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The Revenue Streams of 2007: RSS

According to EcontentMag.com, 2007 is the year for revenue strategies around RSS.

"RSS finally came into its own last year, as Google and Yahoo! made it invisible. Now you just "subscribe" to headlines and leave the XML, Atom, and RSS garbage to the dweebs where it belongs. As a result, some B2B trade news sites claim that almost 50% of their overall volume comes from feeds. In the consumer categories, even in those like celebrity not associated with tech-savvy users, the RSS traffic is formidable.

However, having more users coming in via the side door (rather than the home page) may mean that publishers need to rethink their layouts, perhaps even their ad inventory. Every article page must merchandise the rest of the content the way a front page would. Whether RSS feeds themselves monetize as ad vehicles is a call I am not willing to make at this point, but they may start changing how we monetize the site itself."

We will see big things for RSS in 2007 including subscriber growth and innovate revenue strategies. Publishers will be forced to pay more attion to RSS as subscribers increase and website page impressions flatten.

However, RSS does drives targeted impressions to your website. If an RSS subscriber clicks through to read a full article, one thing you know is that the content is of high interest to the reader. Website impressions, as a result of an RSS subscriber, should command a higher CPM for the ads surrounding the content as it is a very targeted loyal reader.

Prediction: 2007 is THE year of RSS.

The Global Web and Need for Geo Targeting Advertising

ClickZ reports on a ComScore study that shows "top ad-supported properties including Google, Microsoft sites, Yahoo and CNET Networks derive at least 70 percent of their traffic from non-U.S. users." Richard MacManus from Read/Write Web comments, "This is significant because it's a continuation of a long-term trend for online population to be more distributed around the world - particularly in China and the rest of Asia."

This is an intriguing study and further reinforces our decision to add geo-targeting capability to the Pheedo RSS ad server. As RSS increases in usage so does its worldwide presence. Furthermore, witnessing the growth of RSS usage in Japan as reported by Pheedo Japan the ComScore findings are not surprising. It truly is a global Internet/Economy.

Widgets: A Good Example of RSS Being RSS

Steve Rubel talks about his love for widgets, Web 3.0 and the Widgetized Web. He calls widgets "glorified RSS feeds."

In a recent conversation with Scott Rafer, former CEO of Feedster, he said RSS is a "developer's tool." Widgets are perfect example of developers using RSS feeds to solve a problem, entertain, waste time etc. In this case, Scott is spot on.

RSS will be the workhorse of the next web experience. RSS is helping to "move" content to make it useful and easily accessible to people -- content how they want it. A Widget IS RSS being used in a very intelligent way. Widgets put a pretty face on that content being moved. And most importantly, they have a specific function or serve a specific purpose which is quicker to understand. RSS is a geeky term that is hard to grasp for the average person.

Call Widgets glorified feeds or just RSS being RSS - they are a great example of making RSS easier to use.

10 Ways for E-Marketers to Use RSS

I had the honor of participating on the panel on the uses of RSS for marketers at the DMA's annual conference. The panel consisted of the founder of Bloglines, Mark Fletcher, and Heidi Cohen of Clickz.

In an article today on Clickz, Heidi highlights the conversation. Below is the summary.

Here are 10 ways to extend your e-tail marketing using RSS (note: some of these can be used by content marketers as well):

* Drive traffic and purchasers. Use RSS feeds to distribute time-sensitive information, such as weekly travel specials and niche content. Some implementations can put consumers directly into the shopping process.

* Set up existing customers to receive RSS feeds. In this case, there's often one individual per URL. A Silverpop financial client, for example, regularly distributes reports to its customer base this way.

* Advertise on content providers' feeds. Use providers such as FeedBurner and Pheedo. FeedBurner has found ads that engage readers to sign up for RSS alerts for special offers perform better than ads for a specific product.

* Create channels for affiliate communications to distribute marketing content. Use RSS to enhance affiliate communications by developing links that allow you to automatically push updates.

* Expand rich media distribution. Use podcasting, videocasting, and PDFs to create broader reach for your marketing message.

* Distribute content to other devices (mobile phones, iPods, PDAs, etc.). A mobile RSS reader can be an easier solution to implement than an SMS one. When creating content for those devices, consider the environment in which the user will consume your content.

* Extend site content with feeds from other sites and blogs. In this case, you're using syndicated information to supply related content on your site.

* Develop partnerships to cross-promote with relevant content sites to build traffic. Use RSS to attract a content site's readers to your product.

* Repurpose rich content, such as white papers, into smaller chunks. Use small pieces of content to engage readers and lure them to your site for further information. Think about this content in a sequential way. This can work well for business-to-business (B2B) marketers.

* Create Web widgets that are fun to use and viral and that include RSS feeds. You can develop a widget, for instance, that provides tips and tricks for your product, especially if you've got a product for which consumers are evangelical, such as hybrid cars.

RSS Advertising Goes Global

I was so busy yesterday at the DMA annual conference in San Francisco, I forgot to write about our new RSS ad optimization feature - geo-targeting capabilities for RSS feeds and on-site ads. To read more about it, check out this story from ClickZ.

Andy Evans, managing director of London based Net Communities Limited, has been using this new feature with success to target IT professionals in London. "We are pleased that Pheedo has implemented geo-targeting - all of our partners have enjoyed newfound revenues and increased click through rates and ROI for their advertisers by ensuring that users only see ads that are applicable to their region."

The benefit to Geo-targeting with Pheedo is now advertisers can target customers around the world based on the country they are in and convert more leads - it is one more lever we can pull in optimizing performance of ads in Feeds. Geo-targeting is not new to website ads but it is a very big development in RSS advertising. We had to overcome a few challenges first to do it correctly.

Advertisers can choose from our many RSS ad unit options and target audiences in any combination of more than 230 countries and territories. Now, RSS provides a highly targeted online advertising medium not only by subject and demographic, but also by location. As the market grows, this geographic targeting will become more and more granular allowing advertisers to continue to hone their targeting.