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RSS and recurring pushes: the complete guide
The two features that let Natom send notifications on its own: the RSS feed reacts to what you publish, recurring pushes go out at fixed times. What they do, who they reach, how many they send and how to keep them in check.
The two automations, in one sentence
The RSS feed turns a new article into a notification: new content, notification. The recurring push sends the same notification every day at the same time: 7am, notification, whether or not there is anything new. A news site usually uses both: recurring pushes for the fixed appointments with readers, the feed (or the WordPress plugin) for single stories.
The RSS feed, explained simply
Your site has a notice board where every new article gets pinned at the top: that is the RSS feed (usually yoursite.com/feed/). Natom is someone who walks by and looks at the board at regular intervals, every 15 minutes unless you change it.
On every visit it looks only at the topmost sheet and asks: is it the same as last time?
- If yes, it walks away doing nothing.
- If it is new, it takes a picture (title, summary, image, link) and turns it into a notification.
The first visit after connecting sends nothing: it only memorises which article is the latest, so you never get notifications for old articles.
Two modes: draft or auto-send
The "send new articles automatically" box decides what happens to the notification just created.
- Off: the notification lands in Campaigns as a draft. Someone in the newsroom opens it, edits it if needed, and presses "Send now". No push goes out without a human eye.
- On: it goes out on its own, right away. Autopilot: handy for sites that publish little and want every article to become a push without thinking about it.
Who receives it: routing by category
The "route to audiences by category" box decides the recipients.
- Off: everyone subscribed, always. This is the default.
- On: Natom reads the article's category in the feed (say "Sports"). If an audience with that name exists, it sends only to them. If it does not exist, it sends to everyone.
The name is compared in normalised form (lowercase, no accents, spaces as _): "City of Modena" and "city of modena" are the same audience. If the article has several categories, the first one with a matching audience wins.
How many it sends: the limits
Without limits, "new article = push" can become a bombardment. Every feed has three brakes, from the Edit button.
- Max pushes per day: once the number is reached, the feed stays quiet for the day. Tomorrow it resumes with the most recent article.
- Quiet hours (say 10pm to 7am, in the feed's time zone): nothing goes out in that window. When it resumes, it sends the latest article, not the ones missed in between.
- Only these categories: articles from other categories are ignored. Useful to notify only News and Sports and leave the rest out.
There is also a natural brake that always applies: Natom only looks at the top sheet. If ten articles come out within 15 minutes, it notifies one, the latest. Fifty articles a day do not make fifty pushes: at most one per check interval, and in practice far fewer. Drafts do not count towards the daily cap: only what actually goes out does.
One feed per site, or several
You can connect several feeds to the same site, for instance one per section (/news/feed/, /sports/feed/), each with its own audience and limits. Or one general feed with routing on, which sorts itself out. Careful: a feed always sends to the subscribers of the site it is attached to. Attaching one site's feed to another site would send the first site's news to the second site's readers.
Recurring pushes: an alarm clock
From the Recurring section you write a notification once (title, text, link, image) and set the times: for example 07:00, 11:00, 14:00, 17:00 pointing to the latest-news page.
- Every day, at each of those times, that notification goes out. Four times = four notifications a day, always the same, always on time.
- Pick the days of the week (no Sundays, for instance).
- Pick the time zone: 07:00 is 07:00 for your readers, daylight saving included.
- Pick the audience: everyone, or one category only. Empty audiences cannot be selected.
- If a slot is missed (a restart, an outage), that notification is not recovered later and is never sent twice.
- Pause stops it without deleting it; Send now sends it immediately, off schedule, to test it.
Example: a local newspaper
Fifty articles a day, four sections, newsroom on WordPress.
- Recurring: three a day (7:00, 12:30, 18:30) to "latest news", to everyone, Monday to Saturday.
- General feed with routing on, only News and Sports, max 6 a day, quiet 22:00-07:00, in draft mode: the newsroom approves the ones that deserve it from the dashboard.
- WordPress plugin for the big stories: whoever writes the article presses "Send notification" from the editor, with the audience suggested by the category.
Result: readers get three fixed appointments, a few section stories a day, and the big news immediately. Never fifty pushes.
Frequently asked questions
I connected the feed and nothing went out.
Normal: the first visit only memorises. It starts with the first new article published after connecting, and only outside quiet hours and under the cap.
The feed sent an old article.
It happens when the site's feed changes order or re-pins a modified article at the top. Natom does not know dates: it only knows whether the top sheet differs from last time.
I want everyone to receive the push, regardless of category.
Leave "route to audiences by category" off. That is the default.
Do recurring pushes and the feed overlap?
They are independent. If the feed sends at 11:58 and the recurring push at 12:00, the reader gets two notifications. Quiet hours and caps apply to the feed only; for recurring pushes you set the times.
How much does all this cost?
Nothing extra: feeds, routing and recurring pushes are included, and pushes are unlimited on every plan.
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