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Copyright 2004 Tinu AbayomiPaul
Let's be honest. There's three types of people in the world.
* Yahoos
* Googlers
* People who are neither, or both.
I've been lurking in forums, and I realized something -
they seem to be a lot saner than me. But then, almost
everyone is.
I've been a Google gal for a while. There. I said it. And
why not? Google has been good to me.
Yahoo finally has me convinced that they are at minimum,
the top contender for the title of heavyweight search
engine champion of the world. I now take them very
seriously for many reasons.
( I won't bore you with all of them here - though if you'd
like to be bored, see the on-going updates-:
http://freetrafficdirectory.com/yes2yahoo - or if you're
new to RSS and don't get how it can help your marketing,
join our discussion -
http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com/Forums .)
What really has the potential to turn me into a type 2 or 3
is the attention Yahoo pays to RSS. Like everyone, I heard
the big announcement back in February of this year that
Yahoo was developing an RSS Directory, and had re-launched
their Beta RSS Headlines module of "My Yahoo!".
Still, I took my time hopping on the "marketing through
RSS" bandwagon, though I've had feeds on most of my sites
since late 2002.
When I finally started using my feeds during some research,
I ran across Yahoo's "Add to My Yahoo!" button on many
sites that also carry the orange "XML" insignia,
And I have to say, it shocks me how easy it seems to be to
get Yahoo to pay attention to your feed.
The folks at Yahoo tell you that they are forming an RSS
Directory on this page:
http://my.yahoo.com/s/publishers.html#find
The page goes on to tell you that getting your feed
included is as simple as adding your feed to your own "My
Yahoo" Page.
You may be thinking, as I was, that this can't be the same
Yahoo we're talking about. The one whose search engine many
secretly hoped would fail, in the off chance that we could
go back to the Google-on-Yahoo days? (Don't look at me. I'm
not THAT much of a Google gal.)
But yes, the same Yahoo whose directory many found so
difficult to get into in days of yore, lists your feed in
their directory almost immediately.
Furthering my investigation, I blew the dust off my own
Yahoo page, unused since 2003, scrolled down to the bottom,
and clicked the "choose content" button.
They didn't even try to hide it. In five steps, taking me
less than a minute, my link was added.
Under the first section of the options for "My Front Page",
under "My Yahoo! Essentials", was "RSS Headlines
(BETA)New!". I chose that (step one), and on the next page,
all I had to do was type in my news feed, (step two) click
search (step four), and then when the page re-loaded, click
on the "Finished" button (step five).
I logged into my site's control panel and checked the logs
that show my most recent visitors. I saw the line
"YahooFeedSeeker/1.0", not just at my feed, but at the
links it was pointing to, almost immediately.
A few hours later, I went to search the directory for feeds
similar to mine. A search for "traffic secret" popped my
site up - now that is fast inclusion.
I noticed the next day that every time I updated the
portion of my site that has the feed, the number of
visitors on that page doubled. So it looks like if you're
not in a crowded niche, now is a great time to add your
feed - there were about 48 results for "internet
marketing", but only 7 for "sunglasses".
Once you've submitted, don't forget to stick one of the
"Add to My Yahoo!" buttons in a visible spot on your web
property. The following link will take you directly to the
instructions at Yahoo:
http://my.yahoo.com/s/publishers.html#promote - or if
you're as lazy as I am, get Yahoo to do the work for you-
http://my.yahoo.com/s/button.html .
Want to search Yahoo's RSS Directory for your site or
others? Just go to your "My Yahoo!" page, find where you
added the RSS Headlines block and click "Edit", usually in
the upper right hand corner of the block of content.
That will take you to a new page. Now, where you would
normally type a URL, type your keyword, or if you know a
site has a feed but don't know the address, type in the
home page.
Advanced users can also click on the Import feature to
import feeds through their .OPML file. You can display up
to 50 feeds per page, but there does not appear to be a
limitation on how many feeds you can include in Yahoo.
When does a browse-able version of Yahoo's RSS Directory
open, and how much more traffic can you expect when it
does? I haven't heard any speculation on when the Beta
period will be up, but I'd be willing to be it will be
soon.
My suggestion? Add your link now, while Yahoo appears to be
taking all comers.
About the Author:
Tinu? Sadly a wacko, afflicted with "free traffic"
mentality.. Refuses treatment to save - and make - $ from
it.
visit: http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com |subscribe:
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