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RSS Advertising for Your Blog? Why It's Still Good for You
from: Deb St. George, Publisher, BlogNetHosting.comThe problem with the Internet is that there is just so
much information floating around that it can be a
full-time job just to sift through the good ones and
ignore the so-so ones. It's like TiVo on the Web - you
only get to access the stuff you really like and avoid
the ones that make you cringe, all without the
interruption of unwanted material. But what's this?
RSS advertising for blogs and websites? Is this the
end of an era or just simply part of the Internet's
evolution?
Why RSS matters Advertising on RSS is ruffling a few
feathers mainly because it's a concept that seems to
go against the very nature of RSS. For the
uninitiated, RSS consists of different Web-feed
formats that are utilized for publishing or posting
content online. RSS works mainly for content that
frequently undergo updates, such as news, podcasts and
of course, blogs.
The purpose of the RSS is to allow regular visitors of
a site to access relevant updates by simply
subscribing to its RSS feed. It's convenient,
particularly because it eliminates the necessity to
access a site and sort through the contents.
Will RSS advertising work on your blog? The fact that
people continue to subscribe to RSS feed is proof that
it does work nicely. In fact, you'll probably notice
that more people subscribe to a site or blog that
offers RSS feeds than those who don't. As proof, try
to compare CNN.com with the New York Times' website.
But when it comes to the subject of advertising, all
isn’t exactly well. Some people believe that having
adverts on RSS sort of defeats its original purpose -
that of allowing subscribers access to pure content.
There is talk about using an RSS advertising block,
one that effectively allows users to get rid of ads
that are contained in an RSS feed. So what's next? A
full-fledged war between advertisers and ad blockers?
To use RSS advertising with your blog effectively, the
trick is to write compelling summaries of content
found in your site and use that for the feed. A feed
containing full text, for example, might fail to
generate interest in the ads since the usual purpose
of the subscriber is mainly to read the content.
Using a feed as a full ad can backfire, since people
generally dislike being bombarded by ads. Some
bloggers who use RSS advertising, for example, use a
full feed as an ad every 10th to 12th post. Their
readers still get the meaty feeds that they like but
also get exposed to ads the blogger is promoting.
If this is the way you think RSS advertising can work
for your blog, try experimenting with different
strategies, such as combining good content with
related ads. That way your readers don’t have to think
that the post is nothing but a way to make them
perform an action or spend for something.
Blocking the hand that feeds Before anyone does
anything drastic, let us consider how important
advertising is to blogs, websites and yes, even RSS
feeds. Thanks to revenue generated from advertising,
sites (and everything else that supports them from
software makers to hosting services) continue to
exist. Advertising provides support for sites that
offer us content, including those found in RSS feeds.
Without advertising, many sites and providers might
find it difficult to defray cost related to producing
content.
So where will RSS advertising's place be in your blog?
Continue to use it. You owe it not only to your
advertisers and sponsors who have been helping you
meet the cost of maintaining your site but also to
your readers who, without your ads, might not be able
to access your content.
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