Jun 28th, 2007 by admin 3,852 Views
Only a few minutes ago I published a post with the title “What is RSS”. I think that most of my readers already know what RSS is, because this blog is webmaster related and probably most of it’s visitors are webmasters. I.m now writing this post, to let you know that I did not become crazy and started to write about something that many other bloggers wrote about a few years ago.
Here is the reason I wrote a short post to explain what RSS is and how it works:
some days ago I reveived a comment from David Bradley who seems to be the owner of Sciencebase, a science related blog with more than 2.400 feed readers and a Google PageRank of 7. This famous blogger took even the time to leave a comment on my blog saying:
I love your 3D RSS lozenge. But, a lot of web users still don’t know what that logo represents. I adapted one rss icon by adding the letters RSS to the front and made that part of the reflection on my science site. Now, you might say, a lot of web users won’t know what RSS stands for either, but at least there’s chance that the curious will look it up and discover the wonders of newsfeeds; it’s especially important to add a “What is RSS?” explanatory link near the icon.
Keep up the good work.
db
A lot of web users still don’t know the meaning of the RSS logo? Are you serious?
His second comment finally convinced me:
you’re not going to lose subscribers by adding that and might just gain a few. My Sciencebase site went from about 1800 average to 2600 average when I added a bigger RSS button and a proximal link to a “What’s RSS” page.
Finally I decided to try this technique and wrote a short post about “What is RSS”. I added a small text saying “RSS” inside the RSS logo and finally added a link in the sidebar pointing to the “What is RSS” post.
I’m really curious if this works. Of course I will also have to consider that David’s blog is related to science while mine is webmaster related. There are surely more webmasters than scientists that know the meaning of this logo. Anyway, thanks David and let’s see how it goes 
Hmmm, an interesting observation that I didn’t even think about … so many things we take for granted
sometimes being technical person has backfire effect one doesn’t expect …
Off to creating my own “what is rss” post
thanks for the tip
I certainly don’t think RSS is universally accepted yet, and I’m sure there’s quite a few who don’t know what it is, either. I know what it is, but I don’t use RSS. I’m gonna hafta get up to speed eventually, though…
In any case, I think it was fine to put out a post like this; somebody will find it helpful.
Hi
Thanks for the plug! I guess among visitors to a site who happen to be webmasters too they might wonder why you posted a “What is RSS?” write-up, but just look at your visitor logs how many people arrive looking for fairly unrelated things? 10%? 20%? It’s probably nearer 90%. Many of those “random” visitors will almost certainly not be specialists in web matters and most really will not know about RSS.
I get blank stares from some friends and relatives when I mention blogs, newsfeeds, RSS etc, and even one or two web designers I know are yet to embrace the technology.
If some visitors are mildly offended or feel patronized so be it, if it means that the vast majority start to get the message…via RSS, of course
db
Benefits of RSS?
RSS streamlines communications between publishers and readers. Since RSS has recently had a popularity surge, webmasters have been experimenting and using RSS feeds to deliver content in new and innovative ways. Typically, RSS feeds contain news headlines and content summaries. The content summaries contain just enough information without overwhelming the reader with superfluous details. If the reader is interested and wants additional information, they can click on the item in the feed, accessing the website which contains additional details. RSS readers aggregate multiple feeds, making it easy for individuals to quickly scan information contained within each feed. Feeds are generally themed, allowing users to opt-in to feeds that are of interest.
The big benefit to RSS is that individuals opt-in to content of interest, totally controlling the flow of information that they receive. If the quality of the content in the feed declines, users simply remove the feed from their RSS reader and they will not receive any additional updates from that source. The RSS reader acts as an aggregator, allowing users to view and scan multiple content streams in a timely fashion.
RSS is a great supplemental communication method that does not burden the publisher with maintaining lists or following strict privacy guidelines. RSS feeds are compiled according to the user’s choices, removing any burden that is placed on publishers of email newsletters. Publishers no longer need to be concerned with spam, privacy policies and age guidelines.
Today, the web is no longer about passive reading; it’s now about sharing content. Increasingly, websites are disseminating their news via blogs and articles. RSS is the new way for people to publish and distribute content.
The benefits of RSS marketing are:
- RSS is dynamic. As soon as content is changed, users know immediately;
- Users can review a large number of sites can easily by choosing from categorised headlines;
- It bypassed spam filters and firewalls and cannot get infected by viruses as users select the RSS feeds they are interested in;
- It allows users to view content without having to visit a site;
- It provides fresh content for your website;
- By adding RSS to a site, other people’s content can be easily published;
- It increases your search engine rankings because of the fresh content you are adding;
- It saves time: instead of browsing multiple sites for information, syndicated content is delivered directly through an RSS Reader.
WordPress can be added to an existing website as a seamless addition. The benefits of using WordPress are:
- It has a variety of free plug-in themes to define the look and feel;
- The software writes each article into an RSS file, which allows the major feeds to publish it each time an article is added;
- It can be seamlessly integrated into the site, adding content and therefore boosting PR values;
- Choosing a relevant keyword for the directory name will also help relevance in ‘outbound links’ thereby increasing a site’s visibility;
- Using the Technorati plug-in, keywords are tagged on that site for blog searches;
- Website owners can make money from running ads from Google Adsense at circa 75% of the click-through value
- Small companies can now be offered templated but effective Content Management Systems (CMS) solutions through WordPress, either as an add-on or the site itself.
Hi John,
what you’ve made is not a comment…but a whole article!
Thanks a lot for adding so much valuable content to this post.
Yep, that would do as a “What is RSS?” post John!
db
[…] I left a comment on a fellow blogger’s site suggesting he add a small link to a “What is RSS?” post close to his feed subscription […]