Wow, I am very proud. I am blushing…Denise and I just got a glowing review from TL Pakii Pierce about the blog book, The Build a Better Blog System. You gotta read this, because Thomas really read every page, or so it would seem.

You can read his review by clicking here.

Thank you, Thomas.

And please, don’t forget he is our guest expert next week April 20 at 8:30 p.m. ET, on the Conversations with Experts free teleseries. Click here to read more about the Conversations and T.L. Pakii Pierce…

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And the answer to the big question- just why are RSS Feeds important to me, my business, my newsletter and ezine tasks, and for my blogs???

Quite frankly, I don’t know!

But I do know how we can find out! (As soon as I figure out how to upload the file here, you can download a really nifty report that explains what RSS really means to you and your business… And, if I can’t get this thing uploaded, I know that Denise has posted it already over at BizTipsBlog.com, you can get it over there!) Bear with me a sec…

Early on in my blogging career- which was all of 9 months ago- I signed up for an RSS Feeder service. That lasted 2 weeks. I suffered a severe case of Information Overload as I had feeds coming into my inbox from every known media source that looked interesting to me. I cancelled my feeds, went to bed, and decided that adopting my new blog was enough of a family for me and my tiny brain to handle.

So, here we are 9 months later, and because I’ve written about blogs, have become one of those blogging addicts and fanatics, I can no longer ignore the hulabaloo about RSS Feeds. I know somehow they are going to be important if I’m going to tackle and conquer Internet Marketing Strategies.

Well, along comes Rok Hrastnik. He’s written the RSS Bible, and now I’m going to have the pleasure of trying the whole RSS thing out again, this time with a better attitude. RSS has something to do with delivering your messages, blogs & communications. (If it stands for Really Simple Syndication, how come no one but Rok really understands it? Oh, I guess I’m the only dummy…)

Denise Wakeman and I are sponsoring a free booklet that Rok has written. (Don’t you love that name?) I understand that he makes RSS easy as ABC…Here’s the scoop:

The Business Case for RSS

Confused about RSS?  Not sure how it can be implemented to support all your marketing strategies?  Rok Hrastnik, author of Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS has written an excellent article on The Business Case for RSS, (and it’s free!) Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:

• RSS is such a tool. Misunderstood by most marketers, overlooked by many end-users, it has the potential to power the entire internet marketing mix. It is not the solution to all of our problems, but it is the one tool that can have the most profound affect on our internet marketing and business results in 2005 and beyond.

The purpose of this report is to demonstrate just how RSS can help you improve your bottom-line and show you how to integrate it within all of your internet marketing and publishing activities.

You can download it here, with our compliments!

Download rss_the_business_caseBranded.pdf (839.0K)

Yahoo, it worked! I uploaded the file, so you don’t have to go over to get it over at Denise’s blog…

It really is a cool little informational booklet and I have a feeling we’re going to all be learning about RSS soon anyway, so why not be the first on your block?

Here’s the real reason I love blogs; but first, some neat stuff on ROI of business blogs and how to measure it.

Debbie Weil of WordBiz and CEOblog has a new book out, The ROI of Business Blogging. If you want to read more, go to Rok Hrastnik’s MarketingStudies.net blog and to Debbie’s site.

In a nutshell, you can tell your blog is working by traffic to your web site pages, increased search engine rankings, and amount of reader interaction, trackbacks and comments.

But here’s the clincher for me:

"And finally I propose to you: does your blog make your online marketing and communications easier? I know that many of you say one of the reasons you’re not publishing an e-newsletter regularly is that it really does take a lot of time to write and format properly in HTML. But it takes two minutes to publish a blog post. And so instead of sending one long e-newsletter once a month, imagine twice a week publishing a short paragraph – which is delivered to your subscribers via an RSS feed. It’s much easier and quicker to write. It’s easier for people to read. Because a blog is both an instant publishing tool and also a content management tool."

And this is the REAL reason I think blogs are cool! They are easier to do than ezines and newsletters, and can be an opportunity to express with real authenticity the voice behind the typewritten words…

That said, don’t take my word, or Debbie’s, or Rok’s. Come join Denise Wakeman and I Wednesday night for a Conversation with Expert Paul Chaney of Radiant Marketing. Paul is going to talk about the evolution of blogs for business, you won’t want to miss it. We are giving away ebooks and all sorts of bonus gifts. (No, Andy, there is no pony being given away.)

Here’s the link to the PR release on Conversations with Expert Series on Wednesdays: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/4/prweb227087.htm

These calls are free, but you do need to sign up to get the phone number to call in at 8:30 p.m. ET: Go here to sign up.

Here’s a hint about the line-up of experts coming up:

4/20/2005 Thomas Pierce
4/27/2005 Wayne Hurlbert
5/4/2005 Priya Shah
5/11/2005 Michael Pollock
5/18/2005 Anita Campbell
5/24/2005 (TUESDAY!) BL Ochman
6/1/2005 Yvonne DiVita

Now, if that’s not a bunch of experts, I’m a monkey’s uncle. Of course, you could read what our experts have to say about blogs in our book The Build a Better Blog System, but I think it would be great if you could join us to hear each one speak in person.

Hope to "see" ya on Wednesday!

Patsi