A Few Positions Have Opened up at Content Site Builder Please Share the RSS Marketing Survey Please help us make the RSS Marketing Survey as comprehensive as possible. All participants get the full survey report, and all the key data will be shared publicly.
1. Please take a few minutes and participate by clicking here.
2. Please share this URL (http://rsspoll.marketingstudies.net) with as many people as you can. Post it on your blog, send it out in your newsletter, mention it to your RSS peers ... :)
Really, the more data we get, the better results we'll be able to provide to you.
The goal of the survey is to research the RSS marketing landscape, collect top RSS marketing case studies and best practices, and find which key factors make successful RSS strategies successful.
BTW - the survey is getting alot of support from many marketers, such as Christopher Knight, RSS Ray, Lee Odden and may others (full list will be published after I return from Chicago).
And today we've just been covered by MarketingSherpa as well:
"If you've tested offering RSS and have any results to share, author/researcher Rok Hrastnik is seeking your input for the second edition of his report on the topic. We like Rok -- he's a genuine and enthusiastic researcher on the topic and worth supporting so the whole community can learn together."
Great thanks to everyone that's helping make the survey a success!
"Start Your Own Blogging Business" Book You know it's a trend when folks like Entrepreneur magazine start selling books like Start Your Own Blogging Business....
Use RSS To Increase Your Traffic Now, Part 2 Syndicate Your Content to Other Online Media
Yes, traditional search and news search will get you the visitors that are currently actively searching for specific content, no doubt about it. Those are the visitors that need something specific right now and will use the search engines to get it.
But chances are that your website won't be their first destination after their search, especially if you're not well ranked for the specific keywords these people are looking for. But, they might get to a website that at least partially covers the topic you're covering.
And not all online traffic comes from search.
Much traffic is generated by the e-zines that people subscribe to, by frequent visits to favorite online destinations for specific topics and so on.
The point is, every day online users are visiting websites that have something to do with your topics but these websites are not your websites.
Now consider this fact: Content is best served when contextually relevant to the current online environment of the visitor.
How can you take advantage of this fact?
You can work towards getting your latest headlines, content summaries or even full-text content published on these websites, to increase your online exposure and receive targeted traffic from these websites.
In short, online content syndication is all about delivering your content to other websites and having it re-published there.
Essentially, this is a concept adapted from TV syndication, where TV show producers and TV networks allow other TV networks to run their show for a price. The difference is that in the world of online syndication the coin isn't money, but rather the traffic and exposure you receive by syndicating your online content.
Here are some quick examples:
A cooking website provides an abundance of cooking tips, recipies, reviews and other cooking related content. You on the other hand wrote a book on exotic indian recipies you are now trying to sell online. It's a perfect match. The cooking website is (or should be) looking for new ways to get more credible content for its visitors for free, while you're looking for increased exposure. In this case you could provide that website with your latest selections of exotic indian receipies, perhaps with a new recipe every day. The website would publish your headlines and short summaries of the receipes, and their visitors would need to clickthrough to your site to read more giving you the opportunity to make the sale. Or, the other way to do it, would be to allow the cooking website to display your syndicated content in full, but with an ad at the bottom of your recipies inviting readers to order the book, with a link to the order page.
You're a direct marketing consultancy firm, specializing in direct marketing in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Well, there are dozens of websites covering direct marketing, but none provide direct marketing tips on direct marketing in the CEE region. Although you're not in the publishing business, you could easily provide direct marketing portals with semi-daily commentary on direct marketing in the CEE, tips for marketing in the region, coverage of direct marketing events in the region, legal tips and so on. The portals would better satisfy its visitors by providing them with more unique content, while you could generate new leads from the people that visit your own website after clicking on your headlines.
You're an e-commerce site selling low-priced laptops. What you could do in this case is seek out websites that cover and review low-priced laptops and offer them to re-publish your latest laptop deals and releases, to direct people to your webstore where they can make the order or simply find out more about the laptops promoted, and the website would in turn receive a commission for every product sold through them. This same concept works for any affiliate marketing powered business. If you have affiliates, you can help them generate more sales by providing them with ready made content about your products, such as a list of upcoming seminars and similar.
No matter what industry you're in and what your goals online are, you are almost certain to have your own relevant content that you want re-published in whole or in part on other websites, and you will be sure to find websites that reach the same audience and cover the same or complimentary topics that could be interested in republishing your content.
The key, however, in making all of this work, is contextuallity and relevancy.
The content you wish to distribute must be highly relevant to the audience your prospective syndication partners reach.
The content must be in some context with the website you want it to be available at.
This tactic will not only generate new traffic for you and bring you highly relevant and targeted visitors, but will also help you increase your online credibility, increase your brand recognition and might even help you become established as a thought leader.
But what's the role of RSS in all of this?
RSS has become the de-facto standard for online content syndication.
All you need is to provide an RSS feed with the exact content you want to syndicate, and all the other websites owners need is a way to consume your RSS feed and display its contents on their websites.
Once you update your RSS feed, for example when adding a new news piece, the content on your syndication partners' websites is updated too. If you're syndicating content to a thousand other websites, all of them will receive the same updated version at the same time you update your RSS feed. Easy, simple, cheap and streamlined.
And because this is a standard there are now countless tools available to make this process easy for everyone involved.
Easy RSS Advertising From Pheedo: Ads for Feeds Pheedo today announced their new service, Ads for Feeds, which allows RSS publishers to easily place ads in their RSS feeds, while at the same time gathering RSS metrics and without redirecting traffic to another domain.
If you've explored the RSS space in more detail you know that free services like FeedBurner allow you to easily place ads in your feeds and measure the feeds themselves, but they require you to direct your visitors to a republished version of your feed on their server.
[Update / 2006-05-02] The above statement is actually not quite true, since FeedBurner does allow you to serve your FeedBurner optimized feeds via your own domain. Terribly sorry for the mistake!
What this means is that while you do get the ability to place ads and measure your feeds, you do lose some of the search engine optimization impact of RSS, since your RSS feeds are no longer stationed on your domain.
Pheedo's service on the other hand allows you to keep your feeds on your own domain and take advantage of the service by simply pasting their code in your feeds.
There's a premium + version as well, with more features and more in-depth analytics.
A New Breed of Branded RSS Reader: Inclue! Inclue!, just released a couple of days ago, is a new breed of mass-market branded RSS Reader ... which integrates into Outlook (to consume RSS content), as well as Internet Explorer and FireFox (to directly subscribe to RSS feeds while surfing).
But why a new breed of branded Reader?
a] It integrates with Outlook, which most other branded RSS Readers don't (usually either web-based or desktop applications)
b] Publishers can create their own branded version (unfortunatelly only with their own feeds right now) in 5 minutes, and then distribute it via their Inclue! landing page, which is also automatically generated.
c] Publishers that sign-up for their affiliate program receive a commission when end-users decide to upgrade their Reader to the premium version.
d] The Include! Reader is based on viral methods to further spread your RSS feeds and help you get new subscribers, for example using the FeedBurner Flare tool to entice your RSS subscribers to get your branded Inclue! Reader. Similar links are also displayed when a user forwards an RSS feed item to his friends via Inclue!
To see how it works, take a look at my quick version (just a demo, haven't included all the feeds, a decent description and so on).
Inclue! also does a great job of promoting RSS to end-users, giving them concrete benefits of how RSS will actually help them ... from tracking eBay auctions to getting job notifications. Just take a look at the link above.
Essentially, the Reader is targeted at new RSS users, giving them simple functions, especially with their ease of subscribing to feeds with just one click.
Now I'm just waiting for them to add visual branding possibilities ... :)
links for 2006-12-29 Macworld: Feature: Here comes high definition "Is now the time to plop down money for an HD camcorder? That depends on how cutting-edge you are." (tags: HDTV video gadgets) ProgrammableWeb Mashup Detail: GMaps Flight Tracker View incoming flights into 7...
Expedia Takes the Lead in Travel RSS Feeds My greatest gripe against RSS marketing initiatives is that they're just poorly done.
You have a great company with an amazing product database that just calls for customized feeds ... and all you get from their RSS feeds are one-size-fits-all packages.
Really a waste. No one wants to receive updates on all US flights ... they just want to receive updates on the flights that really interest them. And here's the real power of RSS: bringing the most relevant content.
Expedia seems to understand that, at least based on their new RSS offering.
They allow you to customize your feed with Trip Type, your originating city, your destination and your package type.
Well, they could still do alot more, such as providing the option of selecting a price range, but it's a good beginning.
RSS Really Starting to Move Towards E-mail Marketers Email Reaction is another e-mail vendor following the certain trend of RSS going the way of e-mail marketing ... in terms of direct marketing capabilities of course.
Although they're just entering beta testing with their solution, they promise RSS feed personalization, the holy grail for direct marketers, as well as full RSS integration in their software, to make the move towards RSS easier for e-mail marketers.
The first to offer this type of integration and personalization were SilverPop, although it still remain to be seen how Email Reaction will compete with their feature set.
New Ways to Track Viral Videos NewTeeVee notes tat both Megite and Tailrank have added video sections. The sites cluster conversations around the most talked about videos....
Syndicate IQ Shakes the RSS Advertising World With Advanced Ad Serving Syndicate IQ just announced their RSS ad serving platform that finally brings RSS advertising closer to what "traditional" online advertiers want.
What they're telling right now is:
a] They're able to insert RSS ads into feeds on a per-user basis, regardless of what article the subscriber is currently reading.
b] They can display different versions/formats of the ad, depending on the RSS Reader the subscriber is using.
c] Their RSS ad server integrates with "traditional" online ad servers, centralizing reporting and stats.
More coming on this soon, but until then also read Syndicate IQ's view on the state of RSS advertising, which indicates why the above features are needed.
Important: 2006 Unleash RSS Preview for Existing Customers Just a quick update for existing Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS customers ... if you haven't received the message yet.
We just released the preview of the 2006 edition, with the first two sections. The preview (and the full version, once it comes out) is available to you for free, of course.
Just drop me an e-mail at rok.hrastnik@marketingstudies.net --- if you haven't received it yet.
And you'll certainly want to do so, since this isn't simply an upgrade, but a whole new e-book, with more easy-to-follow RSS marketing instructions than ever before.
RSS Industry Night Roundtable II: About RSS Adoption Pheedo, iUpload and PRWeb hosted the 2nd RSS Industry Night Roundtable last week, taking place next to the Ad:Tech event.
This time unfortunatelly I wasn't able to make it, nor will I be able to make the next one at the Syndicate Conference May 15th:(, since I'm speaking at the ACCM conference in Chicago next week and just don't have enough time to stay in the US for 2 weeks.
A pitty ...
Anyway, this time round the industry night focused more on RSS adoption and how IE7 is going to influence it.
The most interesting comment comes from David Gillmor who believes that people won't really use RSS via IE7, but will rather opt-in for web-based RSS Readers.
Also much discussion about RSS advertising, where the people from ClickZ shared concernes that RSS advertising just isn't worth selling ... yet.
For more coverage visit Pheedo's blog, ClickZ Blog and The 360 blog.
To get the scoup on the 1st roundtable, click here.
PARTICIPATE: The 2006 RSS Marketing Survey Would you like to compare your RSS marketing results with those of your peers?
Are you interested in the RSS industry average benchmark metrics?
Would you like to get top RSS marketing tips from those that are actually doing it?
Participate in the 2006 RSS Marketing Survey, share your own insights, experiences and data ... and then receive a free copy of the report with all the data to compare your numbers, as well as receive RSS marketing best practices.
Also, if you care to share your own RSS marketing case study, it will be featured in the 2006 edition of Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS, critically acclaimed as the "best and most comprehensive guide on RSS for marketers".
For more information and to participate, please click here now.
And, if you can, please share this survey with as many marketers as you can, since that will provide us with a much better research sample ...
... and at the same time provide you with much better benchmark metrics, as well as more comprehensive RSS marketing tips and experiences.
Simply share this URL:
http://rsspoll.marketingstudies.net
Participate by clicking here now.
Leaving for Chicago, ACCM I'm leaving for Chicago in about 3 hours for a week, where I'll be speaking on RSS and direct marketing at the ACCM conference.
If you're in Chicago and want to grab a coffee, drop me a note.
And I might be a little slow in responding to e-mail messages during this week:)
How To Make An Absolute Fortune in the Information Products Business by Shawn Casey 
