RSS 101 - The Next Marketing Phenom!

RSS stands for Rich Site Syndication. RSS is a powerful tool, and the publishing choice of the future, according to Mike Mograbi, author of 378 Internet Marketing Predictions.

How to Subscribe to RSS Newsfeeds

Not sure what RSS feeds are? Read this excellent source of information on RSS from SiteSell - RSS: Really Simple Syndication

RSS: why it’s important
Watch this video where Rafe Needleman, editor for CNET.com Business Buying Advice, explains how RSS feeds give you the news you need, when and where you want it.

Tom Murphy has an excellent tutorial for RSS newbies at RSS 101 - Getting up and running, where he explains, with screenshots and step-by-step instructions exactly how to subscribe to an RSS feed. If you’re completely new to RSS, you’ll definitely want to read this.

RSS and Atom Resources - Download an RSS reader for free here

Do you really need RSS feeds?

The answer is - yes!

RSS can benefit anyone today. It’s definitely the publishing choice of the future.

Since I started submitting my blogs and RSS feeds to blog directories and RSS search engines in August 2004, not only have my listings in the search engines increased, but the traffic to my websites have shot up.

Syndicating my content with RSS/XML feeds has led to a consistent increase in traffic. Be warned, however that RSS can use up a lot of bandwidth, so make sure your hosting package allows for this.

RSS and XML feeds are currently used for the following -

1. RSS for Fresh Website Content

RSS is a technology that allows you to obtain fresh, updated content for your website by pulling it from Newsfeeds and blogs created by experts.

Tools to Add RSS Feeds to your site

Traffic Turbocharger generates entire search engine optimized, niche websites with RSS feeds that provide targeted, keyword rich, fresh content.

RSS Syndicator is a free tool to put auto-updating search engine readable headlines and content on your website.

Blogging Tools and Resources

A blog is an online journal or diary to which you can add short posts and syndicate your content with a newsfeed.

Blog Maniac - All about blogging, blogging tools, books, tutorials and more.

2. RSS for Content Syndication and Publishing

RSS is also used by publishers who want to reach readers without having them subscribe to an opt-in email list. Its helps publishers deliver Direct-to-desktop content and is a "Pull" technology (unlike email, which is a "push" technology).

RSS can benefit anyone today. I submit all my RSS feeds and blogs to RSS directories and search engines and am definitely seeing a surge in traffic from them.

Making An RSS Feed is an excellent tutorial by Danny Sullivan of SearchEngine Watch on how to create your own feed.

Syndicate Your Page is a tutorial that will show you how to blogify your page, or provide its content as an RSS feed.

Here are the RSS feeds that I created to syndicate my own articles

Priya Shah’s Business Articles

Articles on Health and Wellness

You can add them to your own website or just enter them into your RSS reader to learn when I add new articles.

One of the best resources on using RSS I have seen is free - its called The Marketer’s Introduction to RSS Content Delivery Power by Rok Hrastnik.

If you publish a blog or an XML feed, you should submit your blog and feed to the big directories like Yahoo and Dmoz. There are numerous other directories you can submit your content to.

Here is the best list I’ve found of places to submit your feed or blog, compiled by Luigi Canali De Rossi, who writes under the pseudonym Robin Good.

Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites - About 100 resources listed here.

Another list of sites to submit your RSS feeds and Blogs

Feed Burner - Add clickthrough and feed subscription stats to your feed

Tools to Create your own RSS Feed for Syndication

If you’re not a techie, how can you create your own RSS feed? Well there are free and professional tools online that allow you to do that, and here are some.

RSS Autopublisher - Broadcast messages & deliver automated/scheduled follow-up messages to your subscribers via RSS. Achieve 100% Message Delivery Rate, Boost Your Customer Loyalty, Skyrocket Your Message Response Rates, Recover ‘Lost’ Revenues & Generate Mega Sales from Your Messages and Newsletter!

NewzAlert Composer is a comprehensive tool for creating and publishing RSS feeds, and it’s all you need to get up and running with one or more RSS feeds of your own. It brings together the editing and publishing of all your RSS feeds into one convenient place on your desktop. NewzAlert Composer gets you up and running with your own RSS feeds within minutes. Download a trial copy of NewzAlert Composer

FeedForAll - Create, Edit & Publish RSS Feeds in minutes. New RSS feeds can be quickly and easily created with FeedForAll. Advanced features enable you to create professional looking rss feeds quickly. Existing RSS feeds can be repaired and enhanced with FeedForAll. RSS feeds generated by other means can be automatically repaired, so that they conform to the RSS 2.0 specification. Existing feeds can be enhanced to contain advanced feed properties.

Syndicate Pro News Server Software is server software for managing and distributing news headlines and other content over the internet. Web sites can signup as Affiliates and distribute your news content. These "Affiliates" could distribute the news for free, you might decide to pay them based on impressions or clicks, or you might chose to charge them to display your content. Once signed up, members place a small piece of code on their web page to display the news.

Quikonnex - Publishing with Quikonnex is a lot easier than sending out newsletters, updates, announcements, etc. by email. No lists to maintain, no opt-in procedures to follow, and no spam complaints. You simply write your article, add it to your channel and your subscribers get your news when they check for updates. It’s easy for them and really easy for you.

RSS Responder is a script that allows you to send out follow-up RSS feeds much like an autoresponder allows you to follow up with subscribers by email. It does not work with Atom feeds yet, but the creator, Andrew Peacock plans to add that functionality soon.

Free Tools for RSS Feed Creation

RapidFeeds is a Free online service which allows you to create and manage your own RSS Feeds completely and effortlessly. Instantly create, preview and publish your own professional RSS Feeds with our simple web-based wizard. Quickly edit, update and manage your published RSS Feeds online without any hassles. Track your RSS Feeds easily, pin pointing your readers usage statistics like: Unique Hits and Feed & Items’ Click through rate.

The ListGarden RSS Feed Generator Program is a tool for manually creating and maintaining RSS feeds. The resulting XML file may be stored locally or automatically copied to a remote web server using FTP. ListGarden can produce an optional companion HTML file for human browsers to read. It also has basic list-maintenance functions making it useful as a simple list manager. The RSS XML and HTML files can be uploaded to any web storage.

RSS Headliner will also help you create an RSS feed. First select how many headlines you want your feed to have. Then fill in the form with links, titles and descriptions. Click on the "Make the Code" button. Then click on the "what does it look like button" to preview your headlines. That all it takes!

RSS Builder is an easy to use service to create RSS feeds for your web site. It provides a simple interface that lets you add topics, links and content, and then publish the RSS (v2.0) feed to your web server with one click! This service is absolutely free of charge.

RSS Scraper is a HTML to RSS Scraper, it will take your web page and turn it into RSS 0.92 format. Whenever changes to the web page are made, they will automatically reflected in your RSS feed.