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Apr 26, 2008

How to use syndicated content to increase traffic ?


The New Marketing Tool - RSS

Any web marketer worth his salt knows that web traffic is the key to success when it comes to making money online. People often talk about Internet, product and money.
But the circle is not complete without the key aspect: traffic, and loads of it.
To me, RSS is the brand new web marketing tool; powerful because so few use it and popular because search engines simply love it.
When you visit popular websites, you may have come across a simple link at the bottom of the page labeled subscribe to RSS or XML.

So, what is RSS?
Of course you already know it is Real Simple Syndication. But that's only so far as the name goes. To many, there is nothing really simple about RSS. In fact, people feel intimidated by it, which is one of the reasons why it is so under-utilized on the web.

RSS is nothing but a recent flash of news that you send out from your website to people who have subscribed to it. Of course, that's a simplistic definition, but in it lies the key to the power of RSS. So, let us examine it a little closely.

First of all, as I explained, RSS is a simple news flash. That means, you will be using it as a channel of communication between your website and customers who subscribe to it.
For example, suppose you are an avid golfer and you want to share something about the game with other fans like yourself. An RSS feed helps you do just that. You fill in the new piece of information and everyone subscribed to your RSS immediately gets the flash.
RSS helps you in many ways:
1-It establishes your credibility as an expert in your field.
2-A regularly updated RSS feed keeps your website fresh and green.
3-It increases efficiency. You can send out new announcements and reach your customers effectively and quickly through RSS feeds. So it can be used as an advertising or marketing tool.
From the point of view of subscribers, there are even more advantages:
4-It increases productivity. Customers can hook up to your RSS and enjoy the benefits of having fresh content on their website. As and when you feed new content, their websites get updated too.
5-The information you provide is something that your clients want. They asked for it, so they look forward to receiving it. Little wonder RSS feeds can pull high volumes of loyal targeted traffic, which is great for your search engine rankings.
6-Most importantly, RSS is spam free, unlike emails. Unsubscribing is hassle free too.
RSS, as originally designed by Netscape, was initially used by websites that needed to update their content regularly (news websites, for instance) and Blogs. Today however, it is widely used as a marketing tool to increase search engine traffic. This unforeseen development led to its popularity.


Using RSS feeds to increase search engine traffic:
RSS feeds can enhance your website traffic dramatically. Search engines love cross-links and they pay particular attention to websites that are richly linked from the outside.
Additionally, RSS directories, where you can list your RSS feeds, also drive loads of search engine traffic to your website. RSS directories collate RSS links and place them in different categories and sections.
This is something similar to web hosting, but instead of websites, you have RSS links in these directories. Clicking on a link will take you to the source of that feed.
RSS feeds have another advantage. In any business, you would like to know how your competitors are doing. You would also like to check out how your own product or business is performing.
An RSS directory helps you find out how many people are interested in your services or products.
Posting to RSS directories may be a little costly, but as you can see, the advantages far override the investment. If you are starting out, you may use free services and move on to paid services as your site starts picking up.
RSS has made it far easier to disseminate information. That is why it has become an effective and respectable means of reaching out to large slices of customers.

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