RSS Information

Article Navigation

Click Here for more articles

ClickZ.com Doesn't Get RSS Metrics - How We Really Can Measure RSS

by: Rok Hrastnik

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Even after all that's been written and explained, even reputable online marketing publications such as ClickZ.com still don't get RSS metrics.

In an otherwise good RSS marketing article, Add RSS to Your Marketing Mix (http://www.clickz.com/experts/crm/actionable_analysis/article.php/3526546), Heidi Cohen has this to say about RSS metrics:

"From a marketing perspective, RSS's measurability is still evolving and therefore limited. You can't tell who has received your feeds as you can with e-mail."

Yes, RSS's measurability is still evolving and probably will evolve beyond e-mail metrics. In some ways it already has ...

And it's also true that you can't tell who has received your feeds ... if you're using the most established RSS approaches and just the basic technologies.

However, once you connect your feeds with your existing user databases, you can in fact go beyond what e-mail metrics offer.

Here are some possibilities ...

a] Use the "unique feed URL" approach, where each subscriber receives a feed with a unique identifier, based on which you can track precisely what feeds are being requested ... namely what annonymous user is requesting what feed.

b] If you'd like to integrate annonymous feed subscriber data with named (registered) user data, you can easily provide feeds only upon registration or only to logged-in users, and actually connect each unique feed URL with a named user. Especially if you provide feed customization this won't be a problem at all. Once you've integrated this data you can measure every and any iteraction your user has with your feed.

c] If you don't want to force your visitors to register in order to subscribe to your feed, you can still use the unique feed URL approach, which you connect with a user session, cookie or other identifiable information. Once your RSS feed subscriber registers you can integrate the data you already collected based on existing feed interaction and website interaction with his new user account.

d] The other approach you can use is user authentication, where you limit access to your feeds with a username/password combination. If each unique users receives a unique combination, you can track everything based on this information.

There are other possibilities as well, and the actual implementation of those above is somewhat more complicated than it seems at first sight. It does for example also require a more complex internet marketing strategy. It does require using more complex tools than the simplest RSS publishing solutions available on the market. It does require integration with your user database and internet platform.

But the point is that it's not only theoretically possible, but also in praxis. And in fact simple for companies with their own advanced internet platforms.

Just a quick disclaimer ...

a] If your feed gets widely syndicated you can in fact lose view of who's receiving your feed, even if you're using unique feed URLs (you can of course measure this as well, by analyzing user agent data). Using the user authentication model solves this problem as well.

b] Even if your feed does get widely syndicated, that's still comparable to your e-mail messages being passed around by users. And if we take in to account that measuring open-rates is getting increasingly difficult due to users blocking images, e-mail metrics don't look that shiny anymore.

If you'd like to find out more about RSS metrics, simply start by reading our collection of RSS metrics articles, reports, interviews and news at http://rssdiary.marketingstudies.net/content/cat_rss_metrics.php

I'm also hoping that there'll soon come a time when responses like this will no longer be needed, because marketers will finally understand the power of RSS metrics.

About the author:
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:

Circulated by Article Emporium

Read Articles:

Website Imperatives and Solutions

Avoid a Summer Sales Slump

Marketers on RSS: The Best Of

Top Five Lead Capture Tools & How They Work

Monitor and Increase Your Search Engine Visibil...

Increase Traffic to Your Blog from Search Engin...

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - Houses on Sand

What is Podcasting?

Why Wordpress is now my Blog of Choice

How to Build a Niche Site With a Blog

How a Multi-Faceted Approach to Site Promotion ...

5 Ways to Entice Your Parallel Market to Trade ...

Does your Website Sell or Smell?

How to get traffic to your website!

Business Blogging - 5 Tips to Help You Barrel T...

RSS and E-mail: How They Can Work Together?

Is Blogging and RSS ALL THAT? Yes, and a bag o...

NEWS FLASH! Article Directories JUMP-ON The RSS...

How To Make Over $20,000 Per Month

7 Profitable Ezine Publishing Tips

Update Your Websites Content 'Automatically' 24...

How To Build A Profitable Niche Site Within 27 ...

Top 6 Reasons for having a RSS feed - Come and ...

Should Affiliates Really Use Blogging and Pingi...

The Copyright Debate and RSS

What You Can Publish via RSS

Podcasting Trend

Is Blogging Necessary to Your Internet Business?

What is Creative Commons?

Promote Your Products Without Annoying Spam Fil...

More Best of From Marketers on RSS

RSS Directory Submission: The Key to Blog Promo...

RSS and Blog Marketing for Real Estate

Short Term vs Long Term Marketing Efforts

ClickZ.com Doesn't Get RSS Metrics - How We Rea...

What is Wiki?

5 New Internet Marketing Opportunities Through RSS

The KEY To A Winning Internet Marketing Strateg...

Is Your Business Podcasting? Well, It Should Be.

How affiliates can have their own radio show...

More Article Pages 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

Tracking and Measuring RSS Feeds
by: S. Housley

Measuring and tracking RSS while a fairly simple concept, is really anything but. Unlike websites, RSS have the added caveat of potential syndication, making accurate tracking a challenge to anyone but the extremely tech savvy.

It is not unrealistic for marketers to want to know how many subscribers they have, which items in their feeds attract the most interest, or how many click-throughs are generated as a result of an RSS feed.

There are a number of 3rd party providers who focus on tracking the consumption of RSS feeds. Some solutions are rudimentary but likely sufficient for a small business testing the waters with RSS. Other RSS tracking solutions are more complex and while they can come close to being accurate, with syndication there is no solution that tracks with 100% accuracy.

Techniques Used to track RSS Consumption

Small businesses can view web logs to provide information on how many times a specific file (RSS feed) is requested. The logs and information is rudimentary but will give a basic sense of a feeds success. Many 3rd party tracking options have additional tracking information available.

Hosting

The most common method to track the number of feed accesses or individuals accessing a feed is to use a 3rd party feed host. Companies like FeedBurner essentially track feeds based on accesses. The downside to using a 3rd party like Feedburner, is that the url is a FeedBurner url and any PageRank or popularity associated with the url will benefit the feed host rather than the feed creator. Additionally, no distinction is made between unique views or syndicate feeds.

FeedBurner provides a free no frills service to host RSS feeds and they have been proactive in circumventing user concerns. Recently implementing a service that eases users concerns about migrating from FeedBurner. There is a 3 step process for users interested in migrating from FeedBurner's free service, implementing a permanent redirect, and url forwarding.

Details can be found at: http://www.burningdoorc.om/feedburner/archives/001251.html

Some publishers, who were concerned about lock-in or wanted to retain control of the domain and feed urls often resist a hosting service. The new program FeedBurner Partner Pro is not free, but allows for users to point to their own domain, retaining complete control of their feeds without sacrificing statistical tracking.

The downside to using a service like FeedBurner is that some filtering applications used on corporate proxy servers block feeds residing on FeedBurner or other free hosts.

Redirects

Companies like SyndicateIQ have more complex tracking solutions that generate unique urls for each subscriber. The tracking benefits to such a customized solution is obvious. Individual user habits can be monitored and any users abusing their access and inappropriately syndicating a feeds content can have their feed turned off. The downside of course is that the success of RSS is in a large part due to the anonymity. Users don't want their personal habits tracked.

Considering the venture capital interest in these 3rd party hosting services. It is important to note that their value is in the data that they collect. As with any 3rd party service, it goes without saying that publishers should read the privacy policy carefully, be aware of who owns the rights to the collected information, and how that information might be used. It goes without saying that the value in many of the free services currently available lies in their aggregate data.

Uniquely Named Transparent Images

Uniquely named transparent 1x1 graphics can be added to the description field of an RSS feed. Users can use standard web logs to see the number of times the image is viewed and determine the number of times the feed was accessed.

Companies Specializing in Tracking and RSS Metrics

Pheedo - Pheedo creates tools that enable individuals, organizations and corporations to promote, analyze, and optimize their weblogs and content.

http://www.pheedo.com

SyndicateIQ - SyndicateIQ's position in the content distribution chain provides clients a set of analytics.

http://www.syndicateiq.com/

FeedBurner - FeedBurner offers a full range of services to help you build awareness, track circulation, and implement revenue-generating programs in your feed(s).

http://www.feedburner.com

Each individual using RSS needs to make a decision of the extent and importance of the analytics they require. Realizing that any system they employ is not going to be perfect.

This Static Spot is open for sponsor

This Static Spot is open for sponsor