Measuring and tracking RSS

Measuring and tracking RSS while a fairly simple concept, is really anything but. Unlike websites, RSS has added caveat of potential distribution, making precise control a challenge for someone, but extremely tech savvy. It is unrealistic for marketers want to know how many subscribers have, which items on their feeds attract the most interest, or how many clicks are generated as a result of an RSS feed.There are a number of third-party providers that focus on the control of consumption of RSS feeds. Some solutions are rudimentary, but probably enough for a small company testing the waters with RSS. Other RSS tracking solutions are more complex and while they may come close to being accurate, with no distribution that controls solution with 100% accuracy.

Techniques used to control the use of RSS
Small businesses can display web logs to provide information about how many times a specific file (RSS feed) is required. The records and information is rudimentary but will give a basic sense of a success of feeds. Many 3rd party tracking options has additional control information available.

Hosting
The most common method to control the number of feed accesses or individuals accessing a feed is to use a third party host feed. Companies like FeedBurner essentially control feeds based on accesses. The disadvantage of using a third party such as Feedburner, is that the url is a FeedBurner url and any PageRank or popularity associated with the url will benefit the host for animal feed instead of the creator for animal feed. In addition, there is no distinction between unique views or syndicated feeds.

FeedBurner does not offer a free no frills service host RSS feeds and have been proactive in circumventing user concerns. Recently implementing a service that facilitates users ' concerns about the migration of FeedBurner. There is a process of 3 steps for users who are interested in migrating from free service FeedBurner, implementing a permanent redirection and url forwarding.

Details can be found at: http://www.burningdoorc.om/feedburner/archives/001251.html

Some editors, who were concerned about lock-in or wanted to maintain control of the domain and feed urls often resist a hosting service. The new program partner FeedBurner Pro is not free, but allows users to point to your own domain, keeping total control of your feeds without sacrificing the statistical control. The disadvantage of using a service like FeedBurner does some filtering applications used in corporate proxy servers block feeds residing at FeedBurner or other free hosts. Redirects
Companies like SyndicateIQ have more complex tracking solutions that generate unique urls for each Subscriber. The benefits of tracing for this custom solution is obvious. Individual user habits can be monitored and all users abusing their access and improperly distribute content of feeds can have their feeding off. The disadvantage is clear that the success of RSS is in large part due to anonymity. Users do not want their personal habits controlled. Considering the interest of venture capital in these third-party hosting services. It is important to note that its value is in the data they collect. As with any third-party service, needless to say that editors should read the privacy policy carefully, be aware that owns the rights to the information collected, and how such information may be used. Needless to say that the value in many free services available currently resides in their aggregated data. Named exclusively images transparent
Transparent 1 x 1 exclusively appointed graphics can be added to the description field of an RSS feed. Users can use standard web logs to see the number of times that the image is viewed and determine the number of times that the power was accessed.
Companies specialized in tracking and metrics RSSPheedo-Pheedo creates tools that allow individuals, organizations and corporations to promote, analyze and optimize their content and weblogs.
http://www.Pheedo.com SyndicateIQ-SyndicateIQ's position in the content distribution chain provides customers with a set of analyses.
http://www.syndicateiq.com/FeedBurner-FeedBurner offers a complete range of services to help you build awareness, control the movement and implement revenue generating programs in your feed (s).
http://www.feedburner.com

Each individual using RSS needs to make a decision the extent and importance of analytics require. Realize that any system employing won't be perfect.

About the author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software to create, edit, publish RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for FeedForDev http://www.feedfordev.com an RSS component for developers.

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