Is your content ready for RSS feeds
| by David Callan Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are making quite an impact on the web at the moment. It is now very clear that this is not a fad that is going to go away soon but definitely a permanent addition to life on the net.So you cannot avoid learning how to use RSS feeds properly if you are not
already good at it. There are really no two ways about it because it is now
clear that any site that is not using RSS is at a great disadvantage and losing
lots of traffic and attention that it could be getting by making use of RSS.
But apart from leaning how to use this wonderful new marketing tool, you need to also ask yourself if your articles and content are ready for RSS. You have to make a deliberate effort to prepare all your content for RSS. Every time you prepare content for posting you should always bear in mind the fact that you will be using RSS. There are actually a number of important factors you will need to take care of so as to ensure that your content is ready for RSS.
Will Your Headline Stop Them Dead In Their Tracks?
You will need to spend a lot more time on your headlines. More time than you actually spend writing the article. With RSS one headline can get you almost totally ignored while another on the very same article can get you a triple digit traffic figure. That’s how important the headline is. Remember that many other headlines will be streaming through the RSS feeds and people will only tend to take a closer look at what looks interesting. With so many other interesting-looking headlines, yours can easily drown in the sea and never attract any interest.
That’s why it is a good idea to write several headlines and then leave them and come back a day or so later to try and adjust and select the best headline to use. It is useful to always bear in mind the fact that no matter how good your article is, without a good headline, it is useless because nobody will read it.
Is Your Headline Obvious?
One of the most common mistakes many site owners and writers make is writing a headline that is obvious. The sort of headline that tells the whole story in a few words. This is the sort of headline that you read and you immediately know or have a very good idea of what the rest of the content in the article is all about. What’s the point of reading the article if you already know?
Ideally, your headline should leave the reader hanging, if possible it should create curiosity, which can only be answered by somebody actually reading the article through.
Is Your Content Good Enough To Make Them Regulars?
RSS feed gives your content huge exposure if your headlines are attractive enough. If everything goes according to plan, you will end up with valuable visitors to your site. The next thing you have to make a big effort to ensure is that the rest of the content on your site is good enough for many of them to want to come back again.
Although one of the things an RSS feed is supposed to do is to notify subscribers about new content at your site, you should also look for a way to trap email addresses of visitors to your site. This is what is referred to as an opt-in email address list. And it is worth its’ weight in gold for any webmaster or even blog owner. It puts full control in the hands of the publisher and leaves you with so many different options. There are people on the net who make a very good living from nothing else but an opt-in email list of about 5,000 names that they simply keep on emailing valuable information to alongside relevant ads offers and affiliate schemes.
However to get people interested in subscribing to any of your email reports or newsletters, you will need to have very good content that is difficult to find anywhere else on the net – quite a challenge to anybody to achieve. Still it is very much achievable.