Would you like to compare your RSS marketing results with those of your peers?

Are you interested in the RSS industry average benchmark metrics?

Would you like to get top RSS marketing tips from those that are actually doing it?

Participate in the 2006 RSS Marketing Survey, share your own insights, experiences and data ... and then receive a free copy of the report with all the data to compare your numbers, as well as receive RSS marketing best practices.

Also, if you care to share your own RSS marketing case study, it will be featured in the 2006 edition of Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS, critically acclaimed as the 'best and most comprehensive guide on RSS for marketers'.

For more information and to participate, please click here now.

And, if you can, please share this survey with as many marketers as you can, since that will provide us with a much better research sample ...

... and at the same time provide you with much better benchmark metrics, as well as more comprehensive RSS marketing tips and experiences.

Simply share this URL:
http://rsspoll.marketingstudies.net

Participate by clicking here now.

I don't care about what people will pay you for marketing or the conversions they are getting. Yeah you should go with it because you can make some great money for a short period of time but finding a good product that consumers are satisfied with will drive you sales for-ev-va!  Find it and go with it.  Conversions are good, pay is better but a good product is GREAT.

Just a quick update for existing Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS customers ... if you haven't received the message yet.

We just released the preview of the 2006 edition, with the first two sections. The preview (and the full version, once it comes out) is available to you for free, of course.

Just drop me an e-mail at rok.hrastnik@marketingstudies.net --- if you haven't received it yet.

And you'll certainly want to do so, since this isn't simply an upgrade, but a whole new e-book, with more easy-to-follow RSS marketing instructions than ever before.

Email Reaction is another e-mail vendor following the certain trend of RSS going the way of e-mail marketing ... in terms of direct marketing capabilities of course.

Although they're just entering beta testing with their solution, they promise RSS feed personalization, the holy grail for direct marketers, as well as full RSS integration in their software, to make the move towards RSS easier for e-mail marketers.

The first to offer this type of integration and personalization were SilverPop, although it still remain to be seen how Email Reaction will compete with their feature set.

I'm leaving for Chicago in about 3 hours for a week, where I'll be speaking on RSS and direct marketing at the ACCM conference.

If you're in Chicago and want to grab a coffee, drop me a note.

And I might be a little slow in responding to e-mail messages during this week:)

Please help us make the RSS Marketing Survey as comprehensive as possible. All participants get the full survey report, and all the key data will be shared publicly.

1. Please take a few minutes and participate by clicking here.

2. Please share this URL (http://rsspoll.marketingstudies.net) with as many people as you can. Post it on your blog, send it out in your newsletter, mention it to your RSS peers ... :)

Really, the more data we get, the better results we'll be able to provide to you.

The goal of the survey is to research the RSS marketing landscape, collect top RSS marketing case studies and best practices, and find which key factors make successful RSS strategies successful.

BTW - the survey is getting alot of support from many marketers, such as Christopher Knight, RSS Ray, Lee Odden and may others (full list will be published after I return from Chicago).

And today we've just been covered by MarketingSherpa as well:
'If you've tested offering RSS and have any results to share, author/researcher Rok Hrastnik is seeking your input for the second edition of his report on the topic. We like Rok -- he's a genuine and enthusiastic researcher on the topic and worth supporting so the whole community can learn together.'

Great thanks to everyone that's helping make the survey a success!

Co-host Brad Forsythe interviews Joseph Perello, CMO for the City of New York.  As president and CEO of the New York City Marketing Development Corporation, Joe and his team develop new types of public-private partnerships that use New York City's vast set of resources and its powerful image to generate revenue, support City agencies and promote New York around the world. Prior to joining the City, Joe co-founded the marketing agency Perello & Company, which specialized in sports consulting, team and league marketing services, and sponsorship measurement and development. Earlier, Joe served as Vice President of Business Development for the New York Yankees. Previously, Joe served as an executive with David Bowie's internet firm Ultrastar and spent ten years with the affinity credit card issuer MBNA America. As Vice President of Sports Marketing, Joe managed the national marketing efforts for MBNA's Sports Sector and launched the bank's successful NFL Visa card program.

For entertaining advice join hosts, Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe, for a lively and informative two-hour discussion.

In terms of delivering content to your subscribers, RSS is best used as a supplementary channel to e-mail, making all of your e-mail content available via RSS as well.

It's no surprise that e-mail marketing vendors are starting to work with RSS vendors to help bring these two channels closer together.

The latest comes from Nooked, one of the higher-end RSS marketing tool vendors, and Infacta, vendors of GroupMail, a great desktop e-mail marketing tool.

Their integration ...

a] allows GroupMail and Nooked users to insert RSS feed items into e-mail messages,

b] insert e-mail messages via GroupMail into Nooked,

c] generate and deliver unique subscription links to Nooked-generated RSS feeds via GroupMail, to allow for full user tracking.

On the surface, these 3 benefits help e-mail marketers save time when duplicating their efforts to RSS, and even more importantly, allow them to easily promote trackable RSS feeds to their e-mail subscribers.

Affiliate marketing is all about promoting the product. But it is not cold or hard selling. The affiliate lures the Internet user to visit his website by offering information and even free online courses. The visitor of the affiliate's website will find the free information and will even enroll in the free online course. And while reading the informative articles, the visitor will slowly be convinced of the value of certain products.

And when the visitor realizes the value of certain products, he will most likely click the banner that links to the website of the merchant who manufactures the product or who officially sells the product. The affiliate does not do the direct selling. The affiliate simply sets the mind of the visitor, who is the target client, so that this visitor will be easier to convince to proceed to the purchase or order form of the merchant's website.

Thus, for an affiliate marketing business to be successful, the promotional strategies carried out by the affiliate should also be successful. One that will contribute to the success of such promotion is the utilization of e-zines.

An e-zine is basically a newsletter which is emailed to the subscribers of the e-zine. This newsletter contains the types of information that the subscriber has already expressed a willingness to read about. And when an ad is placed together with such information, the subscriber will be made aware of the presence of the products promoted by the affiliate.

There are two types of e-zine ads that an affiliate can pay for. The first type is similar to a banner ad. It contains a couple of sentences composed of well-chosen words that will entice the reader to visit the website of the affiliate. An affiliate can easily write such an e-zine ad since he already has promotional materials for the products.

The second type of e-zine ad is called the solo ad. In such e-zine ad type, the newsletter being mailed to the subscriber contains only the advertisement of the affiliate and nothing more. Usually, such a solo ad is mailed separately from the regular newsletter. For example, if the newsletter is sent every Tuesday of the week, the solo ad is sent on a Thursday or a Friday.

There is no limit to the number of words placed in a solo ad. But the affiliate must keep in mind that such a solo ad is sent through email. Therefore, the solo ad should not be too long that reading it will take up so much time that the subscriber is not willing to sacrifice. The usually suggested number of words is 500.

With e-zine ads, the opportunities of earning more increase. And the affiliate moves closer towards that goal of affiliate marketing success.

About the Author

Peter Garant's affiliate marketing site offers unique website articles to webmasters who wants to maximize traffic and revenue on their affiliate sites.

My greatest gripe against RSS marketing initiatives is that they're just poorly done.

You have a great company with an amazing product database that just calls for customized feeds ... and all you get from their RSS feeds are one-size-fits-all packages.

Really a waste. No one wants to receive updates on all US flights ... they just want to receive updates on the flights that really interest them. And here's the real power of RSS: bringing the most relevant content.

Expedia seems to understand that, at least based on their new RSS offering.

They allow you to customize your feed with Trip Type, your originating city, your destination and your package type.

Well, they could still do alot more, such as providing the option of selecting a price range, but it's a good beginning.

Remember when I blogged about what awesome looks like on a resume? Well our invitational event with the hiring group that inspired the post is coming up. Whee! The event is on-campus, so we are looking for folks in the local area. If you are outside the greater Seattle area, don't fret...I'll still share your resume with the hiring team. But we won't be flying  people in for this particular event. I look forward to seeing  your resume if you are interested in joining us. Here's the announcement:

In early August, Microsoft’s Information Worker Business Marketing Organization (BMO) will be hosting an invitational career networking event on our Redmond, WA campus. We are seeking talented marketers for multiple open positions in this organization, focused on marketing our products to the information worker audience. Specific products include Microsoft Office and Unified Communications solutions like Live Meeting.

A wide range of opportunities exist for both experienced and aspiring technology marketers, including:

-Public Sector Community Marketing Manager

-Product Marketing Manager

-Partner Marketing Manager

-Partner Strategy Manager

-Partner Liaison

-Field Engagement Marketing/Community Manager

-Field Go-to-Market Manager

Whether you are an experienced technology/audience marketer or a professional that has achieved success in another field, we are very interested in hearing from you. Because space is limited, we ask that upon submitting a resume, you highlight specific areas of proven personal excellence (in educational, professional or personal endeavors). We are looking for high-potential, enthusiastic team-players to add to our high performing team.

To submit a resume for consideration, please e-mail it to Heather Hamilton, at Heather.Hamilton@microsoft.com. We will respond to every e-mail and will provide details on how to participate in our event if we feel there is a potential match for your background.

Co-host Brad Forsythe interviews Jon Winsell, Director of Online Media Strategy for ID Society.  As Director of the Strategy team at ID Society, Jon helps to fulfill the company's vision of melding top-notch creative design with razor-sharp strategic thinking. Jon brings more than 20 years experience leading companies to higher profitability. Under his leadership, he took three different companies to profitability in less than one year each. He has worked with AOL and partnered with CondeNet, directing content management and data integration functions for the "Sommelier" section on the Epicurious Web site. Jon has also scored numerous successes in the IT consulting and outsourcing markets and speaks at various technology and marketing events throughout the country.

For entertaining advice join hosts, Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe, for a lively and informative two-hour discussion.

Co-host Brad Forsythe interviews David Sable, COO of Wunderman.  With more than 30 years in marketing communications David Sable has flair for developing unique, business-building, award-winning communications programs for clients all over the world. Since joining Wunderman in 2000, David has touched nearly every part of the business with enormous success. He was named vice chairman in 2003. As chairman and CEO of Wunderman’s Europe/Middle East, Africa, he created unity within the diverse European operation.  He served as strategic counselor on our key global accounts including IBM, AT&T, Citibank, Kraft, among others. Before Wunderman, David served as executive vice president, director, account management, at Young & Rubicam New York. From 1990 to 1994, he directed the agency’s United States Postal Service account and global portions of Colgate-Palmolive and Bausch & Lomb accounts, among others.  Earlier in his career, David worked for Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe, both public relations firms within Young & Rubicam Brands. As an entrepreneur, David was a founding partner and chief marketing officer of Genesis Direct, an integrated direct marketing company with top sports leagues and organizations.

For entertaining advice join hosts, Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe, for a lively and informative two-hour discussion.

This is another working strategy for getting repeat visitors and also adding fresh content at the same time. You see that regularly updating your website with fresh contents will get your site higher rank in major search engine, hence contents will attract traffic itself.

If you are a web surfer, ask a question for yourself what factors will bring you back to site? There are so many reason why people keep coming back to a site. One of them is to get new useful information on a certain topics. As an internet marketer I will enjoy to see an updated tip on how to market online, for an instance.

Now the next question is how to add cool tips in your site?

Have a section that offers cool tips that relate to your business, your products or services, or your target market. These tips can be from one sentence to one paragraph long. If visitors find your advice helpful, they will return repeatedly to see what interesting piece of information you have displayed that day.

If you cannot write your own tips or advice you can get it from other people tips founded in free reports and ebooks. Or you can grab it from public domain information like wikipedia. Of course the best tips are the ones that you implemented yourself in the past that you see the useful of the tips. However if you have a tip writing block then there some ways to unlock it easily.

Ask your visitors if they would be interested in receiving the tip via email or if they would like notification when the tip has been updated so they could then visit your web site. Encourage people to send the tip to a friend. You can also encourage others to use your tip on their web site as long as they provide a link back to your site as the source.

In order for you to encourage your visitors to send the tips in your web site, you will need to install a tell a friend scipt in your updated tips section which will become your useful viral marketing tool. In time if your tips are found really useful by the visitors and their friends, you will see a steady increasing traffics to your site. Which is the main purpose of giving the fresh tips regularly. Your visitors happy and you will be happy as well.

About the Author

Heri Rosyadi is an internet marketing expert with over 5 years of experience in internet marketing. Visit http://www.Mytrafficstrategies.ws and get a free copy of his eReport on "30 Amazing Advertising Tips" and subscribe to his online newsletter to receive his latest online promotion tips, methods and ideas.