How using RSS will attract and maintain visitors
There are nowhere near the amount of webmasters using RSS that there should be. There is more exposure about RSS than there has ever been but take up of RSS still seems to be slow. I think the main reason for this is the lack of understanding of how to implement an RSS feed. .
I have been blogging at http://blogtonomy.com/ for two weeks now, that's two weeks today in fact and my Feedburner stats tell me I have a total of nine subscribers to my RSS feed. That's not bad considering I did not activate my RSS feed straight away. These subscribers are made aware of updates to my sites without having to visit my site. Why would you want to make your readers visit your site if it hasn't changed.
One of my missions as a webmasters has been to promote RSS to webmasters to let them know that it can be used as an additional channel to communicate with their visitors. I believe it fills a gap that email is failing to do because of the vast amount of spam that is out there. In fact I only use email as a means of making contact with people, email is personal and should not be invaded. You should not have to give out your email address all the time.
RSS is a good medium for publishing newsletters, updates and news. The sorts of things that are not specific to an individual but are relevant to groups. I would compare RSS to being more like a newspaper where as email is more like a letter you would expect to get from a friend or relative.
By all means I am an advocate of RSS and have been promoting it over at http://newsniche.com/ because of the lack of enthusiasm or maybe the confusion when it comes to RSS. The use of RSS may not become as widely used as email but it will grow in popularity, especially with the interest shown recently from the likes of MSN and Yahoo. No doubt Google will join in soon.
Allan is the webmaster at http://www.blogtonomy.com/ where I will show you how to gain traffic to your site.
Related News
Introducing Inquisitr iQ Alpha - The Inquisitr
Introducing Inquisitr iQ AlphaThe Inquisitr, Australia -6 hours agoThe second page offers a summary of the best news in the blogging world, an early passion of mine. The third page is a summary of all the major meme ... |
I’m On Vacation From 7/3 to 7/6 - Donklephant
I’m On Vacation From 7/3 to 7/6Donklephant -Jul 2, 2008This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. ... |
Google Makes Tweaks To Blogger - InformationWeek
Google Makes Tweaks To BloggerInformationWeek, NY -Jul 1, 2008Called Blog List, the new feature "improves on [Google's] Link List page element by using blogs' RSS and Atom feeds to show update times, post titles, ... |
This Time Syndrome - Feministe
This Time SyndromeFeministe -19 hours agoThis entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Guest Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS... |
Free Articles for Publishers Courtesy of ArticlesBase and Zemanta ... - PR Web (press release)
Samsung SGH-G800 - PC Magazine
Samsung SGH-G800PC Magazine -Jul 3, 2008Add PC Magazine Cell Phones Product Guide RSS feed to your feed reader so that you don't miss another headline! Editor's Note: Product not yet tested by ... |
lazy blogging - CNET News
lazy bloggingCNET News, CA -Jun 30, 2008One directed a comment to Technorati's management and said, "Please fix RSS feeds on search queries first, before you do anything else. ... |
Transforming Blogs Into Conversations: Scoble, Silverlight and ... - CMSWire
study tools, - CNET News
study tools,CNET News, CA -Jul 2, 2008It's a good bet a chunk of those active users are taking advantage of the service's built-in blogging tool instead of going to another service like ... |
FryUp: The hack phone - Computerworld New Zealand
FryUp: The hack phoneComputerworld New Zealand, New Zealand -12 hours agoImagine how agonising it is when you, the blogging employee, have to post something but cannot write about things personal or give away anything funny or ... |
|
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Article Syndication - A New Vehicle for King Content
Creating Content
Is RSS Here to Stay or Gone Tomorrow?
RSS is totally hot. We have seen it everywhere, from John-Doe blogsites to major news websites. If you haven't heard of RSS before, that's okay, because I hadn't either until a couple of months ago!
RSS is a Life Raft, Saving Us from a Sea of Useless Information
One of the main problems with the Internet these days is the fact that there is so much information out there; it can be quite hard to find the particular knowledge that you're looking for. It can often feel like you're surfing waves of thick chocolate fudge sauce and your honeycomb board has a crack that's getting wider by the second. Over stimulus is the issue here; you wanted to read opinions from music enthusiasts about music, and every second blog article had to do with new punk hairdo trends and which band has the coolest tattoos. How can we find only the content we're looking for without getting bogged down in miscellaneous information that erodes both time and patience?
The answer is in context. There's now a way to sift through the cacophony of babble and wisdom to find exactly what you're looking for. Instead of having to join clubs and organizations and receive their newsletters via email at their convenience you can now have control over what you receive. Having to search through millions of blogs to find the few you like has now become an obsolete task. The new system is called an RSS Reader: 'Rich site summary' or 'really simple syndication' are the common definitions of this software. The process begins by signing up to receive automatic updates from blogs and other Web sites that distribute summaries of their latest postings to your reader. You then find which ones you like and delete the rest. You can keep adding new sites until you have literally hundreds of informative connections in your areas of specific interest.
Another great aspect of the RSS Reader program is the fact that you can put in key words of interest and the computer will surf the Web for you and add new blogs and web sites to your list, rating them according to the terms you have selected. You then scan over these and add the ones you feel are relevant, deleting the detritus. Eventually you will have an email-style formatted file where you can search through all your favourite writers, news, and topics' latest information. Then you also have functions such as 'comment' so you can automatically share your input with your fellow humans. Or, you can reply to the 'messages' and actually communicate with the producers of the ideas.
This will really help to decentralise the information sharing processes of the current top-down mass communication systems like the media. We can hear multiple opinions on an issue and give our own views, instead of being told one story that is heavily affected by the company's personal perspective of the situation.
So, you can see this has the potential for something quite big. Less time wasted, finding all the knowledge you're looking for, and sharing your opinion and meeting others similar to yourself has never been so easy. The RSS Reader is a knife cutting away all the useless packaging, revealing the true content of the gift of the Internet.
RSS Explained
What is RSS? To begin with, it's one of those things everyone says is easy to understand. And it is, as soon as you have your own 'ah-ha' moment.
Increase Traffic to Your Blog from Search Engines - The Top 5 Tips
Your favorite thing about having a blog may soon be this - they naturally attract search engine traffic.
Business: Deliver Information Safely
Businesses that are not using feeds today, as part of their marketing and advertising plans, will soon do so, or should thinking of implementing them soon. Although this is a fairly new communications tool it is growing rapidly. The reason is that the information gatherer, consumers, etc., are or will be using readers to view information. The main reason is that information can be viewed with No Spam, No Junk Mail and No Viruses threats.
Dear Web Diary!
Blogging is hot and getting hotter, with more and more web logs (blogs) cropping up online by the day!
Superbloggers Secrets
Blogs are extremely hot right now. Everyone is starting them, and the more successful ones are driving unprecedented amounts of traffic and cash to their owners.
Blogging Communities Turn Faceless Strangers into Close Friends
I've been searching the Internet for blogging sites for a fair while now and recently I came across a whole blogging community, which has grabbed my interest greatly. It's called Joe User and it's a site that many bloggers all around the globe are partaking in. It is very well organized into categories such as Best Articles, Newest blog entries, Top blogging sites, New sites and Most hit-on bloggers. The blogs range from very personal life introspection to serious analysis of current affairs in the media.
How Yahoos Recent Facelift Can Mean More Traffic To Your Site
It even surprised me.
Yes, even though I have been pointing out the possibility since July, and was forced by demand to release my study findings before my book was even half finished, I was shocked when I heard the news as well.
You see, I was sure we were at least a year off from this glorious day.
The News
Yahoo has had a little facelift, which you've probably read about by now. The real news is more important for your site - the "My Yahoo!" page looks different too.
On September 28, 2004, surfers who logged in to their personalized Yahoo area saw an announcement explaining the RSS and Atom files that show updated information to a website as content feeds, effectively pushing news feeds into the mainstream.
The new look to this section of Yahoo was presented as a full page ad to every single account holder upon first log in that day, and even now, there remains a notice posted.
When I logged into my page in the "My Yahoo!" section, I saw a big difference in the number of feeds left to choose from, as well as in the way they were presented.
Currently, the RSS module boasts "150,000 sources". If your site isn't one of them, its crucial that you act now. If you have one and you're not getting the results you'd like from your set-up, there are small changes you can implement that will make a huge difference in your listing.
Best results aren't as easy as submitting your feed now, but you're still within the window of opportunity - if you do it properly.
What the News Could Mean For Your Site If You Act Now
One of my clients recently called this "the back door into Yahoo". Whether that statement is accurate as far as getting included, or receiving an increase in rankings within Yahoo's search engine via your feed, depends on your site, and whether you create your feed correctly.
If you could use a daily stream of traffic from even a small portion of Yahoo's estimated 20 million users, this could be your final wake-up call. You'll want to learn how to create a feed that gets well listed immediately.
Currently, the RSS module boasts "150,000 sources". Yahoo will still need hundreds, perhaps thousands more, even if it only intends to list the "creme de la creme" of the submissions it gets. Being in that group is as easy as submitting your feed.
Being at the top of the list isn't. However, you're still within the window of opportunity if you take the time to learn how to do this properly. You can get free details on how to do that at helpmerss.com .
"My Yahoo!" RSS Headline module Coming Out of Beta?
If I had to guess, I'd say all signs point to yes. When that happens, Yahoo's RSS/Atom directory will likely contain only those who added their feeds early. New feeds seeking to be included will probably face stricter standards.
If you don't have one yet don't worry, because it's never been easier to make one. If you can cut and paste, there are tools all over the Net that will show you how- some will even generate the file for you.
However, there are still certain guidelines you need to follow with your feed to get a good result out of Yahoo - it's not as simple as adding your feed now that there are more competing listings.
Yahoo is still accepting new sources for RSS feeds. Readers of my last book state that they are getting excellent results following my instructions, though initial inclusion no longer occurs at the same rate. Plenty of markets have few feeds available, or none at all. Your site could fill that void.
That means you still have a chance at a first page ranking. The traffic I get on a daily basis from My Yahoo readers alone sounds like I just like to brag.
And I do, but that's hardly the point.
The point is, there's no place you can even go to buy the caliber of exposure to the quality of audience that reads feeds. The typical audience that accesses information by feed are also blog readers. A study this summer estimated that the 69.3% of blog readers are aged 29-50, and that 40% of this audience are people who have household incomes greater than $90,000.
The type of surfer that would subscribe to your feed has pre-qualified themselves as a lead, with a certain level of understanding and interest in your topic, often on a professional level. And if you don't spend every post hitting them over the head with your sales pitch, they can be both loyal and interactive.
(If you do, they'll unsubscribe from your feed faster than you can spell s-p-a-m.)
And if you're in the business of providing information you can use, in a way that shows how you can solve their problem, it's like preaching to the converted. If your product solves their problem, and you show that you deserve the trust of this subscriber, you'll also find the route to a sale an increasingly downward slope.
The bottom line - this is the power surfer's favorite toy. And if your content appeals to them, you need to learn how to play.
Top 10 Places to Find the Most Popular Blogs
The easiest way to get acquainted with the conventions of the blog format is to start reading them. The more blogs you read, the more you'll get a feel for the depth and breadth of style and subject matter they have to offer.
Article Marketing For Bloggers - 4 Tips To Build Traffic For Your Blog
Bloggers blog. That's what they do. A blog is short for 'weblog' and it's really an online journal that can be updated easily and frequently without any knowledge of HTML code.
How to Make Money With Your Blog?
Make money blogging is fun: you enjoy blogging and getting money from blogging. As long as "making money with your blog" is concerned, it doesn't matter matter actually whether you enjoy or not. The way generating money from blogging is the same regardless of whether you enjoy blogging or painfully doing.
How and Why to RSS
RSS feeds and blogs (and blog and pinging) are part of the latest hyper-frenzy in internet marketing. Tools and services are mushrooming all over. But there seem to be some rather distorted ideas about all this.
How To Avoid Blog Burnout
Most serious business bloggers have at least two or three blogs that they write simultaneously. I have ten, but don't update all regularly.
Improving Your Customer Relationship Management by Blogging
Before I address the following questions:
The Right Blog Software Can Make A Blog Stand Out from the Crowd
Blogs are an easy way to get your voice out onto the Net. For the Web-It-Yourselfer, custom blogs are a great way to learn about web technologies and create something from the ground up.
How to Make Money from Your Blog Content
Writing a blog can be fun and exciting, but it can also be rewarding. If you do not know how to make money from your blog content then you need to consider implementing the following suggestions in your blog.
#1 Mistake Most Blogs Do
As much as this might surprise most bloggers, the #1 mistake most blogs are doing is not publishing their content via e-mail, as a supplement to their RSS feeds.
Marketing With Blogs - Part 1
Marketers have found that blogs are excellent tools for communicating with their audience. Anyone who has something to sell or an idea to promote can benefit from using blogs.
|