Archive for the 'Net Hub' Category

Managing Spam in 2005

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

In 1998, nearly 10% of all email traffic on the internet was SPAM. By 2003 that number had climbed to 50%, and the problem had gotten so bad that Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act)

The specific requirements and penalties of that law, (which took effect in 2004) have done little to stem the tide of junk email we all receive. Today, in 2005, the percentage of unsolicited email is at an all time high of 87% (source – Wired Magazine July 2005)

How can we even stand to check our email? Well I can’t. That’s why I pay for a service to protect my entire domain name from all Spam. That’s a great solution for me, but it’s too expensive for a home or very small business user. How then can you protect yourself?

First, there are filtering options in Outlook and Outlook Express, and I encourage you to investigate them further. More details on this are in my article from May of 2000 called “Managing your E-mail II” here http://pdxtc.com/200005-managingemail2.htm

After trying about 6 other programs, I found a free version of some software that I used for a long time called Mailwasher. This program was easily trained and configured to learn all of my preferences, and for free, there’s nothing better. However, you I still basically have to check mail twice, once in a clunky web-interface to sift through all the blocked SPAM. I prefer to just check my mail normally, not worrying about a missed message.

In 2003, a friend recommended a service called Knowspam. That was a great solution that blocked 100% of all SPAM through a “permission based” system. A permission based system means that all new senders not on your list, will get a “verification” email, asking them “Are you human?” Well, if they are really human, then they take the simple instructed action, and you’ll get their email, as well as all future mail from them, unless you choose to block them later.

Many readers of my column tried Knowspam, and I got dozens of positive comments. That wasn’t enough for Knowspam though, because they still went out of business.

Well the good news is that there’s a replacement for Knowspam. It’s called Spam Arrest, and it’s under $3 a month. It does everything that Knowspam used to do, and then some. I’ve now set myself up with an affiliate account and arranged for you try it for free for 30 days.

First, you easily upload all of your contacts, and then follow their easy directions to change your system mail settings, and anyone on your list or anyone you ever send mail to is automatically approved.

The great news is that this works for up to 5 email accounts, and even works for AOL mail! If you want to see 100% of your spam get blocked, and not be embarrassed to let your kids see your inbox, then visit http://www.pdxtc.com/spamarrest and sign up for your free 30 day trial.

Scott Hendison is living in Oregon, and is the owner of Portland Technology Consultants. He is a computer and internet consultant, and has been in the industry since 1995. He provides search engine marketing and optimization services for selected clients, and offers integrated POS / e-commerce systems for retail businesses that want to sell online. For over 75 other articles, visit his website at http://www.pdxtc.com

Spam Email and the Flu, Is There a Cure?

Friday, September 5th, 2008

It seems more and more these days, I am seeing increased similarities with spam and the flu. With Yahoo and AOL in the news lately about a possible pay to email to avoid spam, this brought be to think about the flu and spam correlation.

If you cannot beat it, or at least stop it completely at this time, why not try to make money off of it (that is unless there’s a permanent solution against it). Right now you could easily relate this statement to spam or the common cold/flu.

We can easily relate spam emails to the virus that will cause you to get sick. With some of the top email providers, you have the option of upgrading your email (pay of course) and have the option of increasing the number of filters to help combat the war against spam. With the flu/cold, we try our best to avoid it, purchase products to help prevent it, and once we do get it, off to the store to get the good ole cold/flu medicine.

With Yahoo and AOL, which I am sure you have probably heard of by now, a possible (most likely) option of paying to avoid the spam filters so your email will get to its intended place. Maybe it is time to start phoning people again?

It will be interesting to see how paying to avoid the spam filters will work out for some of the major players such as Yahoo and AOL. I just hope if the pay to email does come through, I just don’t see an increase in spam emails, but I guess as time goes on, that is very unlikely.

Gerard Manning is an SEO Consultant for Search Engine Marketing Firm Manning Search Marketing based out of Atlantic Canada.

Email Marketing Lesson: RSS Feed Marketing Is Coming To A Browser Near You

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Everywhere you look these days people are talking about RSS Feeds. Now the stakes are even higher because traditional ‘Email Marketing’ messages via RSS Feeds are coming to a customizable webpage or browser near you.

I think the idea is pretty nifty however I am wondering how long it will take to be mainstream.

Should marketers take notice? Yes, marketing messages through RSS Feeds should be something you should at least look at.

Should you start doing it? Probably not.

Yet.

Why not start with asking your Email List Management provider if they have the capability or are thinking about it. If you operate all of this from in-house you will probably have to get a software upgrade or use another package.

Start taking notice of how many e-newsletters you signup for or Email Marketing messages you are getting that give you the option of getting the messages via RSS Feeds.

Make a note to start thinking about sending marketing messages via RSS Feeds. You won’t be doing it tomorrow, you won’t be doing it next week but sometime in the next few years when your boss says:

“Harry, my kid says he gets messages from his favorite online music store via RSS Feeds, why can’t we do that?”

You can smile and say,

“We’ve started doing that six months ago.”

Joan Pasay - EzineArticles Expert Author

Joan Pasay is a dynamic e-marketing coach & the author of:

Email Marketing Made Easy: How To Get Your Customers To Give You More Of Their Money. For online and offline businesses.

Check out Joan here: http://www.EmailMarketingMadeEasy.com

Feel free to send this article to anyone you wish.

Copyright – Joan Pasay 2005

Id Theft, What Is This And How Do I Protect Myself?

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Identity Theft is when someone uses another person’s social security number, driver license, name, address, telephone number and any other information about that particular person as their own. The unauthorized person that obtains this information without the other person’s knowledge uses this information to commit theft and fraud.

How does a person committing ID theft get my information? By going through your trash, hacking into a computer that you may use, securing a copy of your credit report, stealing credit card and debit card numbers that you may have, stealing your mail,completing a change of address form to reroute your mail to a different address, stealing your purse or wallet, and scamming information from you by posing as a business person.

How would I know if I am a victim of ID theft? If you receive credit card statements for accounts you did not apply for, you do not receive your mail, your credit is being denied and you do not know why, counterfeit checks are used to withdraw money from your bank account, you receive calls from collection agencies about bills for accounts established with your personal information that you do not know about,and other problems that you may have with your personal information.

Should I order a copy of my credit reports to find out if I am a victim of identity theft? Yes, you may want to consider doing this if you suspect that you are a victim of identity theft. You would want to order a copy of your credit reports from all three credit reporting agencies which are: Equifax www.equifax.com 1-800-685-1111; Experian www.experian.com 1-888-397-3742; and; TransUnion www.transunion.com 1-800-916-8800.

What should I do if my identity is stolen by someone? Contact the three credit reporting agencies as soon as possible and let them know that you are a victim of ID theft and ask them to place a fraud alert and your statement as a victim in your credit report file. Order a copy of your credit report from each agency to check the information on your report.

Contact the credit reporting agencies fraud units at these telephone numbers or addresses: Equifax: 1-800-525-6285, P.O. Box 74021, Atlanta, GA. 30374-0241:: Experian: 1-888-397-3742, P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX. 75013:: TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289, Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA. 92834-6790.

Should I close my credit and checking accounts if ID theft has occurred? Yes, you may want to consider closing your credit and checking accounts if you suspect identity theft. Contact your bank and creditors about your identity being stolen and consider closing your accounts and establish new ones.

If your checks are stolen, request that your bank notify the check verification company that they use. You may also want to contact the major check verification companies as well.

The major check verification companies that you would want to contact are the following: Telecheck, 1-800-710-9898 or 1-800-927-0188:: Certegy Inc., 1-800-437-5120:: and; International Check Services, 1-800-631-9656.

You may also want to contact a company known as Scan at 1-800-262-7771 to find out if an identity thief has been using your checks. In addition, you should also contact your local police department and report that your identity has been stolen.

Make sure that you file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission about your identity being stolen as well. You can file this report at www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

Nocita Carter is a writer and web designer that creates websites providing informative tips on various subject matter including personal finance tips on your personal finances at http://www.personal-finance-tips-for-you.com and dating tips at http://www.mydating-tips.com.

RSS: This Publisher’s Choice

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

RSS is the interactive communication tool being popularized by bloggers. It is also the newest method for ezine publishers to deliver their content to the web.

RSS puts control back where it belongs. Publishers have control over their content, and subscribers have control over what they read.

This system requires that subscribers manually subscribe to the feeds they choose to read. One simply cannot just enter an email address and hit a subscribe button, attached to an autoresponder.

RSS feeds require an aggregator to read them, similarly to the way a browser reads HTML on a web page. As a result of this necessity, absolutely no one can be subscribed to a feed without consent. This makes the reader 100% responsible for the acceptance of the content to which they have subscribed. The receipt of feed content can never be unsolicited, nor can it be redundant. One cannot have more than one active subscription to a particular feed.

Rather than having to open an over-flowing mailbox, to find the information you are looking for, RSS acts as a special delivery agent, placing the content right next to your toast and coffee. Feeds are delivered straight to the desktop of the subscriber via the aggregator, providing the subscriber with freshly updated information, as it is refreshed by the source [publisher].

The subscriber receives the most recent headlines available, not a bulky periodical, and from there, can choose which articles they want to read, by clicking on that particular headline. When the reader finishes reading the feed, they just exit the program. There is nothing to store, nothing to delete.

Because RSS is set up as a dynamic, interactive system, publishers can allow, and often encourage, reader comments. This fascillitates dialogue between authors and readers, in real time. It invites the reader to express opinions, or ask questions. It provides readers with access to their mentors, that is non-invasive, yet direct.

One consideration to keep in mind is that not all RSS feeds are created equal. Not all aggregators can read all feeds. This is not a case of one size fits all. There are several different versions of RSS feeds, and they are completely different from each other, not mere upgrades of the previous.

Does this mean that one must carry several different aggregators to read various feeds? Not at all. The folks over at Quikonnex.com, Jim Gray and Carolyn Peltier, have, in their mastery of code, developed their own aggregator, QuikView, that will read all RSS feeds, regardless of version. They offer their ‘channel viewer’ free of charge to anyone wanting to receive information via this medium. If you want to learn about and utilize RSS in your communications, these are the people to follow. They are not your run of the mill gurus, Jim and Carolyn are the ones writing the code and manipulating it to meet their vision. Believe me, these two are not short sighted individuals either.

Quikonnex provides its members with audio and video training, weekly workshops, one-to-one live support, and a forum that is filled with knowledge. Cost of membership: FREE.

RSS is certainly the new generation in communication. There is a learning curve involved, but isn’t that true of anything? We all had to learn to connect to the Internet, surf the web and use email. Learning how to use RSS is no different.

Copyright © 2004
The Trii-Zine Ezine
http://www.ezines1.com/triizine

EzineArticles Expert Author Trina Schiller

Trina L.C. Schiller is a professional network marketer, the publisher of the Internet marketing ezine, “Trii-Zine” and owner of TLC Promotions, as well as a founding publisher at Quikonnex.com, and President of AdsOnQ.com, the Internet’s first syndicated advertising agency.

She has also authored the following ebooks:

“Your Beginner’s Guide To Syndication” http://www.ads-on-q.com/booksales.html

RSS, Blogs and Syndication… The Facts vs The guruese” http://www.ads-on-q.com/RSS.html

Pst… Pass It On… I Found Out It’s a Hoax

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

When you receive an email telling you about a virus, what do you do with it? Do you send it to everyone in your address book to help them protect themselves too?

A virus warning is probably on its way to your inbox right now, claiming to be from a credible source and warning you of a dangerous virus on the loose. Beware. You might be tricked into taking part in an Internet hoax – chain mail virus alerts.

It is believed that 60% plus of the Virus Warnings in circulation are hoaxes. Further, your anti-virus software may already have a cure for this particular ailment IF it is real.

Even old hoaxes, which have been around for years, can make the rounds again, according to Trend Micro, an anti-virus software company.

‘There are a number of new hoaxes because they are so easy to write, you don’t need to be a programmer,’ the anti-virus company spokesperson said.

What about all of those ‘Get Paid to Send Email’ schemes? Do you forward them along too, because you do not know if they are true or not, and figure ‘why should I take the chance that it is not real?’ These ‘Get Paid to Send Email’ schemes are a fine example of hoaxes that can make the rounds again and again.

There have been at least a dozen incarnations of a ‘Get Paid to Send Email’ hoax recorded at several of the hoax sites listed in this article. For the complete story, try the search terms ‘Bill Gates’ or ‘Nike’ or ‘AOL / Microsoft’ at any of the Hoax sites.

Let me cut to the chase, no one has the technology to track emails sent through the Internet! No one will ever pay you for sending emails to everyone in your address book! This story is a verified hoax.

Here is a list of Hoax Information Sites that you can check the validity of the warning or the message in your email inbox. You might just be surprised by which items are hoaxes and which are not.

For those people who don’t know the tell-tale signs of hoaxes, here’s a checklist:

  1. IBM/Microsoft/Dell/Gateway have verified this. Does anyone think they care? They don’t. If it said Norton, McAfee or any other antivirus vendor I might listen. If a virus killed your computer or software the above companies would be delighted because you’d have to buy more computers, and they would be delighted to sell you one.

  2. Even if the email proclaims that one of the virus companies is verifying this virus, where is the link to the virus companies website, detailing the important information concerning this particular strain of virus?

  3. Published on CNN. Again, where is the link? Could you find it yourself?

  4. You’ll never be able to use your computer again. Hogwash. If you got a virus the very worst case is that you’d have to format it and reinstall everything. And that’s extremely rare anyway. No virus will harm your computer, only the software on it.

  5. This virus damages/destroys Windows and McIntosh systems. More hogwash. These are two very different operating systems with very different ways of executing software.

  6. Don’t even open it! Yea right. 99.9% of virii are carried in attachments to emails not in the emails themselves. Use a bit of common sense and don’t open any unexpected attachments from strange sources. And if you keep your AV software up to date, you’re most often covered anyway. (The only email software not safe from some types of viruses are Outlook, Outlook Express, and Netscape 6. Users of Outlook and Outlook Express can visit http://Microsoft.com for the patch to protect these email programs from imbedded vb-script viruses. Netscape 6 users can guarantee their own protection by turning off the JavaScripting feature inside of their Preferences.)

  7. Forward to all your friends. Now we’re down to the crutch of it. This email IS the virus – a social one. Look at the facts. It gets sent to all your friends. It infects peoples inboxes and causes panic. Sounds like a virus to me. It doesn’t actually do any harm like most virii but is a waste of your time.

  8. Verify these things yourself before forwarding them. To simplify the task of verification, there is a new freeware application on the market designed to help you do just that. It is called ‘Quick Swords V’ and it has been developed for you by a new company called InternetMusketeers.com. The ‘V’ stands for ‘Virus’.

Here is an overview of how the software works: ‘Simply type in your Search Terms, then click on the Virus / Hoax Information Searches drop down list, and then select your choice for expert guidance on the subject of Viruses and Hoaxes. With Quick Swords V, we can help take the guesswork out of your decision making process. We are giving you direct access to the nearly immediate search results of 16 Virus / Hoax sites on the Internet.’

Quick Swords V (virus) ships as Freeware, so you have no excuse not to verify the Virus information before sending it to everyone in your address book anymore. It only takes a minute to verify the latest juicy warning in your email box. I know your mouse finger is itching to click Forward, but your friends will Thank You for verifying this information before hitting Send!

Instead, click here: http://InternetMusketeers.com/apps/QuickSwords

I would like to thank the following people for assisting me in the gathering of the information presented in this article:

About The Author

Bill Platt – Owner of WindstormComputing.com and The Windstorm Computing and Technical Support Newsletter. Subscribe: WindstormComputing-subscribe@topica.com.

Also the Author of the award-winning Quick Swords Family of Software Products: http://InternetMusketeers.com/apps/QuickSwords

Top 6 Strategies to Put Your RSS Feed Promotion On Steroids

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

As I wrote in one of my previous articles, the orange revolution has begun. RSS is here and it has taken the internet by storm. The number of webmasters becoming a part of this online revolution is growing on a fast pace. The reason is, RSS feeds have proved to increase traffic in a big way. And creating your own RSS feed would surely be a step towards tapping in a new source of traffic.

However, just publishing your own RSS feed and waiting for miracles to happen won’t work. In order to get those most wanted subscribers, RSS feeds need to be promoted and marketed in the right way. With a good dose of quality traffic directed towards your feed, long term subscriptions will definitely start pouring in.

The following 6 ways will not only help you get the word out about your RSS feed but also help you retain a fresh flow of targeted visitors to your website.

Strategy #1: Create an individual webpage for your RSS feed

The most important part of your promotion should be creating a webpage dedicated to your RSS feed. Since RSS is still new to most of the online users, you can give your readers an introduction and explain how beneficial it is to subscribe to your RSS feed.

You can also have a small FAQ section about RSS here answering any questions and doubts your readers might have. Most of the time, the key here is to give your potential subscribers more than one option to add your feed. Different subscription options like “My Yahoo!” “My MSN” and “Newsgator” allow your visitors to add and subscribe to your feed with their own convenience.

However, if you are not a techie and wouldn’t prefer to create a webpage, then you can use a service like http://www.rapidfeeds.com . Here you get a designed page for your feed with different subscription options. There’s also a link to a short tutorial for those who are new to RSS. Once you publish a feed with them, you can directly promote your feed’s URL. But it would be much better if you can create a webpage specifically for your RSS feed.

Strategy #2: Add the Auto-Discover code to your RSS feed webpage

Browsers like Mozzila Firefox have added a lot of new features in the past few years and made browsing a different experience. One of the good features offered by Firefox is subscribing to RSS feeds.

That’s right, it acts as an aggregator and lets readers add feeds directly into their browser. The browser automatically detects RSS feeds on the site and asks the user, while he’s surfing the site, if he or she wishes to subscribe to the feeds. In other words, it makes it very easy for users to centralize information of their choice.

However, for Firefox to detect your feed on the webpage, you need to have the “Auto – Discover” code on it. So that the browser can automatically detect the feed, alerting the user.

Simply include the following code in the section of your web pages:

This should set you up for some automatic subscriptions to your feed!

Strategy #3: Write and distribute articles

Writing and distributing articles is a well known and a very respected method of driving traffic to your website. It has been effectively used by thousands of webmasters over the years to bring in some quality visitors.

Therefore, it’s an excellent idea to promote your RSS feed through articles written by you. There are many benefits that you’ll experience once your start writing your own informative articles. First of all, you’ll be recognized as an expert in your field. Secondly, you will gain the trust of your readers even before they subscribe.

Your article doesn’t have to be very long in length. It can be anywhere between 500 -1000 words. A “resource box” in the end should follow your completed article. The resource box usually is a short bio of the author. Here is where you can promote your RSS feed and give a link to it, explaining about it in brief.

Once you are done with the article, you can go ahead and submit it to online article directories like ezinearticles and goarticles. You can also go ahead and contact individual ezine publishers for publishing your article, as they are always on a look out for fresh content.

It’s really not a big deal to write an article on the web. If you know your expertise, then I’m sure you can come up with an article worth reading.

Strategy #4: Submit your RSS feed to directories and search engines

Submitting your RSS feed to online directories will certainly draw in visitors who are actually interested in what you offer. In the past few months a lot new directories have come up. For example, Syndic8 and 2RSS are thriving with thousands of RSS feeds on different topics with many more being added daily. Your feed can very well find its place in these ever growing directories.

There are even feed specific search engines like Feedster, which index only RSS feeds. These search engines get visitors who are searching for RSS feeds on a specific. So getting listed in them could convert to more targeted traffic and give your feed a good subscription rate.

These niche directories and search engines always tend to bring out the best out of your promotions. They don’t cost you anything, so are definitely worth a try!

Strategy #5: Promotion through email

Promoting your RSS feed via email is one of the most under – used methods. However, email promotion for your RSS feed usually yields in a higher subscription ratio.

If you are already running a newsletter, then you should consider including a section introducing your readers to your RSS feed. Since, RSS is growing rapidly, you can expect a large number of your email subscribers turning to your RSS feed.

You can also strike joint venture deals with other ezine publishers and swap ads promoting each other’s RSS feeds. This can mutually work wonders for both the publishers. You can even try promoting your ezine on the “thank you” page of your email subscription or your joint venture partner’s page.

Lastly, don’t forget to promote your feed in your email signatures. As your day-to-day correspondence can get you new subscribers for your feed.

There are many creative ways you can use email to promote your feed. You just need to come up with your own, which compliment your business in a positive way.

Strategy #6: Update your content regularly

Keeping your RSS feeds fresh and updated is very important if you want repeat visitors and new subscribers. Just like content oriented websites are updated regularly, content-wise, your RSS feeds are no different. RSS is meant to deliver new and up to date information, as it directly goes to the aggregators.

Your readers really don’t have any reason to be subscribed to your feed, if it doesn’t deliver new updated content. RSS feeds aren’t just meant for new visitors but also your old subscribers. You have to keep it updated for people to keep coming back to your feed.

On a finishing note, RSS feeds are an absolute way of turning the cards in your favor when it comes to building traffic and a loyal subscriber base. You need to keep on experimenting with new promotional methods and test new marketing techniques.
That’s all it would take to put your promotion on steroids!

Mustafa Khundmiri is the co-founder of http://www.rapidfeeds.com – A Free online service which helps anyone create, edit, publish and track RSS feeds and podcasts. Sign Up for your FREE account on http://www.rapidfeeds.com and also get a free subscription to “RSS Chronicle” – A Newsletter exclusively based on RSS and syndication.

Strategies To Fight Email Spam

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

If you are a business owner and you rely on email, spam is going to be a major concern. How you address it can make a big difference in employee efficiency. Email spam has been a nuisance and has gotten even worse over the last several years. Email spam slows down server performance and can eat away at storage. Cleaning all those bad messages out of your inbox is time consuming. The easiest way for viruses to spread is via email.

Having a strategy to deal with email spam and viruses threats is essential for any business to survive and be productive. You can limit the negative impact to your business by having policies and guidelines in place.

Tips to avoid getting email spam:

  • If you have a company web site, use a contact form that the web site visitor
    can fill out. Some spam mers use robots that crawl web pages looking for
    email addresses. Your web site designer should be able to help you with this.
  • When signing up for forums, products and services use a free email or throwaway
    account like hotmail or Yahoo mail.
  • When signing up for offers be careful what boxes you check although technically
    not spam you may get a lot of email offers you do not want.
  • Never reply to an email spam message, this just lets them know that your
    account is active.
  • You may want to use a throwaway email address if you post on newsgroups
    or forums.

These measures may help to reduce spam, but if you have an old email address you may want to change your email address or deploy a spam filter system. There are several choices for anti spam systems you could buy software that runs locally on your PC to filter the spam, but this can be expensive, does not prevent virus infection, and is not a good choice in a networked environment. Managing individual machine spam software is inefficient.

If you have limited technical resources you can outsource you email spam filtering to a hosted anti spam and virus solution provider. Spam filter service providers colocate their spam and virus filters in data centers with redundant power and network connections. You will need to change your mail exchanger on your dns servers to point to the service providers spam filters. Your service provider will then scrub your email for spam and viruses. They then forward your email to your mail server minus the spam and viruses. This gives you a few extra layers of protection. In the event of a network outage or server downtime your email is held and is delivered when the network or your server is available minus the virus and spam. Spam filter services also scan for viruses; this adds another layer of defense to the virus software already running on your network.

If you have an organization with more than one hundred email boxes investing in your own spam filter appliance is the most cost effective solution if you have the technical expertise to manage the system. A spam appliance sits in front of your email server and blocks spam and viruses. The price of the spam appliance will depend upon your number of users, amount of mail and storage requirements.

Fighting spam is no longer be a losing battle if you have a good strategy to deal with the threat.

John Tourloukis is the founder of Fast PC Networks Colocation, Disaster
Recovery Services, and Spam Filter Service

How to Boost Your Business Utilizing RSS Feeds

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

The two new kids in the block are dramatically changing the face of online marketing, helping marketers reach millions of potential customers easily and very cost effectively, even for free. The names of these good kids are: RSS and Weblog (now widely used as Blog).

So far, traditionally when most webmasters think of marketing, they have listed writing articles, placing ads in various ezines and newsletters, submitting ads to free and/or pro advertising sites that work, and optimizing their web pages for higher rankings on the search engines, some viral techniques, and of course permission based e-mail marketing, although it was still risky.

It was risky because people who are sick and tired of receiving thousands of spam messages all day long, were some times considering the permission based email messages, too, as spam and were treating them accordingly.

Marketers were using the legitimate email marketing no matter how risky it was, because they had no alternative to deliver their messages and ads directly to their target audience. Email marketing was an effective delivery channel for successful marketing.

Then another effective delivery channel was discovered which has been called RSS feeds, providing websites with relevant content, while offering marketers a powerful marketing avenue with almost no risk. Therefore, RSS feeds has been comfortably used by most marketers. The another reason for the popularity of RSS feeds as a marketing avenue is that this powerful marketing strategy can be used at no cost at all.delivery channel is called RSS.

When we take a take closer look at a general overview of using RSS in your marketing arsenal, we realize that RSS feeds are delivered to websites as valuable content. What type of content? The content delivered through RSS feeds can be articles, stories, press releases, announcements, updated info, company details, products and marketing.

So, the RSS feed delivery makes this marketing channel a valuable communication tool as well.

But in order for your target audience to view the content via RSS Feeds, they will need to download a special reading program called as RSS aggregator. Some of these aggregators are available at no cost while others have a subscription fee.

You may ask, what is an RSS aggregator really? It is a special application that will allow end users to subscribe to RSS Feeds thus allowing them to read and view your new content.

Of course, you can still use e-mail to deliver your news and updated content. E-mail is not going away as some writers have predicted. In fact, when you compare RSS to e-mail, since they both have their own opportunities communication differences, and characteristics, you will see that RSS feeds are much more safe, effective and economic. Yes economic, because currently you don’t have to pay any money to disseminate your RSS feed to tens of thousands of distribution points all over the Internet.

RSS Feeds are safe, because they only delivered to subscribers, in other words they are delivered to websites which subscribed on their free will to receive these RSS feeds.

This might be an important reason that RSS is growing at an alarming rate. So much so that business owners need to take a closer look at how to use this to help make your web business more competitive and eventually more profitable..

In fact, search engines favor the web businesses which utilize RSS feeds as a marketing avenue. So, we can say marketing through RSS feeds would greatly help websites get higher page rankings, and higher placements at search engines, thanks to RSS technology. But remember that there is no overnight solution to accomplish better rankings or getting more customers.

However, using these innovative tools can help you grow your business and substantially increase your sales, profits and revenues in a relatively short period of time. Here’s some helpful sites for additional help:

http://www.make-rss-feeds.com
http://www.mywebfeeds.com/
http://www.small-business-software.net/display-rss.htm

Now you can take a closer look at how RSS can literally change the face of your business in a good way and then take an active start to include RSS in your overall marketing arsenal as an important marketing strategy.

About the Author: S.G. OR has been an online marketer, owner and operator of several Marketing websites since 1997, offering all businesses awesome exposure, powerful marketing, millions of impressions to substantially increase sales, revenues & ROI, at:
http://www.aaa-advertise.com
http://www.aall-dreamlands.com

http://www.aaa-newswire.com