Top 3 Reasons Why RSS Is Better Than Email for delivering your Ezine

by Kent Thompson

Published on this site: April 25th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

Everyone is talking about RSS. Blogs, newsites and the like are putting those little orange RSS links all over their sites. What's all the hype about?

I admit, email will always have its purpose in life. But many people are realizing that RSS is an excellent alternative to email for newsletters or other mass-distribution lists.

Here are three HUGE advantages of RSS over Email:

1. RSS is totally spam-proof.
   
   It cannot be blocked by any spam filter no matter what! Because RSS is a web page, you simply cannot block it. The analogy I like to use is the difference between a telemarketer and a TV commercial.
   
   A telemarketer can initiate the call, just like anyone can send an email. Any unwelcome message or phone call can be filtered or screened, but there is always that chance that an important call will be deleted or missed. So the end result is that it still takes your time and effort to filter email or screen calls, and there still is no guarantee that your efforts will be 100% accurate.
   
   A TV viewer on the other hand must turn on the TV and find a channel first, just like an RSS feed must be entered into an RSS Reader. Viewing an RSS feed or TV channel is totally at the viewer's discretion. If you ever get sick of a TV channel, you can change it immediately, just like you can delete an RSS Feed.
   
   
2. RSS eliminates all fear of being spammed.
   
   Why should your visitors give out their closely guarded email address to you when they don't know if you are a legitimate website?
   
   Think of how many more subscribers you could have to your newsletter if your website visitors had no fear about being spammed by you! People by nature do not trust you the first time they meet you, and on the internet it is even worse with website visitors.
   
   Of course some will subscribe, but you have to work harder to earn their trust since they are giving something to you.
   
   But what about the people who are just curious, and can't make it over that hurdle to part with their address?
   
   By delivering your newsletter or mini-course content over an RSS Feed, you both win!
   
   Visitors can take a spectator approach without fear of getting spam, and you have a way to establish regular contact with your visitors in the same way email can.
   
   
3. No more bogged-down email servers or duplicate messages.
   
   Sending a message to a large list can really bog down your mail server and can take a long time. If your list has 10,000 email addresses, you are basically telling your mail server to establish a connection with 10,000 different servers! Some web hosts even limit the number of messages you can send.
   
   With RSS, you can avoid mail servers altogether. Downloading an RSS Feed is no different than downloading a web page. While this does place a slightly extra burden on your webserver, it is virtually unnoticeable since it is spread out evenly over time and it only has to deliver a page whenever one is requested.
   
   Or, how many times have you wanted to correct something that got sent out in an email? Once you send it, you can't get it back. With RSS, you can correct the message any time you please! The message your subscribers see is always the most recent version.
   
   Spam could eventually become a thing of the past for mass- distribution lists and autoresponders.
   
   Consumers are catching on already, and I think it's just a matter of time!

Now you can deliver your autoresponder sequence through a personalized RSS feed and email! Author and Programmer Kent Thompson makes this way too easy with his new software. Check it out now at http://feedmagic.com/fm/?&req=k&tc=180e63