blogging 102

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes RSS – or what is now known as “Really Simple Syndication” – is a file format that is incorporated by Internet users in their websites to allow for ‘web syndication’, making their web content available in a format that can be universally understood by other people. In essence, RSS is a ‘mini database’ that contains headlines and descriptions (a summary or a line or two of the full article) of your web content, including hyperlinks that enable users to link back to the full article of their choice. RSS websites – that is, websites that contain RSS ‘feeds’ (articles or postings) – typically have colorful graphics to indicate to users that the specific web content is available through RSS feeds. These graphics are usually depicted by orange rectangles that are usually marked with ‘RSS’ or ‘XML’. With its increased popularity, RSS is now being adopted and used by... 

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes Despite all the hype and fuss surrounding RSS recently, for the majority of mainstream Internet users, RSS still remains a mysterious orange button sitting on your web site. They are totally unaware of this new method of syndicating information on the web. This is not necessarily bad news! For many Internet users are enjoying the benefits of RSS while remaining totally clueless as to its function or how it works. Programs like ‘MyYahoo’ and the RSS empowered Firefox Browser are letting surfers access RSS and enjoy its major benefits without having any or no knowledge of it. In the very near future when Microsoft introduces its new RSS powered Longhorn Browser and operating system – this situation will hopefully continue. Internet users should be able to enjoy all the benefits of RSS without having to know what it is! Users don’t have to know ‘DOS’ or even ‘HTML’ to enjoy the full benefits of the Internet... 

Reading time: 9 – 14 minutes Okay, you have a website setup to promote your books, music, and other products you wish to sell. With a bit of Internet savvy, you have created an attractive design to catch the Internet user’s eyes, and with your expertise on the subject at hand you are able to provide thoughtful, provoking content. You are confident your site is optimized for good search results, with a good saturation of keywords in your content. Your site is simple to navigate, fun to read, and yet informative enough to be highly regarded by engines. You are ready for the world! Yet, you feel as though what you are doing is not enough. Perhaps you enjoy a steady increase in traffic through traditional online marketing means, occasional tweaking of metadata and e-mail advertising. Offline advertising is not in the budget right now, and you want to try other, cheaper alternative before delving into pay-per-click advertising. What else is there to do? Have you considered creating... 

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes RSS is fast becoming an obsession for me. I didn’t plan for it to be that way. It just happened. I have been interested in RSS for a couple of years now but it was only around this time last year that I started taking a serious look at this little syndication standard that’s changing how we communicate on the web. Really Simple Syndication. Simple phrase but it changes everything. I figured what better way to get to know a subject than to write about it. Going through the vast resources of the Internet, blogs, forums, ebooks to collect what information I needed for my ebook and articles. The Internet is one huge storehouse of knowledge that more than supplied me with enough material to write a hundred articles. Coming from a fine art background, I also knew the only way to really learn about a subject was ‘hands on’ experience. So at the same time I started to really implement RSS tactics on my own sites to get ‘first-hand’... 

Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes We were waiting for something like this to happen for a long time. Yahoo!, one of the key providers of mass-market RSS aggregators, finally took a step forward and published their RSS whitepaper, covering their own findings with RSS, based on their usage data. 1. YAHOO!’S KEY FINDINGS Let’s first take a look at Yahoo! key findings and what they mean for marketers. a] Awareness of RSS is quite low among Internet users. 12% of users are aware of RSS, and 4% have knowingly used RSS. Although RSS awareness is increasing, only few internet users yet understand what RSS is and how to use it. For marketers, this means that simply placing an RSS button on their site it not nearly enough, with the report finally demonstrating that marketers needs to use clear and persuasive copy to get their visitors interested in RSS, explain RSS to them and get them to subscribe to their feeds. In addition it also shows that marketers need to make sure they are using...