How RSS and Blogs can Increase Traffic for you!
Welcome back to Blogtrepreneur, where today I will be focusing on RSS and blogging.
Well firstly, what’s the difference?
Let’s make this clear…
Blogs are frequently updated web pages that a person must GO TO in order to read the information. RSS feeds actually COME TO YOU, containing the new information provided by the publisher. Blogs simply are posts made by a publisher in an attempt to express opinions, give advice, or market their products and services. RSS is a delivery channel that actually sends either a portion of your blog entry or the entire post to your RSS subscribers, giving them immediate gratification, as well as giving them reason to return to your site.
I think one of themain benefits of using RSS feeds to notify subscribers of your new blog postings is that your information can be immediately devoured by those who are hungry for what you have to say. Using RSS and Blogs together, your subscribers can access your new blog posts immediately through their RSS reader, or aggregator, within minutes of you submitting your post, and could be quickly revisiting your site as a result!
What if you DON’T use RSS with your blog? Let’s say you have a blog set up on your site, but you don’t have an RSS feed that delivers your new blog posts to interested subscribers. You just made a new post that you feel will really excite your target market, so you decide to shoot an e-mail off to them, telling them that they just have to visit your blog to get the juicy details of your new message.
That’s great, and I recommend that you still take action by doing this, however, your message may either get intercepted by spam filters, the recipient may not check his e-mail for a couple days, and so on.
Or…
Maybe you intend to send out an e-mail to your list about your post, but because you have entrepreneur’s A.D.D. like I do, you get distracted and forget, or put it off for a couple days. As a result, the only traffic you’ll receive for your blog will come from those who either decide to visit out of the clear blue, or just happen to stumble upon your site through some other avenue.
How RSS and Blogs Increase Traffic For You!
Of course, if you create good, keyword rich content in your blog, and continue to add new content on a consistent basis, search engines will spider your site, and your search engine positioning should improve as a result. But there are many other things you can do…
In addition to making your blog available via RSS feeds, not only should you mention your blog in every email sent out to subscribers, prospects, and clients, you should consider creating a monthly “best of” email newsletter of your best blog posts of the month that proactively directs people to visit your blog. Many people still haven’t warmed up to RSS technology (oh, but they will), so even though you must consistently battle the evil “spam filter empire”, creating a “Best Of X Blog”-type email each month is an excellent way to drive traffic to your blog, and thus to profitable links on your blog.
Here are some other tips:
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1. When you use an RSS feed to promote your blog,
other web sites can publish your blog by pulling RSS
feeds automatically from related web sites (yours)
according to certain targeted keywords or content.
2. You can submit your RSS feed/blog to RSS and
blog directories. This site will give you a nice list of
places to submit your RSS feed:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55.
3. If you already have a blog, but haven’t
implemented an RSS feed,
use the content from your
blog to create as many valuable articles as possible,
submit these articles to article directories, and
promote your blog/rss feed in EACH OF THESE
ARTICLES.
4. Add Adsense ads, affiliate links, and/or your own
product links onto your post pages in order to
monetize the increased traffic you start receiving as a
result of your efforts.
5. Participate in forums, helping others with their
concerns, and direct them to visit your blog.
6. Turn your RSS feed into a radio broadcast with
“Podcasting”. Podcasting is simply adding audio files
to your RSS feed or blog, enabling subscribers to
listen to new information on their computer, through
an MP3 player, and so on. We’ll talk more about
podcasting in future issues.
7. Blog and Ping. One of the best ways to
get traffic to your web sites is by linking to a web
page from your blog entry, and then send a ping
request to some sights that want to know when
blogs are updated, i.e., when new entries are added.
This technique works like a charm.
RSS technology combined with your own contentrich
blog, geared towards a specific target market, is
a must-have strategy in every online marketer’s
toolbox.