One powerful feature of blogs you absolutely must take advantage of is their ability to be syndicated. This feature alone has allowed anyone with an interest to build a subscriber base they can reach immediately with each and every update to their blog. As soon as your blog is set up, ensure that your blog’s feeds are working properly by adding your feed to your own reader and then updating your blog. You will know you have done this correctly when your new post shows up in your reader as unread.

To increase the usefulness of your RSS feed, you may want to check out Feedburner and add your site to their service. Doing so will give you access to custom RSS feeds and management tools, including traffic analysis and an optional advertising system. Monetizing RSS feeds has been a cloudy initiative over the past year or two, but has become a viable option with the increase in RSS subscribers.

Many bloggers worry that allowing the majority of their readers to view their blogs from within a feed reader instead of on their blog will hurt their traffic numbers and therefore, their revenue-earning capacities. By using feed traffic analysis, a webmaster has the information needed to persuade advertisers they have the traffic to command the fees they charge for advertising, but without placing ads in the feed itself, neither the publisher or advertiser will be given justice.

Business blogs may or may not want to advertise at all. That’s a personal choice for each of us. Some say if your blog is commercial in nature, it should use little or no advertising. I disagree with this opinion on basis, though I do agree that using too much advertising on your blog can quickly dilute your brand if you are not careful. RSS feeds are perfect for small businesses to advertise any number of ways because the advertising links are not connected to pages with your branding on them. Why shouldn’t a business advertise their referral or affiliate partners, or company’s they may have joint venture deals with?

Whether you choose to have advertising on your blog or not, set up your RSS feed and make sure you keep an eye out for how others gain additional benefit from giving their readers access to their content outside of their blogs. If you are creative, there are many ways you can make this powerful little feature work even harder to help you reach your marketing goals.

For other features in this series, please click a link below:

Top 10 Small Business Blog Features - Top Commentators

Top 10 Small Business Blog Features - About Me/Us

Top 10 Small Business Blog Features - FAQ

Top 10 Small Business Blog Features - Opt-In Method

Top 10 Small Business Blog Features - USP

Top 10 Small Business Blog Features - Top Posts

Top 10 Small Business Blog Features - Landing Pages

Top 10 Small Business Blog Features - Front Page

Top 10 Small Business Blog Features - Free Item

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