Are You At Risk Of Web Content Chaos?
RSS, Newsletter, Blog, Website...with so many places you can
publish your web content to, how do you choose; especially when
articles and time to publish them is limited. Besides, why
should you publish your content in so many different formats? If
you've been doing business online for any amount of time you
know that building a list is integral to success. Regular
website content brings search engine robots back. So do blogs.
Blogs also help build your expert status and RSS is the new way
for people to subscribe to your content without giving out their
email address - among other things.
Ok, so you know it's all good and they will help build your
business, but how can you do several or all without piling more
work on your already full to do list? It's really quite simple.
Instead of publishing your newsletter entirely by email, publish
it to a content management system or blog that will
automatically create an RSS feed each time you update it. Your
next step is to put that RSS feed into your mailing list
manager*. Create a signup box as you would a regular newsletter
and put it on your website or blog in a prominent area together
with the RSS feed. It probably won't take more than a few
minutes if you already have everything at hand.
>From now on, people can choose to subscribe to your newsletter
by RSS or email and every time you publish the newsletter to
your website or blog, RSS subscribers will see that you have new
content and people who opt-in for email will receive an email
notice. To top it all off, the content is also archived online
permanently and all you did was type and publish one time.
You know the amazing part is, that's not all. You can syndicate
your newsletter for more exposure. Contact a few webmasters and
ask them if they'd like free, automatically updating content on
their websites. Create the codes for them so it's super easy for
them to add you. When they do, the next time you publish your
newsletter, their website gets updated immediately. If anyone
wants to read more of your content, they would be brought to
your site.
RSS is truly an exciting technology. Not only does it open many
doors for you to share your content, it can also help you work
smarter by cutting down your work as you read above. There's no
reason why you shouldn't have an RSS feed today and if you
already have one, it's time you should milk your RSS feed for
all it's worth.
*Note: Not all mailing list managers can take your RSS feed and
convert it into email updates.