• RDF Site Summary (also known as RSS 0.9; the first version of RSS)
• Rich Site Summary (also known as RSS 0.91; a prototype)
• Really Simple Syndication (also known as RSS 2.0)

Today, RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’, and it has the following 7 existing formats or versions:

• 0.90
• 0.91
• 0.92
• 0.93
• 0.94
• 1.0
• 2.0

RSS tools refer to a group of file formats that are designed to share headlines and other web content (this may be a summary or simply 1 to 2 lines of the article), links to the full versions of the content (the full article or post), and even file attachments such as multimedia files. All of these data is delivered in the form of an XML file (XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language), which has the following common names:

• RSS feed
• Webfeed
• RSS stream
• RSS channel

They are typically shown on web pages as an orange rectangle that usually has the letters XML or RSS in it.

RSS feeds can be used to deliver any kind of information. Some of these ‘feeds’ include:

• Blogs feed - each blog entry is summarized as a feed item. This makes blog posts easier to scan, enabling ‘visitors’ to zoom in on their items of interest.
• Article feed - this alerts readers whenever there are new articles and web contents available.
• Forum feed - this allows users to receive forum posts and latest discussion topics.
• Schedule feed - this allows users (such as schools, clubs, and other organizations) to broadcast events and announce schedule changes or meeting agendas.
• Discounts or Special feed - this is used to enable users (such as retail and online stores) to ‘deliver’ latest specials and discounted offers.
• Ego or News Monitoring - this enables users to receive ‘filtered’ headlines or news that are based on a specific phrase or keyword.
• Industry-specific feed - used by technical professionals in order to market, promote, or communicate with current (and prospective) customers and clients within their specific industries.

RSS feeds enable people to track numerous blogs and news sources at the same time. To produce an RSS feed, all you need is the content or the article that you want to publicize and a validated RSS text file. Once your text file is registered at various aggregators (or ‘news readers’), any external site can then capture and display your RSS feed, automatically updating them whenever you update your RSS file.

RSS tools are useful for sites that add or modify their contents on a regular basis. They are especially used for ‘web syndication’ or activities that involve regular updates and/or publications, such as the following:

1. News websites - as used by major news organizations such as Reuters, CNN, and the BBC.
2. Marketing
3. Bug reports
4. Personal weblogs

There are many benefits to using RSS feeds. Aside from being a great supplemental communication method that streamlines the communication needs of various sectors, RSS tools and feeds can also have tremendous benefits in your business, particularly in the field of internet marketing.

RSS tools and feeds provide Internet users with a free (or cheap) and easy advertising or online marketing opportunity for their businesses. Below are some of the RSS features that can help make your internet marketing strategies more effective.

1. Ease in content distribution services. With RSS, your business can be captured and displayed by virtually any external site, giving you an easy way to ’spread out’ and advertise them.
2. Ease in regular content updates. With RSS, web contents concerning your business can now be automatically updated on a daily (and even hourly) basis. Internet users will be able to experience ‘real time’ updates as information in your own file (such as new products and other business-related releases) is changed and modified simultaneously with that of the RSS feeds that people are subscribed to.
3. Custom-made content services. With RSS, visitors can have personalized content services, allowing them total control of the flow and type of information that they receive. Depending on their interests and needs, visitors can subscribe to only those contents that they are looking for (such as real estate or job listings).
4. Increase in (and targeted) traffic. With RSS, traffic will be directed to your site as readers of your content summary (or 1 to 2 lines of your article) who find them interesting are ‘forced’ to click on a link back to your site.

These are just several of the many things that you can do with RSS. The possibilities are endless, and they are all aimed at providing you with an effective internet marketing strategy for your business.

In the mean time, Good Luck on your journey to success…

OR if you would like to succeed immediately to create financial freedom working only 4 hours a week, check out www.secrets2internetfortunes.com.

AND for a Limited Time, you will also receive a FREE copy of a limited number of the amazing 60 page eBook “52 Highly Profitable Instant Online Business Ideas That You Can Steal As Your Own And Start Today On A Very Tight Budget!”, which is jam packed with so many ideas you can use to instantly create an automated income for life! That’s my GIFT to You as a way of saying thank you for reading my articles.

If you are looking for ways to make money online from in the comfort of your own homes, why don’t you try “Profit Work From Home”. Profit Work From Home is a program created by a 28 years old German programmer who got fed-up of other online programs that promises to help you make money online.

Profit Work From Home, unlike other money making schemes, is free to try. This means you won’t lose anything for trying it out. The Profit Work From Home program also promises an all-in-one place for marketers to promote their articles, their videos, automatically optimized for the search engines, dabble in some Web 2.0 marketing, and so on.

The Profit Work From Home system has been thoroughly designed to guarantee making money online by integrating the elements of:

• A Giveaway Event
• An Article Directory
• A Video Directory
• A Weekly Newsletter
• One Time Offers
• Personal Profile Pages
• Web 2.0 Marketing Strategies
• Search Engine Optimization

With the above features, you will be able to do the following:

1. Add gifts as you do in a giveaway event!
2. Download gifts to your heart’s desire!
3. Add your Internet Marketing Profile with a link to your Blog or Website!
4. Add your own articles with a link to your website!
5. Add your own videos with a link to your website!
6. Add Web 2.0 Links that lead to their social marketing profiles!
7. Use the included down line Builder to build up multiple streams of income!
8. Get paid $25 when your referrals upgrade!
9. Get paid 25% when your referrals buy a Special Offer!
10. Get bonus ranking points for each sign up!
11. Get bonus ranking points for each referral upgrade!

What are you waiting for? Visit Profit Work From Home now and sign up for free to learn more about this money making system. Remember that you’ve got nothing to lose since the program is absolutely free. All you have to do now is spend some time to learn about their system.

Good luck to your online money making adventures.

Google Page Rank checked with the use of Search Status Plugin

Actually, the first Page Rank that Google gave my blog was PR 4. Then after I got caught for doing sponsored posts (with links made DOFOLLOW), my page rank was demoted to 3. Despite the page rank demotion, I ignored Google and didn’t stop doing sponsored reviews. Google finally slapped me with a BIG FAT ZERO page rank afterwards.

Google Page Rank checked through PRChecker.info

With a Page Rank of ZEROÂ I wasn’t able to attract more review offers. Naturally, because my page rank was then zero, revier offers for Blogging Mix has declined drammatically. This has significantly affected my monthly revenue as most of my income is generated from doing sponsored posts. That’s the time I realized I needed to do something to win my page rank back.

In less than a week after I made all the necessary changes on my blog to comply with the webmaster guidelines prescribed by Google and after submitting it for reconsideration, Google gave me back my page rank of 3. You can read the rest of my story of how I got my Google Page Rank back in less than 1 week for more details. I’m confident that if you do the same thing I did, you’ll be able to win back your page rank in no time.

What about your blog? Did your page rank improve? Were you caught by Google for doing sponsored posts or from selling links?

Thank you for your time.

Whether you’re a blogger or not, it pays to be organized. Being organized helps improve your productivity and reduces the stress and pressure of daily life.Â

To help you organize your day-to-day activities, BloggingMix in partnership with FruitfulTime is giving away 4 Copies of FruitfulTime Task Manager to four lucky participants.

What is FruitfulTime Task Manager and what can it do for you?

FruitfulTime Task Manager, as its name suggests, is a useful task management software that is easy to learn and operate. It helps you input your tasks, split them into sub-tasks, keep track of your notes, contacts, files and web pages related to a particular task. It also allows you to set due dates and assign reminders accordingly.

Here’s a complete list of the features of FruitfulTime Task Manager.

• Easy to use, intuitive User Interface (UI)
• Create / edit / delete tasks
• Create subtasks to divide a big task into smaller manageable steps
• Set the priority for each task / subtask
• Specify the task / subtask start date and due date
• Set and monitor your progress on each task / subtask
• Configure reminders so that you never forget a task
• Add references to files and internet bookmarks related to a task
• Jot down notes related to a task
• Notes can be formatted using fonts and colours, and can include lists and pictures.
• Easily export task notes for use in other products, such as Microsoft Word.
• Add contact details of people somehow related to the task
• Assign tags to a task for easy and quick filtering of your to do list
• Print the task list, subtasks, and notes
• Easy and powerful filtering of tasks through tags and dates
• All of the data is secured with the Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm using a 256 bit key for maximum security
• Easy and quick installation
• Supports installation on a USB drive so that you can carry your task list with you anywhere.

Read Personal Development Blog for a comprehensive review of FruitfulTime Task Manager.

How to join this Special Contest?

To join, all you need to do is make a review of FruitfulTime Task Manager and tell your blog readers about this contest. You can download a free trial copy of FruitfulTime Task Manager at FruitfulTime to experience how it works.

In your post, link to this contest (http://www.bloggingmix.com/2008/02/22/fruitfultime-task-manager-special-contest/) so others might know and link to (http://www.fruitfultime.com). When you’re done, drop a comment to this post and leave the link to your review.

The four winners of FruitfulTime Task Manager will be choosen randomly on March 16, 2008 and a post to announce the winners will be published the following day (March 17, 2008). Good luck everyone!

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your participation. Please feel free to share this post. A Digg or Stumble is much appreciated.

I also would like to thank all the bloggers who participated in this activity. Thank you very much for joining. In as much as I would like to reward all your efforts, we only have 5 Wordpress Themes to giveaway. Without further ado… here are the lucky winners of Premium Wordpress Themes.

Congratulations to TaylorBlue, the lucky blogger who won a copy of WP REMIX designed by R.Bhavesh. Enjoy your new theme.

McBilly, quite a unique name, won the Revolution Technology Wordpress Theme designed by Brian Gardner. The Revolution Technology Wordpress Theme will certainly match your blog content. Congrats!

Congratulations to Anuj Seth and SuccessSpace! You have just won each a copy of the Revolution Magazine Wordpress Theme from Brian Garner. I’m sure that the Revolution Magazine Wordpress Theme will match your blog contents. Have fun with your new theme.

Finally, Congratulations to Sylv3rblade, you won a copy of Adii’s Block Magazine Wordpress Theme. Enjoy and have fun with your gorgeous new wordpress theme.

Please be informed that the winners of the Wordpress Theme Giveaways were drawn randomly.

To the winners:

You will be receiving an email from the designer of the Wordpress Theme you won within the next 72 hours. The email contains a copy of your New Wordpress Theme. Please remember that you are not allowed to share the themes to others, use it in multiple blogs or worse, sell it to others. I’m sure that Brian, R.Bhavesh and Adii will include a short note in their emails.

Again, I would like to thank all those who take time to join these giveaways. Check the Weblog Guide. Thank you very much and good luck to your blogs.

To get the most out of your your Blog Contest, make sure to submit them to Social Bookmarking Sites or submit them for free to these contest blogs. These contest blogs can help you create extra publicity for your blog contest.

1. About Blog Contest
2. Blog Contest Central
3. Blogging Contest
4. Blog Contest Site
5. Blog-Contests
6. Contest 1r2
7. Contest Canada
8. Contest Beat
9. Contest Blog Cat
10. Contest Blogger
11. Expert Boss
12. My Blog Contest
13. My Blog Contests
14. Submit Your Contest
15. The Contest Winner
16. The Prize Blog

If I missed a “Contest Blog” where you can submit your blog contest for free, please drop the link through the comment and I’ll be glad to add in the list. Thank you for your time.

Link List: From TheWeblogZone - Guide To Weblogging.

Review sites are generally supported by advertising, a business model that offers slim profit margins and depends on user-submitted content (in this case, reviews and ratings). Business review sites may allow businesses to pay for enhanced listings, which do not affect reviews and ratings on the site. Product review sites may be supported by providing paid links directly to websites that sell the items being reviewed.

Wikipedia

In essense, review sites provide an opportunity for bloggers and advertisers to monetize thier blog by doing reviewsand create the needed buzz and exposure of a certain product respectively. Example of review sites are Sponsored Reviews, PayPerPost, Review Me and Smorty.

Qualities of a Reliable and Credible Review Site

No blogger would want to spend his/her time creating a review for a certian website, product or service only to find out later that he/she is not going to be paid. This sad picture is becoming a common experience among bloggers, especially those who are new to the blogging business. Here’s a summary of what you should look for in a review site before you submit your blog or before you start making a review for their advertisers.

There you have it. I hope this one helps you identify which review site is credible and which one is not. I would also appreciate your comments and input about this topic base from your own experiences with review sites. Which review site did you join and how are your experiences so far? Thank you for your time.

Recently, I made a challenge to all bloggers who are monetizing their blog to improve their Alexa Traffic Rank in the coming months. In my post, I’ve linked to some useful articles discussing how a blog’s Alexa Traffic Rank can be improved. You can also use Google to search for tips on how to improve Alexa Traffic Rank and you’ll certainly find plenty of it. Sometimes, you can even find articles on how to cheat or manipulate your Alexa Traffic Rank but I would suggest that you stay away from these tricks as it may adversely affect your blog instead. Since most of the tips on improving Alexa Traffic Rank are second hand information, I’ve decided to email Alexa Customer Service to directly ask them about how a blog’s Alexa Traffic Rank can be improved. This is the email I have received from them.

Dear Rocky,Thank you for contacting Alexa Internet.

Alexa’s traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users over a rolling 3 month period. A site’s ranking is based on a combined measure of Reach and Page Views. Reach is the percentage of internet users who visit a site. Page Views are the average number of Alexa user URL requests for a site, per Toolbar user. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single Page View. The site with the highest combination of users and Page Views is ranked #1. (Currently, this is yahoo.com.)

There are three possibilities that might increase the number of Alexa users who visit your site.

First, you will want to see that your site is properly categorized in our Directory so it may be easily found by our users. The Directory (browse subjects) on www.alexa.com is a copy of the Open Directory (www.dmoz.org).

To add your site to the Open Directory, go to www.dmoz.org, find the category your site should be listed in, and click the “suggest URL” link at the top of the page. We highly recommend reading their submission guidelines first at:

http://dmoz.org/add.html/

Adding or changing your site through the Open Directory is the most efficient way to modify your listing, as the Open Directory is used on thousands of major sites across the web (like Google and Netscape).

Secondly, you can submit your site as a Related Link for sites with similar content. Go to http://info.alexa.com/data/details/editor?type=rl/ and enter the URL of the site whose related links you wish to be included in. Enter your email address and your URL in one of the empty boxes, and then press submit. These submissions are reviewed by an Alexa editor for relevance before appearing in the service (with our current load, approximately 8 weeks if approved). We do not guarantee that we will accept or display these submissions.

Finally, you may also want to promote the Alexa Toolbar to your users. If your regular users choose to download Alexa, that may lead to more Alexa visits and a higher ranking. You can learn more about this at:

http://pages.alexa.com/prod_serv/associatetoolbar.html/

We appreciate and thank you for your interest in Alexa.

Best regards,
Alexa Internet Customer Service

I’ve asked the Alexa Customer Service representative about whether Alexa redirect is a legitimate and effective way to improve your Alexa Traffic Rank but haven’t heard an explanation from them. Even Maki of Dosh Dosh in his post on improving Alexa Traffic Rank was not certain about whether redirect is effective or not. It would probably be a good idea not to engage in this activity as it has not been proven to have worked and it may compromise your blog’s search engine optimization.

Submitting your blog to the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) on the other hand which is used by Alexa will usually take sometime. Submitting your blog to the Open Directory Project does not only improve your Alexa Traffic Rank but it also improves your blog’s search engine ranking. I’ve made an article about how to improve your blog’s search engine ranking by submitting to the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) that you might be interested of. The post summarizes some of the key aspects of the submission process that you should know before attempting to submit your blog.

In my succeeding posts, I will be writing something about the Alexa Tool Bar and I’ll have it promoted to my readers to see how it will help improve Blogging Mix’s Rank. For now, I would like to hear from you. How far have you been in improving your Alexa Traffic Rank? So far, which of the tips have worked for you? Feel free to share it through the comment.

Thank you for your time.

Make a Post About Your Blog

A simple way to celebrate your blog’s anniversary is by making a post about it. Tell the rest of the world how old your blog is? Broadcast to the blogosphere your blog’s achievements, create a list of your best articles or tell your readers what to expect on your blog in the coming months. Alternatively, you can write a post about the challenges you’ve encountered as blogger and how you’ve managed to overcome those challenges.

Your blog’s anniversary is also a great chance to thank all your blog readers and subscribers for their continued support. You should not forget to thank your mentors and critics for their contributions in the improvement of your blog. A link love is probably a good way to send them a thank you card.Putting some efforts into your post by being more creative is another idea you should try when making a post to celebrate your blog’s anniversary. You can display pictures of your blog’s evolution using the Way Back Machine or take a snap shot of your growing blog traffic then share it to your readers. Although creative posting is not an easy task for most bloggers, it’s sure worth trying. Brian Clark of Copyblogger made a post about how to write remarkably creative content you might want to check out.

Hold a Blog Contest

If you have the connection or the budget, you can opt to hold a blog contest. If you plan to celebrate your blog’s anniversary through a blog contest, you should start it week/s before your blog’s actual anniversary. This way, the best part of the contest which is the awarding of prizes will take place on your blog’s anniversary.

You can solicit prizes from your blog sponsors or you can just commit your blog’s one month revenue. The blogosphere is full of advertisers who are willing to shell out cash in exchange for a review or a month long advertisement. Darren over at Problogger made a great post about finding a sponsor for your blog.

Change Your Blog’s Template or Theme

You can give your blog a new dress on its anniversary, which I did on the 4th month anniversary of Blogging Mix. There are lots of available free blog templates and themes in the blogosphere but it’s advisable that you design your own or hire someone to do it for you if you have the means.

Otherwise, you just have to find some cool templates or themes available for free. You can find a list of reviews I’ve made to blogs and websites offering free Blogger templates and Wordpress themes at the right side bar of Blogging Mix. Each post contains at least one link to these websites. Just be patient as the list is long.

Request or Pay For Blog Reviews

Another idea to celebrate your blog’s anniversary is to request for a blog review from your network of blogger friends. This is when social networking and establishing a good relationship to other bloggers comes handy. For Blogging Mix, what I did was to send emails to my friends over at BlogCatalog informing them of my blog’s fourth month anniversary. Some replied with a short review but most replied with a congratulatory note. Nonetheless, it was still worth the effort.

The more effective way to get a review for you blog is to pay for it. SponsoredReviews, PayPerPost and ReviewMe are the more popular website offering this service.

There you have it. Now it’s your turn. What do you do to celebrate you blog’s anniversary? Do you do any of the above mentioned? It would nice if you can add something on the list through the comment. Feel free to make your own post and add the list your ideas on the list.

Thanks for your time and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Alexa.com is a website that ranks other websites base on the traffic information gathered from all Alexa tool bar users. Plain traffic therefore is not enough to push your Alexa rank. To make your traffic counts, you should work to attract more traffic from Alexa tool bar users. The more Alexa tool bar users visit your blog, the better your Alexa Rank. Take note that the lower your Alexa rank is, the higher your position.

Why is Alexa Rank Important?Your website’s Alexa Rank is important if you are monetizing your blog. To date, Alexa Rank is still predominantly used by advertising companies, advertisers and webmasters or bloggers to measure the cost or worth of an advertisement on your blog. Here are some of the larger advertising companies who are still using Alexa Rank to determine the value of a website. Text Link Ads, Sponsored Reviews, Review Me, Adbrite.

Problems With Alexa Rank

Alexa Rank, despite its popularity among advertisers has its problems and inaccuracies. First on the list is it’s unreliable ranking sytem.

Many bloggers have questioned Alexa Traffic Ranking System’s credibility since it only uses limited information about a blog. In fact, Alexa Rank does not reflect a blog’s actual traffic ranking. It’s not surprising to see a blog that receives a huge daily traffic but with a poor Alexa Rank and a blog that receives a few daily traffic but with an impressive Alexa Rank. The reason behind this inconsistency lies on Alexa Tool Bar.

A closer look at the Alexa Rank reveals that blogs whose readers are webmasters, bloggers or internet savvy netizens usually have the better Alexa Traffic Rank. This is because of the simple reason that ordinary netizens may not find Alexa Tool Bar as useful as those webmasters or bloggers so they usually don’t install and use it. As a result, Alexa Traffic Ranking is heavily skewed towards websites which have a large webmaster, bloggers and internet savvy audience.

Another common problem with Alexa Ranking is it’s susceptibility to being manipulated or gamed. There have been reports of bloggers and webmasters who have managed to be on the top 10,000 blogs in as little as 1 month. There are also a lot of companies offering to improve your blog’s Alexa Rank and guarantee it’s inclusion to the top 100,000 or top 10,000 blogs. Prices of these services vary depending on how you want your blog to be ranked. Lately, different companies promising to improve your Alexa Rank have emerged. This is made possible through the purchase of their software that will generate false hits to your site using the Alexa technology so that Alexa is fooled into believing that more people are visiting your site. This accordinly improves your Alexa Rank.

Tips To Improve Alexa Rank From Credible Sources

While there is a huge number of tips offered to improve our blog’s Alexa Rank, I would suggest that we stick to the legitimate means. Purchasing a software or hiring a company to boost our Alexa Rank will require spending money and the result is not guaranteed so those who are accepting the Blogging Challenge, here are somethings we can do to improve our Alexa Traffic Ranking.

I will be making a posts to update you with how Blogging Mix is doing. I also encourage you to do the same and see if the tips mentioned by Maki and the rest of the guys work. If you would like to take the challenge, leave a comment to this post so I can visit your blog from time to time. Thank you for your time.