At the Syndication Conference in San Francisco there are a lot of believers in RSS as a replacement for email marketing. I can’t disagree more and finally … I found two speakers yesterday who still believe in email. Now, I have a vested interest here … my company iEntry Inc. which publishes WebProNews derives about 70% of our revenue via email ads in our newsletters. We have RSS feeds too!

Speaking on a panel were Jim Brady, Vice President & Executive Editor, Washingtonpost.Com and Andrew Eisner, President, Bayview Consulting. Andrew previously worked for PC World. I also spoke to both of them later at a reception held by Yahoo.

Jim stated that RSS is only responsible for a small percentage of Washingtonpost.com traffic and even a smaller percentage of ad revenue. Washingtonpost.com started accepting ads in RSS feeds earlier this summer. Jim noted that “there just isn’t that much demand from advertisers yet”. He also made it clear that the site is integrating RSS just about everywhere and believes that over time RSS will be a significant factor in pageviews and revenue … but just not now.

And that is precisely the point of this post. RSS has the potential to be a marketing force … but it is only potential. That means folks… it is not guaranteed to happen. It’s just a prediction.

Andrew later told me that he still reads news via email newsletters …. sorting them very effectively in Gmail. He also thinks that RSS has great potential but it is not more powerful than email at this point.

In my opinion RSS is a great concept in that it enables easy syndication of content …. all types of content, not just text and links. But the promise of RSS as a marketing tool that is better than email is only a theory … not a reality. I think it is more likely that RSS and email will ultimately co-exist as powerful marketing vehicles.

The fact is they serve different purposes for marketers. Email is a broadcast medium that can deliver content and marketing messages quickly to large … but targeted … permission based audiences. And because email is used by EVERYONE on the internet on a daily basis it is a powerful way to communicate with people. RSS is a news distribution medium with many users who don’t want to see advertising. Of course, as syndication matures beyond the early adopters RSS could become a prominent advertising medium.

So, when you hear the hype about RSS … don’t believe that email is dead. It is actually on the rebound with less spam, higher open rates and increased subscriptions to newsletters.

Email doesn’t have to die just because RSS has come along… and in my humble opinion it won’t.

At the Syndication Conference in San Francisco there are a lot of believers in RSS as a replacement for email marketing. I can’t disagree more and finally … I found two speakers yesterday who still believe in email. Now, I have a vested interest here … my company iEntry Inc. which publishes WebProNews derives about 70% of our revenue via email ads in our newsletters. We have RSS feeds too!

Speaking on a panel were Jim Brady, Vice President & Executive Editor, Washingtonpost.Com and Andrew Eisner, President, Bayview Consulting. Andrew previously worked for PC World. I also spoke to both of them later at a reception held by Yahoo.

Jim stated that RSS is only responsible for a small percentage of Washingtonpost.com traffic and even a smaller percentage of ad revenue. Washingtonpost.com started accepting ads in RSS feeds earlier this summer. Jim noted that “there just isn’t that much demand from advertisers yet”. He also made it clear that the site is integrating RSS just about everywhere and believes that over time RSS will be a significant factor in pageviews and revenue … but just not now.

And that is precisely the point of this post. RSS has the potential to be a marketing force … but it is only potential. That means folks… it is not guaranteed to happen. It’s just a prediction.

Andrew later told me that he still reads news via email newsletters …. sorting them very effectively in Gmail. He also thinks that RSS has great potential but it is not more powerful than email at this point.

In my opinion RSS is a great concept in that it enables easy syndication of content …. all types of content, not just text and links. But the promise of RSS as a marketing tool that is better than email is only a theory … not a reality. I think it is more likely that RSS and email will ultimately co-exist as powerful marketing vehicles.

The fact is they serve different purposes for marketers. Email is a broadcast medium that can deliver content and marketing messages quickly to large … but targeted … permission based audiences. And because email is used by EVERYONE on the internet on a daily basis it is a powerful way to communicate with people. RSS is a news distribution medium with many users who don’t want to see advertising. Of course, as syndication matures beyond the early adopters RSS could become a prominent advertising medium.

So, when you hear the hype about RSS … don’t believe that email is dead. It is actually on the rebound with less spam, higher open rates and increased subscriptions to newsletters.

Email doesn’t have to die just because RSS has come along… and in my humble opinion it won’t.

At the Syndication Conference in San Francisco there are a lot of believers in RSS as a replacement for email marketing. I can’t disagree more and finally … I found two speakers yesterday who still believe in email. Now, I have a vested interest here … my company iEntry Inc. which publishes WebProNews derives about 70% of our revenue via email ads in our newsletters. We have RSS feeds too!

Speaking on a panel were Jim Brady, Vice President & Executive Editor, Washingtonpost.Com and Andrew Eisner, President, Bayview Consulting. Andrew previously worked for PC World. I also spoke to both of them later at a reception held by Yahoo.

Jim stated that RSS is only responsible for a small percentage of Washingtonpost.com traffic and even a smaller percentage of ad revenue. Washingtonpost.com started accepting ads in RSS feeds earlier this summer. Jim noted that “there just isn’t that much demand from advertisers yet”. He also made it clear that the site is integrating RSS just about everywhere and believes that over time RSS will be a significant factor in pageviews and revenue … but just not now.

And that is precisely the point of this post. RSS has the potential to be a marketing force … but it is only potential. That means folks… it is not guaranteed to happen. It’s just a prediction.

Andrew later told me that he still reads news via email newsletters …. sorting them very effectively in Gmail. He also thinks that RSS has great potential but it is not more powerful than email at this point.

In my opinion RSS is a great concept in that it enables easy syndication of content …. all types of content, not just text and links. But the promise of RSS as a marketing tool that is better than email is only a theory … not a reality. I think it is more likely that RSS and email will ultimately co-exist as powerful marketing vehicles.

The fact is they serve different purposes for marketers. Email is a broadcast medium that can deliver content and marketing messages quickly to large … but targeted … permission based audiences. And because email is used by EVERYONE on the internet on a daily basis it is a powerful way to communicate with people. RSS is a news distribution medium with many users who don’t want to see advertising. Of course, as syndication matures beyond the early adopters RSS could become a prominent advertising medium.

So, when you hear the hype about RSS … don’t believe that email is dead. It is actually on the rebound with less spam, higher open rates and increased subscriptions to newsletters.

Email doesn’t have to die just because RSS has come along… and in my humble opinion it won’t.

The Syndicate Conference begins Tuesday in San Francisco. The conference focuses on the latest B2B trends with blogs, podcasts and other sources of syndicated content. All very hot topics!

I will be there primarily to learn and to stay on top of these trends as marketing strategies. I will also be sending in reports for publication in WebProNews. Hopefully, San Francisco will be a little warmer than Chicago or Lexington.

The Syndicate Conference begins Tuesday in San Francisco. The conference focuses on the latest B2B trends with blogs, podcasts and other sources of syndicated content. All very hot topics!

I will be there primarily to learn and to stay on top of these trends as marketing strategies. I will also be sending in reports for publication in WebProNews. Hopefully, San Francisco will be a little warmer than Chicago or Lexington.

>>>> Syndicate Conference

Update … As I suggested in my comment below the WebProNews team was stranded in Chicago last night. Over 7 inches of snow fell at O’Hare halting many flights. Unfortunately, by the time American Airlines canceled the flight late last night all area hotels were booked. After many calls,we found a few rooms at the hotel we have been at all week … the Hilton in downtown Chicago. We took the Blue Line train because cabs were virtually useless in the heavy snow. We ended up walking about 10 blocks in the snow from the station to the Hilton. All of this of course beats what many others went through.

As most of you probably know by now a SouthWest Airline plane skidded off the runway through a fence and into a busy intersection at the Chicago Midway Airport last night. Unfortunately, a six year old boy was killed and some in his family are seriously injured. The car carrying their family is still lodged beneath the nose of the aircraft as of this post at 7 AM this morning. Very sad. Ten people in total were also injured. Below is the original post I made last night.

SES Chicago is finally over. Four days of conference sessions is one day too many. Of course I’m a little tired after the drink fest last night at Buddy Guys Legends. The party was a last minute deal thanks to WebmasterRadio.FM, Bruce Clay Inc., PositionTech, TrueLocal and the New York Times who put up the cash. Everybody had a great time.

The WebProNews team is at O’Hare right now waiting for our departure to Lexington, KY. in a virtual white-out. It is unknown whether our flight will leave on time or at all.

Search Engine Strategies was productive from a news standpoint - our team produced over 25 articles. Also, WebProNews writer Jason Miller produced an exclusive this morning with the first press interview of AIT CEO Clarence Briggs who announced a suit against Google over click fraud.

My take on the click fraud issue is that despite a potentially serious click fraud problem for Google, SEM’s at the conference continue to be upbeat about continued positive ROI for their clients from PPC. So as long as Google delivers value with Adwords click fraud will not be an issue for most advertisers. Advertisers care about return on investment and that’s pretty much it. Click fraud may lower their return but if their ROI is still positive they will continue to advertise. So the challenge for Google is to continue to deliver an ad platform that delivers results for advertisers while doing everything possible to combat click fraud.

I am at SES Chicago along with some of the WebProNews team. At 2:15 AM this morning I got a call from Orbitz saying that our American Airlines flight from Lexington, KY was canceled. After a bit of work on the phone early this morning I managed to get us booked on a United flight. It never pays to try to fly to a conference the day they start!

Most of our reporting will show up at WebProNews. WebProNews is also a media sponsor of the event.

The first two sessions I attended focused on contextual advertising. Andrew Goodman of Page Zero Media led the sessions. We also republish some of Andrew’s blog posts … he’s very knowledgable about search and is always interesting. In the first session Andrew made the point that in his very real experience with clients contextual search simply does not deliver enough ROI to justify using it in your marketing mix. This is quite a bold statement considering that Yahoo and Google were both on the panel. Both disagreed that there is any proven difference in the ROI for advertisers placing ads contextually on their partner websites versus within search results.

Here are two article David Utter back at the home office created from my session notes:

* Dealing With Contextual Advertising

* Earning From Search: Show Me The Money

I’ve been using the Google Analytics service for a few weeks on this blog … and I give it two thumbs up. We would love to try this out at our more popular sites such as WebProNews, but unfortunately Google hasn’t allowed open signups since that disastrous first week. Garett Rogers over at ZDNet said in his blog that Google is taking on some new sites but on a very limited basis.

In my opinion Google has lost a tremendous amount of marketing momentum by suspending new signups for this length of time. They sent us an advertising RFP which they had to pull until they could take new customers. The success and the free aspect of Google Analytics I believe shocked their competitors. But stopping the service is allowing the competition to regroup. WebProNews writer Jason Miller spoke to ClickTracks CEO John Marshall Friday afternoon about their response to Google as a competitor. Marshall contends that “Google Analytics had once offered click fraud data, but has since removed that access”. So what is ClickTracks doing?

“In version 6.1 of ClickTracks, to be previewed at the upcoming Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago, Marshall said his company has developed an algorithm to determine those probabilities of what is human behavior and what is robotic.

Marshall also says the benefits of a private firm rests in the confidentiality of website information, the support they can provide, and that a PPC engine is the last source a Webmaster should rely on for click fraud information.

“Nobody’s going to trust Google to do that,” he said.”

Marshall contends that people using Google’s service wouldn’t do it if they had to pay. “There are people who want free analytics,” he said. “But those people wouldn’t call us anyway.”

I have to disagree there. I certainly would pay and have paid for analytics services and we plan to deploy Google Analytics network wide. I assume there are others like us. However, I’m not a major Adwords buyer. If I was I would be very motivated to use an independant analytics service especially if it had the clickfraud detection features Marshall is describing in ClickTracks 6.1.

The vast majority of sites that will use Google Analytics are not going to be selling anything. For instance, the main thing we will use Google Analytics for is site traffic statistics and analysis. So perhaps ecommerce type sites will be the main focus for services like WebTrends and ClickTracks. We will hear more from these companies at the Search Engine Strategies conference next week. I will be at the conference along with three of my WebProNews editors and writers offering gavel to gavel coverage.

By the way WebTrends and ClickTracks, I think this would be a very effective time to sponsor the WebProNews newsletter again … before Google Analytics resends us their RFP!

I do almost all of my Christmas shopping while at work. It makes you think about how the Internet has really changed commerce and society in general. I responded to an email promotion (opt-in) I received from Amazon which handles Toys R Us sales. They even offered better deals than the Brick & Mortor stores … plus free shipping to my office.

Like most guys I used to hate shopping … the waiting in lines especially. The Internet makes it easy, which of course leads me to spend much more on Christmas than I used to. But hey, my kids are happy … and my life’s easier … thanks to the Internet!

The impact of the war touches you even when you don’t have relatives fighting overseas. One of our sales representatives Greg White emailed me the picture below given to him by this young Marine’s Mom and Dad which are close friends of his.

In hearing today’s tragic news that 10 of our valiant Marines lost their lives I thought I would post this photo of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines Lance Corporal Jesse Short currently stationed in western Iraq playing bag pipes in a memorial service for some of his fallen comrades.