If you have been following all the latest
developments in Internet marketing you will
have discovered a few things. Recent trends
are proving to be very lucrative for those savvy
marketers who are taking advantage of these
new changes.

First, video is popping up everywhere: on websites,
in sales letters, in testimonials and in training
manuals. Google (reluctant beacon of all things net)
is making its move on video in a big way by
videotizing their ads and by snatching up YouTube
for a Billion and some change.

Second, if you have placed a blog and RSS feed on
your own website, your stats will show you that
blogging is an excellent source of traffic. RSS is a
simple way to get your content on the web, including
your videos and podcasts.

RSS and Blogging are propelling the social networks
which are burning up the web and video is only adding fuel
to the fire. YouTube and MySpace barely cracks the surface
of the online community building fury that’s revving
up the web. Social networking fulfils our need to be
connected in a very unconnected world.

Our need to be a part of a group is universal. RSS
and Blogging are the tools that make this connection
possible. We can keep in touch and connected to
the groups or subjects that interest us the most.
We feel a part of the group. We feel connected. We feel
organized. We feel important.

These social networking sites are excellent places
to build good-will and trust among its users.
They are also great places to market or pitch new
products as many online marketers have discovered.

One has to wonder just how the new RSS powered
version of Windows (Vista) will impact social
networking sites like MySpace? Will it explode
the already strong interest in Blogging to
make it the dominant form of communication on
the web? Will RSS become the dominant means of
connecting all the dots?

Regardless of how all this plays out, RSS and
Blogging are already an online marketer’s dream
come true. Web marketers are taking full advantage
of this medium within a medium, just look at
the number of marketers who have started blogs
such as Neil Shearing, John Reese… Marlon Sanders
has even started his own MySpace site!

Can you remember a recent launch of any major
Internet product within the last year or so that
DIDN’T have a blog attached to it. From Andy Jenkins
& Brad Fallon’s “Stomping the Search Engines” to
Brad Callen’s “Keyword Elite” to Joel Comm’s
“Instant Adsense Templates.”

In a similar light, can you think of any major
launch that did not have video as an important
feature in its marketing. Joel Comm even used a
video on YouTube to get his Google Adsense points
across.

Why is RSS and Blogging so important to these
marketers? Why have they become essential tools no
online marketer can ignore? Why are they so important?

The answer is quite simple and obvious. It all
relates to keywords. As you probably already
know keywords are the exact words or phrases surfers
type into search engines to find what they’re
looking for on the web. Keywords powers the web.
Keywords powers much of the online marketing on the
net. All this buying and selling are connected to
keywords in one way or another.

RSS and Blogging have an automatic keyword system
built into its operating structure. It comes preloaded
with the means to take full advantage of keywords
and keyword marketing. The whole system is run
by tags or categories. These tags or categories
are recognized by the search engines as keywords.

So if you use a popular free blogging software
like WordPress, you will have a simple way to create
keyword targeted content within seconds. Targeted
keyword content that can also be syndicated around
the web instantly. Build a whole blog of related
keyword content and you will have created a powerful
online marketing system.

Marketers are taking advantage of RSS and Blogging
for this reason. It is a quick and simple way of
dominating a niche area and ranking high for the
popular and lucrative keywords in their niche or
industry. The advent of video has made these
blogs and feeds much more accessible to a larger
audience or marketplace.

Once these marketers have gained dominance for
popular keywords in their niche, they can convert
or monetize this traffic in countless ways: selling
their own products, building their own lists or using
Google Adsense and affiliate links. For these
savvy online marketers it can be a very lucrative
and profitable system.

RSS and Blogging has indeed shown them the money!

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Canada duty rate

The real potential of RSS lies in Broadcasting.

In former times, jumping up on a soapbox or any
platform in the street to speak your mind was
a popular pastime. Mainly reserved for political
radicals, the biblically inspired or the Cuckoo’s
frequent flyer’s club – the soapbox did fill a need.

The need to express oneself.

I have always thought of RSS/Blogs and blogging as
more of a ’soapbox’ than a ‘journal’ or a ‘weblog’
of daily events. A modern day techno version of the
soapbox with the transfer of one’s firmly held
beliefs/opinions in a few kb’s here and there along
the information highway.

The stronger the beliefs or opinions – the more
popular the blog. The more unique the content – the
more entertaining the blog is to read.

It also gives you a platform for entertaining
off-beat ideas and new ways of thinking. And it’s
a very democratic platform – where anyone’s input
can be just as valid as another.

Forget the vote, the blog is a much more democratic tool.

And it’s very young. It has a long way to go.

Nothing stays the same, everything changes, everything
evolves — even our methods of thinking, our means of
expressing ourselves. RSS/Blogs is changing the way we
communicate.

Imagine a Model T, a Fifties Cadillac, and a present day
Ferrari in your mind. Now imagine your vision or view of
the automobile if you only had the Model T to base it on?
the Cadillac?

Don’t underestimate or even judge RSS by its present day
form – this soapbox is morphing as you read this!

Ever wonder what RSS/blogs will be like in fifty or a
hundred years? What about websites? What about the
Internet? We’re only at the Model T stage – ever wonder
what that Ferrari will look like?

Lately, I can’t get that idea out of my head! What blogs,
the web, all this will be like in fifty years, a hundred
years, a thousand years? Personally, the future of RSS is
what interests me the most.

I have some background in the art field, people in that field
are always looking ahead. Artists are trained to think ‘in’,
‘outside’, and ‘ahead’ of the box. Especially ahead of the
box – five shots ahead of the cue ball – at all times.

For an artist, it’s a pure matter of survival. They have
to be ahead of crowd just to be mildly interesting. The real
fortune tellers leap ahead of the pack. Forging the way.

Blogs and RSS are forging the way for new ideas, new methods
of expression…it’s our own little wired soapbox…just
waiting for you to step up. And that soapbox is expanding
and evolving — What will that ’soapbox’ morph into?

Blogs/RSS will evolve and change. No doubt it will turn
that wired soapbox into your own personal interactive TV
channel — broadcasting your ideas, opinions, products onto a
billion channel internet…

Sound too far-fetched? Well, the radio version of this
system is just starting. Podcasting is just turning the
corner – read more about it in this Forbes.com Article.

[http://www.forbes.com/technology/personaltech/2005/03/07/cx_ah_0307tentech.html]

If we have radio, TV can’t be far behind! And the key
is RSS.

RSS gives us our own publishing facility, but it’s more akin to
broadcasting than publishing. It broadcasts our ideas, our
websites, our products…

Basically, I believe, RSS is paving the way for a billion channel
internet where each website will be it’s own interactive tv channel.
As storage space, transmission, download times… becomes irreverent or
instantaneous — how can it not happen?

As we crave more visuals, more audio, and more instant gratification
from the internet and webpages; how can RSS not deliver it?

The foundation, the infrastructure and the groundwork are already
present; connecting the dots will only be a matter of time.

So keep your eye on the cursor and don’t underestimate or even judge
RSS by its present day form; this soapbox is morphing as you read this!

And grab that remote; thanks to RSS, surfing a billion TV channels may
just become your favorite pastime or nightmare in the very near future.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: car rear view camera, back up camera

Has Google finally embraced RSS with their new XML
powered Sitemaps program? Well, sort of, but it seems
more like a hug than a strong impassioned embrace!

It does use XML technology which allows for the
crawling and updating of your site’s web pages.
You can even include your entire web site (all urls)
with this indexing program. For anyone targeting the search
engines, especially Google, this program (still in beta)
is a MUST HAVE.

If you require timely updating of your most popular pages
Google’s new Sitemaps may prove indispensable. It’s a little
premature to assess the importance or impact of Google’s
new program but anyone wanting to give their site a
competitive edge should be gearing up.

How it works:

There are several ways to set-up a XML Sitemap, perhaps
the easiest way is to use the open-source Generator which
you can download from Google. This is a Python file that
you can upload to your webserver and this generator
will create a sitemap from your ‘URL lists, webserver
directories, or your access logs’.

It would probably be wise to check with your hosting provider
to see if they can accommodate this Generator on your webserver.
It you have a small site there should be no problem but if your
site runs into the 1,000’s of URLs or pages — check to see how much
bandwidth such a system will take up. It’s better to be safe
than sorry!

Once done, you have to then submit your newly generated XML Sitemap
to Google and the search engine will use this XML Sitemap to
update and index your site whenever you make changes on your site.
You will need to have a Google account.

You may also submit text files containing URLs from your web site
to be included in Google Sitemaps but these text files will have
or will be given low priority for the time being.

To get started on your own Google Sitemaps Account you can click here:
Google’s Sitemaps [https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login]

What’s great about it:

Besides seeing Google finally grab the RSS wildcard, it
gives you better control of how and when the search
engines update your web site pages. Perhaps, the most
important aspect for Internet Marketers, you can now assign
the importance that’s given to any of your particular
pages. As most marketers know, certain pages on your
web site are more important than others; these pages
earn money, build your contact list, or direct your
site’s visitors in the right direction. In other words,
you can now place more emphasis on your web site’s
‘bread and butter’ pages. A BIG Plus!

With Google Sitemaps you can decide the importance
placed on these pages by using the priority XML tag.
This rating system is relative, it only relates to
the pages on your own site.

Likewise, you can also indicate how frequently your
pages changes by using the changefreq XML tag. More or
less instructing Google when your page will be updated
or changed. This is a win-win situation for everyone;
Google gets the freshest content for its users and
you gain more control of the frequency of the updates
done with your site or web pages. This may have a direct
influence on the profitability of your web site.

For those who are actively marketing thru the search
engines and keywords — Santa may have come a little
early this year. Of course, the jury will be out for
awhile but Google Sitemaps will probably have a
positive impact on your bottom line.

What it means for Google:

For those of us who have been following and watching
the RSS wildcard for the past couple of years, it takes
away some of the frustration and a little of the puzzlement
from Google seemingly total disregard of RSS.

RSS is not a fad, it is not a trend and it’s not going away.
Instead, its importance is growing. It is fast becoming ‘the’
way data is moved on the web. One could even speculate that
in the very near future all web pages will have an RSS
component, perhaps a hybrid of ‘XML/HMTL’ or an embedded
XML code that will work with all browsers, search engines
and servers.

For Google to ignore the growing importance of RSS, blogging,
podcasting, broadcatching, the RSS featured Firefox browser,
MyYahoo, not to mention all those orange XML logos popping
up on most of the major sites on the web — is beyond comprehension.
Why Google does not have an RSS search on its main search engine
page still seems baffling. Bringing out a homepage and not
including an RSS feature is just foolhardy (They may introduce
this feature later).

For those firmly in the RSS corner, Google’s continued
disregard for RSS became more than a little frustrating
to observe. It was downright rude! Perhaps Google was waiting
to incorporate RSS in a program like this new XML Sitemaps?
Can this mean that Google has finally accepted the importance
of RSS and they’re starting to make amends? More importantly,
could there still be a few more RSS goodies in the Google Jar
left to be announced?

One can only speculate but when it comes to RSS and Google,
lets just hope this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: How Electric Pressure Cookers Work

No matter how hard some people try to mystify SEO, it is not as complicated as many would lead you to believe. Despite all the techno jargon that many in the field will throw at you: SERPs, SEM, PageRank, Keyword Density, Vertical Search, Algorithms… SEO is really simple to do if you understand some basic concepts and follow some easy steps.

Search Engine Optimization is getting your content listed in all the top positions in Google, Yahoo and MSN for your targeted keywords. When someone does a keyword search in a search engine for your particular subject or niche — you want your site or content to be at the top of the list.

Here are 10 SEO tactics that have worked and are working for me at this moment in time. I make this clarification because you must understand search engines, especially Google, are constantly redefining how they rank pages. Here are my favorite tactics and strategies:

1. Quality Content is and always will be your number one factor for getting high rankings and keeping them. You must understand search engines are simply businesses who supply a product like any other company. That product is information. They must offer quality results to anyone using their service to solve a problem, answer a question or to buy a product. The more relevant, the more targeted the search solution they return, the higher the overall quality of their product and the more popular their search engine will become. Providing quality content is vital for SEO success.

2. Keywords are your number one tools for achieving high rankings. You must understand keywords and how they work on the web. You must know how many searches are made each day for your chosen keywords. Sites like Wordtracker and SEObook will give you a rudimentary number of searches. Design your pages around your targeted keywords and don’t forget to do some deep-linking to these pages on your site. Find and build backlinks to these interior keyword pages and not just to your home page or domain URL. Picking keywords with medium to low competition has worked out well for me. So too has using the more targeted and higher converting “long-tail” keywords been very beneficial for me.

3. Onpage Factors and site design will play a major role in the spidering and indexing of your site/content. Make sure all your pages are SEO friendly, made sure all your pages can be reached from your homepage and no pages should be no more than three levels away from it – keeping a sitemap listing all your major pages makes the search engines happy. Make sure you have all your meta tags such as title, description, keywords… are all optimized. (Title = around 65 characters, Description = around 160 characters) Remember, your title and description should not only be keyword targeted but these are the first contact/impression anyone will see of your site — make sure you use them to draw and entice interested visitors to your site and content. Also make sure your title and URL are keyword matched for maximum effect. Having your major keyword in your Domain Name also helps, using a pike | to separate different elements of your title has helped my rankings, so too does having your keyword in the first and last 25 words on your pages.

4. Google will send you the most qualified traffic so concentrate the majority of your SEO efforts on Google. Don’t ignore Yahoo! or MSN but Google is king of search so give it the respect it deserves. With its new browser, Google’s influence will only grow stronger so you must optimize your pages for Google. Use Google’s Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics to fine-tune your pages/content for Google. I also use Google Alerts to keep up on my niche keywords and for comment link-building on the newly created pages Google is indexing.

5. Link Building is still the most effective way to boost your search rankings. Make sure you get backlinks from relevant sites related to your niche market and make sure the ‘anchor text’ is related to your keywords but don’t ignore the text and overall quality of the content linking to you. The anchor text is the underlined/clickable portion of a link. Don’t forget linking is a two-way street, make sure you link out to high quality, high ranked relevant sites in your niche.

6. Article Marketing is a well established method of getting quality backlinks and it still works. Writing short 500 – 700 word informative and helpful articles with your backlinks in the resource box is still very effective for getting targeted traffic and backlinks. Longer articles have also worked for me and I use an extensive network of distribution including SubmitYourArticle, Isnare, Thephantomwriters… plus other major online sites. Don’t forget the whole element of blogging and RSS feeds in your article distribution. And always remember you’re also using these articles to pre-sale your content or products. Don’t forget to leverage sites like Squidoo, Hubpages… to increase your rankings and traffic.

7. Onsite Traffic Hubs have worked extremely well for me. These traffic hubs are whole sections of your site devoted to one sub-division of your major theme. For example, if you have a site on Gifts, then wedding gifts could be a separate section. This would be fully fleshed out with extensive pages covering everything dealing with wedding gifts — a self-contained keyword rich portion of your site on wedding gifts. Works similar as a sub-domain but I prefer using a directory to divide it up, such as yourdomain/wedding_gifts. (Most experts suggest always using a hyphen in your urls but underscores have worked fine for me.) Search engines love these keyword/content rich hubs but keep in mind you’re creating content to first satisfy your visitors.

8. WordPress blog software is extremely effective for SEO purposes. WordPress software is easy to install on your site even if you have no experience with installing server-side scripts. Besides search engines love these highly SEO friendly blogs with their well structured content and keyword tagging. I have at least one of these on all my sites to draw in the search engines and get my content indexed and ranked. I also use Blogger (owned by Google), Bloglines and other free blogs to help distribute my content.

9. Social Bookmark/Media Sites are becoming very important on the web. These include a whole range of social sites like MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter… media news sites like Digg, SlashDot, Technorati… you must get your content into this whole mix if you want to take full SEO advantage of Web 2.0 sites. You should be joining these sites and using them. It’s time consuming but it will keep you in the swing of things. One simple thing you must do is to put social bookmark buttons on all your pages so that your visitors can easily bookmark your content for you. You can use a WordPress plug-in or I like using a simple free site/service from Addthis.com which gives me a simple button to put on all my content.

10. Masterplan! Many webmasters and site owners forget to develop or have an overall masterplan/strategy when it comes to SEO. You must have an understanding of what SEO is and what it can do for you and your site. More importantly, you just don’t want SEO; you want effective SEO. In order to achieve effective SEO you must have three things: Relevance, Authority and Conversions.

First, your content/site must be relevant to the topic or niche area you’re pursuing — your content must fit in and be related to all the other sites in your niche. That’s why closely themed sites do so well in the search engines, they give only relevant content to what’s been searched for or discussed.

Second, your content/site must be perceived as an authority site on your subject or niche. Establish this authority position and the search engines will love you and your content. One way is to develop this authority, besides offering superior content, is to form links/partnerships with other perceived authority sites in your field. Always strive to make your site an authority site — tops in your niche — the one site everyone has to check before drawing or forming a conclusion.

Third, conversions should be your main goal of any SEO efforts because you want to convert your targeted traffic into site members, subscribers, buyers or just repeat visitors. If you’re into online marketing, conversions will be the most important element of the whole SEO process because you want buyers, not just visitors coming to your site.

Most of all, you must convince yourself Search Engine Optimization is not difficult, nor is it the equivalent of the online bogeyman as many would like you to believe. Used effectively, SEO can give you the targeted traffic you’re seeking, just follow some of the outlined steps/tactics listed above and you will have SEO working for you and your site in no time at all.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital TV, HDTV, Satellite TV

Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions, perpetuated by industry SEO experts, is that a website must follow perfect SEO strategies to get top rankings. While adhering to simple common SEO standards does help the search engines both find and index your site more quickly, it doesn’t guarantee by any stretch of the imagination, that following those SEO guidelines will propel your site to the top of the rankings.

If only search engine optimization was that easy!

No doubt, there are some SEO faux pases that will do harm to your site’s rankings, especially in Google, the ultimate hall-monitor all puffed up and ready to pounce on any misbehaving webmaster. Things such as keyword stuffing, keyword spamming or linking out to bad neighborhoods such as link farms, pharmaceutical or gambling sites may get you blacklisted.

But how much SEO do you need? How much search engine optimization do you need to get top rankings? Do you need a whole lot or do you need very little SEO?

Actually, after 10 years of marketing online, the answer to that question varies depending upon what you’re trying to accomplish with your SEO efforts? If you’re operating an online business in a very competitive (read lucrative) market, SEO will be high on your agenda as you go about annihilating your competition.

Even if you’re an ordinary webmaster or website owner you’re probably fussing over your rankings in the search engines. The higher your rankings you achieve for your chosen keywords; the more traffic you will get. Good quality traffic that convert well into loyal subscribers and fans of your site.

Many webmasters and companies spend thousands of dollars each month in order to get their keywords and sites up to the top of the list. If you’re into affiliate marketing, your daily income will rise and fall almost parallel to your rankings. Now, if my earnings increase, I know automatically my rankings have gone up, usually in Google. If my earnings go down, I know my rankings have gone south. Some times even a drop or rise of one place on the first page SERPs will affect how much you earn.

Obviously, because of this fact, SEO or how well I am optimized for the search engines is extremely important to me. I am constantly building quality links and quality content for my sites. Some keyword battles you win, some battles you lose. I have been fighting some keyword battles for over 3 or 4 years now!

But how much SEO is enough? How much SEO should you do with your sites? Many webmasters make sure all their on page set-up or lay-out is done exactly to what the SEO experts say you should do. This is not a bad idea. Make sure your Title, URL, Headlines, Keyword Density… are all laid out right. These are things we can control and adjust to meet the SEO standards.

Other SEO or ranking factors are much harder to predict, many of them are simply out of our control. How other sites link to us, what they put in the anchor text, what they say about us… simply things we can’t control.

I believe the over-riding reason why your site is listed at the top of any rankings has to do with the number, the quality and the quantity of sites linking back to your page. The higher the number of related quality one-way links you have flowing back to your site, the higher it will perform in the rankings. Your anchor text is very important (underlined part of a link); it must contain your keywords or variations of it. The content on the linking page should also be related to your chosen keywords.

Get this part right and you will get high rankings.

Or at least this has been my experience — all the other ranking factors do count but this is the over-riding factor in my opinion.

Another major ranking factor lately, has been the importance Google is placing on social media links. Get your content to the first page of Digg with lots of diggs and it will rank high in Google. This is not surprising when you consider the nature of these social bookmarking sites… it really is an actual “vote” for the quality of your content. Getting Delicious bookmarks has a similar positive effect.

Another prominent factor, from my observations, is having your major keyword in your Domain Name. Use hyphens if you want but having those keywords in there, does help rather than hinder your rankings.

Now if you’re wondering about how Google ranks pages or your keywords…. Google has around 200 ranking factors (with filters and penalties thrown in to make all our lives interesting) which it uses to rank your keywords/pages. This is still the best online resource that lists all of Google’s ranking factors: http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm

Now the question still remains, how much SEO do you need? How much time should you spend at optimizing, building links, worrying your head off over the latest Google Itch?

The answer always comes back to quality content. Create a site that has quality content and the SEO will take care of itself. People will link to your site, you will get bookmarks in all the social media sites, Google will find your content and rank it. Your SEO will grow naturally as your site grows. Keep building more pages, keep targeting more and more related keywords in your niche or subject area and you will get higher rankings.

Now, of course, some webmasters are a little more aggressive in how quickly they want their rankings to rise to the top of the search engines. Here’s something you can do if you want to go into the SEO battle full-force.

1. Download SEOquake and place this free SEO toolbar plug-in on your Firefox browser.

2. Go to Google and type in the keyword or keyword phrase you’re targeting with your site or content.

3. Click on the number one ranking and observe how many pages it has indexed, PageRank, how many backlinks it has, age of the site… and so on.

4. Then click the page info button and study all the on-page factors this site has and notice what it’s doing with its page and keyword density lay-out.

5. Check all the backlinks this site has in the different search engines. Copy or try to get the same backlinks for your site that your competitor has acquired. Then get more backlinks and/or higher quality backlinks than your competitor.

6. Watch your rankings rise…

Just a few more words of wisdom and we’re done. Some battles will be too tough to fight, the competition will be so stiff you just can’t compete. Other battles will take a long time; months, even years before you rise to the top. Your best bet is to choose long-tail (multi-worded) keywords that have little or no competition. You can rise to the top within days, even hours. The sweet thing is this: long-tail keywords are often the most lucrative and bring in the most sales. For in the final analysis, you just don’t want SEO, you want smart SEO. And you will quickly learn, most times you can often out-smart your competition, even if you can’t out-rank them.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Credit card currency-exchange fees

I get quite a few emails like the one below, asking
for a simple guide to RSS…

“I read your information on RSS. Frankly, it was
frightening, as new things usually tend to be.
What you need is a tutorial for absolute dummies.
Your article moves too quickly into a form that is
reminiscent of people who it for is assumed know more
about web sites, source codes, and the like.”

…This email is so true for the majority of
webmasters and I will try to provide the
simplest explanation of RSS as possible.

Fastest and easiest route to take:

Go to http://www.blogger.com (owned by Google)
and create a free blog — in the process
you will create an RSS feed that you
can use to send your content/podcasts.
You can place this RSS feed on your site.

While there, look around, check out the FAQ and
read all the information on RSS and blogging. You
will discover every blog has an RSS feed attached
to it. It is a way of broadcasting/syndicating
your content to all interested parties.

Please understand, in most cases, your blog URL is
not the same as your Feed URL.

Also keep in mind, there are many ways to create
a blog/RSS feed on your site.

Another popular way is to use free blogging
software like WordPress (www.wordpress.org)
– you can download their files and then you
upload them to your server. This does require some
knowledge of handling server files and scripts
but everything is conveniently explained.

Besides, the WordPress installation is
very straightforward and most webmasters
and site owners should be able to set up
a blog/rss feed without too much trouble.
There is also an excellent help section/forum
if you’re a complete novice with handling
server-side scripts.

You have to realize RSS is only simple code
that syndicates your content to all interested
parties, it originally stood for ‘Rich Site
Summary’ and was a way of summarizing your
content and broadcasting it. Most people
now refer to RSS as ‘Really Simple Syndication’.

It was mainly used by news groups and sites.
Dave Winer of UserLand and Scripting News
fame — created RSS in 1997.

Then we had the blogging revolution, which
spread RSS around the web, and into the
mainstream. Well, sort of, we are not quite
there yet!

Many believe RSS will fully come into its own
when Microsoft finally releases Windows Vista,
it will have RSS embedded in its source code.
The ordinary surfer won’t have a clue what RSS is
and will still be using it in tons of applications.
As it should be, how many Internet users know what
DOS or even HTML are?

Once RSS becomes totally integrated into
the Internet and our browsing experience,
it will become even more important for
webmasters like yourself to full understand
RSS and what it can do for you and your
site.

I believe every site should have at least
ONE RSS feed or blog.

There are only Three Questions/Problems
concerning RSS that keep popping up again and
again. These questions are answered simply
here:

1. How do I create an RSS and Blog?

Answered above… use a free site like Blogger.com
which lets you publish your blog files to your own
server or use free blogging software such as WordPress.
http://www.wordpress.org

2. How do I read my RSS or any RSS feed?

Several ways… you can read any RSS feed by using
an aggregator or RSS feed (news) reader like
Newsgator, Google Reader or you can use the Social
Bookmark feature present in some browsers like Mozilla
Firefox. As mentioned above, the next Windows will
have RSS embedded into its operating system.

3. How do I put my or anyone’s RSS Feed or content
onto my site?

Several ways… you can try the popular
Feedburner.com to place your headlines and
feeds on your site. Another good one is
[http://www.bigbold.com/rssdigest] — no programming
required — you can use JavaScript, PHP, or an
IFRAME!

RSS for some unexplained reason, still remains
a little known and mysterious creature for most
webmasters and surfers. This is a bit troubling,
when you consider the growing importance RSS
will play in the overall function of the web.
A factor which makes RSS a subject that has to
be understood by webmasters, dummies and geniuses
alike.

Regardless of where you fit into that group, if
you need further help on RSS, see the resource box
for an online RSS tutorial and a simple downloadable
RSS Guide.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Times

Nothing and a whole lot!

That’s if Microsoft gets it right. First impressions appear to
be very promising and all indications show a much more powerful
RSS system, neatly integrated into the next version of Windows.
Could this finally mean the ‘coming of age’ for RSS?

But what does RSS mean to the average computer user at
this moment in time? Will people get RSS? Does Microsoft
have an education project on their hands with RSS?

Not Really!

Does DOS mean anything to you? If you’re like 95% of
computer users — probably not much. But that doesn’t
stop us from enjoying our computers and fully benefiting
from DOS. Sometimes complete ignorance is bless.

Unless you’re a techie and such technical stuff makes
your heart skip a beat, knowledge of such material is not
really required by the end-user. Fortunately, people don’t
have to understand ‘HTML’ to enjoy the Internet.

Likewise, knowledge of RSS is not important to the
ordinary computer or Internet user. Microsoft’s
RSS Longhorn puts RSS where it rightfully belongs,
in the background, invisible…seamlessly integrated
into your computing and web browsing experience.

It will make RSS an integral element of its new operating
system which has the code-name Longhorn. It will firmly
place RSS into the heart of your computing experience,
enriching and enhancing it in more ways than even Microsoft
is probably aware of yet!

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ and it has
long been associated with blogs and blogging because
they are written in RSS or XML format — code like HTML.
DOS stands for ‘Disk Operating System’ by the way
and it’s the platform for operating systems on your
computer. MS-DOS is the most widely used system.
Ignorance can sometimes be overrated.

Microsoft’s announcement of its plans to place RSS features
into its next Windows version, due out in 2006 and in servers
by 2007, is truly groundbreaking . You can read more about
Microsoft’s RSS plans here: Understanding RSS In The Next Windows.

This takes RSS out of just browsers and RSS readers (called
aggregators); and giving it much more powerful applications.
Most interesting is a new set of applications — Simple List
Extensions — allowing web sites to publish feeds containing
lists such as a wish list or top 10 list. Should make David
Letterman happy!

All kidding aside, for you, these RSS applications will
be very beneficial and rewarding. These applications will
make browsing, searching and subscribing to your favorite
information or sites a lot more easier. You can now take control
of your Internet, viewing and accessing the information you
want to digest.

It has many personal and business applications that will
take ‘keeping in touch’ to a new level. Calendars, events,
updates, personal photo albums…can all now be syndicated
with the new RSS platform.

What’s really important about Microsoft’s plans (I believe)
is the fact that this now makes RSS legit. Lets face it,
outside of blogging and a few alert online marketers, RSS is
still not understood by most people.

But as stated before, people don’t have to understand ‘HTML’
to enjoy the Internet. They don’t really have to know about
servers, DOS, or even ISPs to get full benefit from the web.
Likewise, RSS doesn’t have to be known or even understood
by the majority of the people who will be using it.

But it’s helpful that you do understand for you the
future of RSS holds many treats and the full impact won’t
really be known for years. Under the Creative Commons license,
RSS applications could have a far reaching impact on your
computing world of the future.

The potential of RSS is enormous. It may even pave the way
for a ‘Billion Channel Internet’ — where each web site is
its own little broadcasting system. An interactive channel
that broadcasts audio and video to all interested subscribers.

Microsoft’s announcement may just be the nucleus of such
a system. Many components are already in place like podcasting,
broadcatching, data feeds, etc. and its not that great a leap
or too fantastical to imagine such a system will exist in
the very near future.

For RSS changes HOW information is transmitted on the
web…from a passive role to a more pro-active one.
Don’t come to us — we will deliver.

RSS is also one of the more democratic elements of the
web where the little guy has a say. It was more than
fitting that Microsoft’s RSS team met with Dave Winer
(Mr. RSS to those who keep a close watch on all things RSS)
and asked his opinions on these recent developments.

Ordinary Bloggers have preached the benefits of RSS for so
long; the mantra was becoming a tiresome echo across the
web. No one seemed to be taking RSS seriously.

In that light, it can’t be understated that Microsoft’s
incorporation of RSS into Windows is one of those true
‘turning points’ that has to be acknowledged. It does
change how computers and the Internet will work.

This is a great step forward in making RSS an integrated and
seamless component of computers and the Internet.

At last, someone has gotten RSS right.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Wordpress plugin expert

There’s no denying it, the Internet has changed. The change was so
subtle most people missed it. It was no great momentous event, just
a slight sideways flex in how information is exchanged on the web.
However, this slight shift has significant ramifications for anyone
trying to achieve top rankings in the different search engines.
So keep reading to find out how you can use this new SEO wildcard to
‘hotwire’ your site to the major search engines such as Google, Msn
and Yahoo.

Of course, the wildcard we’re talking about is RSS!

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication.’ Basically, RSS allows you to
directly deliver your content to all interested parties… don’t come
to us; we will deliver the information to you or your website. It
syndicates your content. In a nutshell; it’s simply a more efficient way to
get your content ‘out there’.

It was first used by News sites to send updated headlines and
brief summaries to all interested parties. Many people associate
RSS with Blogs or Blogging because Blogs are usually written in
XML or RSS format (code like HTML) so that these headlines and
postings can be easily read and accessed.

Although the change may have been slight, the ramifications of RSS
may be long lasting and far reaching. As the major search engines
incorporate RSS into their SERPs and Algorithms, RSS may even play
a larger role than many people realized at first glance. However,
RSS emergence as a dominant SEO factor is not really a big surprise;
RSS presents ‘raw-timely-content’ for the search engines to serve up
to their patrons — its just what the ‘info pushers’ ordered.

Therefore, you must optimize or position your site to take full
advantage of the RSS wildcard. RSS Positioning! Simple RSS strategies
that you can use to position your site with the major search engines
including Google.

Actually, Google has just introduced a new XML powered Sitemaps. You are
basically setting up a direct ‘hotwire’ — linking your site to Google.
Any or all changes on your site can now be instantly updated and indexed
by Google.

How It Works

There are several ways to set-up a XML Sitemap, perhaps
the easiest way is to use the open-source Generator which
you can download from Google. This is a Python file that
you can upload to your webserver and this generator
will create a sitemap from your ‘URL lists, webserver
directories, or your access logs’.

Once done, you have to then submit your newly generated XML sitemap
to Google — the search engine will use this XML sitemap to
update and index your site whenever you make changes on your site.
You will need to have a Google account.

You may also submit text files containing URLs from your web site
to be included in Google Sitemaps but these text files will have
or will be given low priority for the time being.

To get started on your own Google Sitemaps Account you can click here:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

But Google’s new Sitemaps is just the latest way to use RSS positioning,
its not the only way! You can further optimize your site by
using the following RSS strategies:

Build RSS Feeds and Blogs for Your Keywords.

One of the best ways to use RSS is to set up a Blog and RSS feed for
each of your major keywords. Any major topic or subject on your site
must or should have a Blog and RSS feed to compliment your site’s content.

To optimize fully, it is best to have a separate IP address for each of
these Blogs, different from your site’s IP address. You can even use Free Blog
sites like Bloglines (owned by Ask Jeeves) or eBlogger (owned by Google).
To take full advantage, it’s best to use ‘unique content’ in these blogs
and make sure you link only to high PR quality sites.

Ping Your Blogs Regularly

Pinging your blog posts regularly will alert the search engines new
content has been added to your site or blog. Most of you have probably
noticed by now that using sites like ‘MyYahoo’ to ping your blogs
and RSS feeds is a great way of getting your sites spidered and
indexed quickly in the major search engines.

Pinging is simply sending out a signal to all the weblog tracking
sites that your site/blog has been updated.

Here’s a site http://pingomatic.com that will ‘ping’ you blogs
automatically.

Add RSS Feeds to Your Site

Another way to attract the search engines is to place high quality RSS
feeds on your site related to your subject area. Use these feeds to provide
valuable content to your visitors.

And it’s quite simple to do; just add “&format=rss” at the end of the
URL in your Msn search engine query. For example, to get an RSS Feed for
‘tsunami relief’ you would use this url:

http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=tsunami+relief&format=rss

In Yahoo the URL would be slightly different:

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=tsunami+relief&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt

Of course, you can change ‘tsunami+relief’ with the keyword or phrase of
your choice to suit your website’s content.

Conclusion

Trying these RSS positioning strategies will give your site added
visibility on the web and a greater presence in the major search
engines. It will create dynamic links to and from your site and this will
result in faster spidering/indexing of your sites. You should be using
RSS to basically ‘hotwire’ your site or sites to the major search engines
such as Google, Msn and Yahoo — in fact, it should be your number one priority.

RSS is still relatively new; despite the popularity of blogging,
podcasting, MyYahoo and the RSS featured Firefox Browser, it hasn’t totally gone
mainstream. Many webmasters have not yet optimized their sites for RSS,
so you can give your site a slight competitive edge if you act quickly.
By taking full advantage of this new technology you will see a marked
improvement in your site’s traffic, not to mention a noticeable increase
in your site’s rankings.

So don’t delay, ‘hotwire’ your site by utilizing the RSS factor and you
might be pleasantly surprised where it takes you!

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Multi-cooker

You hear so much talk about RSS these days on the Internet and in
the media. Everyone is acknowledging it’s importance in boosting
your site’s presence on the web. Not to mention how it can increase
your site’s traffic and ranking. But what exactly is RSS and how can
I actually use it on my site? Try these Five Easy Ways…

First, just what is RSS?

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’. Basically, RSS allows
you to directly deliver your content to all interested parties…
don’t come to us; we will deliver the information to you or your website.

It syndicates your content. It lets you send updated headlines and
brief summaries to your subscribers. In a nutshell; it’s simply
a more efficient way to get your content ‘out there’.

Many people associate RSS with Blogs or Blogging because Blogs
are usually written in XML or RSS format (code like html) so that
these headlines and postings can be easily read and accessed.

RSS has been around for awhile but it really didn’t catch
on when users had to use RSS readers or aggregators but with
the increasing popularity of MyYahoo, the Firefox Browser
and Blogging…RSS is becoming: more popular, more accessible
and more mainstream.

That’s great –you say– but just how do I put the
stuff on my site!

If you’re wondering how to actually use RSS and Benefit from
it — Try these Five Easy Ways…

1. How do I Get My OWN RSS Feed?

First, you need to get an RSS Feed for your site. There are
several ways to do this. Let’s just stick with the easiest.
You can use a site like http://www.blogger.com and start a Blog on
your site’s topic or any topic that interests you.

Creating a blog with sites like Blogger (owned by Google)
or Bloglines (recently acquired by Ask Jeeves) is quick,
fast, and painless. Within minutes you can have your own blog
up and running.

This Blog will also supply you with an RSS Feed that you can
place on your site. Get a XML or RSS orange button and place
it on your site. Link it to your RSS Feed url – this is your
atom.xml link if you’re using Blogger.

You can also use a MyYahoo button so visitors can add your
feed to their MyYahoo. Each time a subscriber opens their
MyYahoo site; your RSS Feed will be updated.

You can also add ‘MyMsn’ and ‘Bloglines’ buttons on your site.
Plus others, give your visitors every opportunity to subscribe
to your RSS Feed or Blog, and you will see a marked increase in
visitors to your site.

Of course, you can also get your own blogging software and install
it on your site. For those who want to choose this route, it might
be helpful to check out this comprehensive comparison of the different
blogging software here:
http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm

2. How Do I Place Other RSS Feeds On My Site?

Have a cool RSS Feed from your favorite site and you want to
place that Feed’s content on your own site. How is it done?

It’s a lot easier than you think!

There are several ways, but we’ll again stick with the
easiest way. If you just want to place headlines on your
site – try a free service like http://www.feedburner.com and you
will get a headline animator. This will display the RSS feed’s
headlines with links to the content.

If you want to place other content from a feed on your site
- one of the easiest ways I found is to use this free site:
[http://www.bigbold.com/rssdigest/]

This site will generate the source code (html or javascript)
that you need to place into your webpages. It’s good because
it gives your code in several options: Javascript, Php file,
and Iframe.

Keep in mind that Search Engines cannot or don’t read
javascript so if you want this daily updated content to be
indexed please be aware of this.

Just take this code and add it your webpages where you
want this content to go.

3. How do I place MSN Search Results Directly on My Site?

MSN has come out with their Beta Program using RSS in their
search. You can now place RSS search results directly onto
your website. It can enrich your site with daily updated content.

And it’s quite simple to use; just add “&format=rss” at the end of the
URL in your MSN search engine query. For example, to get an RSS Feed for
‘tsunami relief’ you would use this url: http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=tsunami+relief&format=rss

4. How do I place Yahoo Results on my site?

In Yahoo the URL would be slightly different:

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=tsunami+relief&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt

Of course, in both cases you can change ‘tsunami+relief’ with the keyword
or phrase of your choice to suit your website’s content.

Yahoo also has an RSS Search Directory here:
http://news.yahoo.com/rss

5. What are Tags? How can I use them on my site?

Tags are more or less keywords for blogs and you should
take advantage of them to bring targeted traffic to your
site or blog.

Tags have hit the radar lately because Technorati, which
indexes 4.5 million blogs, started sorting blog posts by
using tags.

They have created a folksonomy, drawing tags from
different sources, mainly Flickr.com which sorts or
groups pictures and from del.icio.us — where you
create a tag when you bookmark a page.

Or if your blogging software supports categories; this will
be recognized by Technorati as a tag.

If you want to create a ‘tag’ it’s very simple; just place
this code in your blog:

Computers
(remove asterisks in actual code)

and you will have created a tag for computers.

Conclusion

You have just discovered five easy ways to put RSS on your
website, but you have to implement this newly acquired information
in order to see any results. You don’t have to try all five — just
pick a few and put them on your site. Just take action and do it.

It’s fairly easy, and you will see the benefits of RSS
almost immediately. You will also see what all the fuss is
about!

Copyright © 2005 – Bizwaremagic.com

This article may be freely distributed if this resource

box stays attached.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: How Electric Pressure Cookers Work

One of the very first articles I ever wrote on Internet Marketing had to do with RSS and it was entitled “10 Reasons To Put RSS On Your Site.” That was in 2004 and RSS was somewhat new and many webmasters were just beginning to place blogs and RSS feeds on their sites. If you do a search in Google, you can still find that article on around 2,000 sites.

Most people now refer to RSS as “Really Simple Syndication” — although it originally stood for “Rich Site Summary” and was a very simple way of summarizing and syndicating your content in real-time to all interested parties.

RSS had its early beginnings with Netscape in 1991 which introduced the first version of RSS (RDF Site Summary). Later versions would be introduced and made popular by Dave Winer of ScriptingNews and Userland fame who is considered by many to be one of the major founding fathers of RSS.

Most people today associate RSS with blogs and blogging. You can read RSS content by using an RSS feed reader or “aggregator” which can be desktop or web-based. Some common feed readers include FeedDemon, My Yahoo!, iGoogle and Firefox (Live Bookmarks). You subscribe to your favorite RSS feed by clicking the small icon on your favorite blog or site and then when fresh content is published via RSS your reader can immediately retrieve and display it for you.

RSS is a very simple way of keeping up to date and in contact with your favorite site or topic. It makes staying informed easy to do and it provides site/blog owners a simple way of distributing their content.

One can’t but wonder has RSS lived up to all that early hype?

Perhaps that question can only be answered by looking at the popularity of blogging and the role it now plays on the web. No one can deny blogs and their accompanying RSS feeds carry tremendous weight, no matter which way you measure it. Can anyone now imagine the World Wide Web without blogs?

But the importance of RSS goes beyond just blogging, we tend to forget how important it is for all the new social media sites like Digg, Technorati, Reddit… and not to forget fast growing applications like Twitter.

People also forget RSS feeds play a major role in online retail and affiliate programs. For example, you can get an RSS feed of all the latest Amazon products to place on your site. Many major online companies now have these product feeds to help promote and sell their wares.

XML and RSS have blended so seamlessly into many browsers and operating systems most users are blissfully unaware they’re even using RSS. Maybe that’s how things should be; with RSS, the ever-present workhorse, quietly doing its job behind the scenes.

RSS is just as important now as it was five years ago; actually its influence and presence has only grown stronger over the years. If you have not fully embraced RSS and placed it on your site and in your online marketing you’re missing out on one of the best opportunities to spread your message on the web.

RSS is here to stay and even has its own advisory board to help with the technical and programming side of RSS. They also list a very handy “RSS Best Practices Profile” for any webmaster wishing to create their own XML-based RSS documents. rssboard.org

Why should you use RSS?

Well, the list of reasons is quite long but RSS can help you: syndicate your content in real-time, sell your products, build your list, gather fresh content, promote your company and boost that one vital element everyone needs more of on the web — traffic. For those who have taken full advantage of RSS it has delivered in more ways than one for it has truly turned into that Golden Goose with the Midas complex. RSS has simply proven beneficial to those users who have fully embraced it.

Now, you still don’t really need 10 reasons to put RSS on your site, do you?

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Duty on LCD/Plasma TV