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RSS has been around for more than 10 years but has only recently
become popular. RSS provides headlines and summaries of information in
a concise and standardized way.
Benefits for Publishers
1.) Avoid Spam Filters
Statisticians estimate that 70 per cent of the email transferred each day is
spam (unsolicited email). With that statistic, even opt-in users risk
losing valuable messages in the cesspool of spam. RSS feeds
effectively nullify spam as an issue. Requesting feeds allow users to
maintain complete control over the content they view. Users can easily
opt-in and out of feeds that provide content of interest or
importance.
2.) Expanded Reach
RSS allows publishers to reach a number of new and different markets
that typically are less crowded with competition. Many small
businesses are often slow to adopt or learn new technologies, giving
businesses that lead the way a competitive advantage.
3.) Content Syndication
Syndication of feeds increases exposure.
4.) Repeat Visitors
RSS is all about repeat visitors. Users who have previously visited a
site often have a stronger connection to the site and are more likely
to purchase or trust the information on the site.
5.) Free web traffic
As the internet has evolved, many webmasters have found that what was
once free traffic must now be paid for in order to sustain decent
visitor statistics. RSS is in a unique position to bring free traffic
because they are content-driven, and if they include interesting or
valuable information, will pique the curiosity of web-surfers and
entice them to visit a particular site.
6.) Less Effort
Newsletters and E-zines undeniably bring visitors, but the effort
involved in creating, distributing and maintaining a newsletter can be
a burden. Maintaining the list, ensuring the list is clean, growing
the subscriber base, updating and removing bad e-mail addresses, all
take time. RSS feeds are not burdened with those issues. There are
easy-to-use RSS feed creation tools that require little effort,
allowing publishers to recycle content, often simply cutting and
pasting into RSS feed creation software.
FeedForAll RSS feed creation -- http://www.feedforall.com
Consider supplementing existing communication venues with RSS. Place
the contents of newsletters into feeds and measure the results. You
might be surprised at the added traffic.
Examples of various feeds with different intended purposes
RSS feed -- http://www.rss-specifications.com/blog-feed.xml
Establishing expertise in a specific field.
Business Feed -- http://www.notepage.net/blog-feed.xml
Contains product and industry information.
Marketing Feed -- http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog-feed.xml Builds
relationships, endorses products in industry sector.
RSS has potential to help companies develop strong relationships with
consumers and creating brand loyalty with customers. While the world
will not end tomorrow, nor will business come to a screeching halt if
you don't use an RSS feed, there are a number of reasons online
businesses should consider using RSS feeds.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc.
http://www.notepage.net and FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com. |
