well as how to get your own Feed icon(s), which is called "chicklet" here.

• In order to let FeedBurner automatically track Stats for your Feed check these options:
  1. Clickthroughs (how often people click items back to your site)
  2. Have FeedBurner Stats also track: Individual item views and resyndication as well as Reach.
     Then click on "Next" to continue to the next screen.
  
• On the next screen you can see various tabs with many options. Go and click on the "Publicize" tab.
  
• On the left hand side you see many options; click on "Chicklet Chooser".
  
• Next you are presented with a list of several icons, which are called chicklets; if you choose one of the first 2 chicklets, your site visitors may choose one RSS feed-reader (or Aggregator) of their choice, in order to subscribe to your feed. There also other chicklets that let your visitors subscribe directly to a specific RSS feed-reader.
  
• After you select your preferred chicklet, scroll down to the bottom of the page and copy the HTML code, that FeedBurner created for you there. Now the only thing you have to do is go back to your Joomla administration back-end and create a custom HTML module pasting the chicklet HTML code from FeedBurner into it.
  
• Now the only thing you have to do is go back to your Joomla administration back-end and create a custom HTML module pasting the chicklet HTML code from FeedBurner into it. Then publish this module to a template position of your choice and take a look at the result. Now your site visitors will be able to subscribe to your RSS Feed easily through FeedBurner!