|
Do I Need A Feed?
Copyright 2004 Sharon Housley
Do I Need an RSS
Feed?
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% 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 .
|
