A Note from the Author: The RSS Diary is Closed

rssdiary.marketingstudies.net was built to help marketers get the most from RSS. However, much has changed since the site was last updated in 2007 - and it's pretty fair to say that it's now completely outdated.

Since I've moved on to other interests in internet marketing years ago, the site is now officially closed, and only remains online as an archive of a part of internet marketing's past. This is how we used to see RSS between 2004 - 2007. We don't, anymore, but there's no harm in having a small part of our past available online.

With that, I'm also making the e-book that started all of this, Unleas the Marketing and Publishing Power of RSS, available for free download.

Rok Hrastnik [to contact and/or follow me: LinkedIn l Facebook]

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Why is Everyone Missing the RSS Transactional Messaging Opportunity?

[13.02.2007 l Rok Hrastnik]

OK, I admit it. I'm on a fighting streak today. Just one of those days.

After discussing how Yahoo! Pipes may facilitate content theft and unfair use, and bashing against Amazon for not taking better advantage of RSS advertising, it's time to take on e-retailers, online service providers and basically anyone that does transactional messaging.

Let's take a look at my inbox. Today I received ...

A transactional e-mail "from PayPal"
A transactional e-mail "from eBay"
A transactional e-mail "from Amazon"
And some other brand names as well

Of course, none of these e-mails were actually from PayPal, eBay or Amazon. Simply spam, as every other day, intended to capture my private data.

Even if PayPal really sent me an e-mail, I would never read it or respond to it, simply because I would consider it spam and would never believe that it's actually from PayPal.

As I'm sure you've noticed as well, transactional e-mail messages have become a horror story for the big brands, with spammers constantly trying to take advantage of their well-known brand names.

But here's the catch ...

There is no SPAM with RSS, at least not in this form
When you receive content from an RSS feed that you proactively subscribed to, you can be 100% certain that the message is legitimate and from the publisher to whom you subscribed
RSS is perfectly capable of delivering personalized transactional information
RSS is perfectly capable of delivering protected personalized transactional information, granting access only to those with the required username/password combination
RSS transactional capabilities are easy to implement, if your user database is in order

So why aren't any of these guys using RSS to deliver transactional information?

PayPal, eBay, Amazon ... I really want my transactional messages from you. But when I receive them, I don't believe them. Please start delivering them via RSS and make me a happy customer ... a happy customer that actually trusts messages from PayPal, eBay and Amazon.

Unleash the Marketing and Publishing Power of RSS

Avtor: Rok Hrastnik

Rok Hrastnik is an experienced international internet marketer and manager in Central & Eastern Europe, lead by the conviction that marketers should first be driven by measurable business outcomes: sales and profits.

He is currently serving as the International Internet Director at Studio Moderna, the leading CEE direct response TV & multi-channel retailer, managing their internet operations across 22 countries (Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Romania, the Baltics and others).

Contacts l Rok Hrastnik