Every now and then I am forced to read a marketing article on how RSS and Atom can make you rich and wealthy and increase the size of certain bits of your anatomy. It’s the dark side of keeping a finger on the pulse of syndicated feed trends.

I recently came across this article, oozing with saccharine slime: “Top 10 Reasons why “RSS Autoresponders” Are Becoming A Permission Email Marketers Best Friend.” I wouldn’t recommend you click this link, mind you, I’m just citing the reference.

The article betrays, among other thing, an underlying false assumption that RSS is a “push” technology like email. This leads the author to make claims like:

“[A] RSS autoresponder is getting 100% of your marketing messages infront of your prospects and/or existing customers …. you’ll be able to sleep knowing 100% of your messages are reaching your potential customers.”

Sorry. Not true, and for three delightful reasons:

1. Until my RSS client pulls your spam, it sits undelivered on your server trying to sell herbal body enhancements to the other lonely feeds
2. If I delete your feed URL in my reader, you’ll never know about it.
3. If I do pull your “marketing message,” it will be sitting with dozens of feed items I might actually want to read. A cursory glance at titles, a couple of draconian clicks, and your message gets baleeted. Say, that’s just what I do with your unwanted emails, too!

Then there’s this bit of gushy-ness about the miracle of so-called “Auto-Responders”:

“That’s right, you can personalize your out-going messages with custom data fields of your choice, just like a traditional email, giving your marketing message a professional look and giving you more credibility as a professional marketer.”

This approach is a rarity in the RSS world. This means you have to somehow trick or convince me into subscribing into a feed with a URL that contains identity information, i.e. a personalized feed. You can’t just put out a general feed with good content and a few ads for all comers - you have to snag me specifically, get personal info about me, and create a feed URL for me. Whether for good or evil purposes, this approach requires a lot of effort and a significant loss of potential audience. I guess that’s why you folks make splogs, eh? It’s so much easier just to spam us.

Operators are standing by for your order, but wait, there’s more!

“With RSS autoresponders, your also able to broadcast to your subscribers as often as you like with your marketing messages and/or special offers just like traditional email autoresponders.”

You guys don’t learn, do you? Most people will unsubscribe from email distro lists after just one unwanted email. Do you really think we’re going to keep reading your RSS feeds if you carpet bomb us with marketing?

And the beauty of it is, I don’t have to ask you to unsubscribe me. I just delete your feed URL and never read your stuff again. And THAT is why I love RSS.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2005 at 21:49 and is filed under syndication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.