What’s the biggest challenge the business blogger faces today? As we talked about in a recent post – it’s the lack of accurate RSS traffic tracking. With the click-and-mortar business coaching we do over at the Business Owners Coaching Club, we’ve seen the lack of syndication analytics as one of the main stumbling blocks for small business owners who want to start leveraging business blogs.

Right now we don’t have much choice. There are some serious compromises that need to be made with the few solutions that are available right now. For example, with FeedBurner you loose the SEO advantage of having your own domain in your RSS feed. (Honestly, that’s the only reason you don’t see a FeedBurner feed on any of our blogs.)

But I’m excited about FeedBurner none-the-less because of the experiential advantage they have. They’re in the RSS traffic-tracking race and at the front of the pack too. From what I understand, Dick Costolo over at FeedBurner has said they’re feverishly working on upgrades that will track user actions. Looking forward to that!

But now there’s another light at the end of the RSS optimization tunnel. (And no … it’s not a train bearing down on us at full steam. :)) There are some real exciting things happening – amazingly fast – in the world of RSS traffic tracking and monitization.

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Q: Should I have a blog AND a newsletter? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having both?

A: Yes – we recommend having BOTH a blog and a newsletter – for a variety of reasons. But for the sake of brevity, here are just a few ideas to get your brain thinking creatively on the concept of using business blogs.

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Although business blogs are quickly chewing their way up the marketing food chain, there still remains a dirty little challenge that must be overcome. That bright orange RSS icon over on the side of your blog can be a knight in shining armor. And it can be a veritable black hole of un-quantifiable uncertainty. (Don’t write me about the double negative. I liked the way it sounded. :-))

Seriously though, RSS feeds, and RSS aggregators in particular have created a client-centric information sharing revolution. Topically focused communities, connection, and dialog – they’re all there. And yet simultaneously RSS technology has created a marketing impact tracking challenge that the vast majority of blogging “pros,” marketing gurus, and business bloggers have been ignoring.

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OK, a couple of days ago we showed you how to load RSS feeds into and use the free RSS reader integrated into my.yahoo.com. Now it’s time to kick it up a notch and show you how to setup RSS feeds in a much more robust feed reader – FeedDemon.

So why Feed Demon for this advanced RSS reader tutorial video? Well … you could start with the fact it’s my favorite.

Seriously though — FeedDemon saves time and allows you to keep up to date with your industry, competitors, and news in a fraction of the time it would normally take using traditional online and off-line methods. The fact is most of us busy business owners don’t stay as up to date as we should, and that puts us at a competitive disadvantage. By relying on RSS feeds and using FeedDemon I can scan news sources, industry updates, and check up on competitors in 15-minutes when that used to take an hour or more before!

On the technical side, FeedDemon is a surprisingly compact program that loads fast and uses hardly any system resources. Other than the name (which took a little getting used to :)) it’s awesome! And with it’s special functions, it’s the closest thing to a totally custom “dead tree” newspaper that you can get.

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You know … with new technology it’s almost impossible to grasp the full implications of it’s power, benefits, and application in your small business without experiencing it yourself.

Nowhere is that more true than with Blog and RSS technology.

In previous articles we’ve looked at what RSS is and how it works, but now we’re going to set you up to become a true consumer so you can experience the impact and convenience for yourself. I promise once you do, you’ll be hooked on the time savings.

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If you’re a member of our coaching club (www.businessownerscoachingclub.com), you know that when we talk about Click-and-Mortar were not just talking about the combination of online and off-line channels. It also means using technology to enhance and deepen personal relationships with your target market.

RSS is one of those practical technologies that should be part of your Click-and-Mortar growth strategy. Whether you’re syndicating content from your blog, your newsletter/ezine, or exclusive paid content — RSS is a major convenience for the people in your target market.

Now don’t get me wrong. RSS is by no means a magic wand that’s going to transform your business overnight with no work on your part. But with a focused plan of action, the right know how, and consistent follow-through RSS can become a major player in your Click-and-Mortar business growth.

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If you’ve heard the term “blog,” then you’ve probably also heard the abbreviation “RSS.” As usual, with a new technology comes lots of new acronyms and terms to learn. But not to worry. RSS is something that’s — well, simple.

RSS stands for “Real Simple Syndication,” or as some define it “Rich Site Summary.”

Here’s how it works.

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