Seven Offline Viral Marketing Ideas

(reprinted from SitePro News - By Matt DeAngelis (c) 2006)

Recently I participated in a forum discussion about offline
marketing – that is using more traditional marketing offline to
drive traffic to your website or blog. I can still remember the
first time I saw a URL in a TV commercial and how cool I
thought that was.

The offline world has the constraint of geography, so the least
expensive forms of viral marketing are going to be
geographically bound, which can be challenging for some sites.
Someone on the forum said that offline marketing is a waste of
time for most sites or blogs. I think that is a false
generalization. In fact, every site should practice some form
of offline viral promotion. We call these efforts drive to web
programs and they can be very successful.

There are two important pieces to all promotion, and they
become even more important in promoting your site offline. Just
like the online world, your success at offline promotion is
going to hinge on putting your message in front of the prospect
in the right context – meaning at the right time and when they
are in the right mood to perform the action you are looking
for, which in this case is a visit to your website.

You need two elements for each viral marketing idea – the hook
and the context. Once you figure out how you're going to do it,
you need to determine where you're going to do it. If the niche
and scope of your business won't lend itself well to local
leads, passing out business cards isn't going to work as a
viral marketing idea. I think every site could benefit from
offline leads – it's just a matter of how much time and money
you want to throw at them.

So here are ten ideas with an explanation of hook and context
for each:

1. Idea: Use your URL like your phone number. Most people get
it on their business cards but leave it off many equally
important items that become marketing materials. Here are a
few: letterheads, press releases, yellow page ads, newspaper
advertising, radio and TV ads, company vehicles, brochures,
sell sheets, the bottom of every page of your catalog. Wherever
there is a phone number there should be both a URL and contact
email address that is generic (contact@yourco.com).

Cost: Nothing. You're already paying for the materials anyway.

Context: Global, because all of your marketing materials travel
all over the place, and your ads should be seen and heard
everywhere in the markets you choose.

2. Idea: Webcards. You can get business cards pretty cheap these
days. Companies like DCP Print offer 250 free business cards
with their ad on the back (their own viral marketing) or $9.99
for 500 cards. They seem a little thin, but they'll do. What
you want to do is choose an attention-getting color that fits
with the image of your site (a nice sky blue or yellow), and
put your URL right in the middle in huge letters. Put a short
description of the site and maybe your email and/or telephone
number, and give them out.

Cost: Minimal.

Context: More locally focused, because you are handing them
out. But check out the next idea.

3. Idea: Make every customer contact a viral marketing
opportunity. Remember the webcards from the last idea? It's a
no-brainer to hand them out directly to customers, right? How
about paper clipping a couple of them to an invoice or
statement or other correspondence with a small postit note
personally written by you asking them to keep one of the cards
and give the other one to someone who might be able to use it.

This will work with many of the ideas on this page.

If you spend enough time building relationships with your
customers they should be happy to help. Be sure to thank them
for any referrals.

Cost: Minimal.

Context: Sort of a viral marketing meets chain letter idea that
has potential. Global in scope.

4. Idea: Referral Bribes. This is a terrific idea, because it
works both offline and online. For online you can send an email
to your customers or put a link on your pages. There are tools
like refer-a-buddy for websites and there are plenty of free
refer this page to a friend scripts out there.

Offer your current customers an incentive to refer new
customers. Maybe it's a coupon for a percentage off their next
order, or an entry into a prize raffle or something else of
value. This encourages people to tell you who referred them so
you can see who's helping you out.

For the offline equivalent, make up a coupon and hand it out to
people to hand out to other people.

Always send a thank you to people who refer other people, even
if you bribe them.

Cost: A little to a lot, depending on the bribe.

Context: Global, if you combine offline with online.

5. Idea: Tchochkes . Tchochkes [choch-kez] are little gifts
(knick knacks) emblazoned with your URL that you give out to
people. The webcard could actually be considered a tchochke,
but they usually are stuff we have on our desk or around our
house like paperweights, coffee cups, T-Shirts, refrigerator
magnets and other stuff.

At my wine shop we give out corkscrews with foil cutters that
have our info printed in gold on them. I never have them out
where people can see them but people often ask for them so I
know they are getting around.

These can be very effective, but they can also be very
expensive. If you come up with a well-designed coffee cup or
paperweight it will end up on the desk of your customer, where
everyone that comes into his office can see it. Make sure the
URL is prominent, and try to make it fun and unique.

Cost: Could get very expensive.

Context: Global, depending on where you send them.

6. Idea: Direct Mail with a personalized offer I have done this
successfully many times, and your success is going to depend on
how well you target your prospects and the quality of your
offer.

If you have a super-niche site, subscription-based site, or
high ticket niche item this idea is probably a winner for you,
though it may get expensive. There are (snail mail) mailing
lists for everything. I have used a broker, Edith Roman for
years. Put together a mailing list and a good offer, like a
trial subscription or free gift or special coupon or free knick
knack or something like that.

Use a well designed, neat, personalized letter with a
personalized URL (an easy one), and send them off to redeem
their offer. Use a personalized splash page and a good offer.

Cost: Fairly expensive to very expensive.

Context: Global.

7. Idea: The World as Your Billboard. If there is opportunity in
a more local focus for your drive to web program, you should
figure out how to get your URL in front of as many people as
you can locally. Creative and unique wins the day.

I've seen posters, yard signs, billboards, bumper stickers,
pens and pencils, car window signs. Think about it and come up
with something good.

Don't clutter them with text. Use your URL and a few
descriptive words:

www.yankeewine.com
Bigger is better

One person had bookmarks made up and inserted them into books
at the local bookstore (owned by a friend) in relevant
categories. Brilliant. Another person created PDF viral
marketing kits for site fans to spread the word in their town.
Another brilliant idea.

Cost: Inexpensive.

Context: Local.

Always, always, always have business cards, web cards,
brochures, tchochkes or some viral marketing medium on you,
because you never know when an opportunity to pass them out
will arise.

I have a supply of business cards and brochures in the trunk of
my car. I even have a stack of cards in the saddlebag of my
motorcycle.

All of these ideas are combinable, and you should be
implementing at least one or two of them.

New Trends in Increasing Web Site Exposure

It is not the same old Internet any longer as far as advertising goes. There are new methods to promote your website that will advantage you by increasing your bank balance. What follows are five new methods of Internet advertising that people are using to drive clientele to their website. The basic idea that 'content is king' combined with correct keyword practice is the way to go. You will not be sorry using these methods of advertising.

The number one Internet advertising plan for drawing clientele to your website is the use of a blog. A blog is a perpetual online periodical on your individual views or information on related subject matters. People that read your blog are continually conscious of your thoughts and opinions, especially those about your company and products. The advantage of promoting your company through a blog is the fact that the search engines love blogs. Fresh new content and a few good keywords mixed in will push your site higher in the search engine rankings. People will see it and more clientele will flock to your place.

In your blog, be sure to add information of value such as products reviews, or general business advice. This draws consumer interest. Additionally, other bloggers may wish to connect with your blog, and you can draw in customers from their blogs. That will repeatedly feed your position and over time, client loyalty and trust will drive your website and feed new customers into your site. You can create blogs for free at blogger.com, or if you want to host your own blog, Wordpress is a viable option. Many web hosts have this script that can be installed from their control panel.

Though, with no RSS, or Really Simple Syndication feeds, your blog may be fated to be unsuccessful. RSS feeds work by aggregating your blog information and distributing it to the customer, who will need to have a web browser or special software that can read RSS feeds. Most any information can be sent through an RSS feed. The good thing about using a blog with a RSS Feed is that often your content gets to the media. A well-written blog with an quality recommendations and advice lends you credibility in your business area. Be ready, you could have a journalist knocking at your door.

One more area in which you can add interest to your website is with the use of PHP coding. One of the drawbacks to by an RSS feed is that since it is a lively page ' the spiders will not catch it quick. For example, if it has to wait too long to directory it with the system whole, it will just move on. There are belongings you can do to work with the PHP language, and it will advantage you to learn how to do it. At least with the PHP, you can make your pages on the place look like HTML records.

Be sure and remember to use the text links too. Links to other great sites is a new publicity tendency you can use for more website contact. With SEO, Search Engine Optimization, companies use text link advertising to get their site into higher rankings. You can use auctions where you bid only on what you think you need, or through a brokerage, you can buy and sell text links. Just like with banners you can change trade links too.

Bookmark technology and methods to use them have come a long way. Most agree that getting an important person to bookmark your site will lead to prospect sales. People hardly ever ask for a customer to bookmark their place though. There are software programs that you can use to make book marking simple.

All you have to do is to provide a link and your customers can bookmark with no trouble. Some Java writing software will bookmark your site for your client. There is a small charge concerned for you. A simple 'Add This Site To Favorites' or 'Please BookMark Us' button is often enough to get the client to bookmark. Certain software will also add a special image when the client saves the site. You can do it yourself by creating a small 75X75 pixel image and upload it to your site with the name 'favicon.ico' This makes it easy to stand out from the other bookmarked sites. Pop-ups help you to get your client to bookmark too. New software will be remind your client to bookmark as they are leaving your site, and even to bookmark with their consent.

The Internet is a lively advertising experience. Consequently, the better you are at implementing its new advertising methods, the more profits you will make. So learn all you can about these five methods on new advertising trends and go grab some customers that will be with you for life.

Technology Predictions for 2006 and Reflections for 2005

2005 literally took the world by storm. The tragedies of the
Asian Tsunami, the Hurricanes that blew through the US Gulf
Coast and the earthquakes that swallowed parts of Pakistan
have left an indelible mark on 2005. While mother nature
cast a shadow on 2005, it was technology that delivered the
impact that resulted in a huge outpouring of donations. The
world was touched by the human element seen real-time in
pictures and videos. Today's technology was able to deliver
the graphical grittiness that portrayed the nightmares
occurring half a world away.

Technology is usually thought of as impersonal, but
something needs to be recognized; without technology the
personal elements of the 2005 tragedies would not likely
have been conveyed to the extent and timeliness they were.
Reflecting on 2005 and looking forward to 2006, technology
will undoubtedly continue play a significant role in the
future both on a personal and impersonal level.

In 2005 Blogs gave birth to splogs, where senseless web
scrapers generated massive amounts of senseless content.
Spam reached a whole new level, right along side the ethical
debate of content scraping. Copyrights have been stepped on
and I foresee a new host of tools that will emerge to
protect content.

SPAM and phishing scams were easier to recognize, but to
their credit, spammers showed off their creativity, finding
additional channels to inundate. From splogs to forum spam,
2005 tech users saw spam as one of life's continued
annoyances. Looking into a crystal ball, I fear that social
bookmarking will become the spam vehicle of 2006, weakening
the value of a collective voice.

Sadly the blog saturation has resulted in web clutter. Due
to increased competition and vast quantities of blogs on
free hosted blog networks services, bloggers competing for
audiences and web traffic will result in significant
abandoned content, cluttering the web with useless
ramblings. The ease of blogging that resulted in saturation
will be its downfall. Credibility will again become
important. Journalists, who have suffered from the
blogosphere in 2005, will have a reprieve as credibility
becomes an issue for bloggers. In 2006 web surfers are going
to look for multiple sources to confirm facts, and rely on
reliable respected sources, community content, and
collaboration like Wikipedia is going to suffer and become
less relevant in 2006. While Wikipedia scores well in
search, it does not perform as well with accuracy. The
Wikipedia community is haunted by spam and like DMOZ, it's
success will be its downfall. The relevance of successful
community wiki's will fade in 2006.

Cell phones have become personal homing devices, and it is
near impossible to locate a cellular phone that is not
capable of manipulating or taking photos, videos, graphics
and text messages in addition to the traditional voice
calls. It is likely the PDA will become extinct in 2006, as
travelers move to a single multifunction device. In 2007 MP3
players will likely be a common feature of cell phones.

Wireless growth is still worth noting, as it has moved from
hotspots, to hot zones, to hot cities. Philadelphia and San
Francisco are leading the way as wireless cities in 2006.

What is in store for 2006? Privacy is a hot topic that is
not going to disappear. Google and the US Government are
battling a Big Brother image. Data mining has made the
collection of data meaningful. Anti-Google sentiment is
growing. Google has fallen from grace, while Google has made
friends on Wall Street, it has disappointed surfers who have
turned to Yahoo and MSN in growing numbers. 2006 will likely
result in a heat up of the search engine war with MSN and Yahoo
scrambling for marketshare and Google walking a tightrope
with privacy advocates on one end and monopoly theorists on
the other end.

Google wants to make money, and like it or not, data is a
commodity. Google will likely use the data from their
various ventures to develop new technologies and personalize
content. Conspiracy theorists believe that the Google's
aggregate data will also be used to optimize the fees
charged for pay-per-click, influence organic ranking, or
worse yet, sold.

Google's growth will continue to motivate privacy advocates
and those in the technology field behind the Attention
Truste movement, to work together, to improve how personal
information and subscription information is used online. I
expect we will see a lot of energy and effort in this area.

Personalized content will be a buzz word for 2006. Whether
it is users selecting Podcasts, iTunes, or purchasing Amazon
recommendations, the web is learning how to cater content
based on user selections and choices. Web surfers see
personalized content as regaining control of what they want
to watch, see, or listen to. From Tivo to podcasting, users
are taking back control. Yet when the web serves content
that is based on past surfing habits, who is really in
control?

In 2005, marketers were told in no uncertain terms, if they
are not using syndication and RSS, they will not survive.
Well, they have one more chance to get it right. In 2006,
marketers must use RSS as an alternative communication
channel. It will no longer be cutting edge, it will be a
must to survive. Web surfers no longer expect to provide
personal information (an email address) for marketing
materials, they expect to have a choice about how they wish
to receive the content.

Vendors selling through affiliate programs lost ground in
2005. Publishers found the easy money of pay-per-click
advertising not fraught with the inherent problems of
affiliate tracking and cookie-killers. The increase in
click-fraud and content scraping on AdSense sites will even
the playing field and make affiliate programs more
attractive in 2006.

The world is getting smaller, and technological advancements
have not only brought us tragedy, but also have opened doors
and the global market is now a viable option for small
businesses. I believe the globalization trend will continue
in 2006.

Top 10 Winners Predicted for 2006:

Cyber Security
VOIP
Attention Data
RSS/Syndication
Copyprotection
Credibility
Privacy
Alternative Energy (reusable fuel, clean energy)
Content Filtering
VideoTunes (iTunes with Video)

The RSS Revolution is Coming.....No, Really!!!

Is Your Site Ready For The Coming RSS Revolution?
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2005

Recently, there have been many developments in the RSS arena.
Changes that will make RSS a major force on the web and a
dominant contributing factor to your computing experience.
Online marketers should pay special attention to the RSS
wildcard in any future marketing ventures.

If you're like the average surfer or computer user - you're
probably scratching your head - what the heck is RSS? Never
heard of it?

'RSS' stand for 'Really Simple Syndication' and its original
acronym stood for 'Rich Site Summary'. RSS is basically just a
simple code like xml or html. Truth be told, many surfers who
use the web every day probably never heard of html either.

However, there is one very important distinction you should
realize about RSS - one fundamental difference that makes it
such a revolutionary element. It changes how information is
transmitted on the web, it sends out or syndicates a site's
contents. Don't come to us, we will deliver.

Surfers can view the contents of your site without actually
having to go to your site! RSS is usually associated with Blogs
and Blogging because Blogs use RSS Feeds to syndicate their
contents.

Why all the fuss? Why is RSS so revolutionary?

Basically, in a very simple and practical way, RSS changes 'HOW'
information is exchanged on the web. It changes how content is
accessed, instead of the surfer visiting websites and getting
the information; with RSS a site's information is sent or
syndicated to all interested parties.

RSS has the potential to change every website on the net into
its own mini-broadcasting system. Sending out videos
(broadcatching) and audio feeds (podcasting) to those you have
subscribed to receive this information.

Websites can now go from being a 'static' force, just sitting
there waiting for visitors to come pay a visit; to a more
pro-active broadcasting force, sending out content, news and
information. The implications may be enormous and far reaching.

Already, we see some major Internet and Computer Companies
gearing up for the coming RSS revolution! Perhaps, the most
significant and revolutionary is Microsoft's Longhorn
announcement that the next version of Windows will have RSS
integrated not only into its browser but also into their
operating system.

This will place RSS firmly into the heart of your computing
experience. It will change how you use the Internet and it will
change how you use your computer. If that wasn't enough,
Microsoft's new list extensions to the RSS standard will be
under the 'Creative Commons License'.

There is even a group offering $100 million in RSS venture
capital funding. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts - RSS
Investors will offer funding in the developing technology of
RSS. What's a revolution without fuel!
http://www.news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5778367.html

Another Internet company you may have stumbled upon while
surfing, is also gearing up for RSS. Google is already using an
xml powered sitemaps system to help it index the whole Internet.
Webmasters, can use xml to keep their websites constantly
updated in Google.

A while back, Google also bought Blogger.com which is an online
blogging system (Personal web logs or journals where people give
their take on the state of the universe as they see it!) that
also takes advantage of syndicated feeds to distribute its
content.

Google is already going 'head-to-head' with Microsoft in the
'desktop battleground' with the release of Google Desktop 2.
Google is also finally accepting the RSS standard by placing it
in the Sidebar feature - users can personalize this sidebar with
their own RSS and Atom Feeds. In the past, the Atom syndication
standard was favored and promoted by Google.

These are just two companies that are gearing up for RSS. There
are millions more who are starting to use RSS feeds to broadcast
their message, product or content. RSS is a marketer's dream.
The opportunities to advertise, promote and sell your products
with RSS are endless. More and more businesses are just
realizing the enormous potential of RSS. Real estate, insurance,
tourist industry...

So what about you? Do you run a website? Are you geared up for
RSS? Are you taking advantage of RSS?

If you haven't joined the RSS bandwagon, don't worry, this
revolution is very easy to join. Here's a few quick pointers.

First, set up a blog and RSS feed for your site. This can be
done within a few minutes with a no-cost system like Blogger.com
which is owned by Google. You can even host this blog on your
own site. Another system that offers more options is the free
'wordpress' blogging system. Find more out about it here:
http://www.wordpress.org

But blogs are just one area of RSS. Make sure you have Google
Sitemaps set up on your site. If you need help with this
procedure click here:
http://www.bizwaremagic.com/Google_Sitemaps_Explained.htm

There are other simple and easy ways to use RSS on your site.
Tags, content feeds, RSS search... Click here for further help
on the different ways you can use RSS on your site:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?id=14366

Get your site ready, don't delay. The RSS revolution is already
started.

Microsoft and Google are just two companies that are taking
advantage of RSS. You should follow their lead and start gearing
up your site for RSS if you haven't already. The benefits are
enormous and the consequences of not having or using RSS could
be crippling to any online concern. With or without you, RSS
will change the web and the way we use our personal computers.
However, this is one revolution you definitely should consider
joining. The stakes are just too high and besides, what's a
revolution without you?

How to get to number one on Google...yes it is possible...elbow grease required!!!

Crash Course in Getting a #1 Google Ranking
By Jason DeVelvis (c) 2005

First, here's the rundown of some of the terminology I'm going
to use in this article –

Inbound Links – Links coming into your site
Outbound Links – Links leaving your site
Cross Links – Links that you have "traded" with another site
(i.e., they've got a link from their site to your and you've
got a link from your site to theirs)
PR (Page Ranking) – Google's measure of how "important" your
site is

SEO Is Not Dead

Ok, now lets talk about what you really want to hear – how to
get those coveted 1-10 ranks for your keywords. Remember this -
SEO is not dead. In fact, it is very much alive and important.
The first thing to do in order to raise your site rank is
target specific keywords. I say specific, because you need to
target "keyphrases," meaning more than one word keywords. Some
people use the words interchangeably (me included) so just
ignore one-word keywords altogether. You will waste your money
if you shoot for these, because chances are, there are other,
MUCH larger companies who already have you beat, and will
continue to have you beat unless you've got a bottomless
wallet.

Check Out Your Competition

Take this example, for instance, if you sell computers, you
should not try to optimize your site for the keyword "computer"
or "computers." First, think about all of the businesses that do
ANYTHING with computers. Yeah, that's a lot. They'll all show up
if you search for "computer." Now try to think of who would show
up at the top of that list. I'll make it easy, it's Apple, Dell,
Computer World, Computer Associates, IEEE, Computer History
Museum, Webopedia, ASUSTeK, WhatIs.com, and HP. I'm going to
go out on a limb here and say that I 99.9% guarantee you that
you'll never get into that top 10 list. The HP link has almost
5,000 backlinks (discussed later) and a PR of 7/10. Good luck.

Then What Should I Do?

So what should you try to target? Lets re-visit your computer
store. What types do you sell? PCs, ok, what types of PCs?
Custom. Ok, that's a little better, "Custom Computers" is still
a vague keyword, though. (How many people build custom
computers?) What kind of components do you use? Intel? AMD?
SoundBlaster? GeForce? There you go, that's a little better –
"Custom GeForce Computers." That returned 476k results instead
of our previous 633 million with "Computer." Just a little bit
less competition.

I Want More

Want to go further? Forget what types you sell, go for what do
your customers want. What do they use your computers for?
Gaming? Try "Custom Gaming Computers" - There are 672,000
results here, but the #1 spot has a PR of 5/10 and only 41
backlinks. That shouldn't be too hard to beat, we've just got
to know who is linking to them, and beat them at the backlink
game.

Oh yeah, before we move on to beating the pulp out of your
competition, don't forget to SEO optimize your site for your
chosen keywords before spending any time on backlinks.
Otherwise, this next section won't mean much.

But I Digress...

Ok, now that your site is thoroughly optimized, how do we find
out who their backlinks are? Well, you can do it by hand, or
you can purchase a VERY helpful tool called SEO Elite
(http://www.GetSEOElite.com) that will analyze all of the
backlinks to a site (and more). But, since you don't have SEO
Elite yet, we'll do it the long way.

First, go to toolbar.google.com and download the Google
toolbar, this will save you some time. Ok, now type in your
keywords – "Custom Gaming Computers." The first link should be
overdrivepc.com (if it's not, then someone may have already
read this column and risen above them!) click to go there. When
the page loads, go to your Google Toolbar, click on Options >
"More" Tab > Make sure the "Page Info" box is checked. Then,
click on the blue circle with the i in it. (This is the aptly
named: "Page Info") It should drop down and allow you to select
"Backward Links," choose it. Now you should be looking at a
Google search page again, but this one is different, it only
shows pages that link to overdrivepc.com. (Wow, that's handy!)
At the time of this article, there are 41 pages that link to
the site, and you can view them all. Some are other pages in
the site, others are third parties.

Get Your Site Some Friends!

Follow each third party link and check out the page. Does it
have to do with your business? Would their visitors benefit
from coming to your site? (The answer is probably yes) If so,
email the webmaster - there should be an email address
somewhere on the site. Ask him or her if they would link to
your site. Be willing to trade links with them, or to pay for a
good link with a high PR. That reminds me – look just to the
left of the Page Info icon on your Google toolbar, and you
should see a green bar. That is the Page Rank of the page
you're currently on. You want to target pages with higher page
ranks than your own, because for each of those sites that link
to yours, they effectively "give" you a little bit of their PR.
Kinda like in high school when the head of the cheerleading
squad flirted with the nerd in the hallway, she "gave" him more
popularity.

By the way, if you can manage to get a link from the #1 site
itself, do it!

Do this for all of these links you can, then move on to the #2
listing for your keywords. Then #3, and so on. Don't get
discouraged if some webmasters don't reply to you, it may take
an email or two. If they say no, thank them for their time and
move on. I try my best not to burn any bridges – you never know
when you'll need to contact that webmaster again, and if he
remembers you were polite, that will make you look good.

Whew, Finally Done.

This is a very easy way to move up the Google SERPS, no
"expertise" required, just good old-fashioned hard work. It
will take some time for Google to re-index those pages and
realize that they have a link to you now. And it will take even
longer for your PR to go up (from what I hear, it's been around
3-4 months since the last PR change [Today is 7/14/2005]) But
be patient, get links upon links, and keep adding great content
to your site, and you will jump up in the SERPS by leaps and
bounds.

To Your Success, and Your #1 Website!

====================================
Jason a long time web developer and the owner of Premier
MicroSolutions, LLC. If you're looking for more articles about
getting higher Search Engine rankings, go to
http://www.Content-Articles.com and check out their great
directory of articles.
====================================

The RSS Promise for Internet Users

I keep going on about how the future of online content management will rely on controlling one's own content through RSS. Here's another set of reasons why:

Article printed from SiteProNews: http://www.sitepronews.com
HTML version available at: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives.html

The RSS Promise for Internet Users
By Rok Hrastnik (c) 2005

The RSS promise for end-users is simple:

--> a unified one-stop-shop to consume online content,
without having to visit dozens of sites every day to see
what's new and without having their online subscriptions
interfere with their personal and business e-mail
communications;

--> complete control over their content consumption,
including a quick, easy and reliable mechanism to
unsubscribe from content they do not wish to receive;

--> the ability to receive breaking news as it becomes
available, without having to wait for a monthly, weekly or
daily recap sent to their e-mail addresses;

--> the certainty of actually receiving the content they
want, without the fear of it being stopped by spam filters
on the way;

--> the ability to receive rich-media content directly to
their desktops, including audio and video content;

--> the promise of providing the tools to make their lives
easier, including receiving critical content updates as
soon as they become available.

These points are not simple enhancements, but important
advancements that can fundamentally change how internet
content is consumed. Furthermore, these points themselves
prove why marketers need to start implementing RSS now!

To bring the point home, let us inspect some of the content
services already powered by RSS.

Library Elf: Making The Library Experience Easier
(http://libraryelf.com/)

Library Elf helps you keep track of your library accounts
in one place and received reminders, such as what library
material is due, overdue and ready for pickup. Library Elf
uses the power of RSS to help you forget about your library
accounts and instead be directly notified of the changes
you're waiting for, directly to your desktop.

Indeed: Helping Your Find The Right Job
(http://www.indeed.com/)

Indeed.com provides its visitors with job seeking results
from hundreds of sites and then makes the search results
accessible via RSS feeds. Users can subscribe to individual
search results, pertaining directly to their search
keywords to be notified immediately new jobs are available.

Flickr: Sharing Your Life In Picture
(http://www.flickr.com/)

Flickr is the most popular photography management and
sharing service on the web, enabling end-users to upload
their photos and then make them available to their friends,
associates and family through a wide assortment of content
delivery channels, including RSS. By subscribing to
individual Flickr feeds from their users, everyone can have
direct access to the latest life experiences from their
friends.

RSSCalendar: Sharing Your Events
(http://www.rsscalendar.com/)

rssCalendar.com allows individuals and companies to share
their personal or group calendars with the rest of the
world, letting everyone that matters know of where and what
they are doing next, delivering this information via
individual RSS feeds.

Coupons.com: Savings To Your Desktop
(http://www.coupons.com/)

Coupons.com brings the best deals and coupons to internet
end-users, helping them save money by discounted shopping.
As of late, they also started delivering coupons through
RSS feeds, giving their subscribers direct access to their
latest offerings.

PubSub.com: Tracking The World (http://www.pubsub.com)

PubSub.com is an amazing service that allows you to track
practically everything going on around the world by
matching your keywords with tens of thousands of online
content sources, and enabling you to subscribe to your
customized search results through customized RSS feeds.

RSSAuction.com: Tracking Your Purchase Interests
(http://rssauction.com/)

If you're a regular eBay user, you certainly want to keep
track of new products available, which precisely match your
interests. rssAuction.com helps users keep better track of
eBay by giving them a tool to first create a comprehensive
list of product requirements and then delivering the search
result through an RSS feed. As soon as new products
matching individual interests appear, the user is notified
of that through his RSS aggregator, giving him the ability
to start bidding immediately and without having to visit
eBay every day to find the right products.

Upcoming.org: Keeping Track Of Local And Social Events
(http://upcoming.org/)

>From the Upcoming.org website: "Upcoming.org is a
collaborative event calendar, completely driven by people
like you. Enter in the events you're attending, comment on
events entered by others, and syndicate event listings to
your own weblog. As Upcoming.org learns more about the
events you enjoy, it will suggest new events you never
would have heard about."

FeedBeep: The Ultimate "Time-To-Information" Tool
(http://www.feedbeep.com/)

Depending on who you are and your current life situation,
many content alerts are critical for you. If you're looking
for a job, you want to know immediately when a new one
matching your precise interests is available, and so on.
While RSS brings this information to your desktop, that
might not be fast enough. Feedbeep.com takes internet
content delivery one step further, by empowering users to
have their critical content updates delivered from an RSS
feed directly to their mobile phones via SMS.

RSS Empowers Consumers

The one thing all of these RSS-based or RSS-empowered
services have in common is that they empower consumers.

They empower them by getting the content that matters to
them delivered directly to their desktops or online content
aggregators, but still giving them the power to unsubscribe
within moments of not being satisfied with the content they
are receiving.

Even more so, these services empower consumers to create
social networks and easily share their information with
their friends, family and associates on a large scale.

=======================================
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=sa11
=======================================

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Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium have cloned human embryos for the first time using eggs matured in a laboratory - a technique that may help cloning become a viable option for growing patients' own replacement tissue to treat diseases. The experiment, outlined Monday at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, brings the Belgians to the forefront of human cloning aimed at producing stem cells that are a genetic match for injured or sick patients.