Harness The Power Of RSS News Feeds For Your Marketing Strategies

RSS news feeds are a great form of communication in the viral marketing game, and when properly managed, these feeds can bring in significant internet traffic. The meaning of RSS is actually not very clear. RSS may stand for Really Simple Syndication while others believe its Rich Site Summary or Rich Syndication Standard. The creator of RSS directory is considered to be Netscape. It was released in March 1999 and is used to syndicate news or information and is usually associated with blogs because blogs use an RSS news feed to distribute their content. These RSS feeds are found in RSS directories where content is updated on a 24/7 basis.

The great thing about RSS directories is that they are categorized, making it easier to find information.

How can you take advantage of RSS news feeds?

You can use RSS news feeds as an online marketing and search engine optimization tool. Just as optimizing a web page will increase exposure, so will a properly optimized RSS news feed. Follow a few simple tips to help improve your RSS feed exposure.

If you publish your own content or articles you can submit to article directories which now also are starting to incorporate RSS as well. People are on the internet for Information and websites contain this information. Website owners need new and updated information on a daily basis to feed their readers needs.

The channel title is one of the most important aspects of your RSS news feed. It should be keyword rich and related to the general theme of the RSS feed. The channel title is important because it is a first glimpse at the RSS feed, and what will capture the attention of the casual internet surfer. Also many of the RSS directories and search engines use the information in the RSS feed’s channel title to index the feed so it is important that the information be relevant to the contents in the feed.

The channel description expands on the theme of the RSS news feed and gives an overview as to its content. The channel description should contain related keywords and phrases, but just like the channel title, it should be written to capture the attention of the reader.

The RSS feed item title is really nothing more than a headline and is similar to a web page title, this is your opportunity to grab the interest of your reader. The use of pertinent keywords and keyword phrases in the item title will help those searching for specific content.

RSS news feeds should be search engine optimized , using the same techniques as those used on a web site, Grammar and proper punctuation are important and will say a lot about the quality of your content.

Remove old items in an RSS feed and archive contents to make sure that feeds load quickly in RSS readers. If you are using a third party hosting, feeds that are too large will be truncated or not display at all.

Add an image to your RSS news feed to make it visually appealing in an RSS reader. Most RSS readers will display the image above the contents, and this is a great way to present a brand logo and establish recognition. Be sure to include the full URL to the image to avoid a broken link.

There is true power in the marketing ability of RSS news feeds and with just a little knowledge; you too can harness this great new marketing tool!


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RSS Fields in Communications With the Internet

RSS is fast replacing email marketing and newsletters. You would not want to be left behind would you? Your competitor will surely overtake you and speed right up. RSS is mostly called Really Simple Syndication, although some give other meaning to the acronym. It is a process by which you could place a feed on websites that can read RSS from your directory.

Information distribution has been made simply by RSS. Simply put, with RSS, you can place your headline to other website for more people to see it. In marketing, it is a known concept that the more people you reaches to, the more likely that your product will sell.

RSS is an XML-based application. XML is similar in a way to HTML, which we all know is the most common website creator application. From a directory, it would feed the headlines into website that has an RSS reader. Creating an RSS feed would definitely boost up your sales. How can you make an RSS feed? Just follow these simple steps:

a) Create a file for your feed.

Using a certain format, you’d have to create the XML version of your feed. It should include the title or the headline, the body’s short description, and the link where it can be read. There are a lot of different RSS web channel editor you can use for this. Some programs just require you to write news and articles down on a notepad and when placed on the editor, it will show up with the necessary formatting ready for upload. It would be advisable to make at least ten articles for your feed.

b) Save and Upload the file.

After creating your file, save your work as an XML, RSS, or an RDF file. Then you are now ready to upload it. Upload the file using your FTP program and place it on your web server. This process now makes the file readable by RSS news aggregators.

c) Validate the file.

Make your RSS program error-free. RSS is programming, so errors could lie unseen. Again, there are different programs that can assist you for this process. You would just need to place the saved and uploaded RSS file for the program to test it against wrong and missed code and tags. It is essential for you to check your work of course. This way, you’re sure that what you have is readable and usable.

d) Create a directory.

Now that you have created the file, saved it, and made sure it works, you are ready to let other see it. The main purpose of an RSS feed is to broadcast it to all RSS enabled sites. So go ahead and look for a directory where you can place your feed. Some may require fees for uploading a directory. Some offer it for free. Scout around and round up all the free sites you can have and place it there. If you have some marketing budget, you might want to subscribe to sites that charge a minimal amount. Don’t forget to place an icon of your RSS feed on your website, too for those people who visits you directly.

e) Update regularly.

With RSS, you know that the feed changes automatically every time you change the main file. Don’t let your RSS feed sit there for a month without modifying it. Maintain it. Add new articles. The more exciting your topic is, the more people will check your feeds and visit your website.

Creating an RSS feed for Internet marketing is made very simple now a days. Even people who are not computer savvy can create RSS feeds, based on the steps provided above. The applications that were created for RSS creation are the ones that make it easy for everyday computer users to make an RSS feed. All you need is familiarization with the process.

Start now creating RSS feeds. Give your competitor something fierce to duel with. Needless to say, RSS feeds give your website more traffic than usual web hosting. And web traffic means more people seeing your products that could be interested in buying them. Add strength to your marketing strategy. Make RSS feeds and be ready to sell.

Find More RSS Articles

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RSS Directories and the World Wide Web

Today, on the Internet, RSS directories are very popular. RSS is widely used initially by news sites to allow others to syndicate their news stories. Now, a lot of other websites are using RSS. It is being used in flagging new forum headlines, auction listings, sales listings and others.

The meaning of RSS is actually not clear. RSS may or may not be an acronym, actually. RSS may stand for Really Simple Syndication. But others say its Rich Site Summary and sometimes Rich Syndication Standard. The noted creator of RSS directory would be Netscape. It was released sometime in March 1999. The included a UserLand application which is called scripting news. Netscape stopped developing it, but UserLand continued doing so. Another company, RSS-DEV Working Group also released their own version.

RSS directories are sites that collate all RSS links and place them in different categories for other applications to use. This is similar to web hosting, only instead of web pages, they contain RSS links. These links will pop out on the website and when you click it, you will be directed to the main source of the link.

RSS poses a lot of uses for those who’d like to use the Internet for marketing or commerce. Here are the things you can do with it:

a) Create links from their website to yours.

If you are selling or promoting something, web traffic is important. The more RSS directory you upload, the more chances you have people seeing those and checking your site out. And if they have customized their sites with your RSS feeds, then they would get updated listings from your site to theirs automatically.

b) Collating analysis.

If you have a brand and you’d like to know how your competitor is doing, you may use RSS to see what they have so far. Get a directory of their product or service so you’ll know first hand what they have come out with. With the data gathered you now can plan on how you can counter them.

Tracking your own progress. If you can check out your competitor, of course you’d like to check out too how your business or product is going too. With an RSS directory of your own, you can know how many people are interested in what you are selling or offering.

c) Increases productivity.

Putting up RSS directories, let’s say for newsletters, adds efficiency to your company. If you use RSS for sending out newsletters instead of mailing them to recipients, you’d eliminate the possibility of your letter being classified as spam by users, or being sent in a closed mail account.

d) Increases efficiency.

There are a lot of websites or news articles that could be beneficial to your brand or company. At times, you’d like to add them to your site. Without the use of RSS, you’d have to copy the entire thing down and note where you got it. If you use RSS, then the headline and part of the story shows up on your site. And this is an automatic process now. If you use RSS, you just include the directory and automatically, the headline appears without you doing much.

Posting RSS directories could cost you some. But the benefits override it. Some sites even offer free RSS directory posting. If you are just starting up, you may like to check those out. The more RSS directory you have up, the more the possibility that you are sending out information to the people interested in your goods. Reason behind is that people will only get the RSS feeds that they are interested in. If they get yours, they sure are the target market.

Disseminating information online has become easier with RSS. The technology provided a cost-effective way of transferring facts and figures out. Utilizing it would definitely add up to your marketing approach. With it, you have an avenue of reaching out to even more people so easily.

RSS uses XML to syndicate pages. Though that sounds a little technical, there a lot of websites that has user-friendly interface to guide in building your directory. Go ahead and put up your RSS directory up now. RSS has proven to be essential. It has ceased to be an option; it has become a necessity.

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Understanding RSS And Its Effect On Viral Marketing

RSS and Viral Marketing:

Viral marketing is one of the most creative ways of promoting a business. It can work wonders for any business although there are certain principles that play a lead role in making viral marketing for business websites so effective. Different businesses use different techniques while applying viral marketing to enhance their visibility and here are some of the best and time-proven techniques that can help your business too.

One way is to create content and share it with other publishers. RSS makes the transfer of content a lot more simple and hassle free. With this ease in sharing content make sure you have a signature in your content so that your link spreads online virally as well to boost your link popularity.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is one of the most valuable technologies available for webmasters, administrators and users. In spite of RSS being such a valuable technology only 12% of users know what RSS is while only 4% have used RSS. So let us try and understand what RSS really is and how it can help you or your business.

RSS is a type of feed that internet users can subscribe to. The RSS feeds updated on a regular basis and mostly distributed in XML format. This helps in creating custom tags. There are quite a few websites, which will have the RSS logo in orange and if you click on the icon, you will get connected to the website’s feed.

As far as the content contained in a RSS feed is concerned, it depends largely on the feed that you might be viewing. Most of the RSS feeds consist of a title and a brief portion from the article. RSS is becoming overtly popular with bloggers because in this the headline format comes in automatically.

There are many reasons why bloggers and even regular users are choosing RSS. One of the primary reasons being that using RSS can save time especially on an everyday basis. Let us take an example to understand how it saves time. If you are a technical expert and you visit at least 6 websites on a daily basis to collect information then you probably open each website on a separate browser to look for news items. So in a way, you are visiting them one by one as you can’t see all of them together.

On the other hand, if you have RSS, then all you need to do is visit a RSS feed reader or a RSS aggregator and this will help you to instantly identify the websites that have added new articles and these websites will be separated from the ones that don’t. Another salient point is that you can see all the past entries using RSS.

If you are visiting only one website but on a regular basis then there are times when you will miss a new article added on the website on one of those days when you didn’t visit the website. This is where the RSS fits perfectly. Let us for once imagine that there are 20 websites for which you want to keep tabs then RSS will prove to be truly indispensable.

In order to use the RSS, you will first have to find a feed, the one that you can use. If you are using Mozilla’s Firefox then you will be able to find out with ease if a particular website has accessible feed or not. You don’t even have to go through the entire webpage looking for an RSS icon. When you open a website on the Firefox, you will see an orange icon on the right side of the navigation/URL bar. If you see the icon then it means that the website has RSS feed.

Click on the orange RSS icon in your Firefox browser and it will ask you where you would like to save the feed. Firefox treats RSS feeds as live bookmarks. Once you have saved the feed, go to the particular folder. The folder will have an expand arrow and you can click on the arrow so that it can show all the new entries that has been added on the website in an ascending order with the latest entry on the top.

There are times when your browser may not find a particular website’s feed as not all of them have RSS feeds. This is where you will have to search through the web pages to find any items related to feed. There are some websites that have FeedBurner feed, which normally displays the current feed subscribers for that website. If you find a FeedBurner feed icon then click on it and copy the location of the link.

This is the basic information regarding RSS feeds for all those who want to use it to their benefit personally or for viral marketing purposes.

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What You’re Not Doing With Your RSS Feed

RSS feeds have yet to hit the mainstream, but they are
beginning to appear on prominent web sites including CNN, MSNBC,
Yahoo, and even Google. While many sites are now publishing
their own RSS feed, they fail to pursue the important step of
promoting it.

RSS feeds have been growing steadily in popularity throughout
the year. They have begun appearing on almost every news related
source, and now even corporate web pages. While more businesses
begin to cater to the opportunity of creating an RSS feed, many
do not fully understand their exact usage. It is as if
publishing an RSS feed will magically create traffic and pull
constant visitors to their site. Maybe they believe the web
search engine robots will pull and distribute the feeds.
However, the truth is that most major search engines today do
not yet incorporate RSS feeds into their main search engine
results. They may completely skip over the RSS feed link when
spidering a site. However, there is a world available that these
new RSS users are not yet aware of. It is the world of RSS
search engines.

As the major search engines continue collecting standard web
pages and try their best to keep updated with the new content,
the RSS search engines are quietly churning away on pings,
feeds, and new content by the second. They have a different way
of collecting feeds than the major search engines and their
users have a different way of sifting through the content.

Most RSS search engines require you to submit your RSS feed
directly to them. They will then begin spidering your content,
making it available for searches, and refreshing your feed as it
is updated. Users are flocking to the RSS search engines for new
content. With their RSS reader software tuned to specific
keywords in the search engines, they can now pour through much
more content than they previously could with a web browser. This
opens tremendous opportunities for your products and ideas to be
heard. RSS feed publishers should become fully aware of the
importance of RSS search engines in order to maximize the
results of their feed.

There are over 100 RSS search engines available and the number
grows each month. Submitting your RSS feed to each one is a
necessary task. From small search engines to large ones, each
one can provide you with potential RSS visitors and they
certainly add up. Promoting an RSS feed should be considered no
different than promoting a web site.

You may have created and published an RSS feed, but that doesn’t
mean people are actually reading it. Submit your feed to the RSS
search engines and watch your readers grow. Your web site
traffic is sure to follow.

About the Author: ksoft is a software company specializing in
Internet products, including RSS Submit http://www.dum
mysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html, software for submitting RSS
feeds, podcasts, and pinging blogs to over 65 RSS directories.

This article may be freely distributed on all forms of media so
long as it is published with the author source intact.

Resources: 1. Automated software for submitting RSS feeds,
podcasts, and blogs, http://www.dum
mysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html 2. Complete listing of RSS
submission sites, http:
//www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm 3. Software
to create, edit, and publish RSS feeds, http://www.feedforall.com

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Updates on RSS Directories

RSS directories are popular these days. RSS is widely used initially by news sites to allow others to syndicate their news stories. Now, a lot of other websites are using RSS. It is being used in flagging new forum headlines, auction listings, sales listings and others.

The meaning of RSS is actually not clear. RSS may or may not be an acronym, actually. RSS may stand for Really Simple Syndication. But others say its Rich Site Summary and sometimes Rich Syndication Standard. The noted creator of RSS directory would be Netscape. It was released sometime in March 1999. The included a UserLand application which is called scripting news. Netscape stopped developing it, but UserLand continued doing so. Another company, RSS-DEV Working Group also released their own version.

RSS directories are sites that collate all RSS links and place them in different categories for other applications to use. This is similar to web hosting, only instead of web pages, they contain RSS links. These links will pop out on the website and when you click it, you will be directed to the main source of the link.

RSS poses a lot of uses for those who’d like to use the Internet for marketing or commerce. Here are the things you can do with it:

Create links from their website to yours.
If you are selling or promoting something, web traffic is important. The more RSS directory you upload, the more chances you have people seeing those and checking your site out. And if they have customized their sites with your RSS feeds, then they would get updated listings from your site to theirs automatically.

Collating analysis.
If you have a brand and you’d like to know how your competitor is doing, you may use RSS to see what they have so far. Get a directory of their product or service so you’ll know first hand what they have come out with. With the data gathered you now can plan on how you can counter them.

Tracking your own progress. If you can check out your competitor, of course you’d like to check out too how your business or product is going too. With an RSS directory of your own, you can know how many people are interested in what you are selling or offering.

Increases productivity.
Putting up RSS directories, let’s say for newsletters, adds efficiency to your company. If you use RSS for sending out newsletters instead of mailing them to recipients, you’d eliminate the possibility of your letter being classified as spam by users, or being sent in a closed mail account.

Increases efficiency.
There are a lot of websites or news articles that could be beneficial to your brand or company. At times, you’d like to add them to your site. Without the use of RSS, you’d have to copy the entire thing down and note where you got it. If you use RSS, then the headline and part of the story shows up on your site. And this is an automatic process now. If you use RSS, you just include the directory and automatically, the headline appears without you doing much.

Posting RSS directories could cost you some. But the benefits override it. Some sites even offer free RSS directory posting. If you are just starting up, you may like to check those out. The more RSS directory you have up, the more the possibility that you are sending out information to the people interested in your goods. Reason behind is that people will only get the RSS feeds that they are interested in. If they get yours, they sure are the target market.

Disseminating information online has become easier with RSS. The technology provided a cost-effective way of transferring facts and figures out. Utilizing it would definitely add up to your marketing approach. With it, you have an avenue of reaching out to even more people so easily.

RSS uses XML to syndicate pages. Though that sounds a little technical, there a lot of websites that has user-friendly interface to guide in building your directory. Go ahead and put up your RSS directory up now. RSS has proven to be essential. It has ceased to be an option; it has become a necessity.

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The Advantages Of RSS Websites

RSS – or what is now known as “Really Simple Syndication” – is a file format that is incorporated by Internet users in their websites to allow for ‘web syndication’, making their web content available in a format that can be universally understood by other people.

In essence, RSS is a ‘mini database’ that contains headlines and descriptions (a summary or a line or two of the full article) of your web content, including hyperlinks that enable users to link back to the full article of their choice.

RSS websites – that is, websites that contain RSS ‘feeds’ (articles or postings) – typically have colorful graphics to indicate to users that the specific web content is available through RSS feeds. These graphics are usually depicted by orange rectangles that are usually marked with ‘RSS’ or ‘XML’.

With its increased popularity, RSS is now being adopted and used by more website owners or publishers. Today, numerous resources are now available that aid Internet surfers (and even beginners as well) on how to set up and use RSS.

Setting up RSS feeds and adding them to your website can be a simple process that does not involve a lot of time or any money. Listed below are some simple and basic steps that you might want to follow:

1. Have your web content and/or news in an RSS feed format, such as XML (appropriate and ‘ready-made’ feeds are also available from other sources).

2. Click the orange graphic – this is the RSS feed icon. Take note of the URL of the RSS feed; this will be displayed in the address bar (for Internet Explorer).

3. Input the feed URL on your RSS feed creation program.

4. Click on the “Generate Feed” button. This will generate the RSS code for your web content.

5. Enter the RSS code in the appropriate place on your own website.

Having created an RSS feed for your website, next comes the task of publishing your web content and news and having them displayed on other sites and headline viewers. This is made possible with the use of RSS readers or aggregators.

RSS readers or news aggregators are used to view particular web contents. RSS readers contain the collection of ‘feeds’ or RSS files from content providers, and they are generally classified into 3 types:

·Desktop RSS readers – also known as standalone desktop application, they generally ‘run’ in the background and are similar to an e-mail client, collecting the feeds and refreshing items automatically as they are updated.

·Web-based aggregators – these are online services that enable users to personalize web pages, refreshing them each time the page is accessed or each time a person logs in to the service.

·Plug-in aggregators/readers – these make use of either web browsers or e-mail clients, which allow users to view RSS feeds while inside an existing program.

Having an RSS-enabled website provides Internet users (especially those who are website owners) with the following benefits:

·Allows users to generate up-to-date news and postings, as information and content in the RSS readers or aggregators are automatically updated each time the RSS feed is ‘refreshed’.

·Allows users to have control over the information that they wish to view or receive, as they can remove a feed of their choosing any time they want to.

Aside from these benefits, RSS websites are also useful for people who conduct their business in the Internet, particularly in Internet or Online Marketing. RSS can be an effective marketing tool for your website, especially in the following fields:

·E-mail marketing and publishing
·Search engine marketing and optimization
·Business blogging
·Internet advertising
·Digital public relations
·Branding and e-commerce

In addition, RSS can ‘power’ your website, providing you with the following:

·Valuable, updated, and relevant resources for site visitors and potential clients – RSS is ideal for websites that contain (and syndicate) a lot of information that has to be changed or updated regularly.

·Search engine optimization for the website.

·Increased traffic for the website – your website can ‘harvest’ and display information from other sites, driving more traffic to your own website.

·A wide selection of ‘channels’ for content distribution, such as PDA’s, cellular phones, voice mails, and email ticklers.

·A reliable way to have your web content delivered to Internet users and potential clients – RSS ensures that your site is viewed by the people who are interested in them, without having them blocked and ‘cleaned’ by ISPs or Spam filters.

These are just some of the advantages that RSS can give your website (and your business). The possibilities are endless, as more and more comes up almost everyday. Do not be left behind – take the advantage of the marketing and publishing power of RSS.

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The Basics of RSS

RSS is a three-letter acronym for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary; a type of republishing an article that comes from another source such as a website. RSS assists in the publicizing of updates about websites and can include a summary and photos of the latest posting. Those that provide summaries allow users to browse the article and decide if they want to read the original content by accessing the link to the source.

What are the benefits of RSS?

1.         Constantly Fresh Content.

Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updated site, you will know about it instantaneously.

2.         Save Surfing Time.

With RSS feed summaries you can save time by scanning the summary and deciding if you would actually like to view the original content.

3.         Subscription Power.

Users can choose to subscribe to RSS aggregators and have the freedom to cancel at any time.

4.         Less Clutter In Your Inbox.

You need to have an email address to enjoy the services of an RSS aggregators. But by using RSS your email will be handpicked by you.

5.         No Spam.

Unlike email subscriptions, RSS respects your privacy and safeguards against spam.

6.         Hassle-free Unsubscribing.

Unlike email subscriptions, unsubscribing from an RSS requires you to simply delete the feed from your aggregator.

7.         An Advertising and Marketing Tool.

Users can receive notice of products and services without spam. This is an advantage to both the web user and the website owner. Advertising is more targeted.

Some RSS drawbacks are:

1.         Some users prefer email updates over an RSS feed.

2.         All RSS feeds do not provide graphics and photos.

3.         Sometimes the identity of the source website is confusing. RSS feeds do not display the actual URL or name of the source. This can easily confuse the user.

4.         It is difficult for publishers to determine how many users are subscribed to their feed. Also there is difficulty in determining the frequency of the user’s visits. And when users unsubscribe, they have no way of knowing why. Thus, losing out on valuable information for future improvements in advertising.

5.         RSS feeds result in higher traffic and demands on the server.

6.         RSS technology is fairly new and many site do not support RSS feeds.

To get started there are two things you will need. An RSS feed and an RSS aggregator or reader. RSS feeds are found on RSS-supported websites. Some websites provide a list of RSS feeds for various other websites.

An RSS aggregator is used to read the feed from the source website by scanning and collecting data on the latest feeds worldwide. There are two kinds of aggregators. One is a downloadable program known as a desktop aggregator. The other is an online or web-based aggregator. Downloadable aggregators usually require payment before they can be acquired. Internet-based aggregators are usually free with registration for an account. Both offer the same customization features. The paid aggregators are more likely used by the more experienced user allow much more refined customization features.

1.         Choose an RSS aggregator. If your are a beginner us a web-based aggregator since they are usually more user-friendly.

2.         Locate the homepage of your target website and find the RSS or XML button to access the RSS code you will need to enter in the aggregator. Copy the code.

3.         Paste the code in your aggregator. There is a space provided for pasting the code.

Now new postings will appear as they are published in real time at the source website.

RSS and Internet Marketing

The original idea of RSS came from Netscape. Netscapes’ intention was to provide  users a way to customize their personal homepage so that it would contain links to websites of interest, somewhat like bookmarking. An unforeseen development was when RSS was used for Internet marketing. Users realized the freedom to add RSS feeds to their aggregators to target a particular market.

If you intend to use RSS for marketing purposes, consider linking to email account providers, (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Google mail); networking websites (e.g. Friendster, Multiply, My Space, Hi5); websites of newspapers and television network websites (e.g. New York Times, CNN) for medium to big-scale companies. Also networking to personal blog websites (e.g. Blogspot) and websites of clubs and organizations is helpful.

Clearly, RSS is an innovation in information management that will result in better technology and as its popularity increases among users and website owners alike.

For even more info on this, please visit my website www.ebookscomputer.com.

Good Luck!

Jeff Spires

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What is an RSS Feed?

A lot of sites have them, but you don’t know what they are. It is an intriguing little button right on the Web page, and it is full of mystery. Just what is an RSS feed?


Defining RSS


Many Web sites out there offer RSS feeds. You click, you receive – it’s just that simple. But just what are you getting into with that innocuous mouse button of yours? What in the world is an RSS feed in the first place?


Technically, RSS stands for Rich Site Summary and it only exists online. Imagine a Web site with a whole lot of content (text). Perhaps it’s a news site, or a very popular blog on the Internet. This site then takes that content and syndicates it. With the RSS feed, any user on the Internet can receive this syndicated content. It is sort of like buying a subscription to the newspaper. You order the paper and suddenly, it starts to appear on your doorstep. An RSS feed is the exact same thing – but the “newspaper” appears right on your computer.


Why Use an RSS Feed?


Okay, so why do you need an RSS feed when your email inbox is already full of junk mail? RSS feeds are not advertisements but actual content: news, information, blog posts and articles. The best thing about RSS feeds is that they’re not random. You have to subscribe or sign up in order to receive an RSS feed. Sometimes, the local paper may deliver free copies to try and get you interested in their service. RSS feeds will not do that – you won’t receive an unsolicited RSS feed, because in the majority of cases the service is always free.


When you have an RSS feed, you save yourself the time and trouble of searching the Internet for the information that’s pertinent to you. Suppose you get online every day to check major news headlines, entertainment information, etc. With an RSS feed, all you have to do is get on the computer and you don’t have to search out anything – the feed you subscribe to is already there, and available.


There is another factor when considering RSS feeds. In almost all cases, sites providing RSS feeds want you to use them as much as possible. It’s perfectly acceptable for you to put an RSS feed on your own Web site, thus getting daily content where your visitors can access it, too. You can stay up on business news, what’s happening on Wall Street, politics, whatever you own personal interests are, and you can make the same information available to your own Web traffic. This is why RSS feeds are so popular, and also why so many sites offer RSS feeds completely free of charge.


Offering an RSS Feed


Does your site have a lot of regularly-updated content? A popular blog or newsletter, perhaps? You might even consider offering an RSS feed to your own Web users. The RSS feed puts your Web site’s name out there in a bold way. The more subscribers who have to your feed, the more marketing you get. Those same subscribers might be sharing their feeds with others, who might share that feed you get the point. Word-of-mouth spreads about your site, your content becomes more popular, and suddenly business is improved. This is of course a good-case scenario, but in truth there aren’t too many negatives associated with offering an RSS feed.


If you’ve got content to provide, there’s no reason not to offer an RSS feed. In a worst-case scenario, no one will subscribe to the feed. It takes up very little space on the Web page, and if no one subscribes then your business will pretty much remain the same. If they do subscribe, it might improve, but it certainly won’t fail if the RSS feed fails to gain attention and acclaim.


Creating an RSS Feed


So, how do you go about putting the RSS feed on your own site? If you know how to write code, it is easily done when you edit a page on your Web site. There are online tutorials which can walk you through the process. If you’d rather leave it in the hands of a professional, talk to a Web designer about creating an RSS feed and finding the best way to market this service online. Web designers can help you take care of this and other details when it comes to creating an RSS feed on your own site.

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Update on RSS – Really Simple Syndication

Updates on RSS Directories

RSS directories are popular these days. RSS is widely used initially by news sites to allow others to syndicate their news stories. Now, a lot of other websites are using RSS. It is being used in flagging new forum headlines, auction listings, sales listings and others.

The meaning of RSS is actually not clear. RSS may or may not be an acronym, actually. RSS may stand for Really Simple Syndication. But others say its Rich Site Summary and sometimes Rich Syndication Standard. The noted creator of RSS directory would be Netscape. It was released sometime in March 1999. The included a UserLand application which is called scripting news. Netscape stopped developing it, but UserLand continued doing so. Another company, RSS-DEV Working Group also released their own version.

RSS directories are sites that collate all RSS links and place them in different categories for other applications to use. This is similar to webhosting, only instead of web pages, they contain RSS links. These links will pop out on the website and when you click it, you will be directed to the main source of the link.

RSS poses a lot of uses for those who like to use the Internet for marketing or commerce. Here are the things you can do with it:

Create links from their website to yours.
If you are selling or promoting something, web traffic is important. The more RSS directory you upload, the more chances you have people seeing those and checking your site out. And if they have customized their sites with your RSS feeds, then they would get updated listings from your site to theirs automatically.

Collating analysis.
If you have a brand and you? like to know how your competitor is doing, you may use RSS to see what they have so far. Get a directory of their product or service so you.l know first hand what they have come out with. With the data gathered you now can plan on how you can counter them.

Tracking your own progress. If you can check out your competitor, of course you like to check out too how your business or product is going too. With an RSS directory of your own, you can know how many people are interested in what you are selling or offering.

Increases productivity.
Putting up RSS directories, let say for newsletters, adds efficiency to your company. If you use RSS for sending out newsletters instead of mailing them to recipients, you? eliminate the possibility of your letter being classified as spam by users, or being sent in a closed mail account.

Increases efficiency.
There are a lot of websites or news articles that could be beneficial to your brand or company. At times, you like to add them to your site. Without the use of RSS, you have to copy the entire thing down and note where you got it. If you use RSS, then the headline and part of the story shows up on your site. And this is an automatic process now. If you use RSS, you just include the directory and automatically, the headline appears without you doing much.

Posting RSS directories could cost you some. But the benefits override it. Some sites even offer free RSS directory posting. If you are just starting up, you may like to check those out. The more RSS directory you have up, the more the possibility that you are sending out information to the people interested in your goods. Reason behind is that people will only get the RSS feeds that they are interested in. If they get yours, they sure are the target market.

Disseminating information online has become easier with RSS. The technology provided a cost-effective way of transferring facts and figures out. Utilizing it would definitely add up to your marketing approach. With it, you have an avenue of reaching out to even more people so easily.

RSS uses XML to syndicate pages. Though that sounds a little technical, there a lot of websites that has user-friendly interface to guide in building your directory. Go ahead and put up your RSS directory up now. RSS has proven to be essential. It has ceased to be an option; it has become a necessity.

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