RSS for Fun and Profit

This week we have another Guest “Tipster!”

This time it’s on the subject of “RSS” (real simple
syndication) and how you can use it to build your online
business by automatically attracting more targeted traffic
to your site.

Enjoy!

Jim

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Hi Jim,

Thank you for the opportunity to share some quick tips on
RSS with your readers.

I’m sure that many marketers realize by now that internet
marketing is in a mild crisis.

On one hand, we’re all struggling to get our marketing
messages and educational content delivered to our
prospects, customers and subscribers, having to deal with
tons of e-mail spam filters and an abundance of messages in
our recipients’ mailboxes.

On the other, getting high organic search engine rankings
is becoming increasingly difficult, since there are tens of
thousands new websites every day, and pay-per-click prices
are reaching new heights almost every week.

For me, the situation got absolutely ridiculous when the
going PPC rate in the Google AdWords program for some of my
keywords was almost close to half of the price I was
charging for my product.

And I’m not smart enough to achieve a 50% visitor/customer
conversion rate:)

But fortunately, we now have RSS to help us out.

RSS really is a vast subject, but here are three basic
tips, based on my “Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power
of RSS” e-book, that should get you started easily.

Tip #1 – Get Started With RSS Quickly

For those not familiar with this term yet, RSS stands for
Real Simple Syndication. And yes, the name is spot on —
RSS is really simple!

In simple terms, RSS gets content delivered directly to
your desktop or to your browser, but without spam or other
“nuisances”, such as viruses etc. Since it’s not in any way
like e-mail, RSS doesn’t disturb your personal
communications.

You can receive RSS content when you want it and how you
want it, and even unsubscribe from any RSS feed in a matter
of seconds. You don’t like it, it’s out.

The easiest way to get started with RSS and to catch a
least a glimpse of its power, is to start using it
immediately as an end-user.

• If you prefer desktop software, go to
http://www.awasu.com and download their free RSS reader,
using which you will be able to subscribe to RSS feeds and
read them.

• If you prefer to get your content through your browser,
head on to http://www.bloglines.com and register for a free
account.

Of course, there are many other choices, but one of these
two should get you started in no time. Then, simply seek
out websites with little orange buttons saying RSS or XML
or something like that. Each of those buttons usually has a
link behind it — copy that link in to your new RSS
reader, and you’re ready to go!

Just start with Jim’s RSS feed on the right:)

Tip #2 – Start Publishing With RSS Today!

The answer to why you need to start publishing with RSS
today is simple:

• It will get 100% of your content delivered to your
subscribers; no spam filters and no crowded inboxes.

• Publishing your own RSS feeds will help you increase your
search engine traffic and even bring you fresh traffic from
RSS specific search engines and directories.

• It will help you get your content published on other
websites.

• With RSS you’ll have the power to publish your
information as soon as you have it ready, even every hour
if you want to, and no one will mind. You can even get
large audio files directly to your subscribers without any
problems at all.

• And at the end, since RSS requires no e-mail addresses,
you’ll be able to capture the visitors that were previously
too scared to give away their e-mail address to you.

• Getting started can be free! Yes, completely without any
cost whatsoever.

• And the best part: almost any kind of content can be
published via RSS, from e-zines to audio to applications
and product information.

But how to get started?

1. First decide what content you want to publish with RSS
to begin with. You can start with an RSS feed to publish
your news (or blog content, if you have one), another to
publish your e-zine and yet another to constantly
communicate with your existing customers.

2. The difficult choice is deciding on what software to
use. If you’re already publishing your web content with a
content management solution, chances are it already has an
RSS publishing feature. If not, the easiest way to start is
using a desktop feed generator, such as
http://www.feedforall.com or the free

http://www.usablelabs.com/productFeedSpring.html

3. Follow their instructions, create your RSS feeds, and
put them on your website. Create an RSS presentation page
to explain to your visitors what RSS is and then provide
them with the links to your RSS feeds.

Tip #3 – Use RSS to Increase Your Search Engine Rankings
and Drive Fresh Traffic

For many internet marketers, this is the key to why they
want to use RSS. Actually, this tactic even got my e-book
sales page to #1 spots on Google for my key search terms,
such as “RSS marketing” and “RSS publishing”.

The basic procedure is simple:

• Enable other sites and readers to easily locate the RSS
feeds on your site, by putting this line of code in to the
section of the webpages, for each of the feeds
available through those pages:

• Write down the title, description, link and keywords for
each of your feeds.

• Now submit your feeds to all of the relevant RSS search
engines and directories you can find. The best list can be
obtained here: http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

• Whenever you update the content of any of your website
sections, got to http://www.pingomatic.com and ping the
most important “content directories”. This will tell them
that your content has been updated and will allow them to
list it for their visitors. Just remember to use the actual
URL of your website section, where the content has been
updated.

This should get you started reaping the benefits of RSS
practically immediately….

– Thanks Rok!

It’s no pun intended when I say YOU ROCK, Rok!

I encourage everyone to go check out Rok’s complete guide
to unleashing the marketing and publishing power of RSS, go
to http://www.igottatellyou.com/rok.html Right Now!

To your success!

Jim