Excellent RSS Advertising Overview and The Dangers of the Orange Button

ClickZ has a great overview of RSS advertising, presenting this new online ad channel as an up- and rising perhaps-soon-to-be-star.

Nothing really new, but a good overview all the same, especially the 'don't expect to reach the masses' warning.

They do make an important point that it seems that publishers have been quicker to adopt RSS than end-users.

Well, no wonder people aren't subscribing to RSS feeds if all they usually get is the infamous orange RSS button with hell to follow if clicked on.

Not really a shock, is it? But let me clarify: If you're marketing your content to the masses don't just use the orange button, but also incorporate Add to MyYahoo and others. It would also help to quickly and effectively (on the actual content pages, not hidden where no one can see it) invite people to subscribe to your RSS feeds and tell them why it's good for them.

And don't get me started with the new RSS icon that everyone's starting to use these days. Sorry folks, but if people don't get the orange RSS button, why do you think they'll get the new icon until it's been made a standard by the next IE?

BTW - also take a look at the recent DM News article about RSS advertising and its future.