NewsGator FeedDemon...

I just learned about a feed aggregator called FeedDemon (www.feeddemon.com). I downloaded V2.6 tonight and, so far, it seems like a really great program with lots of cool features and very fine control over feeds and their properties. I'll post more as I work with the program and let everyone know how I like it.

BTW, I learned about FeedDemon in the book I'm currently reading: "Secrets of Online Persuasion" by John-Paul and Deborah Micek. It's a FANTASTIC book about marketing online in the "New Media" (i.e. blogs, social networks, RSS, wikis, etc.) Check out John-Paul and Deborah at www.advancedbusinessblogging.com.

Adam Farrah
Copywriter, Business and Technical Writer
www.adamfarrah.net

So, what's the deal with RSS?

I've started to really dig into the RSS stuff and learn all the advantages to using the technology.

For those of you who aren't familiar with RSS feeds, they're basically files written in a language called XML (eXtensible Markup Launguage) that are read by a client or web-based software and give details about each post made in a blog as soon as it's made.

Users subscribe to a blog's RSS feed, usually by clicking an icon that says "RSS," "Atom," "XML," etc., and they are alerted every time a new post goes onto their subscribed blogs.

RSS readers are pretty widely available at this point. There's one in MS Outlook 2007 and MyYahoo! has a good one too. I'm currently using MyYahoo! because I also have Yahoo! mail accounts that I like to keep tabs on. Others are bloglines (I couldn't get it to work) and syndic8.com.

Some of the advantages to using RSS to promote your blog and website are:

• Users are informed the moment you make a new post.
• RSS feeds aren't email, so they bypass spam filters completely
• RSS is automatically sent to subscribers when you post - no action required on your part
  
• RSS feeds always include links back to your site. These links increase traffic AND your search engine rankings.

I'll be posting more on RSS in the coming days.

Adam Farrah
Copywriter, Business and Technical Writer
www.adamfarrah.net

The future of "newsletter" marketing...

I’m reading a group of books right now as I ramp up my blogging efforts. I’m a big fan of the “For Dummies” books, especially when I’m just starting off with a topic. I find they give me a great overview – from raw beginner to slightly advanced – and allow me to gain enough insight to move on to other good books that are more advanced. Anyway… Back to the topic of this post!

I’m currently reading “Podcasting for Dummies,” “Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds for Dummies,” and “Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies.” The common thread I’m finding in them is the marketing of blogs through RSS feeds. In “Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds for Dummies” by Ellen Finkelstein (www.ellenfinkelstein.com), Ellen compares syndicating with RSS vs. publishing an email newsletter and notes several advantages of RSS including bypassing email spam filters. It strikes me that RSS feeds will really take off in the next year or two – probably coupled with blog and/or XML technology that isn’t even well known yet.

Adam Farrah
Copywriter, Business and Technical Writer
www.adamfarrah.net

I'm Excited...

I'm excited to finally be launching this blog. Going forward, I'm planning to add a lot of useful content and ideas - both for other business and technical writers and for those who simply need to write to perform their jobs well.

Adam Farrah
Copywriter, Business and Technical Writer
www.adamfarrah.net