Email is not the dependable content delivery mechanism that it once was. Sp@m filters, blacklists and content overload have plummeted email delivery rates. Chances are that more than half of your email subscribers aren't reading your messages. In fact, your message may not even make it to their inbox.

What is a webmaster like us to do? Well, email is still the primary content delivery standard for most Internet users. However, you can start complementing your email marketing with other content delivery channels to increase your delivery rate. RSS is one such mechanism.

When LockerGnome.com began to promote their own RSS feeds, they began seeing 5 times the number of RSS subscribers against email subscribers. Even more interesting, they also began receiving a 500% better clickthrough ratio with RSS than with traditional email.

You can add RSS to your marketing mix in order to increase your readership, increase the response to your marketing messages, and improve your search engine placement.

There are so many options when it comes to content delivery with RSS. Many webmasters online today are limiting themselves merely to what they've seen others do. However, the possibilities extend much further.

One of the basic uses of RSS is to deliver content updates. Your RSS subscribers can receive updates that you have made to your website, including new articles, downloads, coupons, etc. This was not possible with email because most subscribers would go hysterical if they found 5 emails in their inbox one day talking about the different updates to your site.

RSS solves this problem, enabling people to use aggregators to access information at their convenience. You can also use RSS to deliver news updates, quick tips, quotes, new coupons, job listings, classifieds, real estate listings, and new forum posts.

Once you have created your RSS feed, it's time to start marketing it. Marketing your RSS feed is completely different from marketing an email-based newsletter. However, similar to newsletter promotion, promoting your RSS feed begins on your web site and with your existing audience.

To let people know that you are offering an RSS feed, you will need to display an RSS image on a high-profile space of your web site. Your visitors will be much more likely to see your RSS image if you use one of the well-known buttons to represent your feed. You should place this button towards the top of your page for best exposure.

To see some good examples of web sites that are promoting their RSS feeds, go to SitePoint.com and Lockergnome.com.

Your RSS feed should be noticeable and available from every page of your web site.

You must also have a page on your web site that explains exactly what RSS is. Many of your visitors may not know about this new technology. This is especially true if your website does not pertain to internet marketing like this one.

Take your visitors step-by-step through the process of locating, subscribing and reading an RSS feed. By doing this, you are informing your website visitors and helping to promote the use of your own RSS feed.

To see a really good example of this, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3223484.stm.

If you have different categories of RSS feeds, Provide a link to each of these feeds right next to the content category to which it belongs. For example, you could create a different RSS feed for different categorical topics. Not only does this provide more options for your visitors, but it also provides additional marketing opportunities.

Posted by www.MauiSEO.com