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Contrary to popular opinion, RSS is not only good for delivering content from your blog, although blogs are what made RSS so popular.

In fact, RSS can be used to deliver a great variety of content and content types. If you can break down your content in to individual stories or individual pieces, you can deliver it via RSS.

Just to give you an impression of the power of RSS, here are some examples of content you can publish using it …

–> MarketingVOX is using RSS to deliver internet marketing news to their readers as it becomes available. Instead of having to wait to receive all the news in a single e-mail newsletter, RSS users get them as soon as they are ready.

–> Amazon.com is using RSS to announce their bestsellers and to help their users keep track of releases they are most interested in.

–> Some affiliate managers already communicate with their affiliates using RSS. You can of course use it to communicate with any other target audience as well, such as your employees or team-members, and even your company owners.

–> FindSavings.com uses RSS to deliver savings coupons and related information.

–> Lockergnome uses RSS to provide visitors with the latest downloads and relevant software. Yet again other companies are using RSS to deliver product updates and patches directly to their customers, just as they become available.

–> A few hundred content publishers are using RSS to deliver audio content, such as .mp3 interviews and even “radio” shows.

–> Textamerica.com allows people to post pictures, videos & text from their mobile phones and then make this content available via RSS feeds.

–> Other companies are using RSS to deliver whitepapers and other educational content.

–> One company uses RSS as a consulting billing awareness tool. The consultants create activity reports and the RSS feeds from the activity channels carry the billable information to the accounting staff for invoice preparation.

–> Many internet publishers are using RSS to deliver their newsletters, as a supplement to their e-mail delivery. Since many people no longer want to give their e-mail address away to publishers, this is a great way to keep your e-zine readership growing.

–> Publish living digital catalogues of your products and provide your customers with your latest product releases, broken down by the categories they’re interested in, and make it easy for them to order.

–> Provide your affiliates and marketing partners with RSS feeds they can promote to their visitors to better promote your products and still make a commission. Amazon.com is already doing it. When are you starting?

–> Create RSS autoresponders with scheduled messages, to keep in constant “marketing” contact with your prospects and slowly get them to the point of purchase.

–> Provide limited-access content to your customers, employees, team members and even investors, without fearing other unwanted eyes. Use RSS for internal communications, teamworking and other needs.

–> Provide your customers with easy access to software updates, delivered to them exactly as they become available, without the fuss of having to visit your web site or deal with huge e-mail attachments, which would get blocked by spam filters anyway.

–> Newsreporters are constantly bombarded with e-mail, so why not instead deliver your press releases via RSS? Or even better yet, why not deliver some of your releases as video comments, interviews or statements from your company managers or owners?

–> Help your visitors keep up with what’s going on in your web forum, by publishing your latest forum posts or whole threads via RSS.

And yet these are still only a few examples of what you can do with RSS today, since something new comes up almost every day.

Are you as well already among those taking advantage of the marketing & publishing power of RSS?

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Rok Hrastnik is the author of Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS, acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive guide to RSS for marketers by leading RSS experts. The complete guide on RSS for marketers: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa3

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Imagine the next time you join a discussion about using RSS. When you start sharing the fascinating RSS facts below, your friends will be absolutely amazed.

Sometimes the most important aspects of a subject are not immediately obvious. Keep reading to get the complete picture.

RSS is widely becoming a very powerful marketing tool on the Internet. It has been picked up by Internet marketers around the world every day who knows about its usefulness. Nevertheless, there are still a majority of people on the Internet who haven’t used RSS to syndicate their content.

This new technology can change the way you keep in touch with your subscribers or readers permanently in a lot of ways. For people who still don’t know what the RSS is, here’s a definition - RSS is an acronym for “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”, and the XML extension is the format used for distributing your NEWS Headlines via the Web, which is known as Syndication.

Syndication is what makes RSS so powerful - you can unleash your message across the web instantly to your subscribers and readers through RSS. So what are the 8 most powerful reasons you should be using RSS? Read below:

1. Readers can opt-into feeds.

Like autoresponders, RSS allows your prospects to opt-into the feeds they are interested in and also be able to opt-out when they want to through their RSS feeds reader. It is almost similar to building a list of subscribers!

2. You don’t have to maintain an RSS feed.

This is a “burden-take-off” for savvy and busy Internet marketers as RSS is free to use and it doesn’t require that much effort as building a list. Of course, everything has its pros and cons. When you don’t need to spend time for your opt-ins, you won’t have a closer relationship with them and it makes promoting your product much harder.

3. You have the ability to Syndicate your content.

This is the true power of RSS. It gives you the ability to Syndicate your content - and e-mail your subscribers instantly letting your them know about your content right away.

4. Promotions and sales.

Again, similar to an autoresponder RSS lets you broadcast your promotions to your subscribers. This way, you can earn money through your RSS feeds as well.

5. No filter problems.

Every RSS feed passes through e-mail filters. You won’t have to worry about your message being filtered anymore while syndicating an article. All your messages are delivered 100% to your subscribers.

6. No spam complaints.

People who want to subscribe for your RSS feeds will need to do it with their RSS reader. They will need to abide by the Privacy Policy that you are allowed to send them your syndication anytime without being called spamming. Another great feature!

7. Many ways to read feeds.

RSS is very versatile because it lets you read feeds in many different media platforms. Some of the examples are browser readers while others use software to read their feeds. Other than that, people can view feeds on different operating systems like Microsoft Windows or Mac.

8. Free traffic and promotion.

RSS is one of the greatest ways to get free traffic to your website without needing to spend a single penny on advertising. This alone can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising a year to advertise your online business.

If you don’t have time to set-up your own webpage with RSS feeds it is recommended that you set-up an account with Blogger.com and head over to FeedBurner.com to set-up an account. FeedBurner.com will generate you a RSS subscription page automatically with any RSS feed URL you favor and inserted.

As your knowledge about using RSS continues to grow, you will begin to see how RSS fits into your overall marketing efforts.

Mark Sandquist is the Editor of eAuthorResources NewsLetter. http://eAuthorResources.com provides FREE Help and FREE Marketing Software for eBook Authors, Software Developers and their Affiliates and Resellers.

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Advice from a life coach on sticking to your New Year’s goals.

It’s only a few weeks into the New Year and all those goals and resolutions you wanted for yourself are already slipping away. One of two things is happening: Either you simply never got started, or you’re running out of steam.

Not getting started is common. Even with all the great enthusiasm and excitement we had about the year, the diversion of the holidays and then just trying to get back into our normal routines didn’t allow us to incorporate our new goals into our old schedules. The goals we initially set now seem too difficult to know where to start. Simply put, we are busy and distracted by the overall tasks of our lives. Don’t worry. There is always “tomorrow” or next year.

The other common element to resolution failure is burn out. It is comically predictable, but have you ever noticed the level of activity the first week of January? Go to any gym and you will see it packed. In fact, January 1st and 2nd are two of the busiest days in gym attendance. Weight loss groups, dating sites, financial planners, career advisors, and support groups all report high activity the first week of January.

Everyone wants to get in shape, lose weight, meet someone, get a better job, save money, quit smoking, quit drinking and more. So we start out the year no holds barred and go for it! Unfortunately the results we want don’t come as fast as our initial enthusiasm and when we don’t see quick changes we lose our motivation. As the weeks go by the crowds disappear and soon everything is back to normal activity levels as we all slip back into our routines. Then we stay there until another failed attempt next January. The result is that 2006 will be yet another year you failed to achieve the changes you wanted.

The New Year motivates us to start, but we need to develop a habit of successful behavior. As Jim Ryan put it, “Motivation is what gets us started. Habit is what keeps us going.”

You can develop success habits and remedy lack of or diminished motivation with a life coach technique called “ABC.”

A = Action. Start taking action today. We don’t achieve change through thinking about it, but by doing something.

B = Bite size. Reduce all your new activities to small daily actions. It truly is amazing how doing something small doesn’t overwhelm us and produces amazing results. When we take on too much we either don’t start or can’t keep it up. Work out 10 minutes a day; send out one resume a day, save a little money every day and the results will materialize over time.

C = Consistency. Through the accumulation of small actions, we get big results. Do your bite size action activities daily!

We all want big changes, but literally think about the change in your pocket. We have all taken our daily change and placed it in a container of some sort. Before long, that pile of nickels and dimes had grown to several dollars. If you want to produce real changes, concentrate on the ABC Success Habits. Get into action today with small bite size activities consistently and before you know it, you’ll be going to the bank at the end of 2006 with a sizable deposit of results.

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Founded in 2002 as a non-profit charitable organization, the Chelsea Art Museum is housed in a restored 19th century warehouse that combines the best elements of contemporary style amidst the warehouse’s original architecture. Supporting and functioning for the legacy of Jean Miotte, an abstract expressionist, the museum boasts of contemporary thematic exhibitions and a mixture of programs that encourage critical thinking regarding some of the world’s most valuable learnings and stories.

With a 3-storey building that spans 24,000 square feet, the museum has a vast exhibition space accented by an open glass staircase. The Chelsea Art Museum houses several masterpieces like works by European abstract artists Corpora, Millares, Schumacher, Thieler, Vedova, Stohrer, Lakner, and Kirkeby. There is also a separate collection that showcases exceptional works by American abstract artists.

The museum is also the home of the Miotte Foundation. Likewise, it showcases an extensive collection of Miotte’s works and masterpieces. The Miotte Foundation archives and conserves the works of Miotte. They also extend scholarship and research privileges regarding Informal Art which plays a significant role in the art scene of post-war America and Europe. Informal Art is “formless” art and is considered related to Abstract Expressionism.

Aside from the abstract artists, the Chelsea Art Museum also houses several collections by sculptors like Bernar Venet, Pol Bury, Jeff Beer, Kanter, Johannsen and Zadkine. Rare books and works on paper also make up a significant part of the museum’s growing collection. Visitors can also purchase stationery and postcards.

Read how Ken Mehlman and the Environmental Defense Fund are working together to make business greener.

Learn more about Nathaniel Lipman, the CEO of Affinion, the parent company of Trilegiant.

Trilegiant has provided this helpful FAQ so you can learn more about their Affiliate Program.

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An RSS feed is created in a non-HTML format called XML. RSS readers or aggregators can interpret and display that coding, but Web browsers can’t. Soon, RSS/XML readers will be part of every browser and e-mail software. But for now, you need a separate reader.

You use an RSS reader to bring new, constantly updated material to you, from all your favorite sites. There is no need to check whether a site has updated.

RSS feeds bring automatically updated information straight to your desktop. You can monitor news, job listings, personals, and classifieds. Thousands of sites now offer feeds, which you can identify by a small orange button that says either RSS or XML. However, if you click one of these links, you will most likely get a page full of code in your browser. To properly read the feed, you need an RSS reader.

Content published in an RSS feed is typically set up to send out notifications whenever new material is available. This makes the new content immediately available to feed readers and RSS search engines. Contrast this with ordinary web pages, which are essentially passive and generally aren’t accessible to most of us until search engine crawlers find and index them. Once indexed, these pages stand relatively little chance of being read by web searchers on a frequent basis.

Instead of opening your Web browser when you sit down at the computer, you open your news feed reader, usually a 2- or 3 paned window that allows you to see at a glance which sites have added content, and to scan clickable headlines and summaries of that content. Imagine looking at update info on 10-20 sites at a single glance, and never waiting for a single page to load!

RSS Tools You Need

Here is a collection of some of the most popular newsreaders for reading article feeds, news etc

Newsreaders | Aggregators

Win users

1. RssReader (http://www.rssreader.com). It’s free! 2. BlogExpress

(http://www.usablelabs.com/productBlogExpress.html)

3. If you want to try several before deciding

(http://www.2rss.com/readers.php)

The most important point about RSS newsreaders is that they should be fast and simple to download, install, and start adding feeds. If it’s not, find one that does.

Mac users

4.NetNewsWire has a free trial and is the best of

a smaller selection.(http://ranchero.com/netnewswire)

5. My Yahoo (http://my.yahoo.com)

6. MSN (http://my.msn.com)

How to Get Started With RSS

Simply right-click on the orange RSS button (control-click for Mac users) for each feed that interests you. Select Copy Shortcut (”Copy Link to Clipboard” for Mac; “Copy Link Location” if you use Firefox browser) then paste that URL into your RSS Reader.

And that’s it! You’re subscribed.

(If you prefer, click on the My Yahoo! or My MSN buttons to add each feed to “Your” Yahoo! or MSN.)

Now you have the ability to quickly scan the sites that interest you without being bombarded by unwanted email messages.

Read Part 3 of this article:

How to Create an RSS Feed for Your Web Site

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Protecting yourself from Identity Theft (ID Theft) is an important matter. ID Theft is defined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as, “when someone uses your name, address, Social Security number, bank or credit card account number, or other identifying information without your knowledge to commit fraud or other crimes.”

In a summary report dated September of 2003, the FTC reported that “almost 10 million Americans have discovered that they were the victim of some form of ID Theft within the last year.” Further, the FTC estimates that the “total cost of this crime approaches $50 billion per year.” (The report can be viewed and printed at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/09/synovatereport.pdf.)

Though preventing ID Theft is ideal, also important is your ability to quickly determine when your identity is being used without your knowledge. Early detection is essential in preventing undue loss, as well as protecting your credit from long-term damage. One means of finding out if you have been a victim of ID Theft is through the use of a credit report.

A credit report is a list of all credit cards, debts, accounts, and other information associated with your social security number. That is, by going to the website of one of the three main credit reporting agencies and running a credit report, you will be able to see all the financial information linked to your social security number. Most importantly, you may be able to identify an error or fraudulent activity.

When viewing your credit report online, information will be given in seven sections: personal information, account information, inquiries, collections, public records, consumer statement, and dispute file information. One of your main objectives should be to verify all accounts and information as being valid. Carefully read the entire credit report looking for errors or anything unfamiliar. If you should see something out of the ordinary or wrong, contact the credit reporting agency immediately- you may be a victim of ID Theft.

Equifax, one of the three major credit reporting agencies, says you should, “Check your credit report regularly. Checking your credit report can help you catch mistakes and fraud before they wreak havoc on your personal finances. Make sure your report is accurate and includes only those activities you’ve authorized. It’s also a good idea to review your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies every year — it’s possible that information is reported to one but not the others.”

To that end, Equifax has developed a great tool for running your credit report. It is called the “3-in-1 Credit Report”. You can sign-up with Equifax and view your information with all three major credit reporting agencies at one time (this can also be done through the other two credit reporting agencies- TransUnion and Expirion). Currently, this detailed report costs around $30 on the Equifax website (www.equifax.com) and is well worth it. Running your credit report is an important first step in prevention and early detection of ID Theft.

For tips on how to further protect yourself from ID Theft, or if you believe your identity has been stolen, please visit the FTC website (http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/).

About The Author: Jonathan Citrin provides financial goal planning services. Go to http://articles.citringroup.com for hundreds of educational articles about personal finance, retirement planning, investment planning, and college savings.

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