Learn the Basics of RSS

Learn the Basics of RSS
You have most likely seen the RSS links popping up all over
the internet. But do you know what it is and how it can
help with your online marketing efforts? RSS stands for
Really Simple Syndication, or Rich Site Summary.
Syndication is republishing something from another source,
like a webpage.

An RSS feed is a way to publicize updates to your website.
It could be the entire update including photos, or just a
summary of the latest update. A RSS with a summary would
allow users to skim through the update, and visit the
website for full details. An RSS feed will typically
include the title of the update and a link to the site
originating the feed.

Why should you learn the basics of RSS? Because, RSS has
benefits to both the readers and the publishers

An RSS feed keeps your readers informed. Whatever your
update is, a blog post, a new sale price on an item, new
music, whatever it is subscribers are immediately updated.
Web users are becoming more comfortable with RSS and look
for the feed to save time.

Because a RSS feed can provide a summary of the update, it
saves valuable time which will develop a loyal following
from busy web surfers. By reading your RSS summary, the
user can determine if the update is important to them
without having to search your site to find the update.

If you are marketing online, you will reach a wider
audience because people are more likely to subscribe to an
RSS feed than they are to an email list. Users who utilize
a RSS aggregator will be able to read your updates without
their inbox overflowing.

While it may seem that the benefit of RSS is all on the
user, your RSS feed can be used as a marketing tool. Users
of your RSS feed will receive the latest news about your
product or service. This will focus your marketing to those
who want to receive your message, and actually want your
product. It also totally eliminates the possibility of your
being accused of spamming.

Because RSS is still relatively new, there may be some
drawbacks to trying to use it exclusively. Some customers
may still prefer to receive email updates, or may not yet
understand RSS. Also, some graphics and photos may not
appear, but if this is how your customer wants to hear from
you it is a good idea you make the option available to them.

Even taking the perceived drawbacks into account, a RSS
feed will create more traffic. Most readers will want to
get the entire update, so they will still visit the site.

How to use RSS for Internet Marketing.

The original intent for RSS was to allow users to customize
their homepage to have links to their favorite sites,
similar to the way bookmarking sites work. Applying
internet marketing to the feed was an afterthought. With
the advent of services like Feed Burner, your RSS feed can
be spiced up and rebroadcast to a much wider audience than
you could have originally found.

The popularity of RSS is on the rise. This innovation to
the worldwide web and online marketing is becoming more
widely used every day. If you are promoting a website,
Blog, Forum, etc. incorporating an RSS feed is crucial to
the success of your efforts. Once you get the basics down
you will be able to benefit from publicizing your site
through RSS.

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Rob Emmerson is a leading expert in SEO and has written
extensivly on the subject in articles and eBooks. He offers
a free SEO Course at http://www.theseosecretrevealed.com .
in addition he writes a Blog on SEO at
http://www.robemmerson.com