Geeks and Bloggers use RSS exclusively for the publishing and subscribing to news headlines and blog feeds, however many other innovative and useful applications of RSS have been sprouting up here and there.
The marketplace is quickly learning that you can use RSS content feeds for so much more and its getting crazy and wild out there in the business world.
To see a small sampling of what people are doing with feeds visit http://www.msifetch.com/Unique_Feeds.html
Everything from audios and videos, recipes, graphics, weather, comic strips and much more. It seems there is no limit to what you can do with a little ingenuity and creative thought.
Many of the larger sites are starting to utilize these new features making it a lot more interesting adding such feeds to your website. Companies like Apple, Ebay, Amazon and shopping channels are offering a much more graphical interface than just a headline and a paragraph.
With the web surfer becoming much more "web savvy" than they were a year ago, they are expecting not only information but also an entertaining web experience. People love watching or listening to media and this also means they are more likely to read your message while they are visiting.
While most RSS Feeds were simply headlines and a small amount of text there was not really any reason to add these feeds to your website. As this is rapidly changing the ability to add some of these new feeds means great content for your website and good search engine ranking because of the constantly changing content.
Not only can you bring outside feeds into your sites but it is also very easy create your own from the desktop. Programs like RSS Editor and RSS Builder are free RSS Feed creators that let you make feeds that can then be offered from any website.
Embeding RSS Feeds in your Web Site
MSIFetch http://www.msifetch.com is a new generation of server side software that allows anyone to take a feed and embed it directly in their website. This new format produces PHP feeds so they look like part of your page and are seen by search engines as content.
There are many services that do this for free however they get most of the credit so to have it all running on your own site makes a lot more sense.
Advertising in RSS Feeds
As publishers have moved towards monetizing RSS feeds, their have been vibrant discussions as to whether advertisements in feeds are viable or whether they will drive subscribers away. At the end of the day while it appears that many are discussing the philosophical approaches to ads in RSS feeds few are taking the time to examine the options available for inserting advertisements in feeds.
Ultimately the advertisements served are going to determine the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The ads served must be related to the content contained in the feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will succeed. Take a closer look at some of the ad serving options currently available for RSS feeds.
RSS Feeds are starting to take on a whole new feel and if you have not yet investigated all the incredible possibilities then you should do your self a favor and have a look.
Quentin Brown has been helping people build website for over eight years. For great tutorials and affordable software visit. http://msicoach.com
