It's taking some time, but RSS is finally getting accepted as a relevant marketing and publishing channel. Another sign of this is the Syndicate conference, the first international conference focused exclusively on RSS and content syndication.

Syndicate is taking an executive-level strategic view of RSS, a much needed development if RSS it to really take off as a strong corporate marketing tool.

"Themed RSS: Risk, Reward & Revolution, this program introduces case studies that provide real-world ideas and solutions of how technology tools such as RSS and Atom can be used for future business and revenue models."

The event is taking place on May 17-18 in New York, and I'm speaking at it as well, joining a huge roster of speakers, experts and practitioners. They managed to pull together so many experts that listing who isn't coming would be easier than listing who is.

Find out more about the conference here. Attendance is highly recommended.

Opt-In or Opt-Out: The Marketing Power of RSS

I'm speaking at the "Opt-In or Opt-Out: The Marketing Power of RSS" session, covering key aspects of RSS marketing:

"Internet content delivery, a key internet marketing factor, is becoming an increasing challenge for marketers. E-mail issues, changed user preferences and an ever growing abundance of content sources are making communicating with our audiences more difficult then ever.

The solution is in the integration of RSS into marketing and communicational strategies, using it to improve marketing relationships, increase sales and provide a more profitable brand experience.

Sucessful implementation requires understanding various RSS marketing uses, knowing how to use RSS and e-mail together, how to measure and optimize RSS effectiveness, how to generate subscriptions and how to further use RSS to better promote our business."

RSS Stats Pack

Also, I'm putting together an "RSS stats pack" to provide the RSS industry with basic aggregate RSS marketing metrics from a variety of RSS publishing providers, to present at the conference.

I'm still talking with providers about this, so if you'd like to add your own aggregate statistics [we're primarily interested in click-through rates], please e-mail me as soon as possible.

The aim of the "RSS stats pack" is to demonstrate the marketing power of RSS based on real-life numbers from thousands of RSS publishers around the world. Since the stats are still being compiled I'm not 100% certain we'll be able to pull this off in time for the conference, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Meet Me in New York City

I'm still arranging for all the travel details, but it seems I'll be flying in to NYC on May 16th (Morning) and staying there until May 19th, and then flying on to Boston to spend a couple of days with guerrilla marketer Roger C. Parker and his wife.

If you'd like to hook up for coffee, let me know.