'Net Features : rss

Feedburner Alternatives – RSS to Email (and Monetization) Solutions

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:05:00 GMT

RSS was a very important element of content publishing success in years past, but with the introduction of social media, it has for many all but fallen out of view. With email’s continued relevance in digital marketing however, perhaps it’s time to reconsider the options available.

RSS has been dominated in the past by Feedburner (which is a digital property of Google) and there have been few viable solutions outside of it for Web workers to utilize. Feedburner’s RSS to email features have been lackluster at best. Fortunately there are quite alternatives that you may want to consider.

The first place to look of course is directly to your email service provider. Most ESP’s offer the functionality. Some of the most popular, currently, are from vendors including Aweber, MailChimp, Constant Contact, but there are many others. Oftentimes however, those publishing their RSS to email are also interested in monetizing their content. A solution from RevResponse caught our attention and it may just be a perfect fit for marketers.

Rev Response’s RSS to email tool is a Feedburner alternative that allows marketers to send email newsletters (based on their RSS feed) and monetize them with resources including whitepapers, eBooks and magazines. Marketers must simply upload their existing list, choose a template, and set the frequency. Rev Response then manages the list and pays out on each download.

Feedburner Now Offers In the Moment Stats

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 03:00:00 GMT

Google has rolled out an experimental interface (and some real-time tracking features) for its Feedburner service. This is really the first upgrade since the service was acquired back in 2007.

The new interface according to Google provides real time stats for clicks, views, and podcast downloads. Feed publishers are now able to see what content is driving traffic from feed readers, micro-blogging services like Twitter and other syndication sources in real-time.

Those publishers using the FeedBurner Socialize service are also now able to receive stats on how much traffic feed items are receiving, as well as from feed reading platforms like Google Reader directly.

Google did note that subscriber and reach numbers will still be calculated based on a whole day's worth of requests (based on the traffic received for the prior days) but item statistics now reflect the traffic feed publishers are receiving in the moment. That's right - Feedburner has real time stats.

LinkedIn News Feeds

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:00:00 GMT

LinkedIn apparently wants to play catch up in the battle for the social Web.

Not to be outdone by the likes of Digg, Facebook or even Twitter, professional networking site LinkedIn announced the launch of a new feature last week that allows group owners and managers to create custom news streams composed of RSS or Atom feeds.

Back in November 2008, LinkedIn launched a feature that allowed group members to share and discuss individual news articles. Friday's announced feature aims to make that even easier by helping users consume, discuss and collaborate on aggregated news directly from within their groups.

Will this provide RSS greater exposure? Doubtful. It's integrated in very seamless way, perhaps to not cause attention to itself. The content, not the technology, is the most important component to Web success.

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Transferring Feedburner Accounts

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:32:00 GMT

Are you a Feedburner user? Well, now you're officialy a Google Feedburner user.

Google is moving the Feedburner application to Google and that means you'll need to transfer your feed(s). Google is planning to have all accounts moved by February 28, 2009, but many people are seeing messages within their account which enable them to shift to the new system immediately.

If you're worried about losing subscribers in the transfer process, don't be. Your RSS readers will continue to receive your feeds. As we've noticed this in our own Feedburner feed, however, it may take up to a week to adjust to internet traffic changes, so the number of subscribers you see reported may be lower for a brief time. Users can log in to the new system at http://feedburner.google.com.

There are two new features now available. The change allows for all publishers with an Adsense account to participate in Adsense for Feeds. Email delivery of RSS content also got an upgrade with improved subscription management. Users can now see activity of their subscribers' status. And some features are being retired. Site Stats (website visitor tracking) and Feedburner Networks will no longer be supported.

Exclusive Content in WordPress: RSS Post Editor

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:45:00 GMT

This post is for WordPress users!

There comes a time in the virtual life of every blogger that they want more from their WordPress installation, more from their RSS feed and more activity and a deeper relationship with and from readers. That's exactly where the RSS Post Editor comes in.

The plugin allows bloggers to add specific content to RSS feed articles so that users have to subscribe to feeds to view the additional content. For example, say you wrote an article on vacations that featured 30 tips on being safe while on holiday. To increase engagement, thanks to the RSS Post Editor Plugin, you can include five tips available for public viewing, but include the other 25 tips for subscribers of your blog exclusively.

The Plugin is easy to use. Just write your post as you normally would, but wrap the extra content in [rss][/rss] tags. For example, this is the normal post content [rss]and this content is to be shown inside the rss feed[/rss].

Pretty simple and a great way to increase the number of blog subscribers.

Distributed Media Analytics at Pheedo

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:44:00 GMT

Advertisers in pursuit of engagement analytics and the overall impact of the content campaigns in social networks and weblogs will be pleased to know that distributed media nalaytics provider Pheedo is now able to measure the effectiveness of content in media environments such as Facebook, Widgets and blogs.

The FeedPowered Analytics Dashboard™ delivers detailed information about where an advertiser’s content is consumed, active user analysis including user engagement levels and pass-along rates. The technology provides advertisers with a look at the behavior trends of active users consuming content beyond the website; creating the standard in Social Media analytics and measurable ROI on advertising spend.

“RSS has already proven that it can exponentially change the way ad content is distributed and consumed. Content is moving beyond the website into widgets, start-pages, RSS readers and social environments. Brand marketers can no longer expect users to come to their micro-site. Distributed media is the new micro-site,” states Bill Flitter, CEO of Pheedo. “Marketers expect effective and efficient measures on their media campaigns and Pheedo’s FeedPowered Analytics Dashboard is an important next step in the evolution of distributed media ROI analysis. Now ad content including videos, podcasts, press releases, whitepapers and the like can be tracked anywhere, at any time with distributed media analytics technology from Pheedo.”

Related Stories From Website Magazine on Pheedo:
RSS Data You Can Use From Pheedo
Pheedo's Feed Powered Ads

RSS The Oprah Way

Mike Phillips — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

When first introduced, RSS (Real Simple Syndication) was touted by a vocal few as a great salvation of time for the wider Web community. And by all accounts, it delivered. It gives us the ability to consume massive amounts of information in a short period of time while also archiving that information for use at a later date. It's hard to argue against the value RSS provides for those aware of its capabilities and benefits. However, most people outside of the Internet sphere of influence are not using RSS, much less know what the heck it is and how it can benefit them. It's time to change that.

The challenge for website owners is in expressing to users the value of RSS and why they should sign up for our feeds.

Raising RSS Awareness
For many, RSS is neither real nor simple. Brilliant in conception, it is often hopelessly confusing for the beginner. But RSS can provide a good source of traffic, loyal users and higher website subscriptions. That is why it is important to walk website visitors through the steps of locating, subscribing and reading feeds.

Sample explanation pages are the norm for some websites, although still not common. These instructions pages often vary in scope based on the technical sophistication of users but should always highlight what RSS is and how the audience member can benefit, while explaining in no uncertain terms how a person goes about subscribing to a website's feed. In my opinion, nobody has done this better than media mogul Oprah Winfrey. On her website, in lieu of dry and technical jargon, Real Simple Syndication becomes "Ready for Some Stories." It's simple, easy to remember and to the point, opening up the possibility for more users to understand and benefit from the syndicated content. Below is an image from Oprah.com, detailing and demystifying RSS.

A continuing challenge when it comes to raising awareness for RSS, is that since its initial conception, website owners and marketers have presented or announced the availability of RSS feeds most often through bright orange icons or through "chicklets" - small icons for individual feedreaders. The problem is that many users don't know what these mean - it's foreign, intimidating and Web professionals are committed to using the same methods of RSS promotion. While it is important to make the presence of feeds available, too many of these cryptic symbols and options for subscribers may render a campaign to increase RSS subscribers futile. In the end, simply offering RSS in a way that is in line with how users consume information (for example email) will go a long way towards raising awareness. Take a lesson from Oprah - she knows her audience, knows how much they could benefit from RSS and knows how to explain and deliver it with as much ease as possible.

Feed Compare - Bigger or Better?

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:45:00 GMT

With Google is mere days away from publicly unveiling Adsense for Feeds, you're about to read a lot more on this blog and other regarding how to determine the popularity of a blog and how to assess the value derived from appearing in a specific sites RSS feed whether it's through a casual editorial mention or via advertising. While RSS continues to have a slow adoption rate with the greater Web community, it's got the backing of many Web professionals - and that goes a long way.

While true RSS "engagement" analytics are a ways off, there has been an influx in the number of services which show the number of RSS subscribers a weblog actually has. Case in point, we mentioned BlogPerfume back in January of this year. Today however the Web is abuzz with FeedCompare.com, a free service which enables anyone to do side by side comparisons of Feedburner RSS subscribers for a website.

RSS Advertising: Before You Start

Administrator — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:00:00 GMT

(At the end of the post is a "quick hack" to find the number of RSS Subscribers a feedburner-powered weblog has)

When it seems that every company on the Web and every individual within that company has a weblog, many readers may be interested in venturing into RSS advertising. Marketing within the feeds of others can certainly be a viable way to drive traffic, increase brand awareness and of course make some product sales, but the challenging part is finding out if the blog's feed you want to advertise within is worth the investment. Analyzing the quality of the content within those feeds is important, but so analyzing the quantity of subscribers to that feed.

Blog Perfume has an amazingly helpful tool to analyze Feedburner powered weblogs.

Blog Perfume's Feed Analysis tool shows the numbers of subscribers for each month presented elegantly on a chart and even the number of subscribers, hits, views and clicks for every single day. There is also a best/worst day of the week pie chart which could be useful in determining when you need to blog more often. BlogPerfume also provide a the estimated value for a one-month banner advertisement and the estimated blog worth. Keep in mind that the data is only for the feed itself and does not indicate how much traffic a weblog minus the feed receives so valuations may be a bit off.

Quick Hack To Find RSS Feed Counts (Feedburner)

Don't want to do all the blog advertising analysis? If you come across a feed that you may be interested in advertising within and want to know how many subscribers they have it's actually incredibly easy to do by inserting "~fc" before the feed name and after the feedburner URL - example below:

Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Website-Magazine/

Feed Count URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/Website-Magazine/