January 9, 2009

Free Video – How To Use The Power Of RSS Feeds And Google Reader

For me, RSS Feeds and Google Reader are rare examples of technologies that have massively transformed my general productivity as well as the marketing of all the blog websites I've created over the years.

RSS Feeds (RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication') are a mystery to most people, but often when I explain how I use RSS Feeds and Google Reader, using examples from my own experience, people normally "get it".

Some people have even told me that it has transformed their lives just as much as mine! So I've created a new video to show you exactly how I use 'The Power of RSS Feeds and Google Reader'

In simple terms, RSS Feeds are 'streams' of content from places like websites, or any site with the familiar orange logo (see the orange subscribe button near the top-right hand side of www.CoachesWebMarketing.com.

One of the many tremendous advantages blogs have over normal 'websites' is that they have RSS feeds built into them as standard.

Whenever you publish a new post to your blog, then your blog's RSS feed is updated as well. This means that any website or person who is 'subscribing' to that RSS feed will automatically receive your latest post by their preferred means.

Why should you care about this?

Well, it means that your content can reach many more people than those would actually return to visit your website directly. To market your business services effectively you need to get your message to as many people who are receptive to your information as possible.

RSS Feeds, therefore, should be your new 'best friend.'

So please, if you have a message on your website that says 'please return to my website often as it is updated regularly' then get yourself a friendly orange RSS button instead.

Why? so people who want to can receive your content in the way that is most suitable and convenient for them, without being forced to come back to your website every single time.

RSS Feed

For example, if you click on the orange subscribe button above then you will be given a variety of choices as to which service you would like to use to subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog.

How to subscribe to RSS Feeds

You can use a free service like Google Reader to subscribe to this feed, and then all of the latest posts will automatically arrive on your Google Reader web page, shortly after they are published.

Now, if you only follow the RSS feed from one website then there's little point in doing this. But what if you want to follow the feeds from 100 websites, or 200 in my case? (as I show in the video).

It would be impossible to go and visit 100 websites one after the other, just to see if there is anything new. Often there won't be anything new to see, so your time would be wasted.

RSS Feeds, however, give you two fantastic benefits that will increase your ability to consume information that is important to you many times over:

1) They allow you to see when the content from your favourite websites has been updated, so you know what you are reading is new and not the same as you've already seen

2) You can read the content within your RSS Reader without having to go to the website of origin (No need to open 'yet another' browser window and wait for it to load up)

Again, as I show in the video, you can organize your feeds by subject (much like your browser's bookmarks), and Google Reader especially gives you some fantastic ways to share your feeds with other users. Again, I show you how in the video itself.

So if RSS Feeds are new to you, but you like to get information from websites, for business or leisure, then set aside some time and start subscribing anywhere you see the RSS feed orange button.