How RSS really does pay off...
by Scott Frangos, Managing Partner - WebFadds.com, a modern web development company focused on eCommerce, Content Management Systems, and Blogs.
Have you heard of RSS (Really Simple Syndication)? Did you know you can syndicate your news stories from your website? You probably have seen some orange buttons around the web with the letters "RSS" on them. They allow other websites to link to your news stories with just a click. Simple. Syndicate.
Ok. Now, you know about Really Simple Syndication... but where's the payoff? Let's look at the ways that RSS can pay off for you. And, pay off, it does — when you use this emerging technology effectively.
Now by "emerging technology," we mean it is relatively new, and people are still learning about it. But already many savvy webmasters are "aggregating" RSS feeds — pulling common topic feeds together at their websites. And, big players like Yahoo, and Amazon are offering up RSS solutions. You can "subscribe" to a selection of news feeds on your personalized home page at Yahoo, for example.
Feed me... feed me...
There's even a search engine just for RSS feeds, called Feedster.com, that currently returns over 4,645,164 feeds indexed and fully searchable. Last August, there were only a quarter of a million feeds. Feedster reports that around 5,000 new feeds are being added... per day. Someone's hungry. And this hunger for feeds is being fed by millions of "blog" websites that use automated "Content Management Systems" to turn out their RSS news feeds. At Feedster.com, you can simply search through millions of them, or you may "subscribe" there to the feeds of your choice, creating a sort of customized electronic newspaper for yourself.
Looks like RSS is here to stay, so what does a "pay off" from RSS mean? Will it mean increased traffic to your website? Yes. Could it mean an increase in sales of your services or products? Yes, but probably not as immediately as direct advertising would. What about P.R. value? Yes... most definitely.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
great info Scott, thanks and welcome!
What are your thoughts on RSSing headline, link and summary (much like our front page, in other words) vs sending out whole articles. We do the former because we want them to come here for the full article.
2 - Scott Frangos
Hi Eric -
Thanks for a great blog here, and also for your question. I know that blogs are about posting opinions, but there is an old saying, that goes, "judge a man more by his questions, than his answers," (and of course, I extend that to both genders). Now with that in mind, I will give you an answer with the understanding that since RSS feeds are an emerging publishing method -- the jury isn't in yet.
Let's consider the two alternatives you put forth in your post:
1) RSS an entire article: The first advantage goes to the website that posts the entire article, since readers will "stick" at their site and not visit the source site to finish the article. But, if links are allowed in text, then they could click on those and exit the site. I think there is an advantage for the reader in this version, since my gut tells me (have not seen a scientific study) that readers prefer to read the enire article at one location.
2) RSS Headline & lead-in only: In this scenario, the advantage is mostly on the side of the source website -- the place where the articles originate. The reader must return to the source to finish the article, and that website may capture and hold them (if it is well designed to suit that purpose). At least the reader pursuing the link to read the rest of the article will be impacted by the "identity" (logo and corporate graphics) at the source site. But this is the same experience that I'm wagering is annoying to some readers.
BOTTOM LINE: I'm leaning now toward the solution that your site provides -- the entire article found at the same website, since it avoids the "site jump annoyance factor" and increases the length of the visit at the blog. What's interesting, is that this solution runs counter to the prevailing RSS feed strategy. Hmmmmmm. Now you see why I liked your question.
3 - Eric Olsen
very interesting and logical Scott, I'm glad you're around!
4 - Morgan McLintic
Interesting stuff Scott. BTW on the PR front, I picked up that theme just yesterday, looking at how publishers and companies are commercializing RSS.
http://www.morganmclintic.com/pr/2005/02/commercializati.html
The CEO of Nooked.com replied that they are working on enhanced security and content rich functionality within RSS, which will ignite this technology.
Morgan