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#1 Mistake Most Blogs Do

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

As much as this might surprise most bloggers, the #1
mistake most blogs are doing is not publishing their
content via e-mail, as a supplement to their RSS feeds.

Just think about it: while RSS is growing strong, it still
only penetrates about 5-6% of the American online
population. Furthermore, according to a recent BlogAds
survey, "only 12 percent of the blog reading audience said
it used RSS always or often".

If you're delivering your blog content only via RSS, you're
missing out on about 80% or more of potential regular
readership/followship.

THE KEY BLOG PROBLEM

There are millions of blogs already, but really few people
have the time to watch more than a few daily. But if they
come back just once a week, they can be quickly overwhelmed
with the amount of new content.

That's why it's crucial to provide a "best of", a helping
hand to guide your readers to the "must-read" content you
publish and delivering this content either as a
standalone blog-zine or as part of your regular e-mail
newsletter.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Deliver your blog posts as they are written via RSS, but
then also publish a regular (weekly or monthly) e-mail
e-zine with your "top blog posts" for those that are still
not in to RSS.

Don't do just one channel, do both.

E-mail is still the #1 end-user content delivery channel
... whether we like it or not. Using e-mail (as a
supplement to RSS) to deliver our content is just good
business practice, at least for now.

THE CHRIS PIRILLO EXAMPLE

Chris Pirillo is the publisher of one of the most popular
sites on the net, Lockergnome.com. He was actually the
first to proclaim e-mail as being dead.

But still, while he preferrs for his subscribers to use RSS
instead of e-mail, that isnt stopping him from using or
promoting either RSS or e-mail.

COMPARING BLOGS, E-ZINES, E-MAIL AND RSS

If youre reading this article and thinking that blogs are
actually beyond e-mail, just consider the following
reality.

RSS and e-mail are content delivery channels; the tools
that enable us to deliver our content to end-users. Blogs
and e-zines on the other hand are two different internet
media content formats, differing in how/what content is
provided and presented through them.

RSS/e-mail and blogs/e-zines cannot be directly compared.
Blog content and e-zine content can both be delivered via
RSS and e-mail, and there is no direct business/logical
relation between, for example, blogs and RSS.

Blogs are "personal" conversations, opinions and news,
delivered in a linear structure, usually written in a more
personal style, and confined to a limited number of content
types.

E-zines on the other hand are more similar to magazines or
newspapers, carrying content presented in a complex
non-linear content structure, and having the ability to
carry many different content types that do not mix well
together if provided through a linear content structure.

A typical e-zine might include:

- an editorial;
- a leading article, representing the prevailing topic of a
specific e-zine issue;
- supporting articles, clearly structured to show they are
secondary to the leading article;
- links to "best of" blog posts in the given timeframe;
- links to the most relevant forum topics and posts;
- a news section;
- a featured client case study;
- different advertisements (banner ads, textual ads,
advertorials etc.);
- a featured consultant;
- a Q&A section;
- a featured whitepaper;
- etc.

Providing all of this content demands a complex content
structure and a strong and experienced editor. The blog
format simply does not provide the level of structure
needed to effectively present such a complex content mix.

But that's not to say that blogs are in any way inferior to
e-zines, they're just different. And businesses need both,
and they need to deliver both via RSS and e-mail.

Personal preferences towards content delivery channels and
internet content media formats have no place in business.
What matters is what our audiences want and how they want
it.

------------------------------

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:
http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa2

More articles by Rok Hrastnik - http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Rok-Hrastnik-279/

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