So you have a Web site or blog and you need to tell the world and invite them to hear what you have to say. Content syndication is a content sharing strategy that you can use to get the word out. Several people asked me to cover this topic in more detail after reading my columns on duplicate content and article marketing.
Basically, content syndication is the process of sharing your site or blog content with other Web sites related to your industry or niche. In addition to helping you promote your site, this great strategy also helps with your SEO efforts.
Benefits to Sharing
Syndicating or "sharing" your content to other sites has benefits. Reaching out to other related Web sites helps you build a community around your content.
Many Web site owners are hungry for good quality content. Sharing with them generates exposure to you and your Web site. This in turn means more traffic and links, which is what we all want.
Having many streams of Web site traffic from other sites in which you've syndicated to will bring visitors who will leave comments, ask questions, share their thoughts, and provide feedback. This creates a community of people around your site who interact with each other and help spread the word.
More visitors and links means your site will become more popular. Search engines love popular sites. It's likely that you'll see higher rankings with search engines as the popularity of your site increases.
OK, so we know that content syndication has some major benefits to it, but what do you do and how do you do it? Well, this is where the fun begins! Remember, this should be fun. After all, you're sharing your passions with the world!
Now let's look at some ways to start your own content syndication strategy.
RSS Basics
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. This feed format is used to distribute frequently published content. The resulting feeds can be pushed to RSS readers and Web pages, thus giving you the ability to share your content with others. Users can subscribe to the RSS feeds of their choice, and then have access to the updated information as it becomes available.
RSS plays an important part of Web community participation. Some say that RSS is the "glue" that holds the social Web together.
RSS is found in many different places and used for a variety of things. If you encounter a site or blog that frequently updates its content, you will probably find an RSS feed. RSS feeds are one of the best ways to help you keep up with the latest contributions of people or sites you follow.
Here are some simple steps to get started in the world of RSS:
- Set up a Feedburner account to allow your feed to be consumed by others.
- Share your feed on your various social networking profiles. Many social networking sites have the ability to consume and display your RSS feed to your friends, followers, and fans.
- Submit it to multiple RSS submission directories (do a search for RSS submission for some options).
Many social networking sites will take your RSS feed and display it as a status update to your friends and followers. This is nice because it allows you to add new content to your Web site or blog, which is then automatically updated and displayed on your social media profiles.
TwitterFeed is a great tool allowing you to syndicate your RSS feed to multiple social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. In addition you will want to submit your new content posts to social bookmarking sites. Here are a few to get you started:
Content syndication is a powerful tool to help you get out there and be heard. Take time to learn more about these techniques and start getting your content syndicated. If you would like to share other techniques or methods you use to syndicate your content, please feel free to share below.
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