| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »
Daytrade Team reports that its "Trading Tips" article feeds have increased in circulation by over 1,000% since being produced in RSS/XML formats that enable effortless syndication for website owners.
Wow! That just goes to show what a little bit of RSS can do to spice up your visibility. I know that we will see more examples of these kinds of success stories as the adoption continues so stay tuned.
If you are a fotoblogger who has used Flikr and not been satisfied you now have a new option in Fotothing.
Fotothing (www.fotothing.com) is a free photo sharing and blogging site. It is like a standard blogging Website, except with photos as the focus. Users can:
*
Share their latest and greatest snaps with their friends, family and online communities
*
Tag their own pictures and add groups and friends to their personal blogging network
*
Post comments/receive comments from other users on their snaps
*
Upload up to 15 photos per day
*
Receive up to 100 comments per photo
*
Upload photos of up to 2Mb in size
*
Add up to 200 friends
*
Eliminate banner ads or Google ads on the site
*
Have their name highlighted in the member directory and 'online' list.
*
Have improved JPEG quality for their photos
The really cool thing is that they offer a free side to their service. This should speed up the adoption of the service. They also offer a premium service level that quite simply adds more benefits to the basic offering which is not basic at all.
Wow! Everywhere you look people are improving on the many uses of blogging technologies. No doubt movie making version may be in the not so distant future.
I was reading a press release on PRWeb that asked the interesting question that titles this blog entry. So, is RSS the replacement for email marketing? The press release answered the following:
As of now, marketers need to find ways of using RSS as a
supplement to e-mail delivery, such as using it to announce their
e-mail e-zines, providing targeted news feeds as a compliment to their
e-mail communications, using RSS for high-importance customer updates
and so on. RSS, a
standard that allows companies to communicate directly with their
customers without fear of spam or e-mail filters, is quickly gaining
popularity.
This comes as no surprise, since RSS can be implemented at a low cost
and can be used for various business purposes, such as PR, direct
marketing, online publishing, customer relationship management,
e-commerce, search engine optimization and sales facilitation.
However, many recent studies show that RSS is still only achieving
marginal penetration and has a long way to go before companies can
completely shift outbound communications to this content delivery
channel.
A recent Jupiter Research study found that only 3 percent of the 4,000 internet users surveyed actually use RSS. A research study from Forrester Research claims that only 2 percent of all online households in America are using RSS. A Pew Internet & American Life Project report notes that only 9 percent of Americans online have a good idea of what RSS feeds are.
The press release brings up some interesting points. I would answer Yes, Yes and Yes.
Yes RSS will replace many campaigns that have previously been conducted by email. Yes RSS will be utilized more and more by Marketers to get their messages out to key clients and prospects. And yes RSS will only gain in its adoption by the general public.
Keep your eye on RSS. As fast as it is changing the way things are done if you don't follow it you may miss an opportunity.
I look around at all that has happened in the world of RSS and all I can say is that while the basic goal of syndication has not changed the number of applications is far reaching. New companies are being created and new technologies are being developed with RSS as the foundation.
One thing that is for certain is that the growth of RSS is being fueled because people are using it. You can't beat the massive number of additional eyeballs that are seeing new opportunities in RSS. The other thing that fuels it are the companies that offer it freely. One of the early examples of a company using RSS is that of PRWeb using RSS to distribute it's news via RSS feeds that are free.
This is contrary to what so many content providers do. There are many that keep their content under lock and key so that they can charge subscription feels or fees for special reports. PRWeb on the other hand has shown that by providing the news content that it has for free it has been able to add a lot more readership more quickly than it would have under one of the many other revenue models that are out there.
RSS is one of the things that made that process possible. Of course a lot of traditional hard work played a role in PRWeb's success and is a necessary ingredient in the success of any great company.
Another simple solution has evolved for sending photos, or "fotos" for our Spanish speaking friends, as other forms of media. Slide is a free Windows application (Mac version coming soon!) for
finding, playing, and instantly sharing photos, videos, and other
media. Slide will help you group digital photos into channels to share
with friends and family. It might even help you find pictures that you
forgot you had.
You can't beat free as a price to encourage the adoption of the product and with the Mac version in the works they will make the availability universal. Check it out. I think you will find it quite interesting.
