How Web Feed Marketing Can Work for You
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eMerchantClub added a useful feature to the Version 9.01 eCommerce website: Web Feeds. With eMerchantClub's Version 9.02 release, this feature was significantly expanded. Used properly, Web Feeds can significantly increase targeted traffic to your website and increase “site stickiness,” which is important for long-term success. This guide will provide you with insight into Web Feeds – what they are, how they're used, and how to use them effectively to increase your bottom line. What is a Web Feed?A Web Feed is a special type of page on the Internet which publishes similar relevant content. This content may be from one source, or from multiple sources. Subscribe to a Web Feed A Web Feed is something you can subscribe to. In this situation, whenever the publisher puts out new content, it will appear in your reader. We'll talk about readers later. A Web Feed Collection (Aggregation) A Web Feed is also something that you can aggregate . This means that you subscribe to more than one Web Feed, and gather those Web Feeds on to one page. Your site allows you to collect several Web Feeds and display them on a page, which your shoppers can read on your site. We'll talk about why aggregating on your site is important later. Publish a Web Feed A Web Feed is something you can publish. Your eCommerce site gives you tools to publish information on your site, such as products, departments, and custom pages. Your shoppers can subscribe to this Web Feed, and view this in their own reader. When they see something they like from your feed and click on the link, the link takes them to your site so they can learn more or buy a product. What does a Web Feed Do? Without Web Feeds To read new content from sites you like without Web Feeds, you have to go to those sites one at a time to see if they have updates.
With Web Feeds With Web Feeds, you use something called a Reader. (You can learn more about readers later in this guide.) To keep up-to-date on all of your sites, there's only one step:
After you subscribe to Web Feeds, any updated or new content appears on your reader automatically, so you only have one place to go for all of your Web content. This is a huge time-saver! According to Wikipedia… “A Web Feed (or news feed ) is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a Web Feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of Web Feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation , which is performed by an Internet aggregator. A Web Feed is also sometimes referred to as a syndicated feed .” ( Original article ) This means that a Web Feed can provide potential customers with immediate access to content they consider useful , whether or not they are currently visiting your website. How does eMerchantClub perform this magic? Well, this is done through something called RSS which stands for (R)eally (S)imple (S)yndication. RSS is a format used to syndicate website content. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes of RSS, but we take care of all of that for you. eMerchantClub's Web Feed Manager makes this process simple, allowing you to concentrate on the benefits of Web Feeds instead. How are Web Feeds Used? Since you can be a feed creator (syndicator) or a feed consumer (subscriber), you can take advantage of Web Feeds that others have created, or create your own feeds for others to subscribe to. Inbound vs. Outbound feeds An inbound feed is a list of content created by another publisher which you have chosen to publish on your site. When the content creator publishes information to their feed page, that feed page gives other website owners access to the content. For example, every major news organization publishes Web Feeds of its news stories. Webmasters who are interested in displaying the latest news on their websites can re-publish those feeds on their own pages. The summary of these news articles will then appear on their website. Every time the news organization adds an article to their website, the feed page is automatically updated on all of the subscribed websites without any further involvement by the webmaster. There are many free Web Feeds available offering content on a variety of topics and niches. What a great way to add useful and relevant content to your website! The eMerchantClub Web Feed Manager actually allows you to control, on-the-fly, what content will get displayed on your eCommerce site pages! The eMerchantClub Web Feed Manager provides two easy-to-use features which help you control the content your site displays. These are called aggregation and filtering . But, don't worry. You just have to provide some simple information and all of this is handled for you automatically. You simply specify which feeds you would like on your site (this is aggregation ), optionally include filters (which are like keywords), and then the magic begins! The eMerchantClub Web Feed Manager takes the information you provided, then goes out and reads all of the feeds you specified. It randomly selects ONLY articles that contain any of the keywords you specified ( filters ). Then it packages up ( aggregates ) these individual articles from multiple feed locations and displays only the number of entries you requested. In other words, by adding some simple pieces of information and a few clicks, you can now create your own custom web content out of other people's work. You can even click on a Preview button first, just to see what your new custom content will look like, before you give the OK to add it to your site. How's that for easy! So, now you can give your visitors useful, relevant, and automatically updated content which will make them want to bookmark your site and come back for more. Plus, these Web Feeds make great search engine food. Search engines love to see constantly updated, relevant content. If you make the small amount of effort to do this right, you'll be amply rewarded with higher page ranking for more of your site's pages in the search engines, bringing you the kind of targeted traffic you want. Become a Web Feed Creator Yourself Up until now, we've discussed adding relevant content to your website by using external (other people's) Web Feeds. Now it's your turn to make your own content available to others. Why? By syndicating your own feeds, you can increase your brand exposure and expand your reach across many websites. You see, as a syndicator (or publisher) of Web Feeds, you are now in the publishing business. Your products, services, comments, tips, etc. become relevant news that can appear on thousands of websites and on the computer screens of millions of potential buyers. Also, in today's hectic world, people want to get their news and information now, without a lot of searching. With Web Feeds and a piece of software called a feed reader (which is often free), the news they are most interested in can come to their desktop or handheld device whenever they want it. And, just as we saw in our earlier discussion, website owners can offer a steady supply of new and useful content from your website to their visitors to keep them coming back for more. OK. Now you may be thinking, what's the catch? This sounds too easy. There must be a downside. Well, as with everything in life and business, there are advantages and disadvantages with every decision we make. The next section of this article will discuss how to effectively use Web Feeds to market your business. We'll take a closer look at the pluses and minuses of Web Feed marketing and learn how to maximize the advantages while minimizing the disadvantages. Using Web Feeds to Increase BusinessWhen properly used, Web Feeds can increase targeted traffic to your site, increase awareness of your brand, build goodwill, and improve search engine positioning. Whenever marketing any product or service, always consider the principle of WIIFM (What's In It For Me?). In other words, think about the benefits your target market will gain from the Web Feeds you provide. In this highly competitive marketplace, it's not enough to simply put up a website and expect people to flock to your site or brick-and-mortar store and gleefully hand you their wallets. You must work your business; always think about the WIIFM principle, and come up with new and exciting ways to attract and satisfy potential customers. So, let's look at how Web Feeds can be used to accomplish this. All sales, whether done online or in the real world, involves something called the “Sales Funnel.” Picture a funnel, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. At the top of the funnel we pour in all potential customers. These are referred to as “suspects,” because at this stage we don't know whether they are people who are truly interested in what we have to offer, and are ready, willing and able to make a purchase now.
As these people progress through the Sales Funnel, they will either become non-interested visitors, prospects, or customers. A prospect is an individual who, by his/her actions, has demonstrated some interest in what you have to offer. You have to do everything you can to cultivate this person's interest. A customer is a prospect who has decided to pull out his wallet and make a purchase now. Using Inbound Feeds
Attract targeted visitors (suspects)
then get them to make a purchase (customer).
So, you need to place information on your site that visitors will consider useful and relevant. Again, think of the WIIFM principle! What information can you make available that the visitor will stop and look at? Well, ask yourself:
Make a list of the types of information that you feel would satisfy your site's visitors. Search the web yourself and look for this kind of information. Then, list a set of keywords that would bring up this information on the search engines. Next, look for potential Web Feeds that carry this kind of information. The best place to look is on sites that collect these feeds. Here's a short list of these site links that will give you plenty of options to choose from. Be sure to check the feed provider's terms and conditions of use. http://w.moreover.com/categories/category_list_rss.html Before you add any feed to your website, be sure to visit the site that has published the feed and ask yourself the following questions:
Now that you've made your Web Feed selections, you can use your eMerchantClub Web Feed Manager to set them up on your eCommerce website. For complete details on the steps to follow, please visit the Web Feed online tutorial at: http://www.learnsuccesscentral.com/vt9webfeeds/ You should select 2-4 feeds to use on your website. OK. I promised to talk about the downside. Think about it. Why have these sites decided to publish Web Feeds of their content? It isn't because they were feeling charitable. Obviously, they derive some benefit from making their content available to you. Placing their content on your website gives them an opportunity to attract traffic from your marketing efforts. People who come to your site and see this content are likely to click on the article links. This will take them to the Web Feed publisher's site and expose them to the products, services and information they provide – all at NO additional cost to themselves! It also gives them free one-way links from relevant sites which search engines love to see. So, why should you help them get traffic? Because, they're helping you get traffic as well! They are providing you with automatically updated and relevant content, all at NO cost to you! This content will help you get better positioning in the search engines and keep people coming back to, and stay at, your site. I would say that's a fair trade – wouldn't you? If you answered yes, you've understood the advantages of Web Feed marketing. If you answered no, you need to go back and re-read this article until you get it! OK. We've discussed some of the advantages of being a Web Feed publisher and a consumer. Let's look at using the eMerchantClub Web Feed Manager to see how you can publish your own feeds and gain those benefits as well. Using Outbound FeedsGetting new, targeted visitors to your site and keeping their attention is critical to the success of your business. To do that, you need to make your site's information readily available to others and offer it in many different and useful ways. Fortunately, the eMerchantClub Web Feed Manager makes this a snap! You can create specialized feeds of your site information to satisfy different visitor needs. What do I mean by that? Here are a few ideas:
The eMerchantClub Web Feed Manager will automatically add your site feeds to your own feeds page, neatly categorized. Promoting Your New Web FeedsAfter you create your feeds, offer information and advice on your site about how people can subscribe to those feeds to simplify their lives, help others, etc. You can do that by offering links to download free RSS feed readers (just look for them on your favorite search engine) that people can install on their PCs with instructions on adding your feeds to their readers. RSS readers give people the ability to create their own customized newspaper that displays content from the Web Feeds they subscribe to. This way, you can constantly stay in front of your prospects even when they are simply going about their business. In fact, why not download and install one of these feed readers yourself and learn first-hand how they're used! You can also inform other webmasters with complementary websites of your free content. All they have to do is place your feeds on their site. They get free content, you get targeted traffic. This way you can get your name out and build goodwill. This will also increase your site's inbound links which will improve your search engine positioning. Then, notify sites like syndic8.com and moreover.com of your feeds (follow the instructions on their sites). These feed syndication portals attract thousands of webmasters interested in new content for their websites. So, you get free exposure and potential access to their targeted traffic. Web Feeds provide a great way to generate site traffic, generate interest in your products and services and increase brand awareness. The eMerchantClub Web Feed Manager puts all of this power at your fingertips in an easy-to-use, follow-the-steps fashion. If your site has not yet been upgraded to Version 9, please call us at (888) 806-2081 to see how we can update your site with the latest features. As always, if you have any questions please contact Technical Support via e-mail at techsupport@emerchantclub.com by going to Live Chat Technical Support at http://www.emerchantclub.com/support.html or by calling (877) 384-4691. Thank you, Your eMerchantClub Team |
To increase the likelihood of sales at your website, you must: 
Interest them enough to stay on your site, get them to perform an action – like add an item to their shopping cart or wish list (prospect) 
When an individual comes to your website, he has the option of staying there or clicking off and going somewhere else. Research has shown that if you don't capture the visitor's attention within the first 3 seconds of arriving at your site, he will leave! Think about your own search habits and you will readily see that this is true.