How To Use RSS Feeds In Your Marketing
It was Friday night. I finished reading a book about RSS feeds. Quickly set up one for my site, submitted it on directories and went to bed.
Sunday morning, I noticed a sale. Idly, I scanned my logs to see where the buyer had found me.
It was from Yahoo! Now that may not seem surprising, except… I had not been listed in Yahoo! before.
Curious, I did a Yahoo! Search for my domain name… and almost fainted in shock! There were 123 of my pages listed – many of them in the top 10 ranks on my best keywords.
My RSS feed had been listed within 48 hours – and since my other pages were linked from it, they had all been indexed by Yahoo! just as quickly. And for free!
Since then I have heard many others share similar experiences. It is no fluke. RSS is H-O-T. And search engines LOVE it.
So what is RSS? An acronym for Really Simple Syndication, it is a web language format designed to help syndicate content across different sources.
RSS has been around for more than 10 years but has only recently become popular. RSS feeds provide headlines and summaries of information in a concise and standardized way.
The rise in RSS popularity, specially among marketers, has many reasons. Email filters and new legislation have lowered the effectiveness of email marketing. Content syndication in many different ways is gathering momentum. And fresh, frequently updated content is the very essence of the Web.
How can you use RSS feeds in your marketing? Is there a way to turn RSS feeds into profits?
Absolutely. Here are some ideas:
# Beat email filters. Ask your subscribers, prospects and clients to sign up to your RSS feed along with your email newsletter. If the ezine gets blocked, they’ll still get your RSS feed.
# Spread the word. Offer your new, valuable content to many other ‘lazy’ website owners – in return for getting extra exposure of your name and brand to their audiences.
# Get listed on search engines. No one knows how long this ‘honeymoon’ will last. But ride the wave – and get into search engines quickly, inexpensively – by submitting your RSS feeds to them.
# Use the first-mover advantage. Dedicated RSS directories are mushrooming. Make sure your RSS feed is indexed in them and you could future-proof your business. Imagine if you were one of the first sites to be indexed in Google or Yahoo 5 years ago!
# Offer your readers new content. Keep creating your own content – but also use RSS feed syndication to offer other people’s content to your list. Less pain, less strain, more gain.
And that’s not all. On a bet, I sat down and listed 41 different ideas to profit from RSS feeds. I’m sure you can do it too – and turn the hot new revolution in online communication into a money magnet for your ebusiness.
Happy blogging.
About The Author
Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian has been marketing with blogs for over 3 years. His free 5 day RSS Primer explains the basics of RSS Marketing – sign up here: http://www.RSS-Marketing.com He is also author of ‘How To Profit From RSS Feeds – 41 Quick & Easy Ideas For RSS Feed Publishers’ – http://www.RSS-Marketing.com/book.htm
Are You Thinking of Republishing RSS Feeds?
There is lively debate about the republishing of RSS feeds on other sites. The argument surrounds the use of RSS feeds from the feed publisher being used in an unfair manner. This includes republishing the entire articles and not displaying sufficient credit to the original source.
Before we go into the details you may want to brush up on your understanding of RSS. This will help you fully appreciate and fully understand the issues involved.
I am glad this conversation is happening now as it needs to be made clear what fair use of RSS feeds actually means. There may be webmasters who are republishing RSS feeds in all innocence at the moment not realising the furore that is going on around them with regards to their republishing activities. I would like to help clear up any misunderstandings that surround RSS republishing.
Being an RSS publisher myself who is considering republishing other authors RSS feeds I would like to make sure I am not treading on any toes. I am basing the following RSS republishing etiquette on the good practice that Rok Hrastnik has enthused.
If you wish to republish an RSS feed then you should first consult the publisher with your intentions. This would be an email to the author stating how you wish to reuse their feed and the page or pages the feed will be republished on and the attributions you will make. You will need to clarify some points. If the authors feed contains ads then will they be republished? Will you be monetizing the authors work by placing ads on your republished page? To avoid conflict these issues need to be sorted out.
The general guidelines Rok Hrastrnik has provided state that the article title must link back to the original article. If the RSS feeds contains a complete article only an excerpt, Rok suggests 100 to 200 words, can be republished. A link should be provided to the article source, the website of the original publisher.
Further to this it is suggested that no archives are kept on the republished site and no full articles are used. I would suggest permission is sought from the original author if you wish to keep an archive on your site.
You can follow this discussion further at PR meets the WWW and Micro persuasion.
Allan is the webmaster at NewsNiche an RSS resource for webmasters. Learn how to use RSS to attract and retain visitors to your site.
Update Your Websites Content Automatically 24/7 Using RSS(Real Simple Syndication) and RSS Feeds
RSS(Real Simple Syndication) is the newest form of content syndication to hit the Internet and is widely becoming the best known way online to deliver fresh targeted content to your website(s) to whatever audience you’re targeting 24/7/365.
Now for those of you who aren’t quite up to speed on “RSS” here’s the basic definition — RSS is an acronym for “Real Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”, and the .XML extension is the format used for distributing your news headlines via the Web, which is known as “Syndication”.
“Syndication” is where the TRUE power of RSS is unleashed, getting your message or information across the web in an INSTANT to websites, your subscribers and/or readers.
Why is this such Good News for website owners who publish content on a Daily or Weekly basis for there audiences?
Simple.
By having “RSS” plugged into your website with targeted RSS feeds you’ll now have an endless supply of Fresh targeted content delivered to your website for your visitors and/or subscribers 24/7/365 without you ever having to lift a finger.
Just imagine how much time what would save you and how it would allow you to focus on other important tasks related to your business.
Time is something we are always fighting for and since web surfers primarily come online in search of ‘Information’ it can be a very time consuming ordeal to deal with on a Daily or Weekly basis.
The other great thing about “RSS” is it’ll keep the ‘Search Engine Spiders’ coming back more frequently since “RSS” automatically updates your selected feeds ‘Daily’ with Fresh targeted content.
And if you know anything about Search Engines then you’ll know that they LOVE fresh content to digest.
Now that you have a general idea of what “RSS” can do for you and your website(s), your probably wondering how you can take advantage of this right now and where to find these ever so valuable ‘RSS Feeds’.
The answer is simple — ‘Article Directories’.
Now, not all ‘Article Directories’ have adopted “RSS” at this point But they will soon catch on once they see the value RSS offers there publishers(you) and readers.
Below I have listed a few ‘Article Directories’ offering RSS feeds in every category under the sun for you to choose from.
Now, all you need to get your hands on(if you don’t already) is a “RSS Reader Script” and have it installed on your server so that you can display the ‘RSS Feeds’ on your website(s).
All you have to do is a simple search on Google using the keyword “RSS Reader Script”.
Once you’ve done all that and updated your website(s) pages with your RSS code, you can now just sit back, relax and let RSS(Real Simple Syndication) do all the work for you 24/7/365 while you go focus on other important tasks.
About The Author:
Looking for MORE Information or Webmaster Resources on RSS and RSS Feeds? Look NO Further! Go shop Cory Threlfall’s TOP Rated CBmall that carries over 10,000 of the Internets BEST ‘Information Products’ available Online. rss and rss feeds