epublishing innovation forum 2009

Whenever, Wherever

Can RSS & Widgets drive traffic to your website?

@jc1000000 #epubs09

RSS• Really Simple Syndication

– Most popular social networks are heavily based on feeds and controlling them

• Users subscribe via Feed Readers – Google Reader, Netvibes, Bloglines & Newsgator, iGoogle

• Feeds are preferred for heavy news consumers– Scan many articles at once– Alerts user of new content

• Feed subscribers is often a measure of a blogs fanbase• Feeds are usually supplied in as Full with Ads or Partial

with no Ads– You can monetise feeds with AdSense & Mediafed– Excellent article here:

• http://www.doshdosh.com/monetize-rss-feed-advertising/

Partial or full feeds

Widgets Vs Apps

• Get ‘bite-size’ or ‘lite’ branded content updates

• Share content on social networks & personalised platforms

• Designed with distribution and viral in mind

• Intended to be ‘stolen’– User agnostic

• Powered by RSS

• Plug into device firmware and web site code base

• Designed for specific platforms & devices– Android / iPhone– Facebook / twitter– Desktop / Adobe Air

• Heavily linked to user• Powered by APIs

One feed to bind them all.‘News alerts’ for desktop & mobile usersOriginal

publishing platform

Keep your peergroup updated

Make your site mobile now

Being able to view the

content you love, whenever

you want, wherever you are, however you want is inherently

sexy.

Widgets are everywhere…

Widgets platforms & supporting networks

Can Widgets and RSS Drive Traffic to your Website?

• Short answer is YES– Best investment you can make in your CMS is to

maximise ability to create feeds whenever / wherever

• Content Syndication concept has expanded to include off portal channels– Youtube – Facebook apps– Itunes– Chumby, Joggler– iPhone– Even ad networks…

Skittles.com’s new home page is an excellent example of embracing off portal activity

Content syndication as audience development

• Putting your videos on YouTube– Give content away?!?

• Unpredictable results

Direct traffic to our video pages

Traffic to site from YouTube

Anatomy of web traffic

Blogs & Aggregators

SocialNetworks

SearchNetwork

Your website

Increase SERP real estate

Using widgets for natural search:• Linkable elements

– Frame– Image– Content

• Webmaster tools– Widget titles– Keyword feeds– Continuous update– Targeted– Iframe Vs Javascript

Partner type % Google visitswidget 18aggregators 31

Better value clicks

Traffic Source

% of total referrers

conversion rate

widget 4% 4.44

Social media

% Google visits

% PV per user

Facebook 0.03 8.3

Twitter 0.04 3.2

Google 100 2.7

Reverse Widgets / Share buttons

• Tweetmeme / Tweet this / Tip@techmeme

• Digg button• Youtube players• FlickR Photostreams• Slideshare shows• Add to delicious

Reverse widgets are all about *BLING*

Well dugg submissions push stories to top of results

Thanks for listening!

Jonathan Allen• jc1000000@gmail.com• Twitter.com/jc1000000• Linkedin.com/in/jc1000000• Slideshare.com/jc1000000