I have been reading up on RSS and from what I have read I think the authors seem way off. I am a very active internet user and have run my website for over 2 years and had never really heard of or used an RSS reader to view internet news, articles, etc., until recently. I see the feeds on internet sites, which is very useful, but to actually download and use a reader seems pointless and I don't see it as the next "thing" as the authors suggest. They talk about it as an alternative to email as subscribers will flock to your site by subscribing to your feeds rather than emailed newsletters etc. I didn't agree and I was thinking that maybe I am the only one who thought this way so I put a poll on my website (it's financial in nature, not technical) and so far only 4% have replied that they use an RSS reader. So far 88% said they never even heard of it! And 8% said they have heard of it but don't use it. This is just what I suspected. Oh, and cell phone are a fad. kidding.
The reason many of your visitors aren't RSS fans may be precisely because your site doesn't offer an RSS feed - those who do tend to search for information by using RSS feed finders. I'm sort of a hybrid. I first became a believer in the value of RSS subscriptions with My Yahoo (which I no longer use because it has become clumsy and generates frequent script errors). I now follow a number of news sources and some blogs with the Pluck RSS Reader.
You are probably right minstril. But I still think it is the nature of the surfer. People here are more savvy about new tech. I appreciate your responses. Thanks, Tom
I'm not disagreeing with you. What I was suggesting is that people who like RSS have a different way of finding and keeping up with websites. For THOSE people, if you're not RSS enabled, they may not find you. This if you do a survey of YOUR visitors, it wouldn't be surprising that they are not RSS fans. Having said that, I think I'd better put up an RSS option on some of my sites