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RSS - What's all the Hype About Anyway?


Why is everyone raving about RSS? What does RSS stand for? What does it even mean to me? If you've been wondering about these curly issues, then perhaps I can enlighten you a little...

RSS is not new... It was first introduced to the Internet by the people at Netscape in 1999, and adopted by others in 2000.

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary (or Really Simple Syndication) and is basically a method of distributing automatically updated content.

Simply put...

  1. web sites create RSS feeds from the content on their site
  2. the general public subscribes to feeds which interest them
and everyone is happy... The web site owner has people who regularly see their updated information, and those people are pleased to get the latest news from that site automatically delivered to them.

Why is it Becoming So Popular Now?

That's easy... The amount of SPAM that is polluting our in-boxes!

As a distribution channel, RSS is SPAM free which means your message is not going to get blocked by over-zealous spam fighters, and you aren't going to be blacklisted by someone who forgot they actually subscribed to your newsletter...

AND it's opt-in! Only people who CHOOSE to read a feed get it delivered to them. Targeted, interested people! A very receptive audience!

Is it for Me?

As a marketing method...

RSS is fast gaining acceptance by both web publishers and consumers.

So... if you've got information on your web site that regularly changes, it is a great way of keeping in touch with your customers. With that type of content, it is certainly worth investigating further on how to incorporate RSS into your web site.

As a content tool...

RSS is a great way of adding extra, automatically updated, interesting content to your site.

With RSS, you can use other people's RSS feeds to create extra pages on your site! Now that's good news, because more pages means more search engine traffic (if done right), more content for your site visitors, more "credibility" as a source of useful information... all of which will hopefully result in more income / sales for you.

Again - it's certainly worth looking at how you can include content from other sites onto your site by using RSS.

As an informational medium...

YOU can use RSS to keep in touch with things of interest to you and/or your business. Just find RSS feeds that interest you, and you'll be kept up to date on those topics.

So... What Are You Waiting for?

Get your RSS into gear and see what it's all about!

Author Credits ::

Stephen Spry is webmaster of RSSisKING.com, a directory of quality RSS feeds, and repository of useful information about RSS.

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