RSS feeds are the latest craze. Supposedly, they will replace email and RSS does have its advantages. However, it is time to put theory aside.



In the real world RSS feeds can be used with email. This powerful combination has been overlooked by many webmasters and Internet users.

Unfortunately, many websites have shifted to RSS entirely when it comes to delivering the latest news or information to their visitors.

They have used RSS to replace email, ezines, and emailed newsletters. Everyone is concerned about spam, and the deliverability of email can be hampered by anti-spam filters.

With RSS, you know your message has been delivered because the person receiving the RSS feed is using software to get their feed from you.

However, the bigger question is how many people are getting your RSS feed?

That is the real question. If your email deliverability rate is 90% to 1000 customers, and your RSS feed deliverability is 100% to 10 customers, then you've really missed the boat if you sacrificed email for RSS feeds.

Did I say just 10 customers? Is that an unfair comparison?

Nope. The fact is, hardly anyone uses RSS feeds to get information, but everyone uses email. The most common use of RSS feeds seems to be webmasters using each other's RSS feeds to create content for their websites.

A recent poll on a major Internet marketing forum bore this out. These are people on the cutting edge of technology and those most likely to use RSS feeds.

They do, to get content for their websites. But it turned out hardly anyone was using RSS feeds to read information and keep abreast of the latest news. They were using email for that.

While that poll was certainly not scientific, it is illuminating.

That has not prevented many online businesses from blindly jumping on the RSS bandwagon and making new company information only available via RSS.

The solution to this problem: online businesses making new information available by RSS feed, but online visitors using email to obtain new information they want to read, is obvious:

Deliver RSS feeds by email.

Surprisingly, there are only a couple options available for this, almost all of which are encased in techno-geek, difficult to set-up, and just plain are not adequate for the average consumer.

Testing at Internet Profit University fortunately did find a couple good options. One of which really stood out: .

This online service is free, and it allows you to simply enter the RSS feed you are interested in, your email address, and that's about it. Very simple, but extremely powerful. The RSS Gecko service also has a unique option allowing users to select the days and times when they want to receive updated information from their RSS feeds.

If you use the web, and we all do, an RSS to email service is extremely valuable. Everyone is already using email, and setting up another program to access, add RSS feeds, just to read the latest news is unnecessary.

Combining RSS feeds with existing email technology is an excellent way to easily get current information from your favorite websites.