Why do the producers of internet content think they deserve all sorts of personal information before giving you the content they are producing?
With RSS you never have to divulge your email address just to get that newsletter or other interesting content that you want from the web, it just shows up on your homepage.
When you press the 
button, you can add the Sales Strategies Blog to your My Yahoo! homepage. (If you use 
press this button.) New entries just show up on your homepage. Automatically. You don't have to do a thing. It's like TiVo remembering to record your favorite shows.
"How does it get into Outlook without knowing my email address?"
Just like you need a television to watch TV programs, TiVo to record your shows, and a mail reader to check email, you need an &"RSS reader" to get RSS feeds. The good news is, you already have one ~ probably more than one.
makes Outlook your RSS Reader. (Microsoft has incorporated an RSS reader into the latest release of Outlook.) Your internet homepage like MSN or Yahoo! can be your RSS Reader, and there are many RSS Readers like 
online that are free or low cost.
With NewsGator, you receive new content that looks just like email, but you never gave out your email address to subscribe. Behind the scenes, Outlook scans for updates to your subscribed content ("syndicated feeds") on your behalf, in exactly the same way it looks for mail addressed to you. The new entries are then displayed for you in an Outlook folder.
RSS = Complete Privacy
You never tell an internet marketer a thing about yourself to read RSS delivered content. They won't even know that you're "tuned in". You get the content you want, absolutely free, in complete privacy.
No More Unsubscribe
Have you ever hit the "unsubscribe" button in the spam you receive? Did you have much confidence that you'd be removed, or that they wouldn't keep your information on file?
With television, if you decide to stop watching Survivor®, you aren't required to have a conversation with CBS, you just change the channel. The same thing happens when you "syndicate an RSS Feed" (subscribe to internet content automatically). You are completely in charge. If the newsletter isn't that great or starts being an unrelenting stream of ads, all you have to do is delete the feed from your list. In Yahoo! or MSN it's as simple as clicking the X in the corner of the box. WHAM! No more annoying ads. You are instantly unsubscribed. The producer never knows. They have none of your information to keep.
Article comments
1 - Triniman
Chris;
RSS is a mystery to some, for sure.
Why not edit your post with some book links to Amazon.com about RSS? There's plenty to choose from.
2 - RJ
Amazon link(s) needed, dude...
3 - Chris
I agree, there are many Amazon links to RSS. Do you need me to point them out to you? I'm happy to , but I think that a current search will find more relevant, up-to-date links than anything I might post in a time-dated post.
I think RSS is about to be identified as the 2005 equivalent of 1993's posts of references to "http" on Amazon.com. I hardly think that you need me to show you the most relevant, current links.
If you do, I guess I could compile a list, but since my opinion is that RSS is about to hit the tipping point, this post is better left at general reasons for people to care - or act on.
Who else wants me to list RSS resources. With enough popularity, I'll be happy to compile a list.
Chris
4 - RJ
ALL BC.org posts are REQUIRED to have at least one AMAZON link provided.
That's all we ask.
Otherwise, I like your post...
5 - Leoniceno
Heh heh. Try 0596003838.
6 - Chris
Thank you Leon.
RJ... does that address your issue?
I'm happy to help in any way I can. I think Leon has pointed out the most relevant link at Amazon.
If you'd like more, just say the word. I'll figure something out.
Chris
7 - RJ
No, when you are posting an article, there is a place to put an Amazon link. It creates a graphic of the product you are linking to.
Ask Eric Olsen (the publisher of this site) for more guidance...
8 - Temple Stark
In fact Chris your post is nothing more than an ad for your own site. Reading comprehension when you joined BC allows you to note that you're supposed to post the whole exercise, not one paragraph and a "go see more here" type link.
This post will need to become, well a post, otherwise it will be deleted tomorrow afternoon. Sorry, we're not a referral service, especially to someone with a very spam-like "Simplified Selling" Web site. (Though you look the friendly sort)
Got something to sell? Buy an ad.
9 - Chris
Temple and RJ - I have indeed asked Eric for guidance. I'm new at the BlogCritic thing and trying to follow the instructions in his email to me.
I apologize if I have broken any rules. It was never my intent to offend you (or anyone). I'm happy to have the post deleted if it violates any community standards.
10 - Temple Stark
No problem at all, but if you're stll learning you really shouldn't early on dismiss out of hand the repeated concerns of those who have been here a while.
Instead of deletion, just add more from your site, because it is an interesting topic.
And a little "For more great wisdom from the master" link at the bottom of evry one of your posts is fine - it just can't be the entire reason for your post.
Just in case you're thinking "Why the heck does Temple care - it's my (non-paying, sucker's, LOL) job as an editor of the site. - Temple
11 - Chris
Thank you for the advice, Temple. I want to follow all of the "rules". It was never my intent to offend anyone.
When you say "add more".. what do you mean, exactly? The instructions I got (this is my first post, so bear with me) were to "make your first post to blogcritics within 24 hours of receiving this - an applicable post from your own site is fine."
I wasn't trying to make my supposed "great wisdom" the "entire reason for my post", I was just merely doing my best to quickly respond within the deadline.
Again, I apologize if I offended anyone. Every community has its rules and not knowing them is no excuse. Please forgive me.
This article is what I presented in my 'application' to become a blogcritic. I'm sure that over time I'll find a way to be "right" in the eyes of this community - I just had to get something posted quickly. Presenting a bloglink seemed to be what others here do - and allowed me to meet the 24 hour deadline.
If "it will be deleted tomorrow afternoon" is the standard remedy, I accept the judgment of the community. Since my post isn't directly related to any Amazon content (and thank you RJ for finding relevant Amazon content) I didn't include a link. My article is merely "original editorial commentary" on RSS and how I believe it will mpact the online world over the next several months.
I am beginning to understand that such original commentary is not within the perview of blogcritics, and that only reviews of other writings (writings published on Amazon) is what is expected here. I accept that as the Blogcritics premise. I won't include original writings in the future and will only reference other material.
As has been suggested, I have asked Eric for guidance. While I do not wish to offend anyone, I would rather provide original information than merely review or rehash what others have poorly written.
Chris
12 - DrPat
Maybe a sample in the same area might make it clear. I recently posted a quick-and-dirty guide to using HTML tags in your posts and comments here. It doesn't purport to be an all-you-ever-need tutorial, just enough to get folks going.
Along with that post, I included five Amazon links to fer-real HTML tutorial books, for those who want to explore further. If there were more on my own blog, I could include a link at the bottom, or perhaps at the top, to the extra information, but there isn't.
Your post as it stands doesn't offer full whack on BlogCritics to the information you have to offer, it doesn't refer casual visitors onward to Amazon - but it does divert them away from BlogCritics to your own blog. (In some places, this is known as "pimping your blog," and this is frowned upon in most Web communities.)
It's not a matter of offending anyone, them's just the rules!
13 - Temple Stark
Like that.
And we try and avoid Amazon links without accompanying pictures.
You could also add the pictures of the buttons you had at your site, I just didn't want to get into your HTML.
- Temple
14 - TDavid
Hi Chris - before adding over here you might want to edit a couple things. For example:
This depends. Sites like Feedburner will still be able to get very detailed stats about your reader, what links you clicked, etc, if the RSS feed is being served by them anyway. If your RSS aggregator is pulling from your computer than your IP address will be exposed and therefore give additional demographic information. A proxy would stop that, of course.
Wrong. Content publishers can push whatever type of textual/graphic content they want through RSS feeds which includes spam. Just becaue the feed is good to start out with doesn't mean it can't or won't have advertising in these feeds. Sure, readers can unsubscribe from these feeds, but it is quite possible -- and in fact it's happening more and more -- that ads are being included in RSS feeds.
Hope this helps :)
15 - Temple Stark
And presto - then you get constructive feedback from TDavid who also knows what he's talking about in this regard.
:-)
16 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
this is interesting - i been gettin into the whole podcast arena, and seems you can't submit your show to these directory things without having it as some RSS feed or some nonsense. i tried finding out what the hell i need to do, but i get folks trying to sell me programs. Argh.
17 - TDavid
Hi Duke - it's not too complicated actually.
You just need to add an RSS enclosure tag to your RSS feed.
Not sure what blog program you are using but Wordpress 1.5 will automatically do this if you link to an mp3 file anywhere inside your post.
If you'd like to see an example look at the source of this RSS feed: http://www.webmastercookbook.com/wp-rss2.php
Now look specifically for this code in that RSS feed:
<enclosure url="http://tdavid3.podhost.com/wmcookbook/WMcookbook30-03182005_64k.mp3" length="23013504" type="audio/mpeg" />
Now if you ping through your blog software or manually fill out a form at a place like audio.weblogs.com/pingform.html with the name of your blog (with the RSS enclosure) and the location of the RSS feed, your podcast information will show up in the audio.weblogs.com directory.
You can manually submit to have your podcast listed by category in the ipodder.org directory as well. It's just filling out a form.
18 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
aw, TDavid, thank you, man. you rule.
19 - uao
A lot of people don't know anything about RSS at all (including until very recently me; I never used it or knew what it was until a month ago)
If you're an absolute newbie (no shame in that; everyone was until very recently, and most still are) to RSS, it is an invaluable tool for anyone who publishes material on the internet on a regular basis.
www.feedburner.com is a good place to start; you'll figure things out quickly there and you can set up your RSS in minutes, even if you don't know what you're doing.
Then, explore your stats, explore the forums, and check incoming links to your blog via technorati.
And you'll see how RSS is a miracle; what I love about it is your articles are no longer tethered to a website and reliant on incoming links and bookmarks.
Anybody can read you at any time, within a minute or two. Even if they've never heard of your website.
Writers used to dream about something like that, but it was too science-fiction to be believable. Welcome to the future.
20 - uao
I ought to add that one must be careful with the power of RSS too; once you publish, your stuff is out there. So if you make a mistake, or write something someone doesn't like, you might know within minutes.
;-)
21 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
this is exciting as all hell, but does it work for traditionally flung websites? Ie, technically my site isn't really a blog, and so i don't "publish" to it so much as just copy and paste into the nice web-builder program thing. and then, mind you, i "publish".
22 - Eric Olsen
Hi Chris, I didn't see your post before all of the friendly suggestions (smile), but it looks great now. Thanks and welcome!
23 - Chris
Whew...it certainly is initiation by fire around here!
Thank you Temple for fixing the original, and suggesting that I include the buttons. I *do* have access to the HTML, so I have posted the entire article.
TDavid - You are absolutely correct. There are ways to watch activity on any website. Thank you for pointing out that nothing is perfect. I agree that Feedburner will follow your clickpath and will identify what software you use to connect. Most websites also track the browsers and IP Addresses used to connect. That is, however, a far cry from knowing my email address, my annual salary and my job title, frequently required fields on a number of subscription forms. With RSS, there is no fill-out-the-form to subscribe. I predict that it will come to that if we're not careful. Watch for this as RSS hits the tipping point.
I do, however, maintain my position that you won't get spam. I have posted the entire article now, and you'll see that I made the point that "If the newsletter isn't that great or starts being an unrelenting stream of ads, all you have to do is delete the feed from your list." (You couldn't have seen that in the previous article excerpt.)
The solution is mind bendingly simple and is a far cry from the "please unsubscribe me" situation we find ourselves facing with most content delivery mechanisms.
24 - Phillip Winn
We initiate by fire because we care. :-)
Great post, thanks.