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RSS Feeds and Blogging for fun and profit!
Make Money From Blogs Without Writing A Single Word...
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Why I Use Bloglines as My Default RSS Reader
Choosing a decent RSS reader to browse and read your favourite RSS feeds was not a straight forward task. I tried and tested many different windows desktop readers but I ended up uninstalling them for one reason or another. Then I found Bloglines and I am pleased to say I have not yet been disappointed with it.
The reason I need a decent RSS reader is that I spend a lot of time reading feeds. I run an RSS resource website http://www.newsniche.com/ which means I have to keep up to date with all things RSS. Naturally I have come across many RSS readers but have found them always to be lacking in one thing or another. In my research I came across Bloglines which is a web based reader.
It's a shame Bloglines does not have an affiliate program as I would love to promote it, purely because it is such a great tool. Unfortunately for me but fortunately for you this tool is free and everybody loves free internet tools. The main reason I am writing this is because I feel I need to give something back to Bloglines and I also want you to benefit from such a great RSS reader.
Lets start by looking at the main benefits of using Bloglines. Firstly it is fast to use. Now usually web based tools are a lot slower than there desktop counterparts, in this case because Bloglines has a cache of feeds because of its large user base the feeds are already on the Bloglines server. With desktop reader you would have to download the feeds when you start up your reader, if you subscribe to a lot of feeds like me then you will end up waiting a long time.
As it is a popular web based reader you have the advantage of the social side of RSS. There is a directory of all the feeds it there readers have subscribed to and if the reader chooses to make their list of RSS feeds public you can see what everyone else is reading. Another great spin off from this is the ability to see how many Bloglines users are subscribed to each feed.
As you know everything has its down side and Bloglines is no exception. The main negative is that if Bloglines is ever down then you will not be able to access your feeds. Now this is certainly a big potential problem especially if you really heavily on being able to have access to your feeds. Since I have been a user I have as yet not experienced any down time. As a precaution you can export your RSS feed list as an OPML file so you can import into another RSS reader should Bloglines go belly up or experience any serious down time.
I am happy to say Bloglines is a tool I would gladly recommend to an RSS user. It is easy to setup, easy to use and it is at the moment totally free. So why not try it, I promise you that you will quickly become addicted and you will be checking your feeds more than your email.
Allan is the webmaster at http://www.newsniche.com/ an RSS resource for webmasters. Learn how to use RSS to attract and retain visitors to your site.
Feed The Need: 5 Ways To Use RSS To Boost Your Business Or Organizational Success
RSS (it stands for Really Simple Syndication, among other things) is a relatively new technology that allows anyone who creates frequently changing web content - news, blogs, current events, etc. - to deliver their messages to interested readers with no fuss, no muss and best of all - no spam!
BlogoCentric Communication: The Next Great Event in Social Evolution
Here is a pretty cool lesson in the structure and travel of information in the Blogosphere (that's bloggers on the Internet talking to each other about each other). If you haven't read the book The Tipping Point yet, then you are really missing something because it sets the foundation for how future electronic communications are going to happen in the future.
RSS Meets the Needs of Direct Marketers
Contrary to general opinion, RSS meets the needs of even the most demanding direct marketer, actually providing most of what e-mail marketing does, except for the strong push factor.
Brief History of Blogs
So where did all these blogs come from? How did they get from an underground geek toy to a mainstream tool that has revolutionized politics, journalism, marketing and the media?
Update Your Websites Content Automatically 24/7 Using RSS(Real Simple Syndication) and RSS Feeds
RSS(Real Simple Syndication) is the newest form of content syndication to hit the Internet and is widely becoming the best known way online to deliver fresh targeted content to your website(s) to whatever audience you're targeting 24/7/365.
It Really Is Simple RSS
I have 'Googlebot' coming to my site every day since a month ago I put up my first news feed, since then I have put up yet another.
Internet Communication
Email, Instant Messaging, Blogs, RSS, Forums and Listservs: What's Next?
Should You Get A Blog?
A blog is a type of website. It allows the website owner to easily write messages that get posted to the site automatically, often in a journal or diary-like style. A particularly appealing thing about blogs is that your readers can comment back to your posts fairly easily, and a continuous stream of fresh conversations result. (This is a good thing.)
Blogs: The Hidden Ace Up Your Sleeve
If it wasn't for my blog, I wouldn't make any online sales at all.
24 Tips and Strategies on How Everyone Can Blog Right and Get Everybody to Read
By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key part of online culture. "Blog readership shoots up 58% in 2004 6 million Americans get news and information fed to them through RSS aggregators But 62% of online Americans do not know what a blog is." - Pew Internet & American Life Project
What the BLOG?
Blogs Are the NEW Secret Weapon for Reaching Your Tarket. Just like you, I hate being marketed to. Every day we're bombarded with over 3,500 marketing messages. And frankly I'm sick of it! But blogs are different. Blogs are a two-way conversation between blogger and bloggee (plus all the readers in between). Through commenting and cross-linking, you can share feedback. You can build your network. You can become, dare I say it, an Internet celebrity!
RSS Round-Up: Whats Happening with Simple Syndication?
Have you been following the explosion of RSS -- Really Simple Syndication -- activity online? Seems this new method of "getting the word out" is picking up steam. Why? Partly because of the Davids, and partly because of the Goliaths. The "Davids" -- the little guys -- are able to deploy the technology since it is easy to use and usually is a feature of Blogging software (Blogging is another emerging trend -- for more articles on Blogging, visit WebFadds.com). You just click the option and send your RSS feed (broadcast your articles) out to subscribing sites. And the "Goliaths", the likes of Yahoo, Google, MSN and others, are all catering to it in various ways. Let's look at some of the latest ways this is playing out...
What Consumers Need To Know About RSS Feeds
Feeds are simple, really. What's even more exciting is that they are extremely easy to use, and even better, they are completely safe from Viruses, being Spammed or receiving Junk Mail. How? Basically because there is no transfer of information to your computer.
Small Business: To Blog or Not To Blog
A weblog, or "blog" started out as a personal journal on the Web. They have evolved far beyond that initial concept. Now, weblogs cover as many different topics as there are people writing them. Some blogs are highly influential and have readership which exceeds most traditional newspapers, while others are mainly intended as personal journals to be shared with only family and friends. So, should you consider blogging?
Superbloggers Secrets
Blogs are extremely hot right now. Everyone is starting them, and the more successful ones are driving unprecedented amounts of traffic and cash to their owners.
How To Profit From Your Home Business Blog
A blog is a simple tool which all affiliate marketers should be utilising to explode their affiliate sales.
Dear Web Diary!
Blogging is hot and getting hotter, with more and more web logs (blogs) cropping up online by the day!
To Blog Or Not To Blog - A Laymans View
We have now entered the world of blogs! Sounds kind of Harry Potterish, doesn't it?
3 Overlooked Ways to Get Hundreds of Links and Prospects to Your Blog
Did you know that there are free ways that you can get links back to your blog overnight? That after a few days they can number in the hundreds? No matter what you market on the internet at some point you'll face the issue of increasing the number of visitors to your site. What most people don't know is that there are literally hundreds of ways to get free traffic. Here we'll focus on three overlooked ways to get additional traffic to your site using a blog. The third most overlooked way to bring traffic to your site with a blog is to read and comment on other blogs. Now, maybe you've done this before but stopped, because you're becoming concerned about being considered a link-spammer. In that case, leave a link to your site after your comments, instead of in the comment form that hot links it. In the near future, blogmasters will be able to use special code to prevent spam in their comments section, so this will become less of a concern. Besides, getting clicks from people who read comments, or visits from search engine spiders through your comments, isn't necessarily your direct objective, though it's definitely a plus. What you want to do via commenting is to enter the blog community that corresponds to your target market. Get to know who the players are and make agreements with them to cycle traffic between you. Or lurk to find out where your target market typically hangs out when they're online ? you'd be surprised at how many inexpensive and targeted advertising sources you can find through this method. (If you're looking to get linked, there's another way that we'll go over next.) This tip alone has earned me a few dozen links from prominent blogs in the past four days alone. These links are worth ten times a reciprocal link because they send targeted traffic from established sources, and come from experts with records of proven results. You can be sure these kinds of people will check you out before they linked to you, since they may be judged by the quality of the information they share. The second method to more blog traffic is the most confusing for newer people, and this is probably the reason its benefits remain overlooked. In the simplest of terms, Trackback is kind of a remote commenting system that incorporates linking. It allows the reader to follow a topic around the web to see other bloggers remark on the same subject. It enables the publisher to remotely cite references to the issue on which they've written. Once you've made yourself familiar with the blogging community you have entered, you can often pick up the pulse of conversations within your site's theme. Then, when you see issues that you want to expound on, you can send the other site a notification to let them know you cited them on your blog. That link will appear on their site, and often draws visitors to you. Bloggers who use Trackback often enjoy greater control over this function in their blogs than they do over linking, as they have the option to reject your reference - so there is a lesser incidence of fraudulent linking. That also gives your link a greater chance of being displayed. So why don't more people use Trackback? One reason is that what is arguably the most popular free blog system, Blogger, doesn't have Trackback. However, Haloscan.com can remedy this with their free service ? it's a cut and paste away. Many new bloggers don't get what it is and how it differs from commenting. And of course, the dynamics of it are a little more complex than I've stated. But learn to use Trackback properly, and you won't need to beg for links to your site ever again. It's harder to estimate an exact number of visitors that come as a result of trackback links. But if you posted five days out of seven, and was able to get a trackback link to your site three times a week, by the end of the year you'd have almost 150 topical links back to your site, which are more valued by search engines than a typical link trade with an unrelated site. The most overlooked source of traffic for a blog is through article submission. To start with, turn your longer posts into articles and submitting them to ezines or directories. Look especially for directories that ask for the direct link to the article on your own site, and input the permanent link to the post on your blog. Make sure that your Auto-Discovery tag is in place and it can mean hundreds more prospects, links and subscribers. It's a shame this is the one of the least used traffic methods for most sites, let alone for blogs. In four days, this method generated just over 1000 visitors. 157 newsletter leads, 98 new feed subscribers, and 206 links to my site. You may not get these same results right away, but using these simple strategies can still get you more exposure than you have now. These aren't normally the highest quality links, as they rarely make sure of anchor text. However, bloggers are citing me using Trackback, sometimes in lieu of linking to the site where they originally found the article. To see this in action, do a search on "Can A Ping Really Help Your Blog Get Top Search Engine Rankings", the title of an article I submitted earlier this week. That article was published within a week of this one- the results speak for themselves. Many of these sites aren't the ones where my articles are normally published. There are, of course, plenty of other ways you can leverage the content in your blog or RSS feed to increase the traffic to your site. The methods outlined here may be a bit outside the norm, but, as you'll soon find, that's part of the reason they are so effective.
Top 10 Ways to Get People Online to Read Your Business Blog
There are many advantages of running a blog, on top of your business website. A blog is an online diary, whereby you can easily posts clips about yourself, your thoughts and your personal life. If you publish a business blog, you posts good content, articles, breaking news or just about anything to build awareness of what you are selling.