Analyzing the New Yahoo! RSS Report for Marketers

Analyzing the New Yahoo! RSS Report for Marketers

We were waiting for something like this to happen for a long time. Yahoo!, one of the key providers of mass-market RSS aggregators, finally took a step forward and published their RSS whitepaper, covering their own findings with RSS, based on their usage data.

1. YAHOO!’S KEY RSS FINDINGS

Let’s first take a look at Yahoo! key findings and what they mean for marketers.

a] Awareness of RSS is quite low among Internet users. 12% of users are aware of RSS, and 4% have knowingly used RSS.

Although RSS awareness is increasing, only few internet users yet understand what RSS is and how to use it.

For marketers, this means that simply placing an RSS button on their site it not nearly enough, with the report finally demonstrating that marketers needs to use clear and persuasive copy to get their visitors interested in RSS, explain RSS to them and get them to subscribe to their feeds.

In addition it also shows that marketers need to make sure they are using “user-friendly” buttons to generate subscribers, such as “Add to MyYahoo!”, which consumers do understand.

b] 27% of Internet users consume RSS syndicated content on personalized start pages (e.g., My Yahoo!, My MSN) without knowing that RSS is the enabling technology.

This finding only underlines the above suggestions.

Stop touting your RSS feeds only using an RSS button, but rather aim for a “subscribe feature” and then explain to the visitor how to use it.

Strong copy has never been so important.

c] 28% of Internet users are aware of podcasting, but only 2% currently subscribe to podcasts.

Goes to show that podcasting still has a long way to go and can right now function only as a supplement to your existing marketing activities.

It might also give an indication that audio is not the most appropriate format for much online content.

d] Even tech-savvy “Aware RSS Users” prefer to access RSS feeds via user-friendly, browser-based experiences (e.g., My Yahoo!, Firefox, My MSN).

e] My Yahoo! has the highest awareness and use of any RSS-enabled product.

Both of the findings above, although indicating that these are the results Yahoo! would want to publish, show that having browser-based RSS reader subscribe buttons is a must.

It also shows that the market is ready for the soon-coming IE and Outlook integrated RSS features, which should really boost RSS usage among consumers online.

Now, let’s take a deeper look at the report …

2. “UNAWARE RSS USERS” VS “AWARE RSS USERS”

The whitepaper makes a strong distinction between “Unaware RSS Users” and “Aware RSS Users”, positioning the “Unaware” batch as the mainstream Internet population.

This makes it absolutely clear that B2C marketers, targeting consumers, should take special care to promote their feeds using “friendly” subscribe buttons.

On the other hand, if targeting a more tech-savvy audience, going the way of “RSS” and more complex RSS reading tools might be a better choice. This might also prove more effective for targeting executives and other corporate target audiences that might be using an enterprise-wide RSS solution, such as NewsGator.

3. CONSUMPTION LEVELS

The whitepaper says that on the average “Aware RSS Users” subscribe to 6.6 feeds.

The consequences of this are not as simple as they might seem. Even “RSS Aware” users do not subscribe to “just anything” and seems they only subscribe or keep being subscribed to the content of highest relevance to them.

The message for marketers is to become even more relevant and more focused on providing real value for their target audiences.

RSS does not mean that end-users will start consuming that much more online content, but simply that their primary consumption channel will change. It’s up to you to make place for yourself in this consumption channel, but you can only do so if you become one of the key targeted content providers for your market and can deliver consistently high-quality content.

4. TYPES OF RSS CONTENT CONSUMED

Even in the world of RSS, mainstream media rules, with World news and National news both leading the pack at 52% and followed by Entertainment at 34% and Weather ad 31%.

If we take a look at what lies beneath this we can see that end-users still see RSS as a news consumption tool and a tool to receive time-sensitive updates, such as weather info.

The interesting part is that blogs achieve only 23% and although they are gaining quickly are still not part of the mainstream.

Whichever way you look at this, the real long tail is still far from fruition.

There are two are interesting categories listed in the report: investment/financial info/banking at 13% and Shopping/online commerce at 10%.

The popularity of these two shows that RSS in fact is appropriate for delivering business info and that RSS can be used for e-commerce. A strong case in point urging e-retailers to start providing RSS feeds.

5. WHY END-USERS USE RSS

“RSS Aware” end-users subscribe to feed because of “ease” or “convenience”, followed by being able to choose what they read.

To marketers, these three should be the founding stones of how to get their visitors to adopt RSS.

6. THE FAMOUS ORANGE BUTTON

Marketers, pay attentin to this.

Only 4% of total RSS end-users actually use the orange XML button, and only 38% of RSS aware users use it.

It seems the orange button isn’t dead … it was never alive.

Let’s move on and replace it with something more user-friendly.

And BTW — 22% of the people that clicked on the button don’t even know what action they took after clicking the button and 26% left the site. Goes to show the RSS button is only losing us subscribers.

7. HOW USERS FIND THEIR FEEDS

50% use the defaults available in the RSS reader and only 13% use the search engines to find them.

Yes, it’s cruical to be in the RSS feed search engines, but it would be even better if you could move your way to the default seetings. And by all means, actively promote the feeds on your site as end-users, according to the report, actively tend to subscribe to the feeds on the sites they find interesting.

8. CONCLUSION

To conclude this, here’s a direct quote from the report, saying exactly what I’ve been trying to get through for a couple of months:

“To position RSS among mainstream Internet users, it is essential to effectively communicate the benefits of RSS (ease, convenience, access to information of interest). Internet users do not understand how to use the XML button, how to actively seek out RSS feeds, or even what the term RSS means. Instead, they need a simple interface where they can choose the information and content that interests them. This is where personalized start pages and browser-based experiences can help move RSS into the mainstream.”

 

About The Author:

Learn how to take full marketing advantage of RSS and get all the expertise, knowledge and how-to information for implementing RSS in your marketing mix, from direct marketing, PR, e-commerce, internal communications and online publishing to SEO, traffic generation and customer relationship management. Including complete interviews with more than 40 RSS marketing experts. Click here now: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/book/

8 Factors To Help You Succeed In Internet Marketing

A lot of people are now looking for opportunities to earn money online. If you have your own home based online business, you have the convenience of working from home, you set the goals and you apply the necessary effort needed to achieve those goals.

There are various business models with which you can make money online. Whatever business model you choose, there are certain traits you will need to be successful in internet marketing?

1. Confidence.

This is the first trait you will need to succeed in internet marketing. Internet marketing requires a lot of hard work, commitment, patience and focus. If you are confident, you can achieve all the success you desire.

2. Convincing advertisements.

Avoid exaggerating in your internet marketing business’ ads. People generally know whether they are being told the truth or otherwise. This is particularly important since the internet is now full of scams. Avoid writing ads that may make people think that your ad is one of those scams. Make sure that the approach, language and tone is your ad is convincing. Your goal is to represent your business as a reputable internet business that does what your ad says.

3. You must have a high quality product and/or you must believe in the product.

Whether you have created your own product, or are selling a product as an affiliate, the product must be of high quality and you must believe in it. If you are an affiliate, you must know the product very well, and you must be proud and passionate about it - this is very important if you want to market the product appropriately. If you are not proud of the product, you will not be able to promote it compellingly. This means that you will need to be completely well informed with the details of the product or service.

4. Your sales letter must clearly show the benefits of the product or service you are selling.

To succeed in internet marketing you need to make many sales. In order for your website’s visitors to buy from you, they will need to be informed clearly how the product will benefit them or solve a problem they may have. Your sales letter or website must clearly emphasize the key reasons why the visitor must buy the product; and also what they will lose if they do not buy your product.

5. A budget for some start-up and ongoing resources for your business.

Some people seem to think that you can make money overnight and without spending anything in internet marking. This is not true. Internet marketing is similar to any other type of a business; you will need some money to start the business and also to promote it. To be successful in internet marketing; you will need to allocate some start-up and monthly marketing budget. You will also need to invest some time, effort and dedication into your internet marketing business for you to succeed.

6. A good reputation.

A good and respected name on the internet will make it very easy for you to build your internet marketing business. Make sure that you keep your customers happy. If you look after them well, you are ensuring that you get good reviews and of course repeat business. In your internet marketing business, always make sure you deliver your promises on time and in great quality. It is important to build relationships with customers and also with your prospects.

7. Be well-informed about the current and effective marketing techniques that are on the internet.

The internet is very dynamic, and you need to develop and learn accordingly about the best strategies for building your internet marketing business. You must know about all the tools you can use such as auto responders, mailing lists, viral marketing, search engine optimization and paid advertising among others. You will need to master these promotional techniques and make them very effective. It is also a good idea for you to consider which selected few marketing strategies will work best for your business, budget and knowledge.

8. Care for your customers.

In whatever you do in your internet marketing business, apply more effort and bring in a ‘personal touch’. It is very easy these days to run a 100% automated business with the auto responders, lists and ezines among other tools. However, whatever you do towards promoting your business or when dealing with your customers, try to do more - which will show them that you really care about them. You will build a good relationship with your customers and they will come for repeat business, and you also build trust with your prospects and they will buy from you.

If you want to succeed in internet marketing, follow the guidelines stated above.Article Source: Internet Marketing Article

 

Khemal Dole owns and operates www.PaychecksDirect.com, a completely FREE service which helps many first-timers and even experts find their perfect Work At Home job. Visit www.paychecksdirect.com right now and see for yourself why so many are flocking to his site.

Social Bookmarking And What It Can Do For Your Online Business

Much has been said about the tag and ping method, but to best optimize such a tactic, one has to familiarize himself with the basics of social bookmarking as well.

Look at the tool icons on top of your current browser window. See the icon labeled with a star as “Favorites?” If you’d click on the same, you’d have the opportunity to be able to add this web page to your list of favorites, and view the same later on. This is called bookmarking, and it is quite an important tool for the overall web experience.

But this kind of bookmarking is limited to the capacity of your own computer. The web pages you will select will be stored in your hard drive. Social bookmarking is quite different from this.

What Is Social Bookmarking?

Social bookmarking allows you to create an account with a variety of existing services. This account will give you the option to bookmark your favorite websites under certain categories. But instead of saving these bookmarks in your hard drive, you’d be able to store them in the web server itself.

The categories under which you can store your bookmarks are quite similar to tags. This means that you have total control over where to place certain websites. You can categorize them under any tags you wish, as tags are often broad and general.

The flexibility that such a medium allows is immense. Since humans control the categorizing instead of a search engine algorithm, social bookmarks can be arranged in a way that is more appealing for internet users, and more practical for them as well. The name of the game here is truly relevant content, not seemingly relevant content through efficient search engine optimization.

But How Can Social Bookmarking Help Internet Marketers?

The marketing potentials of social bookmarking are slowly being exploited by savvy online businessmen, and to great effects at that. Take a look at the many ways by which you can increase your profits through this method:

- A lot of the social bookmarking websites are picked up by the search engines, and they figure very well in the search engine page results. Hence, if you include your websites under certain hot tags, you have great chances of picking up highly amazing back links that will contribute to your own page rank. Also, the direct traffic you can generate from such a channel will prove to be worthwhile.

- More and more people are starting to realize that tags provide more relevant and quality information that the results produced by search engines. Soon enough, tagging will be able to surpass search engines as the information finding tool of choice by most internet users. Now is the best time to hop aboard the tag bandwagon. And social bookmarking is one of the best ways to capitalize on the same.

- Social bookmarking websites boast of the same interconnectivity present in blogs. People with their own social bookmarking accounts link to one another. This is a great way to generate direct traffic, and further increase your back links.

How Do You Start With Social Bookmarking?

There are many social bookmarking websites in cyberspace today. And given the ever increading popularity of the medium, more and more similar websites are being developed each and everyday.

To avail of this novel marketing technique, you just have to create an account with any of them. Thereafter, simply place your websites under relevant hot tags. The system will take care of the rest.

Here are some of the more popular social bookmarking websites you can join:
30daytags.com
blinkbits.com
citeulike.org
de.lirio.us
del.icio.usArticle Source: Internet Marketing Article

 

Bob Bastian is a successful online marketer and a full time Internet entrepreneur. He will teach you how to get enormous passive income using a system (non-MLM) that so powerful, it recently featured on two national television networks: Wealth-O-Matic.com