How To Use An RSS Feed To Increase Site Traffic

It wasn't all that long ago you could say the term "RSS" and get blank stares from just about anyone. Okay, so there are still hoards of people who wouldn't know an RSS if it bit them in the face, but with the proliferation of blogs and other sites offering an RSS feed the term is becoming more and more common. But what's the point? Will an RSS feed really do anything to improve your web site traffic, or is it just a fancy feature nobody really cares about? This chapter will bring you up to speed about RSS and help you decide if it might be a good addition to your traffic building strategy.

Although it sounds as intimidating as any techno babble out there, RSS is just an acronym for "Really Simple Syndication". As the name implies, it is a method for syndicating the content of a web site. An RSS file is really just another version of your web page, written in a code meant to be read by a program called a "parser". You could write an RSS file by hand, just like you could write an HTML page, but since the purpose of an RSS file is to provide quick and up-to-date information from your site, most RSS files are built by a website's content management system.

So what are we supposed to do with an RSS file? Read it in an RSS reader, of course. The real beauty publishing an RSS file for your web site is in this; it allows your visitors to read your site in an RSS reader. Don't worry; it is often possible to include your Adsense ads in your RSS feed, so you don't have to give up that revenue source. But the true benefit is that some site visitors are more likely to regularly read your posts if they can read them in an RSS reader. Most of these people will read the feeds from several sites every day, and isn't that the kind of site visitor you want to cultivate?

But while you're at it, there are a few other useful things you can do with your RSS feed. First, you can offer blog updates by email if a person subscribes to your feed through a service like FeedBlitz  or FeedBurner . Second, you can send broadcast emails to your mailing list by attaching an RSS feed to your autoresponder. Using this method you can actually publish a newsletter based solely on your blog posts, scheduling a broadcast each time you have a certain number of new entries.

But above all, the key benefit of RSS feeds is convenience. If you make it easy for your site visitors to keep reading your content, and the content is good, you're more likely to keep them around. We all know it is cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one, and an RSS feed provides an easy way to keep those visitors reading your site.

Give Your Opinion And Make More Free Traffic

I have a friend who once told me, "Everyone has a right to my opinion. So who am I to withhold it from them?" Of course he was joking (to some extent) but there is an element of truth for anyone in that statement. If you have had an experience with a product or service online, there might be a thousand other people who are thinking about buying that product or service and would like to know what you thought about it. But did you know you could post reviews on sites like Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Epinion  and help yourself while you're helping others? Posting reviews gives you an opportunity to establish yourself as an expert, and it allows you to build links back to your web site. This post will cover some ground work about sharing your opinion by writing reviews, and set you on your way to giving everyone what they deserve out of life, your opinion.

So, you may be wondering why you should bother writing reviews. Most likely you've already heard about writing articles to promote your web site or affiliate product. You probably already know how those articles will not only bring direct traffic to your site but will increase the "backlinks" and therefore improve your search engine placements. But product reviews at sites like Amazon don't get listed on Google by themselves, and the only people likely to see them are people who happen to be shopping for that particular product, right? Bingo! You've just hit the nail right on the head; people reading your review on Amazon are looking for that particular product. If your own web site is related to that product, then you might just have found yourself a new site visitor. Not only that, but you've found a site visitor who already knows you are familiar with products just like the ones they are shopping for.

Now that probably doesn't sound too exciting, does it? It may seem like a lot of work for gaining a few new visitors to your site. You're likely to be thinking there must be a more efficient way to build traffic. If that's what you're thinking, you're right. But if you look at the big picture, you may be terribly wrong. In the big picture, yes you're bringing a few visitors to your site but you're also creating backlinks from some of the largest sites with the heaviest traffic on the internet. What does that do for you, you ask? The answer is simple: it makes your site appear relevant. Here is one of the biggest sites on the internet and they're linking to you, and that's the sort of thing which really impresses search engines like Google. Your relevant back link from a major web site will do wonders for your search engine results page placement.

So now are you starting to believe there are more people who should be hearing your opinions?