| RSS is totally hot. We have seen it | | | | can sort them out and display them |
| everywhere, from John-Doe blogsites to major | | | | neatly.There are tons of free RSS Readers |
| news websites. If you haven't heard of RSS | | | | now, so if you don't have one, do a simple |
| before, that's okay, because I hadn't either | | | | Google search for RSS Reader and you should |
| until a couple of months ago!RSS stands for | | | | have no trouble finding one.All the visitor |
| Really Simple Syndication, or whatever you | | | | has to do is copy the little orange RSS icon |
| want it to stand for. (I have seen it also | | | | link and paste it into their RSS Reader |
| stand for RDF Site Summary, but it really | | | | program. The RSS program will periodically |
| doesn't matter.) What's important is what it | | | | download the RSS webpage and will display the |
| does.Here's how RSS works:Every site that has | | | | new headlines much like your email program |
| constantly changing content has one big | | | | will display your subject lines. If you like |
| problem: How do you notify your visitors | | | | one of the headlines, you can click on it and |
| when you've posted new content without them | | | | it will display a short description and a |
| having to scour your entire site every 30 | | | | link to the entire article. If you want to |
| mins? You could send them an email, but that | | | | read more, click the link and it will display |
| has several drawbacks.First, you might not | | | | the actual full article on the website.Here's |
| get your messages through the spam filters. | | | | why this is killer:You can now be notified of |
| Filters are snatching more and more messages, | | | | the new content or headlines posted to all |
| and just to keep up anymore you have to run | | | | your favorite websites without having to do |
| all your content through rating systems just | | | | very much work! Imagine putting twenty RSS |
| to find the likelyhood of it getting blocked. | | | | Feeds into your reader and having it download |
| What a pain in the neck!Second, people are | | | | all the content in a matter of seconds |
| so hesitant to give out their closely guarded | | | | instead of having to surf to each site |
| email address. I know I guard my email | | | | individually!If you ask me, RSS is here to |
| address with my life. How can your visitors | | | | stay. All the major sites support it like |
| trust you if they just clicked to your site? | | | | CNN, ESPN, Yahoo and Google, so that surely |
| You could be an underground spam operation | | | | is a good sign! So go on and fire up Google |
| for all they care.This is where RSS is | | | | and get yourself an RSS Reader. You will be |
| awesome!Instead of sending an email, you can | | | | glad you did...I sure was!Feel free to |
| have your website generate what's called an | | | | reprint this article so long as you include |
| RSS Feed. An RSS Feed is nothing more than a | | | | the resource box listed with the article.Kent |
| webpage with a bunch of summaries of the new | | | | Thompson is the creator of FeedMagic, a |
| content on it. Next time you see that little | | | | full-featured sequential autoresponder |
| orange icon with XML or RSS, click on it and | | | | program that allows your subscribers to |
| you'll see what I mean. The summaries are | | | | choose between Email or a personalized RSS |
| formatted in such a way that an RSS Reader | | | | Feed for delivery. |