Biz Tips Blog: Online Marketing, Visibility and Business Blogging Tips

Email vs RSS Debate - Quick Poll

This is a quickie post. I've posted a poll on Build a Better Blog with one question: How do you prefer to subscribe to blogs?

I want a good cross-section of responses so I invite you to take 30 seconds now to vote.

Thanks!

Creating an RSS Autoresponder

Yipee!  I just finished creating my first RSS autoresponder feed.  I set it up for the Blog to Book MiniCourse which is also set up as an email autoresponder.  If you want to take it for a test run, click here.

Setting up the autoresponder information was not a problem.  It's much like setting up any autoresponder sequence where you set up each message, create a campaign, select the messages that go in the campaign and the days for delivery. 

Where it got a little trickier is after publishing the RSS feed, then you have to set it up so people can subscribe to it.  You can set up a web form for people to submit their name and email address before they get the feed or just give them a subscription link.  Then they get directed to a thank you page.  This means you have to know how to set up a web page. You can copy code for a very simple, bland web thank you page, but if you want it to match your website, you need to be able to "design" and post a web page.

The alternative is to submit the feed to RSS feed directories so the public at large can sign up.

Using RSS to Deliver Your Ads

There's an article in today's NY Times about how advertisers are using RSS feeds to deliver their advertising messages.  A couple of things stand out for me:

...R.S.S. ads should be conversational in tone and provide information. "In R.S.S., you're in the mode of absorbing information," he said. Pheedo has tested R.S.S. ads of various lengths and found that 500-word ads, instead of the shorter search ad length of about 100 words, tend to work better. R.S.S. users like to read most of the pitch in their R.S.S. screen, without having to quickly click to another site, he said.

and

Advertising agencies said R.S.S. feeds attract a younger, wealthier consumer on average. They said users were desirable because they had signed up for the feeds and want particular content.

and

R.S.S. has the potential to replace e-mail for information delivery, said Steve Rubel, a technology Web log writer and public relations strategist who runs CooperKatz & Company's micropersuasion practice. He said he thought that five years from now, most people would use e-mail for communications and R.S.S. to receive news and information like shopping updates and weather reports.

You can read the whole article here.

The Full Circle of RSS Marketing Power

The article below gives an excellent overview of the power of using RSS in your in your internet marketing stratgies.  The author, Rok Hrastnik, is our featured guest on Conversations with Experts, on Wednesday, June 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET.

The Full Circle of RSS Marketing Power
Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

RSS is a many-in-one marketing & publishing tool, although unfortunatelly most marketers still fail to understand this powerful concept.

While RSS does provide a number of benefits when used for each individual marketing function, best results are achieved when it is fully integrated in your internet marketing strategy. In more simpler terms --- when you use it to power most of your marketing online.

The key point is that RSS makes various marketing functions work together, in order to generate the best possible end result.

It’s now the time to tie it all together and see the whole picture …

1]
RSS as a content delivery channel for communicating with subscribers, customers, prospects and partners gets your content delivered and provides you with multiple new content delivery & business development opportunities. Yes, RSS gets your content to your subscribers without fail, enabling you to communicate with them and sell to them.

Conversation with Rok Hrastnik: The Business Case for RSS

The Business Case for RSS   
Wednesday, June 22, 2005, 8:30 p.m. ET - FREE
Guest Expert:  Rok Hrastnik author of the "Unleash the Marketing Power of RSS" 

E-mail marketing and publishing, search engine marketing and optimization, business blogging, internet advertising, digital public relations, branding, e-commerce and others … all key elements of a strong marketing mix, and all can be powered by RSS. Misunderstood by most marketers, overlooked by many end-users, it has the potential to power the entire internet marketing mix. It is not the solution to all of our problems, but it is the one tool that can have the most profound affect on our internet marketing and business results in 2005 and beyond. Find out more at the teleconference ...

Rok Hrastnik , the author of the »Unleash the Marketing Power of RSS« report, is currently serving as the E-commerce Manager at Studio Moderna, managing their corporate and brand internet marketing operations. Studio Moderna is the leading direct marketing company and network in Central and Eastern Europe, present in 19 European countries.

Register:  http://www.ConversationsWithExperts.com

Conversations with Experts is sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.