Initial RSS Marketing Results... proceed with caution
Here are a couple of links to articles that have studied the results of RSS, and ads in RSS feeds:
- RSS Advertising Case Study. Overview. Pheedo reports that by integrating online advertising into an RSS feed, a new online advertising technique, it has achieved measurably better results than e-mail for its client.
Read More - Blocking of Ads in RSS feeds already envisioned. Of course. People want news to be news. They might put up with informative links, but not blatant, outright, defiant, in-your-face advertising. You can read a blog of comments on this issue at Kottke.org
What are you serving?
The feed goes on. Advertising and no advertising. Straight news articles, and Public Relations pieces with positive spins on your company and its products. The bottom line? If you're going to have a website and write professional content, why not syndicate the news articles and greatly extend your reach and influence? It's really simple, and it doesn't cost that much.
Resources (Free trial): We like the "Feed For All" program from NotePage, which helps you create, edit, and publish RSS feeds from your PC. Take a FREE trial now (click here).
Scott Frangos is a writer, designer, and eCommerce marketer with over 20 years experience in Advertising. He has taught eCommerce, HTML, and Business courses at the college level in Portland, Oregon, and currently is Managing Partner of WebFadds.com.
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