Question: Why should I bother creating an RSS feed?

Because of the advantages of communicating via RSS. People who sign up to accept your RSS feed will ALWAYS get your latest messages without spam filters, virus emails, blacklists and other "nasties" getting in the way.

You can't be accused of spamming people because only they can sign up for your feed and they can remove your feed instantly in their RSS reader's settings.

Question: If this is so cool, why isn't it well known?

Because the end-user (the person subscribing to the RSS feeds) needs an RSS reader, and until Microsoft bundle one with Windows, it will take a while for RSS to become mainstream. By the way, just because you don't know much about it, doesn't mean RSS isn't huge! :-)

Question: So RSS feeds can be read by someone with an RSS reader. Can RSS be used anywhere else?

Yes. RSS feeds can be used in web-pages. Let's say I create an RSS marketing feed. You can read my feed in your RSS reader, but you could also put my RSS feed into your web-page to display to your visitors.

Fresh content for you... greater readership for me. A win-win situation. Plus, the RSS feed is pulled automatically into your webpage, so no further effort is needed after you set it up.

Question: How does this work with blogs?

Ahh, great question. Blogs are similar to RSS feeds in that the blog owners are displaying their content direct to the public via their webpage (blog).

You can visit their webpage (blog) to read their thoughts. As long as the blog publisher offers their content as an RSS feed, you could also incorporate their blog into your web-pages, as mentioned above, or read their blog in a dedicated RSS reader without having to visit the webpage (blog) each time.

Question: So RSS can be thought of as the power behind blogs, syndicated website content and a spam-free communication channel?

Yes, you've got it. RSS is nothing more than a new way to spread news. You can send the news to your blog, to someone else's webpage or to someone's dedicated RSS reader. You're just spreading your message via RSS instead of using the two old methods... email and static webpages.

(Technical aside: While I like the simple definition of "spreading news", RSS actually works by allowing your published feed to be "pulled" into a webpage, a feed reader or a blog. So it's a "pulling" of information rather than you "spreading" your information... that's why spam complaints can't arise... the end user pulls your information to them using RSS... you can't get more "opt in" than requesting each piece of information!)

Question: So how can I use RSS to make money?

Well, consider yourself a trailblazer because RSS isn't mainstream yet. But, when it does go mainstream, you'll be in prime position! :-)

For now, you can use blogs to get your old sites (and new sites) indexed by Google quickly and for free. You can use RSS to get into the new Yahoo directory quickly and for free. You can run RSS feeds alongside your email lists, and people who sign up for the RSS feed will be guaranteed to get your information. You can use other people's RSS feeds in your webpages to add quality content and provide "bait" for the search engine spiders to visit your site, resulting in more traffic and sales. Dr Mani has tons of ideas on how to make money with RSS.

Question: Will RSS replace email?

My one big concern about the future of RSS is that people will still need email. For example, simple email exchanges can't be done by RSS. Your payment receipts for purchases probably won't be sent via RSS. It's not a one-to-one communication medium... it's more like an email list replacement for sending information to lots of people/websites.

So, if email remains, presumably email marketing will too... which leaves RSS as an alternative to an established solution (email), making it much harder for RSS to gain acceptance. If the combined power of Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and others find a solution to the spam epidemic by implementing an email authorization process, RSS may not be necessary.

I can see RSS gaining popularity as people seek out information sent using RSS because of the control they exert over the information.

What I mean by that is, people sign up for feeds and drop feeds anonymously. If they like the content from a feed, they keep getting it. If they don't like the content from a feed, they drop it. So, people will select which marketers they want to hear from based on the content of their feeds.

If marketers send out poor information, no-one will read it. This will be a huge problem for lazy marketers... only feeds with top-quality content will keep their subscribers. Imagine that you only subscribe to a dozen marketing feeds... but there are hundreds if not thousands of marketers trying to be one of those dozen feeds you subscribe to... so the marketers must pump out top quality content frequently to retain their subscribers... that alone should make for a huge shake-up in the Internet marketing world!

If people only give out their email addresses to trusted companies and individuals and sign up for RSS feeds for more general information, their email box should remain spam free.

Question: What are the advantages of RSS compared to email?

• It's spam-free, as described above which is good for the information creator as well as the receiver.

• The user is in total control of what feeds they receive.

• You can syndicate into other people's webpages for greater readership and links.

• End user gets instant notification of new posts to any RSS feeds they're subscribed to.