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Unleash the Power of Blogs and RSS Feeds. Increase your profits by reaching new markets and increasing site traffic.
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Table of Contents

1. Editor's Musings
2. Article: Creating and Promoting RSS Feeds By S. Housley
3. Recommended
4. Internet Sites Reviewed
5. Freebies and Other Good Deals
6. Joke of the Week

1. Editor's Musings

April means spring in my hemisphere. It also means its time to develop marketing strategies geared at spring events such as June weddings, bridal showers, Memorial Day (Victoria Day in Canada), Mothers Day, Fathers Day, gardening, barbeques, spring cleaning, and fitness regimes in anticipation of bathing suit season.

It's tempting to goof off this time of year, but maintaining our efforts now increases our chances of ongoing sales throughout the lazy days of summer.

2.Article: Creating and Promoting RSS Feeds By S. Housley

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication as it is commonly known, is a technology that gives webmasters the ability to distribute and publish syndicated content on the Internet easily. Many Internet businesses now have RSS feeds available; at least your competitors do. You have finally made the decision that you have to have one. Where do you start?

There are a number of desktop and web applications available that make feed creation easy. I would encourage anyone creating a feed to use one. Though not overly complicated, hand-coding an RSS feed can become a bit confusing and time-consuming. Most desktop software applications for building a feed include a wizard and contact-sensitive help, simplifying the process of creating a feed. Following a few simple steps in a wizard generally will produce an RSS feed in just a few minutes.

Publishers control what information is syndicated in the RSS feed, so ultimately it is the publisher's decision as to whether to include teaser copy or full articles. Consider what you are trying to accomplish and who your target audience is when building the feed.

Software to Build a Feed and Tutorial for Creating Feed by Hand using XML

Once you have constructed an RSS feed you will need to transfer the feed to your server. This can be done using a standard FTP client (if it is not built into the feed creation software). The feed is usually placed in the domain's root directory like this: http://www.mydomain.com/nameoffeed.xml , but as long as you know where it is it doesn't really matter.

In order to signal to website visitors that an RSS feed containing content related to the website is available, include a colorful graphic on the website. It has become a standard that nearly all websites that have RSS feeds available use colorful graphics such as flags as indicators that RSS feeds are available for specific content. The flags were initially bright orange rectangles but as the popularity has grown, webmasters have bent the rules a bit. NotePage has made a free online RSS graphic tool available that allows users to quickly customize buttons by selecting the text on the button and the color scheme of the button. Once the color and text is entered, a custom graphic is instantly created. Webmasters can easily match the style of the RSS button to a website's theme. Graphics experience is not required. Simply select alternative colors and insert text to personalize RSS feed graphics. The RSS graphics tool can be used by clicking this URL or choose ready made graphics from: www.rss-specifications.com/rss-graphics.htm .

After publishing an RSS feed it is important to let visitors know that the feed exists. Aggregators will automatically detect RSS on a website if you add a small bit of code in the header field of an HTML page.

[link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml"]

Be sure to replace http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml with the URL to the RSS feed and replace the brackets with "<" less than and ">" greater than symbols.

Contents contained in an RSS feed can be added to a website, providing site visitors an alternative method for viewing the content. The information will also help increase search engine interest. Displaying the feed as HTML can be accomplished. Providing fresh content on a regular basis will encourage site visitors return.

Tutorial for Displaying Feeds - www.small-business-software.net/display-rss.htm

As a rapidly increasing number of content sources, new and old, migrate or add RSS as a key distribution channel, and as more people utilize RSS newsreaders and aggregators to keep themselves informed, the ability to maintain high exposure and visibility is gradually shifted from complete attention to major search engines and content optimization techniques to an increasing awareness of RSS feed directories and search tools.

In order to increase exposure of an RSS feed it should be submitted to RSS search engines and directories. This can be done manually. Just as you would submit the URL of a website or web page to a search engine you will need to submit the link of the actual feed located on your website to the RSS directories. There is a large list of RSS directories at www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm . If you prefer to automate the submission process try RSS Submit at: www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html. An evaluation version is available.

3. Product Recommendation: *** Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RRS Feeds ***

You are less than an hour away from having your blog and RSS feed up and running.

With this product, you'll learn not just the technical aspects of this new marketing strategy, as Sharon discussed in her article above, but how to do it so you'll attract traffic, reach new markets and generate sales.

This video ebook tells you and shows you exactly how to set up your blogs and feeds and how to start utilizing this new marketing mechanism. It also shows you how to get a Yahoo! Listing in 48 hours without paying the alarming $297 they charge for an ecommerce site.

Yes, everything in this video ebook can be found elsewhere on the web - as today's feature article points out. However, be prepared to invest considerable time doing the research and figuring it all out. If time is money, and it is to most business people, then this product pays for itself many times over.

The product is a PDF file with Flash movies to demonstrate the technical aspects.

Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RRS Feeds

4. Internet Sites -- reviewed by June Campbell

*** Buzz Game ***
Play Yahoo's! online game and see how good you are at predicting future technologies.

*** How the Internet has Changed Small Business Forever***
Do you know the five main ways?

*** Stop the Revolving Door
Discover the signs that indicate your employee is discontented.

*** BlUE OCEAN STRATEGY: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant
A book review.

5. Freebies and Good Deals

a. Receive 250 Business Cards, Absolutely FREE! You pay only shipping and handling.Visit this link for additional information.

b.Tired of fussing with reward programs that don't pay? Stop by Rewardsplusmore.com for a list of quality sites that do!
www.rewardsplusmore.com

c. Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby's Free Ezine "Tip of the Day" get a Free Ad for their Business on his Web Page? Subscribe at: adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm Great Business and Computer Tips Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Instructions to place your ad are in the Newsletter.

6. Joke of the Week: Penance.

Entering the confession box carrying a turkey, Mike said, "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. I stole this turkey to feed my family. Would you take it and settle my guilt?"

"Certainly not," said the Priest. "You must return it to the one from whom you stole it."

"I tried," Mike replied, "but he refused. Oh, Father, what should I do?"

"If what you say is true, then it is all right for you to keep the turkey."

Later, the Priest returned to his residence and discovered that his turkey had been stolen.

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