Benjamins Yarn

Identity theft has quickly become a serious issue, not only in America, but around the world as well. Some of the recent cases of stolen personal data are overwhelming in size. LexisNexis, who specializes in the personal and financial data of individuals, had more than 300,000 clients personal data stolen.

In another case, MasterCard had over 400,000 credit card customers’ personal files stolen. The list just goes on and on.

With the explosive growth of the Internet over the last 10 years, many people believe that doing online transactions can put them in jeopardy of becoming a victim of identity theft. The truth is completely the opposite. Approximately 10% of all reported identity theft cases involved Internet fraud. The largest percentage of cases occurs from phone scams and documents left in trash cans.

The Internet can actually help protect you against identity theft in several different ways.

• Use online banking and credit card reports whenever possible. Nearly every bank and credit card company utilize secure Internet web sites that gives you access to your statements and accounts online. This allows you to have up to the minute access to your bank accounts and credit cards. If you see anything suspicious you can immediately take action and report it.

Be sure to only use secure sites that have the padlock icon on the screen. Another important point is to never click on a banking or credit card site from a link in any email message you get. Do not fall for the emails that ask you to “verify” your personal information. If you do you will have your identity stolen and your account cleaned out.

Always type in your credit card or bank website address in your browser. By doing this you will never have to worry about this problem happening

• Know what is on your credit report. By keeping a close eye on your credit report you will know if there is any fraudulent activity going on. If someone has stolen your identity you will see new accounts on your report that you didn’t know about. You can then take action and report the activity.

There are three main credit reporting companies; Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can use the Internet to check your credit history with all three of these agencies at no cost to you. The government has made it a law that everyone can have a free copy of his or her credit report on an annual basis.

• Consider signing up for a credit monitoring service. You can find a number of these services by doing a simple web search. These companies will monitor your credit activity on a regular basis and report any unusual activity to you immediately. Of course you will also have access to your credit report on a daily basis. Most of these companies will give you a free 30-day trial to try out their service before paying the regular monthly fee. The cost for this service should be under $10 per month. It is a very safe and convenient way to keep track of your credit.

Take your personal credit information seriously. Keep track of your credit report and protect yourself against identity thieves. It can help prevent you becoming the next victim.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Identity Theft

This is a “medium level” RSS template. Here we add some more Channel information plus the CDATA command along with the rest of item commands. This template is without the “enclosure” command. My previous article had the basic bare-bones template and my next one will have a template you can use for Podcasting or Videocasting.

You can easily copy and paste this into a template.
If you are not a techie and dealing with XML for the first time, use a decent text only editor, unless you can use FrontPage or DreamWeaver or a dedicated XML editor. Be careful of any extra charcters that you may sneak in with your typing, and remember not to touch the opening or closing brackets. If you do not know what you are doing do NOT touch the first three lines. The line beginning with the “channel” element is where you should begin to substitute the information on your feed.

Below we have two items in this channel. You can of course add as many items as your heart desires. Just keep on adding the entire section of beginning and ending with

First a template with information and then a template without. (The editing software forces an empty line between each command however in your Feed you should not have any empty lines. Just delete the lines with no information if you copy & paste)

<channel>

<description>RSS Feed for The Great<br /> Perfume Products Sold At Randy&#8217;s Pandy&#8217;s Perfumery</description>

<copyright>Copyright 2006 Randy<br /> Pandy&#8217;s Perfumery - All Rights Reserved</copyright>

<link><a href="http://www.randypandy.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.randypandy.com</a></link>

<language>en-us</language>

<managingEditor>randypandy@randypandy.com<br /> (Randy Pandy)</managingEditor>

<webMaster>webmaster@randypandy.com (Pandy Randy)</webMaster>

<pubdate>Mon, 5 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</pubdate>

<pubdate>Mon, 5 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</pubdate>

<lastBuildDate>Sun, 4 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>

<image>

<width>142</width><height>99</height>

<link><a href="http://www.randpandy.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.randpandy.com</a></link>

<url><a href="http://www.randpandy.com/images/randylogo.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://www.randpandy.com/images/randylogo.jpg</a></url>

</image>

<Item>

<link><a href="http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/heavenscent.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/heavenscent.html</a></link>

<description>[CDATA[<img border="0"<br /> src="http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/heaven.JPG" width="138"<br /> height="180"/> <p> Heaven Scent Perfume the Smell your lover<br /> will die for. Created especially by Skunk Perfumes it is their<br /> newest and best selling perfume on the market today. Purchase a<br /> beautifully shaped skunk bottle with this incredible perfume and<br /> get a whopping 50% off! And if you purchase over $100 we will<br /> throw in Free overnight delivery as well!<br /> randypandy.com - All Perfumes You Can Ever Desire<br /> <br clear=all>]]</description>

<pubDate>Sat, 10 Dec 2005 23:00:00 GMT</pubDate>

<author>sandy@randypandy.com<br /> Sandy Pandy - The Queen of Scent)</author>

<comments><br /> <a href="http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/comments/skunkyheavenscent.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/comments/skunkyheavenscent.html</a><br /> </comments>

<guid<br /> isPermaLink="true"><br /> <a href="http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/heavenscent.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.randypandy.com/perfumes/heavenscent.html</a><br /> </guid>

<source<br /> url="http://www.yaddayadda/hs.xml">Secret Source of Heaven Scent<br /> Publicity</source>

</Item>

</Channel>

Now Just the Bare Bones Template.

<channel>

<width></width><height></height>

<link></link>

<url></url>

</image>

<Item>

<link></link>

<description>[CDATA[<br clear=all>]]</description>

<pubDate></pubDate>

<author></author>

<category></category>

<comments></comments>

<guid></guid>

<source></source>

</Item>

</Channel>

This will work and without too much trouble if you want to create a full RSS feed (with no enclosures for music or video) this is what you need.

This Article was Part Eleven of the RSS Mania - Understanding RSS series. All parts of this series are available at Ezine Articles (www.ezinearticles.com)

1. RSS Mania Addiction - An Introduction to RSS and the Terminology
2. Outline of How to Create an RSS Feed
3. The Template File
4. The Basic Elements of the Channel Element
5. How The RSS Feed Works & Some Programming Constructs
6. RSS Channel Sub-Elements Specifically Image & How To Use It
7. Understanding RSS - The Elements Within the “Item” Element
8. Understanding RSS - Podcasting, VideoCasting & The Magic of the Enclosure Sub-Element
9. Understanding RSS - Rounding Out The Multi-Media - The CDATA Command
10. Understanding RSS - Part Ten - A Basic Template File to Create Your Very Own RSS Feed

Copyright © 2005 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author’s information with live links only.)

Ted W. Gross owns Virgin Earth http://www.virginisrael.com, a real estate brokerage firm in Jerusalem, Israel. Virgin Earth represents residential and commercial real estate all over Israel. Virgin Earth also maintains an RSS Feed on its current properties and also operates Virgin Earth - Israel Tourism & Information Portal on the same site. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works. This can be found at: http://www.virginisrael.com/twg/iw.html Virgin Earth Blog can be found at: http://virginearth.blogspot.com/

Nothing and a whole lot!

That’s if Microsoft gets it right. First impressions appear to
be very promising and all indications show a much more powerful
RSS system, neatly integrated into the next version of Windows.
Could this finally mean the ‘coming of age’ for RSS?

But what does RSS mean to the average computer user at
this moment in time? Will people get RSS? Does Microsoft
have an education project on their hands with RSS?

Not Really!

Does DOS mean anything to you? If you’re like 95% of
computer users — probably not much. But that doesn’t
stop us from enjoying our computers and fully benefiting
from DOS. Sometimes complete ignorance is bless.

Unless you’re a techie and such technical stuff makes
your heart skip a beat, knowledge of such material is not
really required by the end-user. Fortunately, people don’t
have to understand ‘HTML’ to enjoy the Internet.

Likewise, knowledge of RSS is not important to the
ordinary computer or Internet user. Microsoft’s
RSS Longhorn puts RSS where it rightfully belongs,
in the background, invisible…seamlessly integrated
into your computing and web browsing experience.

It will make RSS an integral element of its new operating
system which has the code-name Longhorn. It will firmly
place RSS into the heart of your computing experience,
enriching and enhancing it in more ways than even Microsoft
is probably aware of yet!

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ and it has
long been associated with blogs and blogging because
they are written in RSS or XML format — code like HTML.
DOS stands for ‘Disk Operating System’ by the way
and it’s the platform for operating systems on your
computer. MS-DOS is the most widely used system.
Ignorance can sometimes be overrated.

Microsoft’s announcement of its plans to place RSS features
into its next Windows version, due out in 2006 and in servers
by 2007, is truly groundbreaking . You can read more about
Microsoft’s RSS plans here: Understanding RSS In The Next Windows.

This takes RSS out of just browsers and RSS readers (called
aggregators); and giving it much more powerful applications.
Most interesting is a new set of applications — Simple List
Extensions — allowing web sites to publish feeds containing
lists such as a wish list or top 10 list. Should make David
Letterman happy!

All kidding aside, for you, these RSS applications will
be very beneficial and rewarding. These applications will
make browsing, searching and subscribing to your favorite
information or sites a lot more easier. You can now take control
of your Internet, viewing and accessing the information you
want to digest.

It has many personal and business applications that will
take ‘keeping in touch’ to a new level. Calendars, events,
updates, personal photo albums…can all now be syndicated
with the new RSS platform.

What’s really important about Microsoft’s plans (I believe)
is the fact that this now makes RSS legit. Lets face it,
outside of blogging and a few alert online marketers, RSS is
still not understood by most people.

But as stated before, people don’t have to understand ‘HTML’
to enjoy the Internet. They don’t really have to know about
servers, DOS, or even ISPs to get full benefit from the web.
Likewise, RSS doesn’t have to be known or even understood
by the majority of the people who will be using it.

But it’s helpful that you do understand for you the
future of RSS holds many treats and the full impact won’t
really be known for years. Under the Creative Commons license,
RSS applications could have a far reaching impact on your
computing world of the future.

The potential of RSS is enormous. It may even pave the way
for a ‘Billion Channel Internet’ — where each web site is
its own little broadcasting system. An interactive channel
that broadcasts audio and video to all interested subscribers.

Microsoft’s announcement may just be the nucleus of such
a system. Many components are already in place like podcasting,
broadcatching, data feeds, etc. and its not that great a leap
or too fantastical to imagine such a system will exist in
the very near future.

For RSS changes HOW information is transmitted on the
web…from a passive role to a more pro-active one.
Don’t come to us — we will deliver.

RSS is also one of the more democratic elements of the
web where the little guy has a say. It was more than
fitting that Microsoft’s RSS team met with Dave Winer
(Mr. RSS to those who keep a close watch on all things RSS)
and asked his opinions on these recent developments.

Ordinary Bloggers have preached the benefits of RSS for so
long; the mantra was becoming a tiresome echo across the
web. No one seemed to be taking RSS seriously.

In that light, it can’t be understated that Microsoft’s
incorporation of RSS into Windows is one of those true
‘turning points’ that has to be acknowledged. It does
change how computers and the Internet will work.

This is a great step forward in making RSS an integrated and
seamless component of computers and the Internet.

At last, someone has gotten RSS right.

This author’s articles on RSS have appeared on such sites as:
Sitepronews, Bonafidereviews,
Addme, and Ezinearticles.
To add RSS to your Site within minutes, download this simple
RSS and Blogging Guide.

Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins http://www.bizwaremagic.com.
This article may be freely distributed if this resource
box stays attached.

Most Spammers and even the more legitimate ones use Thursdays as their Spamming Days. Have you noticed that you get the most Spam on Thursdays? Have you noticed you email box is 25% fuller on Thursdays? Why do spammers send so much junk and bogus email on Thursdays? Why? Well, like direct mail and newspaper catalog inserts they are trying to cause an action with the consumer to buy something and it works.

Nevertheless, I thought that the Federal Trade Commission promised to take a bite out of Spam? Well, do not make me throw up I say? The FTC? Why they cannot even protect their own employees from Identity Theft? How on Earth do you figure that they can stop junk email?

CAN SPAM Act, was essentially a disaster as the Federal Trade Commission turned it into a media circus and the Spammers ran right over the FTC and left them like road kill? The Federal Trade Commission is worthless in my opinion. Tell me can you name one thing that they have ever done correctly? Hmm? Come on; times up, see what I mean, I cannot think of anything either.

It is pathetic in my opinion and every time I look in my email box on Thursday Mornings more Spam. 25% more and you call this fair to the consumer? Consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

One of the prime axioms in life is just when you think it couldn’t happen to you, it does. This is a sad fact, and even more so when you consider the crime of identity theft. You take years to establish your financial and individual identity and reputation, and in one moment the illegal act of another washes it all away wreaking havoc on your financial life. The reasons for identity theft are as varied as the circumstances of the unsuspecting victims. There are ways to protect yourself. Being diligent and using common sense can go a long way in preventing this troublesome event from happening in your life. Following are some steps to consider.

1. Protecting your information

Keep your social security card separate from your other identification, leaving it at home if at all possible. Have a sheet with all of your credit card numbers and companies listed and in a safe place, so in the event of theft you can call quickly to cancel the accounts.

2. Limit preprinted check information

Checks are another potential bonanza for an identity thief. Even though it may make checking out a little harder, only put your basic information (name, address, maybe a phone number) on your checks. This will prevent an ID thief from getting your drivers license or social security number off a check left lying around.

3. Properly dispose of sensitive information after it no longer is needed.

The identity thief is not above digging in a dumpster for information that can get them something on someone else’s tab. Credit card and banking statements, applications for credit cards, phone bills and utility bills all need to be shredded to prevent anyone from getting your information. Checkbooks need to be treated the same to get rid of your account numbers on them.
4. Share sensitive information with care

Giving information out over the phone is sometimes required for security purposes, and some companies that call you might ask you to verify personal information to make sure that they are speaking to the right person. If you are unsure of the caller’s identity, erring on the side of caution is advised. This can prevent inadvertent sharing of sensitive information with someone that has misrepresented their intentions or identity. Ask for a call back number and check it out if you have any doubts at all.

5. Avoid easily decipherable passwords

When choosing a password for your sensitive accounts try to avoid any word and or number combinations that can be easily discovered. Some examples include your mother’s maiden name, your house number or birth date. If possible, place security questions, to which only you know the answers on your account.

These steps provide a good first line of defense against identity theft but, unfortunately, they do not provide a guarantee. If you follow steps and still become a victim of identity theft, take action fast.

Important actions if you are the victim of identity theft

The first step is to report it to the authorities. Most companies have to have a police report or case number before they can work with you to undo the damage. With the report or number in hand, you will need to call all of your credit card issuers and advise them of what has happened so they can flag your account with a fraud investigation flag. Utilities and phone companies must be notified as well.

Be mindful that there are three credit reporting agencies that collect and compile information about your credit history and habits. You will need to inform at least one of them so that a fraud alert can be placed on your file. Once the alert is placed the first agency will inform the other two bureaus to place alerts as well. You can choose an initial if you merely suspect identity theft and adopt a wait and watch approach or an extended alert if you are certain that you have been a victim of this crime.

You will also need to get a copy of your credit report and review its accuracy. Give particular attention to recent activity that does not seem familiar. Write and or call all of the companies that report information related to your identity theft. Most credit card companies will only hold their customers responsible for up to $50 dollars in cases of theft, and most banks will replace stolen money pending verification.

Identity theft can make securing loans for home ownership or education impossible. It may even prevent employment with agencies that require a particular credit score. If you have been the victim of identity theft it can take weeks or years and often quite a bit of time and money to undo the damage. It makes sense that victims often feel angry, overwhelmed and discouraged. If you are the victim of identity theft it’s very important to be proactive. When you act quickly you will minimize the damage and loss by limiting unauthorized access to your sensitive account information.

Be sure to keep records of all activities and contacts related to your identity theft. You may also want to make periodic checks of your credit report and sign up for an account monitoring service, which immediately alerts you when inquiries to your credit report occur. Stay alert and keep aware.

Nicole Soltau is the President and Founder of
http://CreditUnionRate.com
The Leading Credit Union Directory
Search, Find, Join.

Sooner or later everyone with an email account will receive a phishing attempt from some internet scammer. What is phishing? How can you protect yourself? These are some of the questions this identity theft article will provide, along with some free resources and practical advice on how to protect your online identity.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimates that 75 million to 150 million phishing emails are sent every day on the internet. Phishing (pronounced fishing), is online identity theft that uses spoof emails, fraudulent websites and crimeware to trick unsuspecting internet users into providing financial data, credit card numbers, social security numbers, account logins and passwords, etc.

A spoofed email looks like it is from a legitimate company, usually banks, credit card companies, paypal, ebay, etc. These fraudulent emails look like they are from the “real” company, and generally try to get you to log into your account through the links in the email. The spoof email may state that there is a problem with your account and if you do not log in and update your information your account may be suspended, restricted, closed, etc. Generally these emails try to convey a sense of urgency; if you don’t correct this problem your account will be suspended.

Trojans are increasingly being used as a phishing technique according to Sophos, a security firm. The Brizilian police recently arrested a phishing gang of 18 people who stole $37M from online banking accounts. This phishing gang would send out emails that included Trojans. Once a Trojan infects your computer, all internet activity can be monitored and transferred to the phisher. This is a serious threat as you probably won’t know that you are infected with a Trojan.

According to David Jevans, Chairman of APWG, “Attacks can, and are, coming in a variety of other flavors. Instant Messaging, exploited websites, P2P networks, and search engines are all being used to download and run key logging malcode and/or be directed to websites which may contain malcode or be fraudulent. Attackers are also not just interested in username and password access to bank accounts. Social security numbers, credit cards and other identity information are also being stolen.”

Protecting yourself against phishing scams.

• Do not give out personal or financial information through an email request.

• Always log on to your sensitive accounts by opening a new browser and typing the actual URL directly into the address bar. For example, if you receive a suspected phishing email from ebay, open a new browser and type www.ebay.com in the browser bar.

• Do not click on any link in a suspected phishing email.

• Only use a secure website to submit sensitive data. A secure sites’ address will begin with “https://” instead of “http://”

• Check the activity of your online accounts regularly.

• Make sure your browser is up to date and all security patches are installed.

• Report phishing and spoof email to: reportphishing@antiphishing.com , spam@uce.gov, and forward the email to the company that is being spoofed.

• Keep your pc protected with updated anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, and a firewall.

• You may also want to install anti-phishing software.

o Earthlink ScamBlocker is a free browser toolbar that alerts you to known phishing sites. It’s free and can be downloaded at www.earthlink.net/earthlinktoolbar.

o Webroot has a beta version of PhishNet which you can download at www.webroot.com/products/phishnet/

o PC Tools Spyware Doctor offers protection against known phishing sites, spyware and blocks popups.

With the consequences being identity theft, it is imperative that you learn to protect your pc and your identity by exercising caution and installing the proper tools. Hopefully, this identity theft article has given you the information you need to avoid being the next phishing victim. Remember, legitimate companies don’t ask for personal or financial information in an email - so don’t give it to them!

Lisa Smith is the webmaster of 1stSpywareRemoval.com This website offers information on spyware, adware, internet safety, indepth reviews, and news.

When I first published my series of 13 articles on RSS feeds, and finally finished them I thought that was it. Enough is enough. RSS is great and can be mastered by the newbie. I did my bit and finished.

Lately, in a few moments of rare freedom, I have been seeing more and more articles (not only in article submission sites) about the great revolution of RSS and how you MUST have RSS in order to succeed in a web business. I am not going to argue, disagree or agree with any of these points or suppositions. However, there are some critical issues and really misunderstood conceptions about RSS and its value.

Fallacies:

1. False - Putting up an RSS feed on Your Web site will gain you more visibility by Search Engines. This is simply not correct. First of all most of the websites offer you an RSS feed in Javascript. Search engines DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT read any Javascript. They ignore it. Whatever is fed out in Javascript is just not there to the search engine. Invisible. Nada. So you can put up RSS feeds on your web site(s) so your customers/users are given more information and will keep on coming back, but unless you serve that RSS feed in PHP forget the search engine plus.
2. False - Plug In Advertisements to your RSS feed will triple your business. Maybe. On a good, sunny day when the people reading your feed are really in a GREAT mood. Serious RSS users will be looking for CONTENT. After all the whole purpose of the RSS feed is to give out a headline and then get the reader to click back to your website perhaps to purchase or see or be interested. But plugging in advertisements (another affiliate marketing approach) is an idea which is GOOD, but do not think it is going to “triple” your business. Google allows plug in Google adverts. All these are legitimate. BUT like any affiliate marketing plan, JUST BECAUSE IT IS RSS DOES NOT MEAN IT IS GOING TO BE MAGIC.
3. False - You MUST have an RSS feed because it will gain you many more hits to your website. This one I love. It is the same as saying You MUST have a web site because it will increase your business. Well RSS feeds will increase your business. IF and again I say IF they are picked up and IF they are READ. And just like Web sites and blogs, you are competing against tens of thousands if not millions of RSS feeds. In order for your RSS feed to work in the way you want, people have to first find it, then put it in their aggregator and finally READ it and then read it tomorrow as well!
4. False - RSS feeds are all the rage and therefore the most important tool in your arsenal. Careful on this one - BE REAL CAREFUL. If you study the market, it is the Podcasts and looming Videocasts that are the “rage”. A consumer market wants sounds and visuals. Not just text. And yes you can get a picture into an RSS feed. But putting in a song or a video clip is oh so much more attractive. And OH SO MUCH MORE BANDWIDTH ON YOUR SITE. Actually RSS is not a rage anymore. It is just another technology very much like Blogs which has found a niche and become one of the available tools you should use for your promotion. But it is certainly not the ONLY tool, or even the most important tool.
5. False - RSS is simplicity itself. Yes it if for the technologically minded. It is not as easy as Blogging. Getting up maintaining an RSS feed is work. Lots of it. Lots of gritty work. You can purchase automatic parsers, or build one yourself. It is still work. Just take a look on any RSS directory site how many RSS feeds fail to “validate” or how many were updated 5 months ago the last time. Like Blogging the work is in keeping it up.

Now to one other CRITICAL point.
Have you noticed how many articles and maybe emails and certainly professional magazines are devoting themselves to getting the message across: “Content is important. But Original Content is critical!” The same holds true for your RSS feed. If you own a newspaper then original content is not a problem. But if you are showing the same RSS feed that 10,000 others are showing on their web sites for the purpose of increasing your search engine rating..forget it. If you are doing it to provide your customers with a service, then go for it. That does work as a marketing tool. But do not fool yourself in thinking that content from an RSS feed made available at CNN.com will get you listed on page one of Google or MSN or Yahoo when someone searches for “current news events”.

All in all RSS is great. But like Blogging when it began, so many superlatives are being issued that it is hard not to get carried away. Keep RSS in perspective. If you have a Podcast or Videocast then you are way ahead of the game and that is where you should be headed. The best you could do today to beat the market is to combine text and voice with your products and issue it as a Podcast. That will get you noticed.

Now you will excuse me as I have to go figure out just why my RSS feed is not validating!!

Copyright © 2006 Ted W. Gross. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author’s information with live links only.)
Ted Gross runs Virgin Earth Article Submissions which is designed to accept articles about travel, countries, places, historical events or current events in the world. Virgin Earth Article Submissions gladly accept articles about travel and places and countries - and of course places of interest. Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works and some of his published short stories are available at http://www.thedeepening.com - a fiction short story Webzine.

Getting traffic to your website can be hard. No one just randomly types in “makelotsofmoneyonlinequicklyandfromhome.com” and with this market slowly being filled in, it is hard to get a good rank on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and all the other major search engines. Although paying for advertising is effective and gets targeted results, RSS feeds are the way to go for free, cheap, and somewhat easy advertising.

First off, if you don’t want to write articles yourself, no problem. The web is a great resource for finding articles written by respected authors who are willing to give you their article for free (as long as you include their signature at the bottom of the article). It is very easy to take these articles, publish them on your website, and then make a RSS out of them. But enough of the rambling, the top six reasons for having an RSS feed on your site:

6. Reputation - A good RSS feed will increase your reputation as a honest and willing to help business, not just a business that wants to take your money, and nothing else. A feed with quality articles shows that you want to help the reader learn more about a topic instead of just give the reader a sales pitch. Making your business prospects knowledgeable in the area that you are focused will hopefully show how your product/service is superior in it’s design.

5. Advertising - A RSS feed can be used to advertise your website for no money at all. If you submit it to RSS directories, the name of your website will appear at the top of your feed every time! Not only does it appear, it also functions as a link (but we’ll get into that later).

4. Increase in traffic - Designing your RSS feed to only include part of your article forces the reader to click on a link back to your site. One could only assume that if they enjoyed the article your wrote, or published, then they would enjoy browsing the site where it came from.

3. Links back to your site - Not many people think of RSS feeds as a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) potential, but they include dozens of links in every feed! Publishing your feed on RSS directories puts in place the opportunity to create links with the specific keywords that you desire, and hopefully we all know how the more links you have with keywords in them, the higher ranked you will be on search engine searches.

2. Exposure - Are you a new website? Has anyone ever heard of you before? Well RSS feeds definitely get your name out there on the market. Quality articles associated with your name boosts your exposure and reputation as a quality website who is worth doing business with.

1. Targeted traffic - People look at your feed as a representation of your site. If you have a feed that relates to dog bones, obviously if they are interested in buying dog bones, your site will come in mind.

Jeffrey Abbott is a respected author and editor of eMoneyReport.com

Visit the site at http://www.emoneyreport.com and read reviews on programs that help you to make money from your own home. eMoneyReport offers a simple and easy format to find articles relating to all types of online business and website promotion.

(An RSS primer can be found near the bottom of the article)

A commercial website in 2005 is really costing itself money if it does not utilize the myriad advantages of implementing RSS feeds. RSS provides near real-time delivery of information your website visitors are interested in, it provides constantly updated content that search engines crave, and it is quite simple to implement.

RSS is a great way to increase relevant content to your website that your visitors will find quite helpful. For instance, if you have a website which covers “search engine optimizing”, you can search for that term in major news outlets such as Yahoo, then apply that search to an RSS feed which will provide constantly updated keyword-rich news and information to your site! We all know that a site that is updated frequently looks more important to a search engine than one that is static. Most news providers allow you to use RSS feeds from their site for free-And why not, since it gives them more exposure and links.

Because the feeds must be handled on the server-side, a piece of software must be utilized to display the feed that is usually in the form of an “.XML” file on your web page. There are a few out there that handle this task for you quite nicely, I recommend Carp. It’s free, it works on PHP servers, and it is easy to setup and use. Once it’s installed all you have to do to put it on your page is put code where you’d like the headlines for that feed to appear. The Carp documentation does a great job detailing the procedure on their website.

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a technology that has seen its popularity skyrocket in recent months that allows news items, forum posts, etc. to be delivered to your desktop using a newsreader called an aggregator. The Firefox browser allows for RSS feeds to be “bookmarked”, and that bookmark folder shows the latest feeds from that site. You’ve probably seen the links to RSS feeds (identified as little rectangles with usually the letters “RSS” or “XML” appearing on them) appearing on more and more websites, but didn’t know what it was all about. You maybe even clicked on one and saw a page of computer “code”. The reason it shows the code instead of easy to read information is because most browsers are not aggregators. That link is useless in your browser (aside from the Firefox bookmark technique mentioned previously), but it’s pure gold in your aggregator! The aggregator I use is another Mozilla product, Firefox’s cousin, the Thunderbird e-mail client that does a nice job as an aggregator. I use it to keep up on the posts of my favorite search engine optimization (SEO) forum at Seochat.com.

In conclusion, RSS is a great new technology that benefits website visitors as well as webmasters. When visitors are kept happy with more fresh relevant content, and search engines are excited to crawl your site and give it more weight, it results in more sales for you!

Written by Erich Bihlman, of Bihlman Consulting - PC and Internet Tutoring and Website Design in Prescott, Arizona. Prescott computer
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I detest SPAM, but there’s an awful lot of it going around the Net, as you know. Co-incidentally, there’s an awful lot of another-four-letter-word-that-starts-with-S going around with it (just so there’s no mis-understandings, I’m talking about porn)!

If you don’t know what SPAM is, most Netizens would maybe say “any unsolicited commercial email”. Others, more strident, would say “any email I didn’t want”, which sort of begs the question, doesn’t it?

Now, it (almost) goes with saying that unsolicited, bulk, commercial email is - to put it delicately - a pain in the posterior. We’ve all been getting a lot of it already through our regular, bricks-and-mortar mailbox for years, so why should we have to put up with it over the Net?

Well, the short answer is, of course, we don’t! What do you do now with the SPAM in your real mail-box? So…do likewise with the electronic variety and leave it at that: problem gone.

Not “solved” of course, just gone - until next time. And, that gets pretty tedious and annoying, right? Right…

Enter the anti-SPAM legislators.

And, quite properly too. However, granted that there should be, and must be, some form of penalties applied to repeated offenders (offline and online), still I think we have to be careful - to use a fractured phrase - not to crack the egg that the golden goose laid!

Picture this: You operate a successful bakery and are doing alright. You don’t have a website yet, your profits are good and you’re holding your own against the competition in town. There you are, busily getting the next batch of muffins into the oven and this guy walks into your store. Happily, you put down baking tray, take off your baker’s hat, and turn to what you think is the next customer.

Only, he isn’t.

Instead, after politely introducing himself and establishing his credentials as the new kid on the block from the Better Baking Soda Company, he then calmly tells you that he can improve your profits by 25% if you use his fantastic new baking soda.

Are you going to start throwing week-old muffins at him, for having the audacity to interrupt your work? Or, knowing what your costs are, vis-a-vis the whole baking process, are you going to stop and think for a bit - and then start throwing the muffins, but only maybe? On the other hand, maybe your business isn’t doing too well, or you want to do better. Instead of throwing those muffins, maybe you should think about how you can make them last longer?

That’s a very simple scenario, but one that is repeated thousands of time, every day, in all forms of business. Indeed, it’s how many businesses must operate, being those types that sell only to other businesses. And, one of the most important tools of business is marketing, its proper operation and its effective maintenance.

With apologies to Robert Pirsig, I have slavishly copied the style of his very famous book - “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” - into the title of this article. That, of course, is where any further comparison stops.

I do, however, have a good reason for concocting my title.

I recall that Mr Pirsig’s book explored themes for an improvement in self (in particular) and society (by inference), and one of those themes was QUALITY. Applied to every aspect of our existence, the quality of what we do can have a profound effect, from highly positive to lowly negative. Whatever we say and do, write and send, can have those effects, obviously.

So, maybe it’s not so much the quantity of SPAM that we all get that is the problem (although, there are limits, right!). Maybe, we should be concerned more with the quality - in the broadest sense - of the message? In particular, I’m thinking of messages that are relevant, appropriate, targeted and - dare I say it - even helpful!

However, the SPAM we all love to hate - shot-gun style, bulk commercial email, splattering all through the system - would obviously rate very low in the quality stakes, for most people (although, just quietly, I understand there is a secret network of SPAMmers who simply delight in sending each other into lowly orbit every day?), but business-to-business email must surely have its proper place. And, that would include all businesses, of course, not just Blue Chip and Silicon Valley…

Which, very soon (if not already), will begin to trouble the strident anti-spammers even more: as more and more people set up their own online e-businesses all over the world, there may come a time when there are more businesses online than there are mere consumers.

Hmmm…now, there’s a thought! ;-(o)

You are no doubt aware that many agencies - government and private - continue to grapple with the SPAM genie, but ultimately it is, I think, impossible to “get it back in the bottle”.

In that regard, I have read a number of articles - and have even received an unsolicited email about “permission marketing”! I have responded to some but, try as I might, none have returned with an unequivocal, “dyed-in-the-wool”, “shake-it-till-it-breaks” definition for permission marketing. I suspect it will be a while before I do.

But, I would be eternally grateful to anybody who can supply it!

Somebody once said, “Nothing happens until somebody sells something.” Well…fatuous as that may sound, we are all trying to “sell” something to somebody. Right?

By all means protect the consumer to a reasonable and effective degree, with appropriate legislation and penalties. But, it would be shooting ourselves in the foot (or worse) to burden e-business with self-destructive restrictions and penalties.