However, the act of promoting can be a bit difficult since many of the internet users today still are not one hundred percent sure what RSS feeds are. Follow the following steps if you want to have success bringing visitors to your site through an RSS feed.



Typically you will use the orange XML or RSS buttons to promote your RSS feed and visitors can also subscribe to it directly from the RSS reader. Since most do not know what RSS is, clicking on the button link can be confusing for them.

After clicking on the button the individual is faced with lines of XML code that they need to copy and paste to their RSS reader, but this can be difficult for those who do not know what this is. Therefore, to avoid losing site visitors because they view an RSS feed as a waste of their time, you should create an RSS presentation page.

On this page you should explain exactly what an RSS feed is and how your visitors can benefit from this. Then you should give them instructions on how they can subscribe and install the RSS feed so that they will not become confused later on in the process.

Then right below this information you can place the links to all your RSS feeds. Then you simply have to promote the RSS presentation page to your visitors rather than the feed itself and you will soon find an increase in subscribers and visitors.

As with a subscription box for an e-zine, the placement of an RSS feed is important. If your visitors do not see the link they will not be able to subscribe to the feed. You need to motivate individuals to go to the link otherwise they will just ignore it.

Make sure you place and promote your RSS presentation page on a prominent location of your site. If you have several RSS feeds then you might want to consider promoting them next to the topics they cover. This way you will get individuals who are already interested in the information you have to give them.

Whenever you send out an email message of an issue of your e-zine then you should be sure to promote any RSS feed you have. Do not just tell your visitors to subscribe, provide them with a reason to subscribe and tell them what important information they can learn by subscribing to your RSS feed and not someone elses.

(c) Carl Hoffman