Promote Your RSS Readership And Reach

Feedburner has done it again! They've created another incredibly innovative tool for all of us RSS publishers who use their awesome free service (which I recommend you do).

Yesterday, Feedburner announced the addition of the new FeedCount 'chicklet'. Here's an example:

This little animated graphic (they offer a non-animated version, as well as customization options), displays the number of subscribers there are to your RSS feed. The number is dynamically updated each time it is reloaded.

Pretty simple!

Now, how is this going to benefit you? Well, think about this:

• Numbers = Credibility - If you visited a blog that had one of these, and it showed that hundreds of people (or perhaps thousands) were subscribers, would this make you feel better about the credibility and quality of the content? It would make a difference to me! My reasoning would be that there must be something of value here if that many people have subscribed, which likely means I'll become a subscriber as well. This thing could have a snowball effect on your subscribers - as more people subscribe, more people will want to subscribe.
• RSS' Answer To The Nielson Ratings (TV advertising ratings) - If you have an RSS feed and an accompanying blog that sells space to advertisers, having proof of readership (as the FeedCount chicklet provides) can go a long way to doing two things: Generating interest from advertisers (if they see large numbers, they'll contact you about), and allowing you to set great ad rates (if you have a relatively large number of subscribers, which the FeedCount chicklet can display).

FeedCount is great tool that I plan on implementing on my site very soon, once I get the Publisher's Edition of RSS Domination out to you. :) 

Before I go, I'd like to just mention that later this week I'll be sharing some more interviews that I did with some of the folks I met down in San Antonio this past weekend.

Some of the people you'll be hearing from include:

• George McKenzie of PublicityGoldmine.com. This former pro baseball player REALLY knows his stuff when it comes to publicity. Tons of great ideas for getting free exposure in the media. If this is something you want (who doesn't), be sure to check out his site. George is a super nice guy!
• Dr. Letitia Wright of The Wright Place, a TV show with a veiwership of over 5.5 million (yes, that's million!) Dr. Wright is a bundle of smiles. It was great meeting her.
• Carl Turner, former right-hand man for Jay Abraham, who is an extremely well-known marketing genius. Carl gave a great presentation on a mind-blowing project he did (I wish I could share some insights about it, but it was confidential).

Lot's of great feedback about the world of RSS Domination, which will eventually be a complete line of products to help you maximize your use of RSS from both a user, and publisher standpoint.

I also had the opportunity to spend some time with Morgan Westerman - creator of The Interview With God, which started as a pet project but turned into an online phenomenon! Go to his site and you'll see why. Morgan is an expert on buzz marketing, or getting exposure by creating something that gets people talking/sharing it with other people, which is what made the Interview With God so successful.

Finally, I'd like to give a big shout out to the other inspirational people I met (Bill, Dave, Vijay, Rebecca, and John). I hope you all have great success pursuing your passion.