Most famous bloggers seems to have some sort of RSS feed and email subscription service available for their readers these days. Even the less famous blogs have it. But having RSS feed is really that important? Should you have it even if your blog just started and barely has any traffic currently? What are some main benefits of having RSS Feed and email subscription service? All these questions will be answered but lets first start with some background information.
What is RSS Feed?
RSS actually stands for Really Simple Syndication and RSS feed is simply a file that contains all the latest updated information that is formatted in such a specific way so that it can be read by feed readers and agregators. RSS is the most popular feed format followed by Atom.
What is email subscription service?
A lot of sites such as FeedBurner provide email subscription service to webmasters so that they can deliver their posts directly to readers' inbox. Basically, you are taking the latest feed and emailing it to your readers.
What are the benefits?
RSS Feed allows readers to display your content on self customized pages such as iGoogle, My Yahoo! and even on Vista's sidebar. Enabling this increases the chances of getting more traffic. Imagine having your latest posts displayed on other sites and pages. It may not guarentee your great results but it is definitely worth it because it takes only seconds to set up.
Email Subscription Service is even better since your are delivering your posts directly to your readers' inbox. Every time you will publish a post, they will be notified and thus you will get some permanent traffic. You can also add a small widget to show off the number of people that have subscribed to your mailing service. If you have a lot of people, then it will definitely add to your reputation.
So should you have it if your blog/website just started? The answer is yes! The earlier you get started with it, the better it is for you and your readers. Remember, you do not want to lose a single visitor that wants to subscribe to your service. So the earlier you set up everything, the better it is for you.
Furthermore, you can also use RSS feed on forums to display your latest posts to other members. Most forums display RSS feed nowadays. Using RSS feed on forums can get you some relevant traffic that you may have not gotten otherwise.
How do you get started?
Probably the most famous feed service online is Feedburner. It provides you with so many different options and really makes it easy for you to setup your own feed even if you have no experience. I use this service on all of my blogs and really recommend it to all of you.
I hope this post helped you understand the importance of having RSS feed and an email subscription service. If you would like to read more posts like this then please subscribe to my feed. Thanks.
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Some Useful Links:
Google in your language - Google Blog
You are not spam - Blogger Buzz
Search quality, continued - Google Blog
More Transparency in Customized Search Results - Google Blog
A picture isn't always worth a thousand words - Inside Adsense
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