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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nevin,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There are a couple of points here. First, the
RSS movement is real ; ignore it at your own peril. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If you look at where RSS started in the web log
world you see how that mechanism fits in that domain. I'm sure you've also
noticed how different organizations are adapting it to their model, e.g. Yahoo.
You've also correctly noted how driving the traffic directly to your site
can be circumvented. There are a different ways and strategies to deal
with this. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>One view is to look at it as a marketing tool, a
direct connection to your customers. So from that perspective, a lot of
companies are using RSS / weblog / newsletter types of things as guerrilla
marketing; write up a blurb every day or two for distribution to the market.
This gives the customer a feeling that they're "inside" of the company or
product, a sense of community if you will with a direct conduit to the
company.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I'll point out that once someone has signed
up for your RSS feed, you've already captured them. It's probably not necessary
to drive them to the site everytime you make an announcement, you're preaching
to the choir as it were. At the same time, you may want to give the customers
reason to go to the web site. You can do this in several ways, one strategy of
which is to place teasers in your RSS announcements that you broadcast. This
basically consists of just a simple title plus a small blurb with a pointer to
your website. For example: "We have a new brunette hair doll out, check it out
at: <A
href="http://www.bountifulbaby.com/pastwork/Casey.jpg">http://www.bountifulbaby.com/pastwork/Casey.jpg</A> or
some such. The link would take you to a detailed description of the
product.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It's not an either/or type of situation, you can
give your customers glimpses of what is on your website from your RSS feed and
invite them to visit if they are interested. It's can be like
a newspaper headline, something to grab your attention so that
you read further. Or you can give them the whole blurb. The RSS feed is
independent from the content of the website. For example, a lot of wikis
just send out the 'this page has changed' as a headline in a RSS feed, and let
the user stumble thru by clicking to bring them to the real
content. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Most of this depends on what your marketing
strategy is for your product. RSS is a tool, appropriately applied it can add
value. At the same time, it can be like a stone around your neck with no
value. I would suggest that if you're asking the question "is this
something I should do?", what you should really be thinking about is "Can this
technology generate benefit to my customers, and if so how?". Write down
some simple use cases on how someone might use it, examine your customer base to
see if they fit the profile of people who use that technology, all the marketing
101 stuff. It's not really a technical issue, it's more of a marketing
one.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jim</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=nevin@smalltalkpro.com href="mailto:nevin@smalltalkpro.com">Nevin
Pratt</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=seaside@lists.squeakfoundation.org
href="mailto:seaside@lists.squeakfoundation.org">The Squeak Enterprise
Aubergines Server - general discussion.</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, December 24, 2003 10:23
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Seaside] RSS and
Seaside</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Cees de Groot wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid1072260646.2327.538.camel@home.home.cdegroot.com
type="cite"><BR><PRE wrap=""><!---->I am using BottomFeeder since a couple of weeks now, and I don't want to
go back. In around a minute, I can scan the updates of a dozen sites;
try that with a browser. I love RSS, and installing BottomFeeder is
really worth a try.
</PRE></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Yes, but that means you don't visit those sites as
often, now. So, for an ecommerce site, is that a good thing (from the
perspective of the site)?<BR><BR>Of course, at least the RSS aggregator (ala
BottomFeeder) has the user visiting at least a portion of the site on a
regular basis (they "visit" the RSS feed), and I suppose there are some users
where without that, they wouldn't "visit" the site at all. But is that
the norm? What about "most" users (if there is such a thing)?
Would an RSS feed mean they would visit the site more? or less?<BR><BR>I
suppose the answer depends a bit on the target marget for the ecommerce
site. But, for Bountiful Baby, I'm starting to have real reservations on
whether it would be worth the trouble. But I'm *very* curious about
thoughts that others might have, and I appreciate Cees'
comment.<BR><BR>Nevin<BR><BR><PRE class=moz-signature cols="72">--
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