How RSS and Blogs can Increase Traffic for you!

Welcome back to Blogtrepreneur, where today I will be focusing on RSS and blogging.

Well firstly, what’s the difference?
Let’s make this clear…
Blogs are frequently updated web pages that a person
must GO TO in order to read the information. RSS
feeds actually COME TO YOU, containing the new
information provided by the publisher.
Blogs simply are posts made by a publisher in an
attempt to express opinions, give advice, or market
their products and services.
RSS is a delivery channel that actually sends either a
portion of your blog entry or the entire post to your
RSS subscribers, giving them immediate gratification,
as well as giving them reason to return to your site.
I think one of the main benefits of using RSS feeds to
notify subscribers of your new blog postings is that
your information can be immediately devoured by
those who are hungry for what you have to say.
Using RSS and Blogs together, your subscribers can
access your new blog posts immediately through
their RSS reader, or aggregator, within minutes of
you submitting your post, and could be quickly revisiting
your site as a result!
What if you DON’T use RSS with your blog?
Let’s say you have a blog set up on your site, but
you don’t have an RSS feed that delivers your new
blog posts to interested subscribers.
You just made a new post that you feel will really
excite your target market, so you decide to shoot an
e-mail off to them, telling them that they just have
to visit your blog to get the juicy details of your
new message.
That’s great, and I recommend that you still take
action by doing this, however, your message may
either get intercepted by spam filters, the recipient
may not check his e-mail for a couple days, and so
on.
Or…
Maybe you intend to send out an e-mail to your list
about your post, but because you have
entrepreneur’s A.D.D. like I do, you get distracted
and forget, or put it off for a couple days.
As a result, the only traffic you’ll receive for your
blog will come from those who either decide to visit
out of the clear blue, or just happen to stumble upon
your site through some other avenue.
How RSS and Blogs Increase Traffic For You!
Of course, if you create good, keyword rich content
in your blog, and continue to add new content on a
consistent basis, search engines will spider your site,
and your search engine positioning should improve
as a result. But there are many other things you can
do…

In addition to making your blog available via RSS
feeds, not only should you mention your blog in every
email sent out to subscribers, prospects, and clients,
you should consider creating a monthly "best of"
email newsletter of your best blog posts of the month
that proactively directs people to visit your blog.
Many people still haven’t warmed up to RSS
technology (oh, but they will), so even though you
must consistently battle the evil "spam filter empire",
creating a "Best Of X Blog"-type email each month is
an excellent way to drive traffic to your blog, and thus
to profitable links on your blog.
Here are some other tips:

1. When you use an RSS feed to promote your blog,
other web sites can publish your blog by pulling RSS
feeds automatically from related web sites (yours)
according to certain targeted keywords or content.

2. You can submit your RSS feed/blog to RSS and
blog directories. This site will give you a nice list of
places to submit your RSS feed:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55.

3. If you already have a blog, but haven’t
implemented an RSS feed, use the content from your
blog to create as many valuable articles as possible,
submit these articles to article directories, and
promote your blog/rss feed in EACH OF THESE
ARTICLES.

4. Add Adsense ads, affiliate links, and/or your own
product links onto your post pages in order to
monetize the increased traffic you start receiving as a
result of your efforts.

5. Participate in forums, helping others with their
concerns, and direct them to visit your blog.

6. Turn your RSS feed into a radio broadcast with
"Podcasting". Podcasting is simply adding audio files
to your RSS feed or blog, enabling subscribers to
listen to new information on their computer, through
an MP3 player, and so on. We’ll talk more about
podcasting in future issues.

7. Blog and Ping. One of the best ways to
get traffic to your web sites is by linking to a web
page from your blog entry, and then send a ping
request to some sights that want to know when
blogs are updated, i.e., when new entries are added.
This technique works like a charm.
RSS technology combined with your own contentrich
blog, geared towards a specific target market, is
a must-have strategy in every online marketer’s
toolbox.