It’s clear that RSS and e-mail in fact need to be used together, as opposed to either one replacing the other.

While RSS might not be used by as many people as e-mail, you can be sure that those that do use it and subscribe to your feeds will get your content without fail. In addition, many already prefer to receive information via RSS instead of e-mail, making RSS an absolute must as a supplement to e-mail delivery.

Let’s now take a detailed look at exactly how RSS and e-mail can work together.

1. ANNOUNCING YOUR E-ZINE VIA RSS

What’s the use of an excellent e-mail e-zine if it’s blocked by spam filters or lost in the recipient’s mailbox? No matter how high quality content you prepare, if it’s not received it can’t be read and then acted upon to drive sales your way.

Namely, you need to stop thinking of your e-zine in terms of e-mail delivery, but rather consider it as a vehicle to present relevant and related content in a specific context of an individual e-zine issue, which can then be delivered to your recipients in multiple ways.

Just consider newspapers, which are delivered in print format, on the Web, via e-mail and RSS as well, all this to assure optimum delivery according to end-user preferences.

While most e-zine publishers will never consider presenting their e-zine in print format and delivering it via traditional delivery services, you need to explore all available means of online delivery. After e-mail, RSS is the first that comes to mind.

Using RSS to announce your e-zine via RSS is the simplest and least expensive way to get started with RSS and it will help you make sure that your valuable content in fact does get delivered, at least to the audience using RSS.

A) THE PROCESS: E-MAIL E-ZINES

What is the process behind traditional e-zine publishing?

–> The publisher provides an e-mail e-zine subscription box, in which visitors enter their e-mail addresses, thus giving consent to the publisher to receive his communications and at the same time building his subscriber database.

–> The e-mail address is saved in the publisher’s subscriber database.

–> The publisher prepares an e-zine issue, usually creating an HTML document with either full-text e-zine issue articles and news or summaries of articles with links to full-text articles on his website.

–> The HTML document is packaged as an e-mail message by the publishers’ e-mail publishing solution and then sent to his subscriber database using e-mail as the delivery channel.

–> E-mail messages “travel through the internet” and are either stopped on the way by various spam filters and other “barricades” and are then either deleted automatically or delivered to the subscribers’ e-mail accounts.

–> Subscribers download these e-mail messages when they log-on to their e-mail account and can then manipulate them, either deleting them, moving them to another folder or reading them.

How can we now transfer this process to publishing your e-zine via RSS as well?

B) THE PROCESS: RSS CONTENT DELIVERY

We first need to understand how RSS content delivery works.

–> The publisher creates an RSS feed, basically just a simple XML file structured in a specific way, and provides a link to that XML file on his website and through other sites, search engines and directories. The file needs to first be created and then uploaded to the server, before a link to it can be provided. Fortunately, there are many tools available that will do this for you easily.

–> The visitor to the website subscribes to this RSS feed, by easily importing the link to the RSS feed in to his RSS Reader/Aggregator, instead of giving the publisher his e-mail address. In terms of subscriptions, the process is reversed. Instead of the visitor giving his e-mail address to the publisher, the publisher rather provides the visitor with a single URL, which then the visitor “puts” in his aggregator.

–> The publisher now prepares a new story or article to include in the RSS feed. Usually, he first publishes this new story on his website and then simply prepares a summary and puts it in to the RSS feed/file. In this case, the summary in the feed simply notifies the reader of new full-text content being made available and pulls him to click-through to the full-text article on the website. Alternatively, the publisher could also provide full-text content of the story in the feed.

–> As soon as the publisher updates the RSS feed with the new story, the subscriber can retrieve it and read its content. The feed content is immediately available to the subscriber, without having to face any spam filters on the way.

All of this might sound complicated, but it really is not. Let’s now take a look at the process from the e-zine publishing point of view.

C) THE PROCESS: RSS E-ZINE DELIVERY

–> The publisher creates an RSS feed intended to specifically notify subscribers of new e-zine issues and promotes it on the website. The feed should be promoted directly below the e-mail subscription box, serving simply as an alternative to e-mail delivery. Visitors have the choice of subscribing either via e-mail or RSS.

–> The publisher now takes the HTML document he already prepared for the e-mail version of the e-zine, and puts it online like any other webpage. What you basically need to do is practically take the same presentation and format that you already prepared for the e-mail e-zine and place it online for anyone to see.

–> The publisher then creates a new story or content item in the RSS feed, which is basically just a short summary of the e-zine and links it to the webpage he prepared earlier.

–> Once subscribers retrieve the feed, they see a new content item with the e-zine title and its description. After clicking on the title they are taken to the web version of the same e-zine that was also delivered via e-mail.

D) THE TECHNOLOGY

As you can see this is a simple process and it only takes about 5 minutes more to do than just doing an e-mail version, and it will ensure that your content is now accessible to all those that prefer RSS to e-mail, it will generate additional exposure for your content by being included in RSS search engines and directories and it will generate more search engine visibility for you.

The best part is that the technology to publish an RSS feed in such a way is widely available and there are quite a few tools to choose from.

If simple e-zine delivery via RSS is your starting goal, a desktop solution should work very nicely. Just try out http://www.feedforall.com, which is the market leader in this category, or the less advanced but free [http://www.usablelabs.com/productFeedSpring.html].

Keep in mind that only using RSS for e-zine announcements is the simplest way to go and that there is much much more you can do with RSS.

In the next article of the series we’ll take a look at how you can measure the readership of your RSS e-zine version and then take on other ways RSS and e-mail can work together.

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Author: Rok Hrastnik
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: US Dollar credit card

Would you buy a house without checking out the neighborhood and schools first? Or a car without researching its reliability and safety ratings? Of course you wouldn’t, unless you enjoy throwing caution to the wind (and in that case, you can stop reading).

Search Engine Optimization is – or at least should be – all about seeing improved results on your website. That’s why it’s crucial to ask to see an SEO company’s case study information before selecting them for your SEO efforts. While you’re at it, ask to meet the SEO staff who will be optimizing your site.

Sound a little over the top? Maybe, but here’s the thing: it’s really fashionable for businesses to jump on the SEO bandwagon right now, regardless of whether or not they actually know how to do SEO. Many of these companies don’t even have dedicated SEO staff; they simply outsource the work. Ad agencies, for instance, desperate to make themselves more relevant, are some of the worst offenders – they often claim to do SEO despite not actually having a single SEO person on staff.

What can you really learn from a SEO case study?
An SEO case study can provide a treasure trove of information, including answers to the following questions:

How does a firm approach SEO? Case studies provide a perfect opportunity for an SEO firm to show off their strengths, strategies and results, giving you a good idea of what they can do for your business. You can see what they’re most focused on: search engine rankings, link popularity, conversions, or all of the above. It may be possible for you to determine if they use ethical “white hat” strategies, or more risky tactics that could end up hurting your efforts in the long run.

Do they track and compare key statistics? You can see how thoroughly they track and compare data. And you may even be able to get a glimpse through graphs and screenshots of the kinds of tools and analytics programs the firm uses. Accurate tracking is obviously critical to your SEO efforts; if a firm can’t tell you where you are and where you’ve been, how can you trust them with where you’re going?

What industries do they serve? Or are they a generalist? You can find out if a firm specializes in certain industries, which is excellent information to know when determining if they are a good fit for your business. Maybe you have a manufacturing site and are looking for an SEO firm with experience successfully optimizing similar websites. Or perhaps you’re a local business and are looking for a firm who knows your local market inside and out.

What if a company won’t supply SEO case study data?
If an SEO company won’t supply case study data, then generally speaking that should send up a red flag. Here are some likely scenarios as to why an SEO firm might avoid providing case study data, none of which are good:

• not actually having any clients to document
• not actually doing the SEO work themselves thereby not having access to data
• not being able to produce good enough data to document
• not properly tracking data (making before-and-after comparisons a challenge)
• not wanting to divulge their clients
• not using SEO methods on the “up and up” (i.e., unethical or Black Hat strategies)

What should a good SEO case study include?
Let’s break it down a little further: a good SEO case study should give you a well-rounded picture of the challenges facing both the client and the SEO firm, as well as the strategies and results used during the optimization process:

Background/Challenges: This part of the case study may include client history, as well as details regarding the challenges facing both the client and SEO company. These challenges might include being in an ultra-competitive industry, having a totally un-optimized site, having previously been banned by the search engines, etc.

Strategy: Next, a good SEO case study should lay out how the company approached the challenges and what they did to improve the site’s rankings, traffic and conversions.

Results: A good case study will lay out documented results in key areas like search engine saturation, link popularity, search engine rankings, etc. And, of course, since SEO is ultimately results-focused, a case study should include sales and conversion information if available.

Conclusion

SEO case studies should be one of a company’s best marketing tools. That’s because if they are able to produce good, documentable results using proven SEO strategies, they’ll want to show off those results to secure new clients. The proof’s in the pudding, right?

Author: Collyn Floyd
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Credit card currency-exchange fees

Search engines are usually not interested to promote or suggest an SEO service because they lose ad revenue and are held liable when the SEO firm does a bad job. SEO organizations do not work due to the power struggles between various marketers.

Why Search Engines do not like SEO

Search engines straight away cannot agree with SEO services since SEO services providers may or I can say directly affect their revenue search engines are getting through the pay per click programs they are offering. So, there is no official guidelines for How to SEO. Search engines always give a brief guideline but never provide a precise help required. Because if they had direct rules someone can find or crack a similar techniques to manipulate the search results thats were still under their TOC rule book. What matters in the SEO industry is results. How did the top site get there? How can my site rank at the top?

Why You can’t Trust an SEO Based on Their Rankings

A Site owned and run by an SEO which is doing good and for competitive terms will rank well, still there is no guarantee that the search engine will do a good job for them. Because I have come across a lot of website owners who buy SEO services lose money and again bought a different service from a different SEO. Some SEO’s have qualities outside the Box thats makes them popular and help them spread the message. This help does not mean that these guys are good at promoting your websites, only that they are good in promoting their websites.

Quality SEO is always expensive and takes more time. But because of bad SEO’s in the market the entire SEO field gets tarred with the same brush for the action of few bad people. Some companies rum PPC as regular SEO. But one thing always keep in mind that organic SEO if always different from PPC marketing.

The Problem with Labeling SEO’s

A website is important or not but the main task for an SEO is to make a search engine believe that the site is important. No matter how you do it, the job of the SEO is to improve rankings and to drive traffic. It depends upon the website to website that which techniques is to be used for the promotion. Because there are certain categories which are very competitive so an SEO has to work outside the SEO guideline ( think out of the box) set by the major search engine like Google, yahoo or msn. So, Ultimately it is up to the SEO service consumer which path he/she has to follow to achieve their goals to promote their website.

Other Problems with SEO

Some foolish SEO’s do stupid stuff that will get your website banned from search engines. These are not the only problem in SEO industry there are some lazy SEO’s to do a good job. Its for sure that your site won’t get banned if you are not aggressive. For SEO many keywords requires research, loads of efforts, and extensive link building.

For Example link building is the most time consuming and most expensive part of SEO. But often it is skipped of not done properly by many members of SEO community.

So, it’s my advise to please review a company of consult with someone before investing on your website for an SEO.

Author: Vikramjeet Singh Sra
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty

Introduction – If you are still learning about search engine optimization (SEO), you are probably a bit confused about the difference between on-site and off-site SEO strategies. On-site tactics are more straight-forward for the beginner and are probably written about the most. I thought I would write an article and cover what I’ve learned. This pool of SEO knowledge comes from working with about 10 clients and another 10 personal web sites over an 18 month period.

To anyone with an SEO background, there are certain basic on-site SEO tasks that any web master, business owner, or Internet Marketer needs to be aware of. These include the following major components:

1) Title Tags - The title tag in your HTML meta code is the tag that tell the browser what to display in the title of the window at the very top of the screen. Because this text is so visible to the user, Google likes to rely heavily on this text as a clue as to what your page is about. As a result, it is a really important SEO strategy that your title tag be filled with keywords that are appropriate to the content of the web page. Furthermore, you really don’t want the same title tag on every page. This is not good for SEO. Instead, you want to have different keyword phrases in your title tags that properly identify the theme of that particular page. Remember, you are trying to help the search engines easily digest your content. That’s basically what SEO is. You want to aid them in their understanding of what this page is really about.

2) The first H1 tag - Similar to the title tag, Google will look at the first H1 text to appear on your page as a strong signal as to what the page is about. Use it wisely. Again, you want to place keyword phrases here that are thematically related to what the information on the page is conveying to the end-user.

3) The name of the page itself - As you name your pages in your web site, use plain English as much as possible for SEO. You will notice that WordPress uses this extensively in their blog software. This is no accident and WordPress is considered the best blog for SEO. For example, http://example.com/?On-Site-vs-Off-Site-SEO-tactics&AID=22 will perform much better for SEO than http://example.com/?AID=22. Why? Because there is descriptive text in the longer version of the page name that helps the search engine know what the page is about. Many people have written about issues around “dirty links” and SEO (links including system variable data such as AID=22 in the example above). I think it is better if you can design your system without any variable data at all. It just takes this SEO issue away. And it’s just easier for the search engines. It’s also easier for the end-user. However, there is no problem promoting pages via SEO with variable data in the links. I’ve been able to make both fly using the same SEO tactics with no problems. The search engines are smart enough by now to manage through that variable data. Just make sure your plain English is in there.

4) Keyword meta tag - This tag used to get a ton of play for SEO, but is now largely ignored by the search engines. I believe it fell out of favor due to manipulation and misuse. It is a tag that is not seen by the end-user, so unscrupulous web masters abused it and it became less-and-less important for SEO. Real SEO tactics don’t abuse or deceive. I still populate my keyword tags because I believe they are still looked at, but I don’t believe they are very critical. If nothing else, it’s another instance of your keywords. They all help SEO.

5) Description meta tag - This tag is still useful, but probably more for Yahoo and MSN. Since you will be in this part of your web site anyway to get the Title right, you might as well make this variable-driven as well and make the description appropriate to the page. Again, it can’t hurt SEO.

6) Keyword Density - This is very important for SEO. Keep in mind that the search engines are just large computer programs digesting your site and trying to figure out what it is about. One of the simplest things they do is to count up all the words and look for repeats. They then calculate percentages, or densities, of specific 1-word, 2-word and 3-word phrases that are found in your text. By looking at the most popular keyword phrases, their programs understand the important themes of your page. If you observe your own writing on a specific subject, you will see the patterns as well. I don’t recommend that you write solely with keyword density in mind as it will result in lower quality content. However, I also don’t recommend that you completely ignore keyword density in your content creation. My preferred approach is to write content straight-up for the first draft. Then, as you edit for grammar, consistency, and clarity, also edit for density. Run your content through a density checker and see what phrases are used the most. Make adjustments accordingly so that your top themes / keyword phrases are showing up between 2-4% of the time. But don’t do this to the extent that anything reads as unnatural. You need to always keep your audience in mind.

7) Outbound links - What your page links to matters, in terms of both the quality and quantity of links. As you build links out of your page, be specific about where they go. Don’t link to low-quality or bad-neighborhood sites. Also watch your number of links. Generally, the less the better. However, having no outbound links is not always good. I believe Google uses your outbound links as a way to position your site in the vast weave that is the Internet. Often times, Google can get a good feeling about what your site is about just by looking at who you link to. So again, select these links wisely understanding they will actually impact your SEO.

High-quality, original, content - I probably should have put this first because it can’t be stressed enough for SEO. Your site needs to provide high-quality and original content. You will read this maybe a hundred times as you research SEO. Content is king. And I firmly believe this to be true. If you are under the impression that the internet is so big that search engines can’t identify content as really unique, guess again. One afternoon spent playing with CopyScape will convince you that there is technology available today that is able to tell you if any given sentence has been repeated anywhere on the Internet. It’s staggering, actually, when you really think about that. The volumes of data are just outrageous. But if CopyScape can do it, I’m betting that Google can do it also. And I firmly believe that your site receives a positive bump when Google determines that the content is original. Many people have asked me if using content that is repeated on other sites will penalize the site. I believe the answer is no, you will not be penalized by Google (copyright infringement is a completely different and very serious legal topic that I won’t go into today). But I also believe that you won’t get where you want to be by using content that already has high mileage. The other hot debate related to how sites using duplicate content can actually rank higher than the site where the content originated from. Yes – This has been demonstrated empirically a bunch of times. But you don’t need to be too concerned with that for reasons we will get into later. Just keep your eye on the ball. Put in the time, energy and creativity it takes to create unique content and you will be rewarded. Plain and simple.

9) Appropriate amounts of content - Somewhat different from #8 is the issue of how much content to put on your site for good SEO. I don’t believe there is a single magic answer as each site has a different objective. But as far as SEO goes, I generally believe the more the better (assuming you are following #8). Give those hungry spiders as much food for thought as you possibly can. But let me also qualify that statement. You need ensure that your content doesn’t stray too far from the core message of your site. If it does, this can create confusion around what your site is really about. Tightly focused sites perform much better than more generically focused sites. For example, a site selling used Honda Civics that uses appropriate SEO strategies will probably get ranked higher and faster than a more generalized site selling all types of used cars. This is a generic statement, and there are many exceptions, but it’s a reasonable place to start your thinking about niches and themes.

Author: Al Zan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Creditcard Currency Conversion Fee

Let me ask you three questions to get you thinking. Does your website offer an RSS feed? Are you promoting your feed effectively? Are you seeing an increase in profits as a result of offering a feed to your visitors?

I’m going to outline several actionable steps you can take to promote your RSS feed both internally on your own website and externally on other websites. Then I’m going to show you a couple of effective programs to generate more profits using your RSS feed. Read what I have to say carefully, and then act on the information. I guarantee you can take it to the bank! I’m not just reiterating what others have said before. I actually acted and performed on my own websites everything I’m about to tell you and the results are awesome.

Promoting your RSS feed effectively requires a two prong approach. Start with examining your own website. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using your feed first. Then focus on external promotion second.

The average visitor won’t understand what RSS is about, why it would benefit them to use it or how it even works. So there’s no point in slapping up the little RSS Syndication logo on your website, linking it to your feed file and hoping people will subscribe. The simple fact is that they won’t. You need to spend some time building a page on your website that briefly explains to your visitors what RSS is about and then show them how to use your feed.

Let me show you a solid example. Point your browser to this URL: [http://www.profitgazette.com/syndicate.php] On this page of my website I tell my visitors the various ways they can receive my content. Along with subscribing to the newsletter, a visitor is also able to subscribe to the RSS feed. I don’t want to overwhelm them so I keep it brief and educate them with four points. “What is RSS? How can I use RSS? How do I get a News Reader? Can I use these feeds on my website?” See also in the top of the left column of that page (and every page on my website) how I give the visitor a quick teaser, mention a benefit to them and give them a link to my “RSS education” page? That’s how I get my visitors to discover what RSS is all about. Then if you look in the center near the top of the page you’ll see the little orange RSS image which doesn’t just link only to my RSS feed file, I actually use a small snippet of JavaScript to make it easy for my visitors to automatically subscribe themselves to my feed with whichever news aggregator they happen to be using. Just mouse over the RSS button on that page to see what I’m talking about. You can download a copy of that JavaScript for free at http://www.methodize.org/quicksub/

What’s next? External feed promotion. There are lots of websites that accept RSS feed submissions. I’m not going to drop a large list of sites into this article but I have put together a large list of them here: [http://www.profitgazette.com/rss-submission-list.php] Visit that page when you’re ready to submit your RSS feed. I personally submitted my feed to each of those sites and took a brand new website which I own from zero traffic to consistently maintaining an average of 80 unique visitors per day in two weeks from the date of submissions. So that really is a powerful submission list.

Now that you’ve educated your visitors on how to use your RSS feeds and are well into promoting your feed externally, what about optimizing your feed for the major search engines? Yes I said optimize. Did you know that you can optimize your feed to effectively garner traffic from MSN and Yahoo? Here’s how. Do some proper keyword research using WordTracker just like you would when performing a regular SEO campaign. Identify your top 3 key phrases and use them when you write the title and description of your feed inside your RSS file. The search engines will pick up on this and in conjunction with the items inside your RSS file they will rank you accordingly, providing you with an additional stream of traffic you never had before. To alert MSN and Yahoo to the presence of your RSS feed just visit http://my.msn.com and http://my.yahoo.com and add your feed to each page. That’s all there is too it.

By now you’ll probably be asking yourself “How can I make some bucks with my RSS feed?” There are a number of things you can do and programs you can participate in to generate a constant stream of revenue from your feed. Obviously if your website is product/sales oriented you could drop in an advertisement about your products at the end of each item in your feed. You could also apply for the Beta RSS program which Google Adsense is offering to select partners but there is no guarantee of being accepted. Although I have noticed that Google recently updated their Adsense terms of service agreement to include RSS and feed terminology. Perhaps this may mean that the program will come out of Beta soon. See this URL for more information: https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/topic.py?topic=957 Another search engine which offers publishers the option to earn revenue on ads placed in their RSS feed is Kanoodle. More information about Kanoodle’s venture into RSS is here: http://www.kanoodle.com/about/press_releases/02-28-05.cool

There is so much more to promoting your RSS feed and generating profit from it than what I could possibly hope to cover in an article and it really wouldn’t be fair of me to reveal all of the secrets when somebody has already put a lot of hard work and research toward putting them into a paid publication. If you really want to learn all of the top internet marketing strategies for RSS you should purchase a copy of Rok Hrastnik’s new eBook, “Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS“. I read Rok’s book from cover to cover and implemented almost all of what I discovered through him into my websites. The difference is not just noticeable results but a completely amazing increase in exposure and profit margin.

Author: Brendon Turner
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Benefits of electric pressure cooker

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

In that particular SEO industry there are several SEO experts may come in various profiles with different working principles. They may do entire work by themselves and take care for each site uniquely. Because they believe each website require different phenomenal work done to receive successful search ranking.

On the other hand of the coin, you will find giant SEO services providers. Those firms employ several medium levels of SEO peoples to maintain numerous numbers of SEO campaigns. Thus it is quite assumable that they don’t have much time to separate the different technical requirements for several websites individually.

They are following just the simply working format or you can say working templates for all sites to get ranked and they practically doing this in a daily manner. In this way their sharpness level decreases simultaneously. Thus it is imaginable that they have a solid inclination to rotate into SEO factories.

Before you choose your service provider, you should check above tip for several SEO companies. You must check their recommendations for your site what they are going to deliver also check their glorious performances. Feel free to ask more questions regarding your chances about your success. Try to avoid technical terms and suggest them to talk to you in laymans terms.

Unluckily, SEO analysis is neither so easy nor so simply to do as it sounds. Search engine algorithms are getting more complex constantly as the internet world advanced. Thus you need an efficient SEO expert who will understand your business aim first and do the work accordingly. You don’t need any famous SEO firm who has no time to done any research work for your own site and will do the same work as they done for others.

SEO is an ongoing process not a single time matter. You require constant care and the research work also done side by side with other SEO work to keep your keywords on the highest position in all search engines otherwise they will rapidly fall down and disappear form top position which may effect your business growth.

Advantages of getting ethical SEO analysis

Hiring a growing ethical SEO expert or company for your small business is the finest thought to do if your wish to pull ahead yourself or your keywords amongst from your competitors. What accurately the benefits of receiving the services from a growing ethical SEO firm? Here are a few advantages of appointing an expert SEO analyst.

Specialized SEO experts have the depth knowledge on the methods to improve the search engine ranking of your keywords in all search engines, and able to do it speedily. It helps your website to create a superior sum of web traffic at your site.

Increment of the volume of authentic web traffic creation is also means an increment in sales of your business product and services. In ethical SEO you does not required PR on your web pages, it is automatically generated. You mostly concentrate at your keyword ranking which will put superb effect on getting superb web traffic.

SEO specialists will give you superior informative advice on effectual online web promotion and off-page marketing methodologies. You may advice them for searching the finest ways to lift your keywords at all search engines top positions within very wee time period.

Forget the cost estimation

SEO is the best way for those small business owners who have financial limitations for promoting their business into internet, because they don’t afford to spend lots of money for banners or ads. Thus people searching for those SEO firms who asking a least cost for search engine marketing.

But don’t stipulate yourself only at pricing; you should calculate their efficiency because a reputed SEO firm provides you SEO services at low expenditure, do not automatically mean that they will be efficient enough for your site.

Choose those SEO experts who have much time for done several type of research work for your site. Search engine algorithms are developing day by day and the SEO companies needs to know the latest tools, hasty methods and newest searching types which might help to increase keyword ranking at all search engines.

Author: Joanna Gadel
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable pressure cooker

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. Search Engines: A Brief History III. Web 2.0: The New Internet

IV. Web 2.0: The Technical Landscape

V. SEO Linking Strategy in Web 2.0

VI. Social Media Optimization: A Piece of the SEO Puzzle

VII. Usability vs. Searchability: The RIA Search Challenge

VIII. Googles Personalized Search: The End of Traditional SEO?

IX. Search Behavior R&D: Customized Engines and Long Tail Keywords

X. Conclusion

References

I. Introduction To those of us whose passion for the growth of the World Wide Web is exceeded only by the marketing possibilities that emerge from that growth, the Internet has become a playground for the imagination. There is a large number of marketers, however, who are fascinated by the Web but approach its marketing capabilities more out of necessity than lifestyle. The Internets capacity has advanced in so many areas in the past few years that marketers playing catch-up are at a significant disadvantage. Marketing directors and account managers with traditional media backgrounds need to expand their breadth of knowledge in order to make informed decisions in todays e-commerce. This article provides clarification surrounding the fairly recent buzzword Web 2.0 and focuses on the evolution and future of the search engine born occupation of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO and its implications are expanding so fast and in so many directions that it has never been more important for C level professionals and traditionally oriented marketers to fully understand the world of Internet search.

II. Search Engines: A Brief History When the first search engines began cataloging the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s, obtaining a high rank on search engine results pages (SERP) was not particularly difficult or secretive. It was the webmasters who submitted URLs to the engines and communicated a pages relevancy to a keyword search through keyword meta tags in the HTML code. Early engines, like AltaVista, struggled with providing relevant search results because webmasters, who were paid on a cost-per-impression basis at the time, wrote inaccurate meta tags using high search volume keywords in order to increase visits to their websites.[1]

It was Google who finally answered the call for a more complex ranking algorithm that would greatly improve the relevancy of SERPs. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, invented the concept of PageRank, an algorithm which helps rank web pages based on the probability that a random person surfing the Internet will find a given page.[2] The PageRank algorithm assigns a numerical value to each web page by analyzing the quantity and quality of the pages that link back to a given page. Known as a backlink, each link represents a vote for the page it links to by the page on which the link appears. The significance of each vote depends on how relevant the page giving the link is to the page receiving the link, as well as the PageRank of the linking page.

Along with the changing search engines continually trying to provide more relevant search results to the user, the entire Web has been evolving to meet the needs of the massive Internet population. In conjunction with the growth of the Internet and the popularity of search, a unique profession known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was born. SEO tactics and skills have evolved alongside the changing Internet, but such changes have never been as significant as the most recent. We have entered into a second phase of the Internet, and as a result SEO is taking on a new face. This second generation of the Internet, often referred to as Web 2.0, has moved away from the old model based on static websites, clicks, and impressions and burst onto a cyber playing field built around communities, participation and open cooperation towards better products and services.[3] An unprecedented level of interaction between consumers, businesses, and interest groups exists in this new Web. Due to the existence of a new social presence, vehicles for driving organic traffic to ones website have expanded far beyond the major search engines. While obtaining high rankings on the major search engines is still an SEOs main objective, the means by which this positioning is achieved requires a much broader capacity for creativity than ever before. Many of these new tactics also provide additional avenues of incoming traffic, which has significantly expanded the big picture view of the SEO professional.

PDF version of SEO White Paper at http://www.bkv.com/search-engine-optimization.jsp

III. Web 2.0: The New Internet

Defining or labeling the new Internet is often met with a considerable amount of critique due to the expansive reach of such a description. There are so many different things that have changed about the Internet in the past several years; a concise definition is difficult to come by. In addition, the term Web 2.0, while perhaps the most accurate term, is typically scoffed at by the skeptical industry veteran who is wary of a vendor or brass employee attempting to sound Internet savvy. The World Wide Web has existed for almost twenty years. What is so significant about the changes in the last few years that distinguish the current Web as an upgrade from its previous omnipotent self? The simple answer to this question is you. Web 2.0 represents the users needs, hopes, and desires finally manifesting into a definable force of voluntary motivation.[4] The blogosphere, social networks, wikis, and other new forms of expression on the Internet have captured the Web population by harnessing their goals, skills, and interests onto a platform of collaborative creation and production. Websites are reflecting an up-to-the-minute common voice rather than a collection of static informational documents. The Web has never before experienced this level of effective interaction between its users, and that reason alone warrants its 2.0 designation.

Ease of self-expression, now apparent on the Internet through the popularity of websites like MySpace and YouTube, is generating massive amounts of original content. Critics of this tremendous increase in creativity and public opinion complain about the dilution of reliable quality content on the Internet. Many social networks, however, naturally weed out undesirable content, and promote popular, well referenced content to the top of searches. In Web 2.0, popular content emerges via a user-generated ranking system that determines the positioning of articles by the number of user votes they receive. This model was made most popular by Digg.com, which joins several community-based popularity websites like Slashdot.com and Reddit.com in providing a user-edited resource for finding news stories, blog entries and other websites. In Web 2.0, up-to-date, reliable content is produced by the editing abilities of the wiki. Wikipedia, the Internets user-written and -edited encyclopedia, boasts an accuracy level not far from the widely accepted Encyclopedia Britannica. In a study that compared forty-two science entries in both resources, Wikipedia had only four inaccuracies per entry compared to Britannicas three.[5]

Social network websites in the new Internet also have a way of allowing like-minded people to find each others favorite content through a system called social bookmarking. Del.icio.us.com is the most popular example of a social bookmarking website. This system of classification, known as folksonomy, involves users assigning labels, or tags, in the form of keywords, to content on the web. Through this collaborative form of tagging, web content becomes grouped by recognizable categories. Continuous tagging and creation of categories by users increases the contents ability to be searched by a wider range of people. This social phenomenon happens because stable patterns emerge in tag proportions [allowing] minority opinions [to] coexist alongside extremely popular ones without disrupting the nearly stable consensus choices made by many users.[6]

IV. Web 2.0: The Technical Landscape

Aside from the collaborative aspect of the new Internet, there is another reason the Web has earned its 2.0 upgrade. The users interaction, not with other users but with the interface of the Net itself, has changed significantly. Technical advancements in web navigation and design, as well as increased penetration of high-speed and broadband connection, make the new Web a foreign landscape compared to its older version. Web applications have continued to improve, providing a profoundly different user experience. The implementation of rich internet applications (RIA) is gaining ground. RIA technologies, such as Flash, Ajax and Java, are leading the Internet in the direction of a Web without web pages. Websites are traditionally made up of networks of static pages linked together by text in the form of the computer language HTML. These pages behave in a synchronous manner. That is, after the user clicks on a link, there is a short period while the server processes the input, in turn triggering the browser to download the requested page. RIAs operate in an asynchronous fashion, allowing response time to be much faster. RIAs increased responsiveness results from the following five factors: [8]

Information can be obtained from a server by anticipating certain user input.

The screen can be refreshed in pieces instead of all at once, eliminating the need for entirely different pages to load when navigating content.

More than one users input can be collected and validated before it is sent to the server.

Some responses to user input can take place without any server communication.

Certain processing that was once handled on the server end can be stored on the user desktop.

Growing implementation of RIA has important implications on search engines and optimizers alike.

V. SEO Linking Strategy in Web 2.0 The Blogosphere & RSS The common SEO adage continues to be valid in the 2.0 world: content is king. It is the content boundaries and means for dispatching content that have truly taken SEO to another level. Since the inception of the blogosphere a term that describes all blogs as a social network of public opinion rumblings of the peoples voice via the Internet have quickly risen to a powerful roar. Beginning in the form of an online diary in the mid 90s, the blog has since developed into a simple vehicle of communication for anyone who desires to send content across the Web. The dissemination of information through blogging has become so mainstream that one can find a blog from an authority source on virtually any topic. The blogosphere, centered on the concept of original content, has provided a link rich venue for the SEO to plan his or her linking strategy surrounding good content.

So what is good content, and what does it have to do with good linking strategy in Web 2.0? In this new era of the Internet, good content is viral. Whether this content is a written article, a homemade video or a podcast, if it grabs, provokes or tickles the user, it will travel, and it will travel fast. From the contents eye-view, the Internet has become much easier to navigate following the advent of Really Simple Syndication (RSS). RSS allows for a program called an aggregator (or feed reader) to notify users of new content added to a website, retrieve that new content, and present it to the user in an easy-to-use interface. RSS and blogging go hand-in-hand because of the constantly updating nature of the blog. As a result of RSS, people are discovering new content on the Internet, passing it along, and linking to it at an unprecedented rate.

Baiting the Link

The SEO practice of producing content in hopes that people will link to it from their own website is known as link baiting. Good link bait has the same qualities as good content. From a well written controversial article to a video clip of a bulldog on a skateboard, website owners will link to any and all content as long as it is interesting and catches peoples attention. There are no boundaries surrounding the types of content one can use to bait a link. In fact, the very name of a new kind of link baiting suggests an indefinable quality. This new link baiting tactic is called widget baiting. Nick Wilson, CEO and senior strategist of the social media market agency Clickinfluence, declared that the holy grail of linkbaiting in 2007 will be the widget.[9]

In reference to computers, a widget is an element of user interface that displays information or provides a specific way for a user to interact with an application. A widget could be a calendar, a stock ticker, a quote of the day, or an icon that collects the most popular YouTube videos. To get an idea of the limitless widget possibilities, check out Yahoo! Widgets (http://widgets.yahoo.com/). In its most basic form, a widget is a downloadable interactive virtual tool made up of simple bits of code that can easily be added to a webpage. When a widget is added to a webpage, if coded correctly, it will act as a crawlable link pointing back to its page of origin. These links can help to boost a site in the search engine rankings, but they also represent great potential for organic traffic.

Creating a popular widget could, in some cases, outweigh traffic from the major search engines. One example of traffic generated by a widget is a blog editor Firefox extension created by the professional blogging company, Performancing, that received close to half a million downloads when it was first released.[10] The brand awareness that widgets can promote has also made advertisers extremely enthusiastic. One would be hard pressed to find a better method of exposure than a logo attached to a button that sits in front of a users eyes daily.

VI. Social Media Optimization: A Piece of the SEO Puzzle

In this new age of the Internet, people have been quick to deviate from the title Search Engine Optimization when describing the organic promotion of a website. In August 2006, Rohit Bhargava, VP of Interactive Marketing for Ogilvy Public Relations, coined the phrase Social Media Optimization (SMO) and defined it as the following:

[The act of implementing] changes to optimize a site so that it is more easily linked to, more highly visible in social media searches on custom search engines (such as Technorati), and more frequently included in relevant posts on blogs, podcasts and vlogs.[11] On one hand, Bhargavas point is well taken. If the tasks one is performing to drive traffic to a website are not intended to do so by improving search engine rankings, but rather by building a presence in social networks, than perhaps SEO is not the appropriate definition of their occupation. There is no doubt that SEO has undergone, and will continue to undergo, a certain level of compartmentalization. As different areas of SEO continue to experience the growth of specialized services, such as blogging, widget baiting and social networking, the future SEO will spend a large part of his or her time moderating and collaborating with more outsourcing opportunities that are not, by themselves, SEO related. In the end, however, SEO is a sum of its parts, and from the perspective of a company looking to pay for SEO services, all methods of driving organic traffic will reside under the umbrella of Search Engine Optimization. Notwithstanding the new coinage, SMO is an important component of SEO in Web 2.0. An SEOs intention in a social network is to create the illusion of natural links that occur during the interaction that takes place on networks such as Kaboodle.com, MyBlogLogs.com and Flickr.com. It is these links that search engines value the most because they happen as a result of real interests, not paid or reciprocal contracts. These links often lead to spikes in traffic, which have been criticized for only providing unqualified visitors and using up bandwidth. While these spikes continue to be a topic of debate on SEO forums, traffic after the spike does typically return to a level higher than it was before. The more authentic the illusion of natural interaction created by the SEO, the better the results. SEO in Web 2.0 introduces a new skill set of creativity that was previously not present. The space for this creativity, which ties in with the above link baiting topic of quality content, is especially exciting for the SEO of the future. The possibilities for attracting genuine links and organic traffic are limited only by the SEOs imagination.

To read the last four sections of this white paper — Usability vs. Searchability: The RIA Search Challenge, Googles Personalized Search: The End of Traditional SEO?, Search Behavior R&D: Customized Engines and Long Tail Keywords, and the Conclusion — visit the following URL to download the PDF version of the paper: http://www.bkv.com/search-engine-optimization.jsp

References

[1] Doctorow, Cory, Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia. Version 1.3, 26 August 2001. http://www.well.com/~doctorow/metacrap.htm

[2] Brin, Sergey and Page, Larry, The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine, Proceedings of the seventh international conference on World Wide Web 7, 1998, Pages: 107-117 [3] Tapscott, Don and Williams, Anthony D. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. London: Portfolio, 2006, Page: 19 [4] Tapscott, Don and Williams, Anthony D. Page: 68

[5] Tapscott, Don and Williams, Anthony D. Page: 75

[6] Golder, Scott A. Huberman, Bernardo A. “The Structure of Collaborative Tagging Systems.” Information Dynamics Lab, HP Labs. Aug. 18, 2005. http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.DL/0508082. Cornell University Library. [8] Loosley, Chris. Rich Internet Applications: Design, Measurement, and Management Challenges. http://www.keynote.com/docs/whitepapers/RichInternet_5.pdf. Keynote Systems, 2006.[9] Wilson, Nick. 2007 Guide to Linkbaiting: The Year of Widgetbait? http://searchengineland.com/070118-074231.php. January 18, 2007. [10] Wilson, Nick. January 18, 2007

[11] Bhargava, Rohit. 5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO). Influential Interactive Marketing blog. http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2006/08/5_rules_of_soci.html. August 10, 2006.

Author: Will Fleiss
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Pressure Cooker

If you are in the market to hire a search engine optimization (SEO) firm, selecting the right vendor can be a daunting task. In recent years, SEO has gained immense popularity and acceptance as a formidable marketing technique, so it should come as no surprise that SEO firms are popping up in various shapes and sizes: one-person SEO consultancies, SEO-only firms, combined SEO/Development firms, traditional ad agencies offering SEO, and even offshore SEO enterprises.

But which of these options will deliver the best results for your business? Which can you trust to suggest – and possibly implement – changes to your site? The fact is that true Web marketing success requires knowing the web business inside-out, including programming, design, usability, and SEO. Here are four reasons to hire a firm that offers both SEO and Web development:

1. Get a truly search friendly site.

SEO-only firms tend to be focused on top rankings. While rankings are important, they won’t mean much if your site’s design and functionality aren’t appealing to your visitors. Even if a site gets heavy traffic, what’s the point if visitors quickly leave and don’t convert?

When selecting a SEO firm, ask yourself these questions:

• Can this vendor optimize a site’s code, images and programming?
• Can they uncover design and programming issues?
• Do they understand Web usability and its effect on conversions?

SEO is about more than just getting – or manipulating the search engines to get – high rankings. It’s about implementing strategies that create an outstanding user experience, resulting in increased traffic, leads, and, most importantly, sales. After all, why go to the trouble and expense of obtaining high rankings if it doesn’t increase your bottom line?

2. Get an SEO team who understands how sites are built.

Sometimes the search engines need a little help “seeing” your site, especially if you have a dynamic or e-commerce site. Search-friendly sites have properly written URLs which avoid characters like a question mark, ampersand or equals sign in the URL since these can create roadblocks for search engine spiders. SEO-friendly URLs are built to eliminate these roadblocks, and as a bonus, a creative programmer can actually incorporate keywords within the URL. If you have URLs on your site like in this example, the search engines may have trouble navigating and indexing your site: [http://www.company.com/products/display_product.jsp?]
prodline=BrandA+MT2FR&brandID=01_COMPANY&mrktarea=Blue+Vehicle&size=Z481%3G66Q27
&style=MNR&style=1847&length=25&shipping=31 [http://www.company.com/products/display_product.jsp?prodline=BrandA+MT2FR&brandID=01_COMPANY&mrktarea=Blue+Vehicle&size=Z481%3G66Q27&style=MNR&style=1847&length=25&shipping=31]

In short, good programming results in pages that are easier to update, easier for the search engines to navigate, load faster, and some would argue, rank higher in the search engines.

3. Get expanded expertise all under one roof.

Want to hire and manage different firms for your SEO, PPC, and design/development? Probably not. One firm means one production timeline and one team handling all your needs, which should result in a more consistent final product. By hiring a company that has development and marketing under one roof, you can simplify the SEO process and save money, too.

While some advertising agencies offer a suite of marketing and public relations services under one roof, oftentimes just a tiny sliver of their business (perhaps one or two people) is dedicated to Web marketing. Simply put, most ad agencies that offer SEO lack the SEO resources to do your job right. It is important to ask who makes up the SEO team: is it one person trying to do everything, or a team of individuals each offering different skills and areas of expertise?

SEO consultants and SEO-only firms, on the other hand, usually have a firm grasp on SEO but either outsource development or provide recommendations to pass on to your development team. If you have ever tried to pass along suggestions from a consultant, you know this can be a challenge. Without fail, unforeseen issues crop up and certain items get misinterpreted between the consultant and the development team. This can mean production delays and unexpected expenses for you. By hiring a firm that does both Web development and SEO, you will find that the development and SEO teams interact with one another to ensure your site’s design, programming, and optimization work together on every level.

4. Get an SEO team that understands – and implements – development changes.

Understanding the development side of a site is especially important if you have a dynamic or e-commerce site, but still important if you have a static site. SEO-only shops, consultants, and ad agencies without a firm grasp on development may not understand the full impact of the site changes they request or, in some cases, even know how to make the right kinds of requests. A team that understands development can ask for – and implement – the right things, the right way. Otherwise, you might end up with a dispute between your development and SEO shops, not getting the development services your site really needs, paying too much for the services, or all of the above.

Do yourself, your Web site, and your business a huge favor: avoid headaches by hiring an SEO shop that knows their way around sites and servers and can make things happen.

Author: Collyn Floyd
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty tariff

You have the website, the product, and compelling content to attract readers to purchase your book, your CD, or whatever items you choose to sell. You may notice a surge in traffic as you build your site and employ various search engine optimization tactics, but are not wholly satisfied.

You know you can attract more visitors if you could just reach them. You have a weblog attached to your site, and you write wonderful articles which receive much praise. What else is there to do?

Have you considered syndicating your content and products to users with an RSS feed? Do you even know what RSS is?

Simply defined, RSS is an XML-based format. XML, for the novice, stands for Xtreme Markup Language, a special coding language that represents information for resources in the World Wide Web. Using the XML, one can permit the distribution, or syndication, of content to users who collect such data through specialized aggregators, or readers. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, and once you get used to the idea it really can be simple.

By creating an RSS “feed” (think of a news ticker on a cable network, providing up-to-date information in real time), one can distribute product content, articles, pictures, and even embedded video, audio, and links. This information is used to entice users to click through to the host site.

RSS allows a person’s computer to fetch and understand the information, so that all of the lists that person is interested in can be tracked and personalized for them. RSS differs from a traditional website in that the information is usually presented elsewhere. Say for example an Internet user has a personalize start page with My Yahoo! On this start page is information on various sports teams so the user can keep track of the playoffs. Yahoo allows the user to edit what information is displayed so only the information the user wants is visible. The user may aggregate information from various sports websites that offer RSS data, and place it on the Yahoo page.

When the user visits his start up page, he will see headlines from the many sports websites fed into the page. If there is a headline that appeals to the user, a click on the link will direct him to the site. Think of RSS feeds as puzzle pieces, brought together to create custom designs for Web users all over the world.

Sites that allow for the opportunity to generate updated, fresh content can benefit from offering an RSS feed. Whether you sell products or services, want to promote a new book or film, an RSS feed attached to your site can extend your site’s reach and increase traffic. Having an RSS feed attached to a site also allows for the opportunity to submit to RSS specific search engines, thereby increasing awareness of the site. As you research RSS, you may find there are feeds for just about every subject of conversation, from sports to movies, multi-cultural issues to religion. Shopping sites use RSS to advertise sales, while travel site promote discount airfares for frequent flyers. There is no limit to what you can promote with RSS.

Creating an RSS Feed

Now that you have decided to promote yourself and your products with RSS, it is time to create a feed and attract the traffic you want. Creating a feed is different from creating website. Though there is content involved, you do not need to worry much about presentation and design, as different RSS readers tend to presently only the text and links associated with the feed content.

If you are unfamiliar with hand-coding XML, it would be best to create your RSS through either special software or through a third-party website that creates and hosts feeds. A quick Internet search on “RSS builders” and “RSS host sites” will lead you in the right direction.

If you have a weblog with a third-party host, you may note that this content is already being syndicated. If so, you may want to consider changing the focus of your blog to better sell your products, or create a second feed for better sale emphasis.

Once you have decided on the method of production, it’s time to produce!

Writing RSS content can be likened to ad copy. You want to use attention-getting headlines that will entice readers to click through to your site. As some RSS readers display only the headline rather than an abstract of the content, you want to be concise and compelling. “Save now on special purchase,” “Buy one, get one free!” Make the reader want to click to read more.

Depending upon the RSS aggregator, the reader will immediately click-through to your site, or be taken to your RSS content. Either way, it is important that all clicks eventually lead to the point of sale. Keep RSS posts short and direct. Tempt the reader to click through to your site to learn more about buying your book, CD, or product. Link to the sale page rather than the home page so a reader won’t become frustrated with having to navigate your entire site. Hot link a photo of the item using the IMG tag to give your feed an attractive look. If you use an RSS software or third party site, you may be able to use such coding, be sure to check.

Promoting with an RSS Feed

As search engines become more adept at collecting information, they are devising new ways to get this data. Some engines, like Google, have special spiders that mine the Internet solely for RSS-based information. If you want your RSS feed to be found, whether you host it on your site as an RSS or XML file, or host through a third party website, you will need to have the URL of the feed on your front page so people can subscribe to it.

Clicking on the link will not open the feed like a website, but depending upon the browser being used to view the feed it may take the user to an option that allows him to save your feed’s information. A quick Internet search on RSS tutorials will give you a special code you can put on your site to alert spiders to your feed, too. Also, there do exist RSS search engine where you can submit your feed for inclusion.

The one advantage to having an RSS feed is that what content you provide remains available to users who find it during search. To improve the likelihood of traffic increases, add to your RSS feed regularly, advertising all news and specials related to your books, music, or services. Your ability to prove Internet savvy can attract a new audience to your site, and in turn improve your sales.

Author: Kathryn Lively
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Duty tariff