Blogging, RSS & Feeds

Will The Real Spammer Please Stand Up!

If you have been using opt-in email marketing for sometime, I'm sure you might have got accused of spam at some point, even after doing everything right.

Yes, I'm talking about people who actually agreed to receive your email, blaming you for sending unsolicited mail.

According to me it's not their fault, as nowadays it's very easy to mistake an 'email marketer' for an 'email bomber'.

The web has grown so wide and huge in the last couple of years that it has become hard to differentiate between a spammer and a legal email marketer.

Spamme rs just didn't disturb a regular email users life but also wrecked havoc in the Internet marketing community.

Day after day it's becoming devastatingly difficult for permission based email marketers to use email legally and not get slammed for illegal mailing.

Even after making sure your email looks, sounds, smells and tastes 'Legal', you run a high risk of either getting blocked or being labeled as a spammer.

On the other hand, if luck favors you and your mail does make it to your subscribers' inbox safe and sound, what's the guarantee that it'll get opened and read?

It's a nightmare every marketer would love to avoid.

Well, you can stop worrying now and have a sigh of relief. It's about time all the hardcore spammers out there had their last laugh.

The Internet marketing world is abuzz with a brand new technology, which could finally send spamming back to the dark ages, big time.

If you still don't have a clue of what I'm talking about, it's called RSS and it's turning heads all over the web.

RSS, which stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' is a new technology, which enables anyone to syndicate his or her content online.

A lot has been written on what is RSS and how it works. So I would like to keep it short and sweet, as I'm sure you too wouldn't really want to get into the unnecessary technical stuff.

In simple words, RSS is a way to publish and receive content electronically. RSS files are XML based and are popularly known as RSS feeds.

What's revolutionary about RSS is, it can help you distribute your content directly to your subscribers, without any spam filters interfering.

To subscribe and read your RSS feeds, all your subscribers need to have is an RSS reader, also known as an aggregator.

What 's more, they don't even have to worry about giving out any of their personal details to subscribe to your feed.

And with a screaming bunch of RSS readers available on the web right now (most of them being free), it wouldn't be very hard to convince your subscribers to get there hands on one.

RSS readers are available in both versions, desktop and web-based, of which the latter seems to be the most popular.

Once your subscriber adds your RSS feed to their favorite RSS reader, you go 'live' and instantly establish a direct connection with your subscriber.

When ever you have something new to publish, all you have to do is update your already published RSS feed with your fresh content.

As soon you load your feed with new content, walla! Your feed automatically gets updated everywhere it's subscribed.

No mess, no fuss. Just content that works.

Pretty neat huh?

That's the beauty of RSS. No wonder it's currently being employed by web honchos like Yahoo! and MSN to deliver content to their users.

They even allow their members to add any RSS feeds of their choice to their members' area, making them perfect examples of web-based aggregators.

Syn dicating your content can mean a lot to you and your business. By publishing your own RSS feeds, you could eventually end up with more leads, more subscribers and not to forget, more money in the bank.

Happy syndicating!

Mus tafa K. is the co-founder of http://www. rapidfeeds.com , a free online service that helps anyone deliver targeted content to their subscribers through RSS. Sign Up for your FREE account on his site to put an end to blocked messages and add more subscribers.