RSS

This survey has been blogged already but following is Potomac Tech Wire’s version. I wonder how many blog readers use email to keep up? Commoncraft recently notified readers that he was doing away with email updates.

It interesting, I seem to get the most understanding of feeds when explained in relation to MS Outlook or other email programs…

Study: 11% of Blog Readers Use RSS Technology to Manage Feeds

New York --About 11% of weblog readers use RSS (Really Simple 
Syndication) to sort through the increasing number of blogs available, 
according to a new study by Nielsen//NetRatings. 

The firm said that 
5% of blog readers use feed aggregation software and more than 6% 
percent use a feed aggregating web site to monitor RSS feeds from 
blogs. "While RSS is an established technology, the growing 
popularity of blogs has catapulted RSS into the spotlight as a content 
personalization tool," said Jon Gibs, a senior research manager for 
Nielsen//NetRatings. The majority of respondents to the survey were 
less familiar with RSS feeds. 

Among the other respondents, 23% 
understood RSS but did not use it, while two-thirds either did not 
understand the technology or had heard of it.

Categories: RSS

This week’s edition of the Washington Business Journal has a short piece on the potential of RSS advertising. Consider the following quote from the story and remember that email and RSS don’t necessarily compete but can compliment each other.

While the traditional media catches on, RSS early adapters are bloggers. A great way to get your blogging info. is through email. Bloglet has made a business out of this.

It’s going to potentially replace e-mail newsletters, says Gary Duke, executive vice president of D.C.-based MDB Communications.

This topic reminds me of an earlier thread: Email is dead (again).  More RSS information can be found in a 15 page report published by Forrester’s  Charlene Li on Using RSS As A Marketing Tool. (read about the report all over the place but first on Sally Falkow’s Website Content Strategy).

We are setting up an RSS feed for a client’s press releases. This is a first step for the client that is totally new to RSS and syndication in general. This idea actually supports a current search engine b2b promotion.

Anyway, I thought that it might be useful to offer snippets of what we’re finding in the blogesphere  as we ready a client presentation.   I’ll update this category as we go along and (big surprise) call it RSS. 

Advantages 1. Will drive traffic to landing page 2. SEO  3. helps gets his press releases up & running

History NPR news and information is available through RSS feeds, which use a technology called XML to deliver headlines and summaries to your desktop or Web browser.   If you click an RSS link but do not have a compatible reader installed, you will see XML code in your browser. To view the headlines, paste the feed address into an RSS news reader or use a browser which supports RSS feeds. Viewing of these feeds is subject to NPR’s RSS terms of use. RSS is TiVO for the Web.

Definition

Good Example

Increase the visibility of your feeds
Many business sites report substantial increases in traffic when they put RSS feeds on the site. But you have to make your feeds visible. Once you’ve created your file you must register your feeds with the search engines and blog search engines so that your feeds can be found. Submit them to sites that register RSS Feeds (newsisfree, Syndic8.com).

Whats the difference between blog and RSS directories and engines? Do you have to submit to both? You can often get better placement in feed directories and in Yahoo’s RSS Directory than you can from regular search engines, and often, inclusion is instant.

Broaden the audience that sees your content – your RSS feeds will get picked up and published on other websites. Use RSS promotion to drive more traffic to your website – syndication brings you new audiences.
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Solutions (free)
PRESSfeed-hosted solution but, what are they hosting? Do they host press releases and RSS feeds?

FeedForAll

nooked