RE: [syndication] Evangelizing RSS

["Jeff Barr" <jeff@vertexdev.com>]

Julian says,

> ISTM that an RSS FAQ aimed at content providers, with a clear
> explanation of why and how they should produce an RSS file would be a
> *good thing*[1]. It ought to present a clear business case as well as
> the developer detail. All the explanations I've seen so far are squarely
> aimed at programmers and don't make any sort of business case.

Definitely! I was thinking about evangelizing syndication last night while
walking past the offices of "Deseret News" in Salt Lake City (I'm here for
the day). We need a nice FAQ-like document, one that we control, which makes
the business case first, and then proceeds to the details. This should be a
one or two pager.

The business case part should be pretty simple:

Q: Why should I syndicate my site's headlines.

A: Because an investment of just a few hours of development time will
   bring your site's headlines to the world in such a way that your
   site will get more traffic. There will be little, if any, continued
   investment.

> [1]I know the response is "well write one then", but I'm a little busy
> right now... Perhaps a group effort?

We need a coordinator that can paste finished results into a master
document (it should be a single document for easy printing). And we
need an outline. The rest is easy. I'm in the "little busy" boat with
Julian. I can contribute, but I cannot coordinate right now.

Jeff;

-----Original Message-----
From: Julian Bond [mailto:julian@netmarketseurope.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 1:47 AM
To: syndication@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [syndication] Evangelizing RSS


I have just had this conversation with a content provider.

>On Tuesday, May 08, 2001 10:08 AM, Julian Bond wrote:
>| Do you produce an RSS file for syndication of headlines?
>| If you do, where is it?
>| If you don't, why not?
>| If you don't know what it is, look here http://www.blogspace.com/rss/
>Please excuse my ignorance.  I checked the site, distinct concise reasons
>for why we should be offering RSS docs were not easily forthcoming and I
>ran out of time.  Please send me a link to a dummies guide, I am interested
>but don't have time to trawl through RSS history looking for explanations
>of why RSS should prevail.

Here's another one from a site that outsources it's web development. I
think I hit the outsourcing company not the owners.
>No one has ever offered us money to produce one.

ISTM that an RSS FAQ aimed at content providers, with a clear
explanation of why and how they should produce an RSS file would be a
*good thing*[1]. It ought to present a clear business case as well as
the developer detail. All the explanations I've seen so far are squarely
aimed at programmers and don't make any sort of business case.

This particular guy is the webmaster for one of the titles at EMAP ("400
titles"). I'm still hopeful that I can convince him.

[1]I know the response is "well write one then", but I'm a little busy
right now... Perhaps a group effort?

--
Julian Bond eMail: julian@netmarketseurope.com
HomeURL: http://www.shockwav.demon.co.uk/
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ICQ:33679668 tag:So many words, so little time



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