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How To Increase Your Sales Traffic By Publishing Customer Reviews As RSS Feeds

It is a simple truth. Yet while many of the biggest players on the web know it, most webmasters overlook the fact that customer reviews can provide for a source of constantly updated content that potential customers would find to be an invaluable source of information.

It is also true that by simply combining customer reviews with RSS feeds, you too can ride a new wave of shopping (or social) traffic.

Traffic! It is the one problem that webmasters continually face, and which can NEVER be fully solved. How to find visitors in a reliable, repeatable, and cost-effective way. Because without visitors all your beautiful content might as well be locked away in a vault--no one is ever going to see it. If the purpose of your site is to sell, you will sell nothing. If the purpose of your site is to build a social network, you might remain its only member. You need traffic to succeed. Lots of it.

In this article I am going to consider just one traffic building initiative--one that happens to be enjoying a growing wave of popularity. It involves harnessing the power of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to build traffic. You are probably aware of RSS as a means of syndicating news content. Websites that produce news have been building XML-formatted news stories for years. These files are retrieved by other web sites, the new stories are extracted, and the content is placed (on these publisher sites) before a public ever-hungry for new information. The arrangement has worked well for everyone. Those who have displayed the RSS feeds have gained content to feed their visitors. Those who have produced the RSS feeds have obtained backlinks to their web sites, which has helped to bring in new traffic. In fact the arrangement has worked so well that webmasters have been encouraged to move beyond simple news syndication.

This makes a lot of sense. News articles hardly represent the only content that surfers are looking for. Recipes, shopping coupons, MP3s, schedules for local events... The list of possible things that people search for is endless, and if you can provide "new" instances of such information, then RSS represents an ideal means of getting that information in front of the people searching for it. Sure, it used to be the case that everything you wrapped up in an RSS feed had to take a very simple form. Every item in your news feed was reduced to a title, a url (to the source of the information), and a short snippet, or description, to hook the reader. But RSS has sprouted wings over the years and now you can package practically any data structure into a feed that you like. Because of this there is no reason why we cannot suitably package customer reviews into a feed.

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But what exactly would we put into an RSS-formatted customer review feed? And is this a good idea? Let me answer the second question first. Yes! It is a very good idea to package customer reviews as RSS feeds. Why? Because if you think about it, a customer review is very much like a news item. It is a packaged opinion that has been released for the express purpose of swaying the mindset of someone who is looking for information on the very topic it addresses, whatever that topic might be. To the person searching for the information, this review is news indeed, and more often than not it is welcome news.

So what should go into the feed? Well, a summary of the review, seems obvious. That can be used as the title element, and a snippet of the review can be used as the description. But there are other elements to a review that we have grown accustomed to over the years, and they can go into the feed too. Pros and cons of the reviewed item can be listed and highlighted. We can put in a numeric rating for several different attributes of the item being reviewed (for example, quality and robustness of the item, it's ease of use, value for money, and so on). We can put in images too. Stars to represent the numeric ratings, maybe. A picture of the item. We could even put in a link to the profile of the reviewer if we wanted. When we do these things, the final formatted customer review feed can look very enticing indeed.

Of course, the prospect of collecting reviews, let alone formatting them into RSS feeds might very well seem daunting to the average webmaster. But there are low-cost commercial applications available which will do all of this work for you--for example, the review engine known as Red Queen at http://www.randommouse.com/redqueen. Furthermore, you can now upload customer reviews (in RSS format) to Google Base and make them available to the various Google outlets. Admittedly these are early days for webmasters hoping to profitably hook into Google Base traffic sources, but the prospects are exciting nonetheless.

One thing that seems certain is that customer reviews as RSS feeds represent an as yet untapped opportunity for webmasters. Customer reviews have long been profitably used by big players on the web (Amazon.com being an obvious example) but have not been fully exploited. By coupling this popular opinion-based source of information with the technology of RSS syndication, savvy webmasters who take the reins today are sure to get first mover advantage on this new means of marketing, and build the traffic they need to assure the success of their online businesses. And, of course, there is really no reason why you should not be one of them!

About the Writer of this Article

Stephen Carter is the developer of Red Queen, powerful customer review software that allows webmasters to take advantage of the traffic building potential of customer reviews published as RSS feeds. To learn more: How To Publish Customer Reviews As RSS Feeds.

RSS Feeds And Security

The growth rate of RSS is amazingly fast. RSS when first made its appearance was recognized as a techie device but nowadays it has become so popular that the general mass is using this tool. But remember that RSS, a blessing for us doesn't come for free but often with carrying some unwanted gift for us! - The RSS spam. This spam which contain dynamically generated balderdash feeds stuffed with keywords created by the content publishers are not headaches because of their nonsense but they often endangers the security. Spam included in RSS is not only irritation to the search engines but also feeds pales compared to the probable security concerns that might have been in the future of the RSS.

RSS related security implications

If RSS increases, the security gets more endangered. While the publishers are fast in innovating new uses for RSS feeds, the hackers are watching it all. Even in its raw form, the extendibility and the power of RSS can make it very vulnerable. The very abode of these vulnerabilities is the expansion abilities of the specification of RSS, mainly the enclosure field which is the launcher of podcasting phenomenon. Basically, this enclosure field is not a headache, since the enclosure tag is not used by RSS feeds. The tag is generally used in linking file types such as word documents, mp3 files, images, and executables and in the same terms in email attachments.

RSS Distributing these file types has helped the immensely the syndicate standard users but long with that it has also created problems. But we don't take these problems as risks since we select the content received which limits spreading of viruses, spyware through RSS; still we run at a risk if an infected file is spread.

This risk is the effect of technology and our poor education.

Several RSS readers, pod catchers, news aggregators automatically download the information from the enclosure field even if they don't know their sources or file types. This ignorance often calls for dangerous insecurities for our computers.

Generally speaking almost all the RSS developers admit the risks that are attached with the enclosure field but a very few developers don't care to equip the RSS feeds with screening, filtering and authentication abilities and a myriad of automatically download enclosures.

It is very unfortunate that every RSS readers or aggregators or pod catchers ponder over the probable security implications related with RSS feeds or podcasts. Usually some work automatically downloading enclosures sans any warning or any concerns about the security. So ensure to introspect the handling of files by your RSS reader.

Improved RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are a great communication medium, and when properly managed, web feeds can bring in significant Internet traffic. RSS feeds should contain compelling themed content with episodic titles that are united in common broad theme. Use RSS feeds as an online marketing and search engine optimization tool. Just as optimizing an HTML web page will increase exposure, so too will an RSS feed that is properly optimized and promoted. Use these simple tips to improve your web feed exposure.

Channel Title

The channel title in your RSS feed is one of the most important aspect. The channel title should be keyword rich and contain information related to the general theme of the RSS feed. In order to maximize compatibility with RSS readers, it is best not to include any HTML in the channel title. The channel title is a web site visitors first glimpse at the RSS feed, so its important to make an impression and attract the interest of casual browsers. Additionally, many of the RSS feed directories and search engines use the information contained in the RSS feed's channel title and description to index the feed. In order for the feed to be properly categorized, it is important that the information contained in these fields be relevant to the contents contained in the feed. If included at all, the weblog , brand, or company name should be at the end not the beginning of the RSS feed channel title.

Channel Description

The channel description field provides an opportunity to expand on the broad theme of the RSS feed. The channel description should contain related keywords and phrases, but it should be written to capture the interest of readers not search engine spiders. HTML can be used to decorate and emphasize specific text in the description field. In summation the channel description should provide a compelling overview of the RSS feed's contents.

RSS Feed Item Titles

The item titles should be 50-75 characters with spaces. In order to increase readability and compatibility with news readers, the RSS feed item titles should not be encoded with any HTML. Think of an RSS feed item title in the same way that you would a webpage title. The RSS feed item title is your opportunity to capture the interest of your reader. Really an RSS feed item title is nothing more than a headline. The most effective item titles are calls to action that grab the readers attention. Include pertinent keywords or keyword phrases in the items title and this will help any individuals doing deep feed searches for specific content.

Optimize RSS

Optimize all aspects of the web feed. While the feed should be optimized for search engines, using the same techniques a webmaster uses on a web site, the optimization should not be at the readers expense. The content in an RSS feed is often what leads readers to click or not click through. Readers will judge RSS feeds on the quality of the content. This means that grammar and punctuation do matter. Consistent grammatical errors will reduce the writers credibility and the number of subscribers.

Anchor Text

Using RSS feeds, publishers have the unique opportunity to determine the anchor text that will be used to link to internal web site pages. RSS feeds are often syndicated, and even more often compelling feed items will often be re posted by other publishers. With that in mind, when including links back to a web site in the item description field, use anchor text that is a relevant keyword or phrase. Anchor text is one factor that search engines use in determining a web site's ranking for specific keywords and phrases.

Number of Feed Items

Routinely prune the old items in an RSS feeds and archive the content contained in the feed to ensure that feeds load quickly in RSS readers. If you are using a third party service to host your feeds, keep in mind that FeedBurner will truncate or not display RSS feeds that it finds to be too large.

Heading Tags

If you are displaying an RSS feed as an HTML web page it makes sense to use H1 or H2 tags to display the RSS feed's item titles. If the RSS feed is optimized, the web site will benefit from the keyword emphasis by using the header tags.

RSS Feed URLs

As with HTML web pages, the URLs contained in an RSS feed should contain keywords if possible. Use hyphens not underscores, to separate the keywords in the RSS feed's URL.

Add an Image

Consider adding an image to your RSS feed to enhance its appearance in an RSS reader. The image should be no large 144x400 and it is recommended that the image be 88x31. Most RSS readers will display the feed image above the feed contents, this is a great way to reinforce brand and establish brand recognition. Additionally you can add images to the RSS feed's description field. In all cases, it is important that the full URL to the image be referenced, because if the feed is syndicated it will report a broken image if its attempting to retrieve it locally.

Some of the RSS feed directories use the feed's web site favorite icons to flag the RSS feed. The RSS feeds containing a favorite icon stand out from others in the directories so be sure to include a favicon in the domain's root directory. RSS feeds are a great marketing tool, but like web pages, they must be optimized so that you can reap the full marketing benefits. Taking the time to implement some basic optimization tips will steadily increase your RSS feeds exposure.

About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

Convert RSS Feeds to Dynamic HTML Web Pages

Many webmasters have realized the benefit of using RSS to dynamically update web sites. This means that the web site content automatically changes when the RSS feed is updated. This allows for webmasters to serve dynamic content or a mixture of static and dynamic content on their web site.

Syndication

Often, publishers, interested in expanding their base, will allow other webmasters to republish the contents of an RSS feed. Content providers that allow for syndication, receive additional exposure, and the webmasters serving the content, will generally see web traffic increase as a result of the new content. RSS feeds can be syndicated or displayed using a variety of different methods. Depending on the web host, server configuration, and the intent of the publishers, a variety of different syndication tools exist.

In most cases, providers convert RSS feeds to HTML in order to display the feeds contents. The following are some of the more popular methods to convert RSS feeds as web based content.

Hosted Services

The easiest of solution is not server dependent, a third party host displays the contents of the feed. The downside to using a hosted service is that you are relying on a third party. If the third party's web site has problems, your content will not be displayed. Additionally, webmasters often cannot customize the way the contents are displayed on hosted servers and there is no real search engine benefit to third party hosting.

examples - FeedBurner.com - http://www.feedburner.com and RSS2HTML - http://www.rss2html.com

Scripts

Using scripts to display RSS feeds on a web site is probably the most effective solution. In addition, the webmaster using ASP or PHP scripts to convert their feeds, maintain the control of the "look and feel" of the content displayed. Webmasters also realize the benefit of hosting the feed on a domain that is within the webmasters control.

Using ASP or PHP will allow search engines to spider the actual contents of the RSS feed as if it is part of the actual HTML. Pay particular attention to solutions that cache the RSS feed. If your RSS feed is popular this will save significant bandwidth.

PHP

PHP is a popular scripting language that is often used to dynamically update web pages. PHP support is available on most web servers that run on a Unix Operating System.

example - rss2html.php - http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm

ASP

ASP or active server pages is a scripting language similar to PHP but support is more often found on Windows web servers.

Example - rss2html.asp - http://www.bytescout.com/how_to_display_rss_using_asp.html

Javascript

Javascript is easy to use, and many sites will produce the code that needs to be inserted into the HTML web page, making implementation very easy for webmasters. The downside to the majority of the javascript solutions is that the webpage calls the script each time, and the actual contents of the feed is not able to be spidered or indexed by search engines. So while javascript is easy to use, there is very little benefit to the webmaster. Search engines will not detect any new content or keywords contained in the contents of the feed, so their is little optimization benefit to displaying RSS feeds using javascript. Additionally, while it is unusual, occasionally web site visitors will have the javascript turned off in their browser, if that is the case they will be unable to view the contents of the feed.

Example - FeedRoll Pro - http://www.feedrollpro.com

Advanced Scripts

Merging Scripts

Webmasters will often find value in merging multiple RSS feeds in to a single feed. This is particularly useful when attempting to aggregate news on a specific topic. The script allows you to produce an RSS feed by taking the latest items from multiple feeds.

Example - RSSmesh - http://www.feedforall.com/rssmesh.htm

Filtering

Newsmastering

Due to the enormous and ever-increasing information flow we are all submitted to, the only way to improve our ability to access and use the information that is really important to us, must take place by scaling up one notch our ability to filter, aggregate, and access relevant content.

Example - Newsmaster kit - http://www.masternewmedia.org/reports/newsmasterstoolkit/

Prepublish Scripts

On occasion, webmasters will choose to build a large amount of content, and gradually release it over time. FutureRSS is a PHP script that when used properly will only display feed items that publish dates have passed.

FutureRSS - http://www.feedforall.com/future-rss.htm

A number of flexible solutions exists for webmasters to create, filter, and display content contained in an RSS feed. Using these simple solutions, webmasters can dynamically maintain webpages with unique content.

About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

RSS Feeds May Be The Ultimate Growth Hormone For Cash Cows

RSS, also known as rich site summary or real simply syndication, arrived on the scene a number of years ago, but was only recently embraced by webmasters as a means to effectively syndicate content. RSS Feeds provide webmasters and content providers an opportunity to present concise content summaries to prospective readers. Thousands of commercial web sites and blogs now publish content summaries in an RSS feed. Each item in the feed typically contains a headline, article summary and link back to the online article.

So, how does the Webmaster benefit? As the web has become more crowded webmasters have been striving to provide fresh, up-to-the-minute content for their web site visitors. Many webmasters have discovered that they can easily exploit the information in RSS feeds to provide fresh web content.

RSS feeds are composed in XML, which is a very simple markup language. Similar to HTML, XML uses tags to identify fields. Webmasters can easily parse the RSS feed and dynamically create web pages that contain headlines and summaries. The feeds will constantly update, supplying a steady stream of automatically generated fresh content.

RSS allows webmasters to:

1. Provide new and pertinent content on their web site, which encourages users to return. 2. Continually changing content means that search engine spiders will visit more frequently. 3. Automate content delivery.

The benefits of RSS feeds are not limited to webmasters, though. Surfers also benefit from the technology as well.

And how do the web surfers benefit? The beauty of RSS is that readers can quickly scan headlines (titles) and read articles of interest. Since the information is condensed and presented in a single location, users can normally review more information in a shorter period of time. Additional information is only a click away. Better still, readers choose the feeds they wish to see. There is no spam with RSS. If you are not absolutely thrilled with the content appearing in a feed, simply remove it from the newsreader. The technology is known as pull technology rather than push technology, meaning the content is not forced on the consumers, who pull the content they want to see.

RSS allows for users to:

1. Easily locate information. 2. Read condensed information or 'snippets' with clearly marked and dated subject matter. 3. Catalog and classify information in an easy to navigate manner. 4. Make best use of their time without having to deal with spam.

RSS feeds can be viewed in a news aggregator or reader, which constantly updates and shows unread feeds. I found the functionality of the newsreaders to be comparable to a simple email client. Consumers generally enter the URL of any RSS feeds that interest them. Topics with a universal theme can be segregated into associated groups.

How do you find topic specific, relevant feeds? In order to find feeds that provide niche information you can use any one of the many news search engines that index information contained within RSS feeds. Searches for topic specific feeds can be conducted and feeds can be retrieved for syndication.

What is the benefit to the content developer? While the benefits to users and webmasters are clear, the distribution opportunities made available to content developers should not be ignored. Information contained in the RSS feed can be easily syndicated, increasing content distribution and reach.

RSS allows for content developers to:

1. Augment exposure in niche markets. 2. Communicate with user bases and contact potential customers via an alternate communication technique. 3. Distribute relevant information. 4. Define themselves as an industry expert. 5. Automate content delivery.

RSS has effectively standardized the format for content delivery and has effectively defined the accepted standard for content distribution and syndication. RSS will likely rival email as a means of content distribution in another few years. The shear simplicity makes the technology very alluring.

The distribution potential, while admittedly difficult to determine, is still attractive to all parties making it probable that RSS popularity will only continue to grow.

Don Resh is CEO of WebForce, Inc. A more detailed bio is available at:

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