Marketing With Blogs and RSS - The Hot New Tools of 2005

In case you haven't heard, the net is buzzing with talk ofblogging and RSS. Once the province strictly of people whogot a kick out of publishing online diaries, and later ofpolitical and social commentarists, blogs and RSS are beingadopted by the internet marketing community.

This is the hot new trend for 2005. The word "blog" wasactually selected as the word of the year for 2004, and2005 promises to be the year of the blog.

So what is all the fuss about? Well, especially with theincreasing restrictions on email marketing, including ISPblocking of mail amounting to estimates of 40% of all emailnever getting delivered, marketers began to look for newavenues to get their message out. Enter blogs and RSS.

Delivered straight to a user's desktop, the content of anRSS feed is unfiltered by anyone. Users can subscribe andunsubscribe anonymously, with the click of a mouse, andhave no fear that their personal information will beshared. RSS is "pull" technology, meaning that the userasks for it, in contrast to email, which is often unaskedfor, and thus is often "push" technology.

Blogs, which are usually publicized by way of an RSS feed,among other venues, are the current darlings for the searchengine spiders. Search engines love blogs, because theyare full of content, are frequently changing, are devoid of"flash", graphics, and other distractions, and are full ofoutgoing links.

If you know anything about search engine optimization, you knowthat those are the characteristics that should you strive forwhen optimizing a conventional page for the search engines. The pages in a blog are that way by their very nature, and thusattract the search engine spiders.

Why do marketers love blogs? Numerous reasons.

They are simple to create and maintain. They afford theopportunity to publish links to other sites, and to theinterior pages of other sites. Their popularity with humanvisitors makes them natural targets for traffic. Theirconstantly changing content attracts the search enginespiders, which then follow the links that they find, andindex the pages of other websites.

Many savvy internet marketing experts have suggested thatthe best way to capture an audience of potential customersis to provide them free information, either through a"content site" that does little direct selling, or throughpublication of an informative email newsletter that givesfree information and at most employs a "soft sell" whenendorsing products.

A blog is the perfect blend of the two. It has often beensuggested that the best way to start an online business iswith a free newsletter, which allows you to develop your"list". While a blog doesn't develop your "list" in quitethe same way, it does afford you the opportunity to developa loyal following among your readers, which accomplishesmuch the same purpose as having a "list".

Whether you announce or endorse a product through an emaillist or a blog, you are announcing it to people who want tohear what you have to say. Your blog readers are probablymore eager, in many cases, than are readers of your massemails.

I could go on and on about the merits of blogs. If you arepromoting any product or service online, you owe it to yourselfto check out what can be done with blogs and RSS.

John Barbour, Ph.D. is the author of a new blogging guidewhich teaches people how to promote any product or serviceonline using blogs and RSS.

John also maintains several internet marketing educationalwebsites, and manages a new directory for blogs related tointernet marketing. Visit the emarketing blog directory andfind an interesting blog, or submit your own for inclusion.