Website Promotion – RSS Directories or RSSEM

After dragging my tail for a few months, I am finally ready to get website promotion started for our first phpBay site build - GorgeousForLess.com

I have still not done any promotion at all for this site. I have kept the promise that you will be able to follow along with me as I begin promoting. You will see exactly what I do, as I do it, and I will report the results on a weekly basis.

One of the very first things I always do with a new blog is submit the feed to RSS directories. This is also called RSS Search Engine Marketing or RSSEM for short. These are not the same type of directories where you submit a regular site, such as a BANS site. RSS directories will be publishing your website information, your RSS feed and sometimes a snapshot of your home page.

I am going to explain why this method of promotion can and will be very powerful for you, but first I want to explain why submitting to RSS directories can fall into a somewhat gray area for some people. The reason is that there are people who scrape RSS feeds and post them to their own sites. Some people do not like this idea at all, but when looking at the bigger picture, do not let the people who might scrape your content bother you.

It is labeled content theft when someone does this and does not post a link back to your site. However, when they do leave a link to you, here is what you have to remember, you have placed your content into an RSS feed and in doing so, made it available for syndication. Almost the same as if you were submitting an article to article directories like EzineArticles or GoArticles, etc. You don't have to like it, but that's the way it is.

That being said, let me show you how submitting your RSS feed to RSS directories can be very powerful for your website.

First of all, when you submit and are accepted into a directory (some are instant), this is an automatic link back to your site and is the first step in your link building campaign. The bulk of these directories are constantly crawled by the search engines and the bots will be all over your site in a matter of hours, sometimes even minutes, and begin indexing your site.

Likewise, due to the age of some of the directories, many times your site will show up as a link in the directory for different keywords (from your feed) on the first page of Google results. What this means is that even if the site itself does not rank on the first page, it is possible your feed in one of the directories will. Visitors will click on the search engine result, be taken to the directory, which gives them the link to your site. You will be surprised how many visitors will arrive on your site from this alone. I will give you an example toward the end.

Believe it or not, many of the RSS directories are frequently visited by humans. If your content is interesting enough, you can get a lot of visitors to your site just by being listed in the proper category.

The last benefit to your site is the RSS content scrapers. I'm probably going to catch some heat for saying that, but it's true. The majority of these people will leave the link back to your site intact which gives you a backlink that you did not have to ask for or even work for. Yes, most will be lower quality, but if there are enough people linking to you this way, it will work in your favor in Google's eyes.

Think of it as I said above, it is like you have submitted an article to a directory and these people chose to reprint it on their site. Another thing to remember, Google will know that the content appeared on your site first. Don't ask me how they know, but they do. And if you are worried about a duplicate content penalty, don't. If anyone is going to be penalized for duplicate content with them, it will be the scraper sites.

Something else to note is that most scraper sites do not rank very well in the search engines and even if they do, it is usually only momentary. Most scraper sites are built for the short-term and when their rankings begin to fall, your site will still prevail. It will also be stronger and rank better than these sites due to the backlinks.

I will admit, there will still be those who will re-publish your content and not provide a link back. This is theft, but there is a way you can combat it. Try to see if you can link to any other post on your site in most of your posts. These people may remove the main link to your site, but in most cases will not take the time to remove the link in your content. Take advantage of this for deep links within your site.

Another way is to combat it is to use a plugin that puts a copyright notice in your feed. When most content scrapers see this, they will remove your feed.

My advice is to not worry so much about those who strip out your link. No, it's not fair and yes, you're going to be mad about it. However, the number of people who leave the link will outnumber these people and this is what makes it worth it.

The last thing to remember is that Google will not penalize you for the sites linking to you. Google realizes this is something you basically have no control over. In my opinion, when all is said and done, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Case in point, here is the example I was referring to above. I have a ticket site that is geared toward one specific city. I have it listed in close to all of the main RSS directories.

Last year, Garth Brooks came out of retirement for a few weeks and went on a mini-tour in the midwest. I made a post about it on the blog and added tickets for the concert in the post using phpBay. Due to the RSS feed being listed in those directories and other links back to my site, within 24 hours, my site was listed in the #1 position on Google for "Garth Brooks (insert city) tickets". The rest of the first page was all my feed in directories. In other words, I OWNED the first page of Google results for that ticket search.

My site came up in the #1 position for several other keyphrases regarding that concert and those tickets as well. My feed in the directories appeared on the page for those keyphrases as well. I was beating out sites like Ticketmaster, StubHub, OpenSeats, and several other major ticket sites.

I made a little over $4000 from that site alone in 3 weeks.

One more thing to mention. The only promotion I have ever done for that site is submit the feed to RSS directories. That's it.

I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to try and help you understand the power behind this method of promotion. I will begin submitting GorgeousForLess to RSS directories tomorrow and I will keep you updated on the progress.

**Update 11/18/08**
I have went through all directories and submission sites I could find and compiled a list of 102 Best RSS Directories to submit your RSS feeds. You will find the link at the top of this page.

Here are a few places I used as a reference for compiling the RSS directories list. They are listed below:

1. The first is Robin Good's RSSTop55 Best Blog Directory and RSS Submission Sites - There are many more than 55 on there, but spend some time submitting to all that you can. Start on the last page and work your way back to the main.
2. List of Best RSS directories - This site lists some of the best RSS submission sites. There are a few on there which are not on Robin's site above. If the first site overwhelms you, start with this one.
3. Brian's Free Web Promotion Free RSS Directories - Another very good list of RSS directories well worth submitting to.

If there is enough interest, I may spend some time making this easier and create a list page here on the site (no broken links or vanished sites) as well as a PDF checklist you can print out to keep track of what sites you have submitted to. Just let me know in the comments.

I will be posting more website promotion tips in the next few days, so stay tuned. As always, I'd like to hear your thoughts.