As popularity of the Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) browser continues to gain on its predecessor I expect that RSS will begin to rival the E-newsletters marketing method.

Many of you are probably relying on link campaigns and natural search engine listings to keep your online business alive. This is fine for some companies but those that are competing in more competitive sectors may need to go the extra mile to ensure you continue to stand out from the crowd. Not all, but some of the methods we are about to cover could be appropriate for you now. If not, it is important that you understand what they are, if you want to keep a knowledgeable eye on your competitors.

I will start with Weblogs or what are more commonly known as Blogs. These are in effect an online diary, hence web log, where you log in to a control panel, add or amend an article and save. This allows you to edit your site content without the cost of a web designer. Blogs are a very useful tool for companies that need to offer regular news, company or product information to their client base.

You may have noticed the larger sites that were traditional known purely as online stores are now offering additional content such as product reviews? It is well known that sites with regularly updated content are favored by the majority of search engines, especially the major ones. It is advised that you offer new or amended content at least once a fortnight. Ensure that you write your own new articles as a site containing purely copied content may result in your site being penalized by the search engines lords.

Leading onto RSS or what is sometimes referred to as NewsFeeds. This relatively new technology allows you to communicate details of your chosen news feed direct to your client base once again search engines like sites with this technology. As popularity of the Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) browser continues to gain on its predecessor I expect that RSS will begin to rival the E-newsletters marketing method. The capability to sign up to RSS news feeds requires just the click of a button with IE7 making it even easier for clients to sign up for regular updates. Tactics similar to the way you would approach your e-newsletter campaign create the best results.

Although Netscape originally produced RSS, the Microsoft Article on RSS explains how the news feeds work in a simple, easy to understand manner.

RSS feeds can also be used to transfer and display information on additional sites. A working example could be the news section on Ice Hockey's Elite League web site.  The site could pick up RSS news feeds from each club offering current stories and new content without the need of a webmaster. Clubs could take advantage of this technology by both sharing news and taking league and player statistic feeds from the parent body. There are alternative methods to achieve this which we will discuss in a future article.

At present the technology is being developed further to allow RSS webmasters to be able to track user actions. This will empower us with the opportunity of reviewing which communication methods work and which do not. For this reason I presently favour e-newsletter as my weapon of choice in the online marketing battle as I can already monitor the effectiveness. But with spam e-mail levels increasing by the day the future for RSS does look very bright indeed.

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