An Introduction to RSS

You have probably heard the buzz in and around the geek corridors. Someone has possibly told you they are using RSS, and how it has saved their life. Jupiter Research says 63% of large organisations are planning to use it by the end of this year. If there was a TV advertisement for it, it would probably be one of those convenience ads, where at the end a typical mom says "...thanks to RSS I now have more time to spend with my perfect family". You may even be using it right now and not even know it. It might even solve world hunger...OK maybe that's taking it a bit far. But what is RSS?

What is RSS?
There are many different ways of explaining this evolution. I will simply add to the description pool by using my interpretation of it.
RSS is the abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication. Interestingly enough abbreviation is exactly what it does. It abbreviates all the bumf most websites on the World Wide Web contain; in order to provide you with specific content you want. In other words, if you surf the web at a super rate and require a number of websites to be open at any given time, then RSS allows you to receive/ syndicate this information without requiring you to constantly open new pages in your browser. RSS has become an essential tool to eMarketing guru’s world wide as it allows you to "pull" the exact content and leave everything such as images, colours, flashing graphics etc. behind. This allows for faster upload times, better scanning, more control and less distraction - when all you require is to take in content and not the flashing Vegas-like billboards down Super Information Highway.

How to Use RSS
To get into the RSS club you will need a RSS Reader or Aggregator. This can be a daunting task as there are multitudes available. Trying to test all of them is not an option! If you are an open source lover like me, you can download RSS Bandit. There are other good purchasable readers like Feed Demon. Mozilla Thunderbird, an open source email program, has one built in to it. The difference between most RSS Readers is the interface and functionality they provide. Most of the good ones are able to house a list of RSS feeds: categorized by types or groups of which you can customize. In addition to this there is a preview section where a list of the new content is ordered by heading/ subject and time posted -much like your email. Lastly, there will be another section which contains the full text version of content syndicated from that particular web page.

Adding RSS Feeds
Normally your new RSS Reader contains a couple of feeds already installed to get you started. But in order to acquire new feeds yourself; you need to visit web pages which are RSS/ XML enabled. If you value the content on these pages, look for a small square orange icon with "XML" "RSS" or a radioactive type sign within it. This indicates there is a feed available somewhere (hopefully distinct...) on the page. There are still a couple of icons being used at the moment, but the RSS industry is trying to standardize it by advocating one. Alternatively, to acquire more feeds: get a friend with similar internet 'content' taste to and ask them to share feeds.
Browsers like Firefox can also accept feeds, although their display method is not as comprehensive as specialised RSS Readers. The great thing about the Firefox browser is that the small orange icon appears in the address bar, when a feed is available on a webpage. This lets you know immediately when a feed exists before searching the page.

Make Every Day an RSS Day
Now try and download the feed on your favourite site to get familiar with this type of icon. You can then go to your other favourite web sites and acquire their feeds. You'll go home satisfied with your new found ability to suck up in real-time; current information at a rate which would have Einstein fighting to keep up.
I can just see ads with the typical moms now "...since that RSS Aggregator came into our lives we now save so much time. I am able to be present at every one of Johnny's soccer matches..." Cut to Johnny as he scores a goal and hugs his mom. A really huge orange icon appears on screen as an R&B diva voice sings... "Make every day an RSS day".

RSS is one of the many tools used by the QuirkStars at Quirk eMarketing to keep ahead of the game as far as their services and online knowledge is concerned. In addition to being avid RSS fundi’s their knowledge of web development, search engine marketing, email, viral & affiliate marketing allow them to offer businesses a complete Internet marketing solution.


By Smallz Mancotywa Read More..

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 2)

Adsense Revenue = Traffic Levels + High Paying Ads + Relevant Ads + Optimally Positioned and Designed Ads

I now will turn my attention to each of the four elements of good Adsense revenue in turn and give some practical easy to implement tips to improve each from my experience.

Increasing Traffic Levels is a key component to increasing Adsense revenue. As I wrote previously, ‘The more people that see you Adsense Ads, the more likelihood there is that someone will click on them.’

Increasing the readership of your blog is not as simple as it sounds, it takes time, patience and hard work (and sometimes a bit of luck) Having said that there are many things you can do to get your blog in front of a wider audience and there exposing the adsense messages on your site to more potential ‘clickers’. Here are a few tips…

Quality, Interesting, Useful and Original Content - What are the blogs that you read the most? If you’re anything like me they are blogs that have quality content that ’scratches me where I itch’. This is essential to increasing your readership unless you have a pretty amazing ‘gimmick’ to bring readers in.
Good Blog Design is really important if you want your blog to create a good first impression. With millions of other blogs and sites out there its worth some effort to make yours stand out. Also worth a read is Good Weblog Design and Layout.
Link to others - be generous with your links to other bloggers big and small. You’ll be surprised how many links come back your way. This not only brings traffic from their sites but doesn’t hurt your ranking in Google.
Comment on others blogs - Some of my most loyal readers came to my blog because I genuinely interacted with them on their blogs through comments. Hear me now, I say genuinely because its easy to spam in comments, but this will have the opposite effect of generating readers to your blog.
Update Frequently - There is nothing that turns me off a blog faster than seeing that it hasn’t been updated for a month or more. Keep it rolling over with interesting content.
Interact with Readers - Having an interactive blog that invites the involvement of readers is one way of generating repeat visitors. I’ve written a tip on Interactive Blogging including a number of interactive tools that you can use on your blog. Also check out this tip on using comments effectively to increase interactivity on your blog.
Optimise for Search Engines - I can’t stress enough how important Search Engines are to increasing traffic, especially traffic that will click on your ads. I find that 95% of my traffic comes from Google and have found that anecdotal evidence suggests this traffic clicks through on Adsense ads at a higher rate than traffic from links on other blogs and sites. So work hard at getting listed and highly ranked on Search Engines.
Add a signature to your outgoing email - Learn a lesson from Hotmail who have used signatures on the bottom of their users emails for years to promote their home page and generate interest in their product. Be careful though if you don’t want your worlds to collide!
Web Rings - There are literally thousands of webrings that you can sign up for. I’m not sure how effective they are these days, but some people still swear by them.
Add an RSS feed to your blog - more and more people are reading blogs without ever visiting them through News Aggregators that pick up information using RSS. Whilst this does not guarantee those reading through aggregators will visit your blog (and therefore see your Adsense Ads) it certainly increases the chances of them dropping by, especially if you invite comments and have internal links on your posts.
List your site on Portals - There are a growing number of sites which exclusively list blogs. If you want people to find you its worth submitting your blog to be listed on them. Some focus on specific topics (like Eaton Web and Globe of Blogs). Other portals like BlogShares, Blog Street and BlogTree also list a lot of blogs in different ways which might increase your blogs profile.
Blog Search Engines and Indexes - Get yourself registered on sites like Blogdex, Popdex and Daypop (they require RSS I think). These sites have features that allow people to search for blog entries via topic and keywords. They also list the most popular recent topics and each have other interesting features which can enhance your blogging experience.
Start a Newsletter - Offer your readers a newsletter service to keep them up to date with your latest posts. I’ve found since adding a free weekly newsletter to my digicam blog that hundreds of readers have signed up for regular updates of my latest posts. Think about this - hundreds of people have given me permission to invite them to come back to my blog - every week!
Get Involved in Blog Projects and Memes - From time to time other bloggers will invite your participation in a blog project of theirs. Get involved, support their project and you might find it pays off. On the flip side start your own blogging project or meme. Do something that is of service to other bloggers. Rachel’s Blogger Gallery was a great example of a project that allowed others to get involved. I tried something similar with Underblogs and Blogger Idol.
Get involved in other web forums - Genuinely participate in web forums and discussion pages on topics related to your blog. Many of these allow you to add a signature to your posts which raise your blogs profile.
Promote your Posts - If you think you’ve written something worthwhile spend a few minutes letting others know about it. I regularly shoot other bloggers to notify them of what I’ve written if I think it will interest them. Think about it before you send the email and don’t bombard the same people constantly with every topic you write on - be selective, concise, polite and helpful with your emails but don’t be afraid to promote yourself.
Add a ‘Email a Friend’ Option to your posts - make it easy for your readers to tell others about what you’ve written. I know this function gets used regularly on my blog and brings in new readers that I would never otherwise have been able to reach.

These are just some of the ideas that I’ve used and seen others use to increase the readership of a blog and thereby increase the exposure of Adsense ads to a wider audience.Many of the above tips were taken from my Blog Tips Series including the ‘Finding Readers’ Series.

What methods have your found to be effective at increasing the readership of your blog? What works for your and what doesn’t? What tips would you add to this collection?

Of course increasing traffic alone won’t greatly increase your Adsense revenue, but it can help! In our next Adsense Tip for Bloggers we will explore ways to generate High Paying Ads - the second component in our Adsense Revenue Equation.

By Darren Rowse Read More..

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 1)

There are many factors that impact the level of revenue generated from a blog using the Google Adsense program. Books have been written explaining expert strategies for Adsense - However for the purposes of this series we’ve boiled it all down into four elements that we believe impact your Adsense earning capacity the most. Speaking in general terms here is a simple equation that illustrates how the factors each contribute to Adsense Revenue.

Adsense Revenue = Traffic Levels + High Paying Ads + Relevant Ads + Optimally Positioned and Designed Ads

Its not Rocket Science. Each of the above four elements contribute directly to the total revenue that your Adsense Ads will produce. Don’t just work on one of them though because if any one is weak it will hold your potential earnings back. Lets break each factor down….

Traffic Levels - The more people that see you Adsense Ads, the more likelihood there is that someone will click on them. As I examine the statistics provided by Adsense that report my daily earnings I notice that my earnings in the past 8 months have increased considerably as my total page impressions have increased. For example earlier in the week when Slashdot linked up to this post I had an influx of 50,000 visitors in 24 hours to my blog - it doesn’t take a genius to work out what this did to my Adsense earnings that day! Work on increasing your traffic levels and you should see an increase in your Adsense Revenue.

High Paying Ads - Once again I’m stating the obvious, but if the content you provide on your blog attracts high paying ads you’re going to do significantly better. For example it has been documented that the PVR Blog is doing pretty well when it comes to high Adsense earnings - the secret of its success is partly due to it being served with ads that are high paying. The topic of the PVR blog is, as you’d expect, PVR technology including TiVo, Replay TV etc. This is cutting edge technology and therefore advertisers are willing to pay top dollar to get their products and services out there! In comparison if a person was to start a blog on ‘toothpicks’ I suspect the ads are not likely to pay very much. It would take very high traffic levels to earn as much from a toothpick blog as it would the PVR blog.

Relevant Ads - A second reason the PVR Blog is successful is that it servers relevant ads. To put it simply people looking for information on PVR technology are confronted by Adsense ads for PVR technology. I recently visited a blog that was having trouble getting relevant ads - they had a blog on Tourist destinations in Australia - but unfortunately they were getting Adsense ads for remote control cars. You can guess what their revenue was like. Increase the relevancy of your Ads to your content and you are one step closer to increasing your Adsense revenue.

Optimally Positioned and Designed Ads - One of the coolest things about the Adsense program is that they give you freedom in choosing the best position and color scheme for your ads. Just like in the wider world of advertising - positioning is a key element to an ads success. A Billboard positioned on a road where no one drives is not likely to get the same results as one positioned on a busy intersection. The position and design of your Adsense Ads is critical - if they are out of site they’ll never get clicked on.

Bringing them Together - The above four elements are in many ways pretty obvious when spelt out like this - the challenge comes to improving each to optimize Adsense revenue.

Your revenue will only grow as high as the weakest one of these factors on your blog. For example if you have high paying, relevant, well designed and positioned ads but no traffic you’ll not do well. Likewise if you have high traffic, high paying and relevant ads but they are poorly designed an in a position where they’ll never be seen - you’ll waste all your other hard work. Its not enough to work on one element.

How do we improve each? In the next four posts we’ll examine each area in turn and suggest a number of ways that you might try tweaking them to increase your revenue.

By Darren Rowse Read More..

How To Use Blogger Templates

This post helps you to install a new template on Blogger. I have provided you this document as a guide to use the templates downloadable from this blog. This guide is not an official document from Blogger itself, and if there are mistakes in this document it is entirely attributable to me.All templates have been actually tested using a Blogger account.
Warning: if you haven’t got a clue what you are doing you are welcome to try this out. If however somehow the looks of your blog are not what you expected it to be, please revert back to the previous template you used. Always make a backup of your existing template before installing a new one!Installing a new template is a simple three-step process.

Extract dowloaded file using Windows XP the built-in zip file reader. I recommend to use a program like winzip.

- Open html file with notepad, File-open, file of type: all files.

- Log in to Blogger account dashboard

- Click on the icon under “change settings”

- Click the button “template”

- Replace the template text (make a backup of the old template text first).

- The graphical templates use the image files that are within the .zip file that you can download. Upload these image files to the same directory on the webserver as where your blogger files are written to. or you can upload these image file to a free webhosting like geocities or photobucket.

- if you uploaded these image to other webhosting, include the url of your hosting before the images name. example: imagename_Stars1.jpg becomes http://yourwebhosting.com/imagename_Stars1.jpg.

- Click on “save changes”

- Republish the entire site Read More..