| LED Digest 1937: Email Publishing Alternatives |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. February 24, 2005 Issue #1937 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= <Moderator Comment> --== RSS Feeds, Spam, and The Future of Publishing ==-- ~ Steve Birk "...the email newsletter publishing train has been derailed..." ~ Maria K Meyers "RSS is a great potential alternative to email publishing, but it is still an alternative." ~ Steve Pronger "I've set up a page that hopefully makes [RSS] a bit easier to understand." ~ David Yancey "...the threads on SPAM, RSS, and the future of email are almost too painful to read." --== Site Building Software ==-- ~ Scott Wang "Yes. there exists such a service..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== MSN Search ==-- ~ Michael Linehan ~ Dave Starr ===== CONTINUING ================================= <Moderator Comment> Hi LEDer, The threads on Curing Spam and RSS are converging into an interesting area, namely the future of email publishing in light of the spam epidemic and the emergence of alternative tools. It's turning into a great discussion. I know you haven't heard from me in awhile, but you can be sure I'm always here, reading every post and enjoying every bit of it! Best wishes, Adam --------------------- From: Steve Birk Subject: Curing spam Excellent post in LED #1936 by Phil Tanny! Not only are we getting record levels of spam, but I am noticing an increased level of emails from legitimate publishers whose newsletters I have selected to receive. I am getting their emailed newsletter, but then some time later I get another email stating something like, "in case spam filters stopped your copy, the online edition is available here...". Even more emails in my inbox in the form of band-aids to a huge problem. I'm finding I cannot spend the time that I use to reading email newsletters which I have selected to receive, due to spending more time dealing with spam. As everyone knows, there is only so much time in a day to dedicate to your inbox. I think Phil is right on when he says the phase when publishing an emailed newsletter was cutting edge cool is now coming to a close. The RSS publishing train is now boarding... and the email newsletter publishing train has been derailed (permanently???) by spam! Steve Birk, Emergency Med Tech www.sbreport.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Maria K Meyers Subject: Curing spam RSS / XML is a great potential alternative to email publishing, but it is still an alternative. New updates and versions are continual, but the process is still limiting. In my research on RSS, I have found a few problems which make it unrealistic for our use. Currently, there is no ability to personalize or customize content for the recipient without creating a separate feed for each individual. There is no form of tracking to determine if a marketing campaign is working. There is no way to limit the recipients since anyone can 'subscribe' to a feed (Why limit? Sometimes you need to and want to.) The concept is great, but improvements must be made before it has a chance to seriously challenge email publishing. Marketers want flexibility and analysis. They need to be creative and they need to know that their time, effort, and money are being utilized correctly. That's a commonality of all businesses and organizations. I will keep watching RSS and tracking its progress because it interests me. My .02. =) Maria Meyers, Website Manager American Heartland Theatre ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Steve Pronger Subject: RSS > I was curious about an example in the start of this > thread, where someone referred to his site, and > had an RSS feed of that home page. - Kathryn Martyn, LED 1936 I think the question that needs to be asked is "why would you?". RSS works best when the "feed" is constantly changing content - newsletters, blogs, site update info etc. If your feed consisted of nothing more than your static home page there wouldn't be much incentive for anyone to subscribe to it. However if your feed advised subscribers when your site had been updated and gave links to pages where updates had occurred, that would be far more useful to them. But I think Kathryn may be referring to the practice of putting an RSS feed on a website. I did give an example of this in a previous post. I've set up several RSS feeds on my site. The software I used for this is called RSS Equalizer. You can use JavaScript but the problem there is that search engines don't read JS. RSS Equalizer allows you to add constantly updated content to your site which the search engines will have no trouble reading. There are other scripts out there that will do the same thing if you do a bit of searching, and if you're the programming type you could whip one up yourself. I'm a recent convert to RSS and it took me a while to get my head around it as well. I've set up a page that hopefully makes it a bit easier to understand. I called it the Really Simple Guide to RSS: http://www.stevepronger.com/rss.htm You'll find links to several resources, including RSS Equalizer, and a great book I just finished reading called "Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS" > Let's move the struggle to a battlefield where the reader > has all the control, and thus the legitimate value oriented > publisher has the advantage. - Phil Tanny, LED 1936 Great post Phil. Couldn't agree more. BTW, Adam, it's time you had an RSS feed of the Digest, yes? Steve Pronger http://www.stevepronger.com <Moderator Comment> Yes! I'm planning on it and will be unveiling the RSS feed along with the new site. I'll announce it to the list when we're ready to rock (wish me luck)... -adam ------- new post - same topic -------- From: David Yancey Subject: RSS For many of us who have invested years and many hundreds of thousands of dollars in double-opt-in email-based publishing, the threads on SPAM, RSS, and the future of email are almost too painful to read. Nonetheless, like many, I am a believer in the strong potential for blogging and RSS feeds. We will launch several blogs this year, along with a novel RSS-based information tool. The way leaders like Ken Evoy are adapting to the RSS opportunity is to be admired. I also empathize with Phil Tanny (in LED #1936) when he tells us that untold hours of work and millions of dollars have, seemingly, only served to increase the amount of SPAM in people's mailboxes. Phil's suggestion that the solution for email newsletter publishers is to drop their lists and switch to RSS, while an appealing idea on a gut level, is not realistic, however. It ignores a fundamental, namely that while we publishers may be fed up to here with email delivery problems, negative consumer associations, and the sheer cost of managing and mailing to a big list, this is not the whole picture of the email reality. Email is still, for hundreds of millions, simply the most convenient way to receive messages. The typical user needs to contend with a *variety* of messages each day, including personal ones, newsletters, *desired* commercial reminders and information, *desired* greeting cards and similar pass-alongs from their friends, news updates, and, don't overlook, often critical update or reminder messages from their suppliers, vendors, software makers, and others. We pro-level users also tend to down play the very large number of users who consciously opt-in for marketers' information announcements and reminders because they *want* them. And, lest we forget, email remains the best way (in the eyes of the recipients) to deliver most documents and attachments. Almost *no* typical non-webbie user I speak to at dinners and the like has installed an RSS reader, or knows where to begin, or even clearly understands why they should. There are other reasons, mostly already covered by other posts, that RSS will be, for the time being, an *auxiliary* delivery system, no matter how clever or handy it is for those who are acclimated to the idea of a news reader. Thanks to their simplicity for the publisher, RSS feeds will doubtless grow rapidly. For an "always on" type of user, RSS can be a useful tool. But the typical user is not "always on". Indeed, perhaps 70% of all web users globally do not even own their own PC. As usage in India, China, and Latin America increases, this proportion will likely rise, not fall, as more and more people go online via schools, community centers, libraries, kiosks, and cafes, to do their limited surfing, research, shopping, and email tasks. As individual publishers and sellers, we of course need to need to target our intended audiences. So, doubtless, most North America- or Europe-based web companies won't care about the rest of the world's users. But as an industry, we need to make sure that all potential users are included, so that we can continue to drive reach numbers up and costs down. The point? So long as email is pervasive, free, and easy to use, it will be (in terms of numbers) the prevalent message distribution medium. It is therefore in everyone's interest to find better ways to block SPAMmers. And, since I predict email in some form will be with us for many years to come, it will continue to be a requirement for eletter publishers to offer this form of delivery along with RSS. Nobody with any credibility ever said it would be easy... David Yancey http://www.vivante.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Scott Wang Subject: Site builders > I have a client that wants to set up a service whereby > people can come to [them], buy a domain name, and > purchase a website template they can populate their > new site with. - Lew Wurdeman, LED 1936 Yes Lew, there exists such a service. The wholesale division of GoDaddy is called Wild West Domains, and they provide domains, hosting, email-only account, site templates, secure certificates, etc. all in one shot. I've been a WildWestDomains reseller for years - you can see "my" site here: http://www.scottsdomains.com. I only use their service for managing domain names (roughly 100) for customers because I have my own hosting business, but their service is great. You can set your own pricing and make a commission on the sales. http://www.wildwestdomains.com Scott Wang Scott's Computing scott, scottscomputing.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Michael Linehan Subject: MSN > It would probably benefit most people to wait a few > more months before worrying too much about MSN. > If they cannot improve the quality of their search results, > I doubt users will stay with the service. - Michael Martinez, LED 1936 Sorry, but from my viewpoint of the lack of quality of many of Microsoft's products, thinking that people will leave MSN is optimistic in the extreme. If everyone were that sensible, VHS would not have won out over Beta. And similarly Apache wouldn't have three times the market share of Microsoft Server, it would be a hundred - and most people would long ago have gotten fed up with the crashes, viruses and spyware and moved on to cleaner, more secure OS's. So I think we can depend on huge numbers of people staying with MSN because it's --- MSN. Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Dave Starr Subject: MSN I think this tool has been posted here before: http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm it's a great service to those trying to figure out the tangled web of what search engine fits where. As you can see, it appears that the new MSN search is not taking organic (unpaid) feeds from anyone, doing all its crawling on its own, so the algorithm it uses is not yet as well known "guessed" as the older engines. A lot of good data here: http://www.webproworld.com/search.php?mode=results Best regards Dave Starr www.satviz.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains © Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "I've developed a new philosophy... I only dread one day at a time." - Charlie Brown |
