Syndicating Your Blog

What are Web Syndication and RSS Feeds?



Your blog makes your newest content available for people to subscribe to, so they don't have to actually go to your site to check for new posts. This is called "syndication".



Your blog's content is syndicated in an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, which displays your most recent post titles along with a brief teaser summarizing each of these posts.



Your audience subscribes to your content simply by adding your RSS feed to their feed reader or aggregator so they won't miss any of your posts. They can click on any of the post titles in your feed to arrive at your site and read the entire post.



What is FeedBurner?



FeedBurner is an RSS feed utility that provides custom RSS feeds and management tools. According to the FeedBurner site:



Why a Burned Feed is Better than a Not-Burned Feed



1. Publicize your content and make it easy for people to subscribe.



2. Optimize distribution so that your content is properly formatted for all of the major directories and can be consumed by subscribers wherever they are.



3. Analyze your traffic to learn how many subscribers you have, where they're coming from and what they like best.



How to Use FeedBurner



Watch these ASC videos on FeedBurner:



* http://www.authoritysitecenter.com/videos/feedburner-burn

* http://www.authoritysitecenter.com/videos/fb-addfeed



What is Technorati?



Technorati is a blog search engine, and a powerful social media site.



WordPress Master automatically pings Technorati whenever you publish a new post.



Claim Your Blog on Technorati



Once you've got your blog up and running, with at least a dozen posts, sign up for a free account with Technorati and claim your blog.



To claim your blog on Technorati, follow the instructions on their site. The claiming process there can be frustrating and sometimes requires several tries, but don't give up. If your claim doesn't go through right away, check back there regularly to see if your claim has been successful yet, and keep trying.



What is RSS Submit?



RSS Submit is a software program that will submit your website's RSS feed to over 80 directories, track your FeedBurner and Technorati statistics, and manage your RSS feeds.



Should You Purchase it?



The Authority Site Center recommends this program as one of the tools to help you get your content out there faster.



According to the RSS Submit site:



"RSS Submit is the most powerful RSS feed management and promotion tool available. The first of its kind for automatically submitting RSS feeds, it is the quickest and most reliable way to submit to the RSS search engines.



"RSS Submit uses a combined method of automatic submissions and auto-filling web page submit forms to automate the process of submitting your RSS feeds, publishing your content, and getting more traffic with proven results.



"RSS Submit is extremely easy to use. Automatic RSS feed detection allows you to enter the domain of your web site and let RSS Submit find the locations of your feeds. Integration with FeedBurner and Technorati statistics lets you track hits to your RSS feeds right from within the software. RSS Preview and keyword analysis lets you manage your feeds in real-time."



To Purchase RSS Submit



Go to the RSS Submit website. The "Personal Edition" is probably all you need.



Free RSS submission: Jack's list of the top RSS directories to submit to.



What is Article Marketing?



Article marketing is a way to promote your website with original, high-quality articles related to your site's topic.



After writing (or outsourcing the writing of) articles for your site, you can edit them a bit to make them "unique content", and submit them to various article directories / libraries around the Web so other publications can pick them up and use them.



At the end of each of these articles is your "resource box" or "bio box", containing a link to your site (to either the home page or a deep link to specific content), and a teaser blurb about you or your site content.



Well-written content articles released for free distribution can often help you build your status as an authority in your niche, as well as bring you new readers.



Become a Guest Blogger or Guest Columnist by Rena Klingenbeg



This is great way to establish yourself as an authority to a large, targeted audience on a regular basis.



One way to build your online business is to write a regular column for someone else's high-traffic website, blog, ezine, or offline publication related to your niche.



Writing a column takes article marketing to a whole new level.



The beautiful thing about being a columnist for another site or publication is that - in addition to building your image as an expert on your topic - you’re also getting access to another site’s audience who are very interested in everything you write.



You probably won't get paid for writing your column. But in exchange for an article or two per month, you can get a level of repeated exposure and promotion to your niche audience that would be prohibitively expensive to buy.



What's Involved in Being a Columnist?



Writing a column is dead easy. It's just like writing a regular article or blog post.



Your column can provide insider tips, insights, interviews, product reviews, trend reports, or whatever useful content suits your niche.



For over three years I've been a columnist for The Bead Bugle, one of the largest ezines in the handcrafted jewelry niche. Every month I write two different columns for this ezine - one full-length "jewelry business" article, and one collection of quick tips on jewelry business or jewelry making.



Although I don't get paid for this columnist gig, it's been a fantastic opportunity to reach tens of thousands of new readers, build my own traffic and lists quickly, and become thought of as an authority in my niche - all in exchange for a small amount of my time every month.



At the end of each of my Bead Bugle columns, I have a nice resource box with my mini-bio and a blurb about my main website, along with a link to my home page, a link to my newsletter subscription page, and a link to my latest ebook.



Every month when my columns are published, they bring a wave of readers and new subscribers to my site, along with more sales of my ebooks. And my column pages in the ezine's online archives wind up at PR3 and PR4 very quickly, which turns them into valuable on-topic backlinks.



After experiencing the power of the "columnist" model of article marketing, I'm now a guest blogger / columnist on about a dozen websites, blogs, and ezines - and I appreciate the resulting boost in traffic, ebook sales, and "branding" of my image.



Often people who read your columns on other websites will give you an extra boost by blogging about them, Digging them, bookmarking them on del.icio.us, or Stumbling them.



Now for many of my niche keywords, the top 10 Google results show an article from one of my own websites, as well as one or two from my various columns, Squidoo lenses, Netscape submissions, other people's blogs, etc. Dominating the first page of Google makes me look like the "authority" of that keyword.



Tips for Writing Columns



For my columns and guest blogger posts, I often write something completely from scratch.



"List articles" are always popular and very quick to write (10 Best Wineries in Spain; The 5 Most Important Resources for Bloggers; 7 Things You Should Never Tell Your Mother-in-Law; etc.).



However, if I’m short on time, I'll take an article or post from one of my own websites or blogs, and expand or update it to make it new and unique.



Occasionally in my columns I place a link to an interior page or blog post on one of my own websites - but only if it genuinely enhances the article. I'm careful never to spam or take advantage of my publishers, and to keep the quality of my columns as high as possible.



TIP: You can make the job of columnist even easier on yourself by writing several months’ worth of columns at a time, and sending them in a big batch for the other publisher to "drip feed" into their site every month as needed. That way you’ll reap the benefits of being a columnist all year long, while actually attending to your duties only once or twice a year.



How to Get a Columnist or Guest Blogger Gig



Submitting one or two columns a month per publication is a very do-able level of writing. You should receive a regular flow of traffic from your efforts, but without feeling like you have a deadline everytime you turn around.



There's a huge need for fresh, high-quality, niche-specific information that your columns can fill. All content websites, blogs, ezines, and offline publications are in a constant crunch for good content.



Many niche retail and wholesale businesses also publish a newsletter, ezine, or blog that needs good content.



If you already know some publishers or business owners in your niche, simply ask if they'd like you to contribute a regular column for their publication.



Or if you don't know any publishers of high-traffic publications in your niche, edit one of your best articles for a sample column, and approach some popular blogs, websites, or ezines in your niche. Ask the publishers or editors if they'd be interested in receiving a regular column from you.



If you demonstrate that you can provide great content that the publisher won't have to spend a lot of time editing, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a publication that will welcome you as a regular columnist in exchange for linking to your websites in your resource box.



The easier and more beneficial you can make your content for your publisher, the more likely you are to be welcomed as a regular guest blogger or columnist.



Find Blogs in Your Niche that Accept Guest Bloggers



Search for blogs in your niche (and closely related to your niche). Blog publishers are often thrilled to get high-quality new content from guest bloggers.



Go to Google Blog Search and search for each of your main keywords, and investigate the blogs that turn up. Do they appear to use guest blogger content? Are they high quality - the type of publication you wouldn't mind being associated with?



If any of the resulting blogs appeal to you, bookmark them so you can contact the publishers and inquire whether they'd be interested in regular guest-blogger articles from you.



The Downside of Article Marketing



Many of the publishers who pick up your article marketing content are honest and use your content the way it's intended.



But unfortunately there are also a lot of unscrupulous publishers out there who are happy to pirate your content.



These unfair publishers use your article without linking back to you (and sometimes without even acknowledging you as the author, either). They don't make your article's backlink to your site a live link, or they remove your resource box altogether.



You can spend a lot of time trying to chase down these unscrupulous publishers, or you can simply ignore them. Their sites don't tend to last very long since their strategy is usually to pump a lot of content into a "splog" (spam blog) and try to monetize it with AdSense ads. Search engines aren't fond of these splogs, and neither are human visitors - so they usually fall by wayside.



(See Jack's blog post, Why Are Some People So Stupid?.)



A More Targeted Article Marketing Strategy



Here's a little different approach to article marketing. It involves doing a bit of research, and then submitting your content yourself to various publishers in your niche.



Find Sites in Your Niche that Accept Articles



Head over to Google to search for sites in your niche (and closely related to your niche) that accept article submissions. In the Google search box, type in one of your site's main keywords, along with "submit article".



For example, if your site is about Caribbean cruises, try these searches:



cruise + "submit article"

Caribbean + "submit article"

island + "submit article"

travel + "submit article"



If there are any sites in these niches that accept article submissions, this type of searching should help you locate them.



Bookmark all of these niche article submission pages you can locate in a new folder in your bookmarks - titled something like "Submit Cruise Articles to".



Submit one high-quality article at a time to these sites. Don't submit more than one article per week to these so you won't be perceived as a spammer. Once or twice per month may be better.



Keep track of the traffic results you get from these sites, and keep submitting high-quality content no more often than once a week to the ones that work well for you.



Consider asking the best ones if they would be interested in receiving a monthly column from you.



Article Directories to Investigate



* http://www.articlesfactory.com



* http://www.articlecity.com



* http://www.articlealley.com



* http://www.ezinearticles.com



* http://www.goarticles.com



Automated Article Marketing



There are several services and software programs designed to submit your articles to hundreds of sites and ezines for you.



Here are a few examples:



* http://www.submityourarticle.com/main.php



* http://www.articlemarketer.com



* http://www.articleannouncer.com/



How Else Does Syndication Benefit Your Website?



Your RSS feed is also available for other sites to use if they choose, and for you to post in other places (including some social media sites) to broadcast the links to your newest content.



Syndication benefits both you (the publisher) and the websites displaying your feed. For the other sites, publishing your RSS feed is an effective way of adding greater depth and immediacy to their own sites.



For you, syndication broadcasts exposure to your content far and wide with very little effort on your part. This generates new traffic to your site — making it a simple, free way to advertise your great content!



Jack Humphrey is the CEO of BlogSuccess.com, he is a pure blogger, has been teaching people how to make money with blogging since 2005 and has helped thousands of individuals and hundreds of small businesses succeed on the Internet. Join his free blogging community over at BlogSuccess.com TODAY!