RSS Marketing and Publishing [MarketingStudies.net]

written by Rok Hrastnik, MarketingStudies.net

E-mail delivery problems are growing every day, not to mention other risks associated with e-mail publishing. While e-mail, in my opinion, is here to stay and will in the future probably undergo major changes that will "save" it, there are now new content delivery mediums that we cannot afford to ignore.

RSS is the most important of these.

You've certainly heard of it before and chances are you're even using it, if not for publishing then at least for receiving certain content.

RSS's foremost advantages over e-mail are that it is 100% opt-in, doesn't carry the risk of spam accusations and actually gets the message delivered to the people that "subscribe" to it.

Let's not reinvent hot water and take a look at a definition of RSS by Dana VanDen Heuvel (http://www.danavan.net):

"RSS is a "techie" acronym for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, depending on who you talk to, the time of day and the day of the week. Also referred to as an RSS feed or XML feed, this protocol is an application of XML that provides an open method of syndicating (or distributing) and aggregating Web content."

In other words, RSS allows you to deliver and distribute your content summaries and links in such a manner that they can be read on special easy-to-use software, news aggregators, or implemented on other web sites to deliver links to your latest content in the most accessible format today, XML.

How it Works

1. You create an RSS file, in which you include the headlines, links and summaries of the content you wish to distribute through your RSS feed. Usually these are your latest news, content or e-zine updates and blog updates. You can also publish an entire e-zine using RSS.

You can either hand-code the RSS file or use a content management solution that does it for you. For instance, most of the popular blog solutions already do that for you.

2. You then put the link to the RSS file on your web site and include it in various RSS "directories". Now, if people click on that link and open the file in their web browsers, all they are going to see is alot of confusing XML.

3. Users actually need to include the link ("subscribe to your RSS feed" or "add your channel") to their list in their news aggregators, or use the file to show your headlines on their web sites.

There are a variety of news aggregators available free of charge. I use Awasu (http://www.awasu.com). It might not be the best, but it's the one I first started using and got accustomed to it.

4. When the user has your RSS feed included in his aggregator, the software will display all the headlines and summaries you included in your RSS file. When new items are added to the file they can also be seen by the user on his aggregator. Each item is linked back to your web site to a specific piece of content, such as an article.

Creating an RSS file is actually quite easy. It might prove more difficult educating your visitors about what RSS actually is and how they can view your feed and subscribe to it. Although you might have some problems with this, the advantages are worthy of your consideration.

RSS can, for instance, be used to deliver all of your latest web site content updates - something you really can't do with e-mail, unless you want hundreds of angry subscribers accusing you of spamming their inboxes every day.

But, is RSS really the solution we are all hoping for?

The key benefit for the publisher is the fact that using RSS your content will be delivered to all who "subscribe" to your RSS content feed, without the fear of being stopped by e-mail filters and without having to worry about spam accusations.

There's also much greater chance your content updates actually get read, since you don't have to compete with hundreds of e-mails, which most of are destined for an immediate trip to the trash can.

RSS is the ultimate "pull" medium, meaning that subscribers are in total control over what they receive.

On the other hand, this total control can become a problem for marketers that sometimes still need to rely on the "push" approach, especially when it comes to marketing campaigns.

That, however is not the worst of problems ...

RSS adoption, although the technology has been around for years, is still only marginal, which is the greatest problem RSS faces today. Most of your subscribers won't even know what you're talking about. No technology can, naturally, work if its not adopted by a large enough audience ... or at least by your audience.

The point right now however is, that you do need to start using RSS to publish your content, in addition to your e-mail publishing activities.

No, we do not recommend that you stop using e-mail, on the contrary, but you can use both of them in synergy, like we are doing here at MarketingStudies.net.

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