By using RSS feeds intelligently, you can turn your existing content into an additional stream of revenue. Making money through RSS feeds is more of a long-term strategy than most other online marketing strategies. When employed properly, however, their ability to hook customers is unmatched.
==> Why RSS Feeds Are Different
RSS feeds are fundamentally different than SEO or paid traffic in one crucial way. Everyone who’s viewing your content through an RSS feed is already a fan of your content.
RSS feeds are an opt-in traffic source. The only way someone ends up getting your RSS content is if someone deliberately clicks an RSS button and signs up to receive content.
This means two things: First of all, you’ve already won them over. They already see content from you as valuable. On the other hand, you also have to be careful about losing them.
These are some of your most valuable customers. The last thing you want to do is over-market to them and lose them as a result.
==> Start with a Content Focus
If your content is stellar, people who have you on RSS will keep reading your content. Remember, they added you to their RSS readers because they want to have your content in front of them regularly.
On the other hand, if the quality of your content takes a dive, you’ll easily lose them. All it takes is the click of the delete button.
Start with a focus on good content. Everything else comes second.
==> Monetizing an RSS Feed
The most obvious way to monetize an RSS feed is to sell your own products. Because they already believe in you and what you’re selling, there’s a strong chance that they’ll buy.
Another potential source of revenues is affiliate products. If you can get someone to buy someone else’s products while taking a commission, you can make quite a bit of money on that.
Make sure that whatever you sell or promote, you truly believe in. Selling products that you don’t personally believe in is a sure-fire way to lose customers.
More innovative ways to make money through RSS feeds is to put advertising in the feed itself. There are a couple ways to do this.
First is AdSense for Feeds. Google AdSense has a program that allows you to put AdSense ads directly into your RSS feeds. What’s great about this is that the ads are clearly distinguished as ads, so there’s no endorsement by you.
You can also sell links or space in your RSS feed. This can be done privately, or through a RSS ad exchange network like Feedvertiser.
Monetizing an RSS feed can add a nice stream of revenue to your bottom line. Make sure that your content quality comes first, then pick one of the many different ways to monetize the traffic.