Web Traffic Tips: How to Use RSS
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Today begins another month here at Beginner’s Internet Marketing Strategy. Last month we had tutorials on how to create content. This month we’re going to work on how to drive some traffic to your site. 
Our first web traffic tip is how to use RSS. (You will find this entire series ~ as it continues ~ in the increase web traffic category on the right hand side)
I’ve written a couple posts on RSS when we were discussing Squidoo lenses, but from the emails and questions I get it seems people are confused by RSS itself. Which I get. So let’s talk about that first, then we’ll talk about how to use it to get you some traffic!
What is RSS.
RSS stands for really simple syndication. This syndication is just like syndication for TV. You know “Friends” is no longer on the air, but that doesn’t mean you can’t see an episode of “Friends” at least 3 or 5 times a day. It’s syndicated. They’ve used content that already aired, sent it out to the channels that want to show it and they can play it over again for people to see. (Look I’m not a TV person and I’m sure there’s more to it than that ~ but we’re using it as an example).
Ok so let’s say this blog is Friends. Even though it’s still live I want to be able to share it. I find “channels” (RSS directories/squidoo lenses/hubs) that are willing to “air” my show and I send them my already aired content (my published posts). They then “air” (publish on their site) my content for other people to see.
Live example:
Why use RSS?
I want to share the content from this site on another site that gets a lot of traffic. If people on that site see my posts they may click through and become regular readers of my blog. (this is good).
Where to put my RSS feed?
For this example I’ve added my blog feed to one of my lenses that gets a lot of traffic. The topics are related and people who are interested in learning about how to create backlinks will probably be interested in the content that I create here as well.
Here’s the RSS feed in that lens ~ does that content look familiar to you? It should. It’s the last posts from this blog!
Well that’s all fine and good because I have a lens that gets a lot of traffic. But what if you DON’T have a place of your own to put your RSS feed?
That’s where RSS directories come in.
What is an RSS directory?
We’re all familiar with ezinearticles.com, right? It’s a big site where you can post your articles and other people can find/read/share them with others right?
RSS directories are much the same. The only difference is you are submitting your RSS feed instead of an article you’ve written.
Why bother?
There are a few reasons you want to submit your RSS feed to directories, just like you want to submit articles.
1. People search these directories, just like article directories to find good information.
2. Links back to your site.
3. Each time you update your site your RSS feed automatically updates your submissions at the directories, giving you new content there for people to find, as well as new links back to your site.
4. People are already coming to these sites looking for information ~ you’ve got a built in high traffic site to place your content on.
5. It’s one of the quickest and easiest ways to create backlinks there is.
Where all can I submit my RSS feed.
- Squidoo lenses ~ any lens you do on a related topic, include your RSS feed as well.
- Hubpages ~ include your RSS on any hubpage you do on a related topic.
- Your search engine homepages ~ this one is a good one so listen up.
Every search engine pretty much allows you to create a personalized homepage now. Whether it’s Google, Yahoo, MSN ~ you can create a homepage that features your favorite content. This can include your content as well.
Make sure you add the RSS feed of your sites to your homepages. (This is also a great place to keep track of sites you want to blog comment on or read regularly). It will also help your site get indexed, and will be a nice link for your site.
(I will create a whole tutorial to show you how to do it, since it’s really important and this post is already getting long lol)
- RSS directories
- Homepages at communities. Some communities (like ning) will allow you to pull your RSS feed onto your profile page. This is great because when people check out your profile they’ll see your content. Even if you aren’t particularly active in a community it’s a plus to use your RSS feed anyway.
- Email signature ~ Feedburner has a widget that allows you to put your feed right in the signature of every email you send out.
Those are a bunch of options for using your RSS feed ~ now so we don’t get overwhelmed and do nothing
Here’s where you can start.
1. Grab your RSS feed for whatever site you’re working on right now. (the link will show you how) (If you are working on lenses you can do your lensmaster feed instead of individual lens RSS feeds)
2. Add your RSS feed to RSS directories. (just look for a link/button/tab that says “add feed” or “submit feed” or something similar, then fill in the necessary information and paste in your RSS feed where it’s asked for)
3. Add your RSS feed to at least one search engine home page.
4. As you build out your campaign/website and create more places online ~ add your RSS feed when you can (hubs/lenses etc)
5. If you haven’t done this for other sites you’re working on or have completed schedule it in to your day and do a little bit at a time until they are done.
I hope this helps you understand how to use RSS a little better, and why you want/need to. If you have specific RSS questions please feel free to ask them in the comment section. I’ll do my best to answer them.
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Need some help getting started? Wherever you are I can probably help. Whether it's Squidoo, niche blogs, or an authority blog, one on one help is available!!
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Jackie,
1. When you click on the feed button on your sites is the feed link the one that shows up in your browser window?
example: http://mysiteinfo.com/?feed=rss2 <<< is that the link you grab?
2. When you submit your RSS feed once to the RSS directories do you have to submit it each time you update your site? Or does it update automatically?
I have a couple of wordpress sites where the main page is mostly static but I sometimes add articles or tweak the static page. Should I resubmit my rss each time?
Michele
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Ooops I thought I was making up a link but it looks like it is live….sorry can you delete that for me Jackie?
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yes that’s the url you want.
You only have to submit your RSS feed one time ~ that’s what RSS does is automatically update for you.
You only need to submit your RSS feed once ~ if you’re not posting more than just a static page though it won’t do you much good. The point of RSS is to syndicate new content ~ so new posts etc.
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So you only submit your RSS feed if you have a blog? Or do you mean that if I have a static front page of a website but add content to it on other pages – adding pages as I go along that I should submit my RSS?
I’m confused.
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If you add new original content (not just tweaks to the original content) to the site then submit your RSS feed.
What makes RSS so great is the updating part of it ~ if you are not providing anything new for it to show then it doesn’t really help you. If you don’t have anything in your RSS feed (new posts/content) then there won’t be anything in the feed to show.
Hope that helps.
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Not your feedburner feed link?
Good morning Jackie,
You sure have a knack for teaching and making things easy to
understand!
I never thought of submitting my RSS to all those places so
I’m going to get started sharing my information …
Thank you,
Fran
Follow me @francivile on Twitter!
Jackie – thanks for the info! I’ll have to get a working list of rss feeds to make things as easy as possible (not just for my niche blog – but for my Squidoo lenses as well).
Thanks for making things so clear!
Julie
Follow me @floorance on Twitter!
Great idea for the homepages – I never thought of that one. I’ve been adding my RSS to Feedage, Feedest and Zimbio. A lot of times when my lenses are new, I’ll hit on those when I search before my lens (or blog) is even indexed.
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Yes thanks Jackie, that is very clear now.
Michele
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Good Morning Jackie- My traffic on my lenses has taken a complete nosedive since Christmas and I am feeling pretty downhearted. It seems like getting indexed in Google has become increasingly difficult . So I read through some of your posts and noticed one of your followers purchased some software for RSS submissions.(she felt it worked well for getting indexed ) I went ahead and made a purchase of one / had major problems with downloading:( but finally got that part. Submitted my newest lens… and then got to thinking could Google slap you for this. I feel like I am doing something wrong… thus the downward spiral of traffic.
Once again thank you for all of your help and support here. You are an online Angel!
Kimberly ~
A couple things here.
1. Traffic is of course going to be higher around Christmas. Nature of holiday shopping.
2. I’m not familiar with the submission software you’re talking about ~ however, it’s probably fine.
3. *** In the first few months of your lens it will bounce around.
It’s just part of the process. It will bounce in and out and up and down. This is true for most any site you put up, lens or blog. The first months are bouncy. It will settle in and things will stabilize.
This is why it is recommended to let things “simmer” and keep building new lenses. It won’t help your lenses to gain position to keep fussing at them.Better to keep building new lenses while the first ones stabilize.
It’s like gardening (can you tell I want spring to come?) if you plant all your carrots at once you will have a million carrots for a week. If you plant one row of carrots each week you’ll have carrots all summer ~ same thing. Build, let simmer, build, let simmer.
Hang in there ~ it will be OK!!
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Good post Jackie, Ii think I understand RSS a lot better. anything wrong with RSSing my Squidoo Lens and Hub capsules together as long as they are similar topics?
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Not sure what you mean. You don’t want to send people in circles ~ and just remember what the PURPOSE of the page you created is. If you created it to drive traffic to your money page ~ then add your money page RSS feed to it ~ not the RSS feed of another site that has the purpose of building links and driving traffic to your money page.
So ~ if your lens is your money page (the page that directs people to the buy now button) then sure use it in your hub ~ if your lens is another page to direct links/traffic to a niche site elsewhere I wouldn’t recommend using the RSS feed on your hub.
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Thanks for this great explanation Jackie. RSS was always something I never really understood and therefore dismissed it for link building purposes. This really helped me to “get it”.
Hi Jackie,
Thank you for your continued diligence in selecting topics that are most helpful, and this one is no exception.
I have known the value of RSS feeds for a while but in spite of my research I never knew how to use them to my benefit, ty
Do you have a resource you can point me to that will show me how to get RSS feeds onto my site?
Once again thank you for your generous help
Hey Jackie – The submission software I was talking about in the earlier post is called RSS Submit. I also wanted to say that since I have been following you and acting on your advice I have been seeing sales. I will continue to build. Thank-you for the continued support.
Jackie,
Thank you for all your hard work. Your site has really helped me out.
I am confused. I have a Wordpress blog, do I need to install an RSS plugin for my blog to have a feed for my blog / site?
Thanks.
Cindy
No you don’t need a plugin RSS is part of every wordpress blog.
Just look in the address bar for the orange RSS icon. Click it and the address that comes up with be your RSS feed address.
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Hey Jackie,
You wrote:
Email signature ~ Feedburner has a widget that allows you to put your feed right in the signature of every email you send out.
I think that’s a cool idea! I have a feedburner account and I’ve been all over it looking for that widget. I can’t find it. Can you tell me where to find it?
Thanks,
–Greg
Follow me @Undeadrat on Twitter!
go to the publicize tab. You’ll see headline animator ~ that’s it. Under the title you will see “create new” click that and go from there.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Thanks Jackie,
I found it with your help. I’d actually clicked on it before but I thought it was just for websites. I had to click the first drop down arrow where it said “Add to MySpace, TypePad, etc” to find the e-mail option.
The bad news is that I use Gmail which doesn’t like HTML in the e-mail. However I’m testing Feedburner’s work-arounds and I hope one of them will work.
Still, I wouldn’t have even know the option existed if you hadn’t told me.
Thanks,
–Greg
Follow me @Undeadrat on Twitter!
Well written. The explanation about RSS is very complete. When I start my first blog, I totally overlooked the power of RSS. I read a tip of RSS on other websites and decided to give it a try. After submitting RSS to a few RSS directory, my blog got indexed within 10 hours. It was crazy compare to other method which requires 7 days or more. Thanks for sharing this good info.
Hi Jackie,
Great info, as always. Glad everything is up and running smoothly again.
Hi Jackie ,
Thanks a lot for your article which explains RSS in layman’s language.
Reading this article inspired us to do it with our blog.
Thanks,
Lena & Dima
Nice TV analogy, I like it. Some time back I thought up a whole new advertising avenue for RSS which I will implement on the new blog.
Jackie you make me realize I should pay more attention to this. It is just to me it feels if submitting the RSS does not make that big a difference. Maybe I’m too impatient and now I’m mixed up because I did not keep good record and I do not know which one I submitted and which ones not! I will just start with the new ones.
I am glad I’ve read this post and the comments today as you stress the “simmering” My son is getting impatient and wants me to start doing something else, can’s blame him for being tired of supporting this useless old woman!! Yet I feel I’m making headway and should only persevere.
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As far as links go ~ RSS is one of the easiest things you can do and everytime you update your site you get a new link from all the directories you submitted to. Yeah, it’s worth it.
If you’re doing lenses (and doing them all in one account) you only have to submit your lensmaster RSS feed and each time you publish a new lens it will automatically update at all the RSS directories.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie,
regarding the RSS directory list do you have one that you currently use? meaning one that maybe you used for the new site you have referred to recently?
The reason I ask is because both lists that you have linked to here have been pretty minimal, most of the sites are down or don’t accept feeds anymore. For example the one with 55 of them, MAYBE had 10 good ones.
And I realized you said to google it, but either I’m losing my mind, or there are no quality up-to-date posts with RSS lists on them.
Thanks for the help
anna
Follow me @beignspanishnow on Twitter!
Did you google rss directory list? I found plenty of options when I did that. I only submit to about 15 or 20 RSS directories. You don’t need a million.
Try these ~ it’s just a matter of testing:
http://www.toprankblog.com/rss-blog-directories/
http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm
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thanks for that info, that was helpful. I was able to get quite a few good ones out of those links.
Question on RSS. I have recently set up google reader to use as my RSS reader, it is pretty cool and easier to navigate through than using outlook, which is what i was using. BUT, I noticed that some RSS feeds, like yours and Yaro Starak’s show the entire post when you click on within the reader, but some blogs only show a “snippit”.
Did you set it up a certain way in feedburner and that is how you are showing it all? Also, on his RSS at the bottom of each entry he is able to put his free ebook offer on there, any idea how that is done?
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It depends on how you set up your feed from your site. In the settings area you can choose full or partial feed to show up in your feed.
He’s probably using a plugin like rss footer which allows you to add things in at the bottom of your rss feed. which reminds me I should really use that myself.
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Hi Jackie,
I have started a blog to click back to my lens.
1. Should I submit it, once finished, to Rss directories if it’s really for backlinking to my Squidoo lens?
2. On it, I used Zemanta, and when I click on the button you showed to use instead of Rss I get Zemanta. Must I close off Zemanta before using this?
3. I take it the url of the website (blog, in this case) is not the one to be used to submit for RSS feeds, or is that wrong?
Thanks for all the help.
Yes I would submit your blog to the RSS directories. It’s not so much for traffic, but to build some links to your blog to give it some authority which will make the links on it more powerful.
I have no idea which button you’re referring to that you are getting zemanta instead of RSS. Can you be more specific and I’ll see if I can help.
You have to use the RSS feed url to submit to the rss directories, so no it’s not the blog url. If you click the link in this post that says “grab your RSS feed” it will take you to a post that shows you how to do that.
Jackie
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Thank you. I’ve got it now. Maybe some of the difficulty is because I work on a Mac so things are a bit different.
I went, clicked on the RSS feed button, and grabbed the url from there.
Thank you so much, Jackie.
Oh yeah I imagine! I would have no idea what to do with a mac
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