If you are looking for a way to really connect with your target audience and to get the most out of your blog, you might have heard that you should add an RSS feed to your site. But, what exactly is an RSS feed and how can it be beneficial to you and your Website?

Put simply, RSS is a specialized format that allows you to deliver Web content to anyone who signs up to be part of your “feed.” In other words, it is similar to opting in to a e-newsletter, but rather than receiving  your e-newsletters on a regular basis, those who have signed up for your feed receive notification every time you add something new to your blog.

Although RSS feeds were originally used by news-related sites, the use of RSS feeds has become increasingly more popular with businesses, organizations and even casual bloggers. Considering the many benefits that having an RSS feed can provide, it is easy to understand why this is such a popular addition to any Website or blog.

The primary benefit to adding an RSS feed to your Website or blog is the fact that it instantly notifies those who have subscribed to your feed every time you add something new. This can help your Website in many ways. Some of these include:

• Keeping your subscribers informed about the latest products, services or other news related to your business as an RSS feed ensures they read your latest post in a more timely manner
• Establishing the reputation of your business or organization, as you provide subscribers with meaningful content and because having an RSS feed makes your Website or blog look more professional
• Bringing traffic to your Website as an RSS feed containing interesting topics will pique the interest of your subscribers and will encourage them to visit your site

People who are interested in your blog will also appreciate it when you add an RSS feed to your site because it helps them save time. After all, no one wants to have to visit a Website every day just to see if new content has been added. By providing an RSS feed, those who want to know more about your business or organization will be able to easily keep up-to-date and will ultimately become more engaged in your blog.

Of course, in order to help those who are a little less Web-savvy with obtaining and reading your RSS feed, you might also want to include a feed reader download on your site. By downloading this software, your site visitors will be able to easily read your RSS feed as well as any other feeds they may choose to include in their reader.

If you aren’t sure how to add an RSS feed to your Website or if you need help making your RSS feed more user-friendly for your site visitors, the PlanMySite team will be glad to help!

As a savvy businessperson, you are likely looking for ways to get the most out of social networking sites such as Twitter. If so, you are undoubtedly looking for ways to build up your Twitter following so you have hundreds or even thousands of people following your Tweets. While building up a large following could potentially be an effective way to use Twitter, it is important to note that having a large number of followers shouldn’t be your top priority.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t strive to increase the number of people who follow you on Twitter. Rather, you should place a greater emphasis on providing quality Tweets and building a relationship with those who are following you. The reality is that the relationship you form with your followers is the most important aspect of using this form of social media.

The same concept holds true when it comes to looking for people with whom you would like to build a relationship with on Twitter. Rather than trying to win over someone simply because that person has thousands of followers, look for someone who has formed a relationship with those who are following. After all, if a person with a strong, but small, following Tweets a link to your Website, you are far more likely to get flooded by visitors than if your link was Tweeted by someone with a week following.

So, how do you decide which social media relationships are valuable and which ones aren’t so valuable? Rather than only looking at the number of followers, you should consider the level of interaction between that person and his or her followers. Similarly, if you are going to use a Twitter account effectively, you should be prepared to interact with those who are following your Tweets. Don’t just send out random Tweets and hope to drum up more business. Rather, be sure to respond to your followers and to make an effort to build a relationship. Only then will you get the most out of this social networking media and, if you do it right, you will soon see the number of followers on your account growing significantly.

I am a bit behind in announcing this, but I am pleased to say that I have successfully completed the Google Analytics Individual Qualification exam. By completing this exam, I am now able to teach my team members as well as my clients more about how to use these tools more effectively.

Obviously, teaching my team members how to effectively use Google Analytics has its benefits. After all, if they are aware of how to use this resource, they will be better capable of creating a Website that will draw in well-targeted Web traffic. It also allows me and my team members to take a closer look at Websites that might already be in place and determining where its strengths and weaknesses may be. In other words, if a new client comes to us and wants us to analyze a Website that was previously built by someone else, we can use Google Analytics to get an idea of that site’s effectiveness.

I am also excited that I am now qualified to teach my clients how to use Google Analytics. For those clients who prefer to take a hands-on approach to the development and maintenance of their Websites, Google Analytics is a powerful tool. Not only will it help our clients gain a better understanding of how effectively the Websites we develop work, it will also give them the power to create better-targeted ads, to improve their marketing strategies and to achieve higher conversion rates long after we have finished working with them.

Of course, if our clients prefer to have the PlanMySite team continue to work with them even after we complete the Website, we will be happy to do that as well. The bottom line is that we are dedicated to providing a wide range of services to our clients. For those who want someone to walk them through each step of the entire process, we are there for them. For those who want to learn more about how to monitor the success of their Websites and marketing strategies, on the other hand, I will be more than happy to help them learn how to use Google Analytics effectively.

Monitoring news items and other information as it appears on the Internet can be an effective way to conduct market research, to gain feedback about your products or services, and to simply keep yourself educated about the latest news in your niche area. While there are many different types of tools available for monitoring the Internet, some of these tools offer more power than is truly necessary to get the job done and may be difficult for the average user to use. Therefore, unless you have special circumstances that call for using a specialized monitoring tool, it is generally best to use Google Alerts to keep yourself abreast to what is taking place on the Internet.

There are many benefits to using Google Alerts. One of the most obvious benefits is the fact that it is free to use, but this isn’t all that the tool has to offer. The fact that Google Alerts allows you to target specific phrases also provides the following benefits:

• You can learn more about what other people are saying about the products or services your business provides
• You can more effectively research your competition in order to learn more about the products and services they are providing as well as the marketing strategies they are using
• You can conduct market research, which will allow you to more effectively develop  marketing strategies as well as products and services to better meet the needs of your target audience
• You can learn more about the latest innovations within your business niche, which will help you remain an expert in the field so you can provide a better service to your customers
• You can locate blogs and other sources that discuss your topic, which you can then actively participate in so you can expand your professional network

Of course, in order to enjoy all of these benefits, you need to know how to use Google Alerts in an effective manner. First, you will need to know how to set up your alerts effectively.

When you sign up for Google Alerts, you will have the option to request an email delivery of relevant links “once a day,” “as it happens” or at a specific time of the day. It is important to note that, if you select “once a day,” you will receive your email notification approximately 24 hours after you sign up and you will continue to receive your notifications around the same time each day. If you select a specific time of day, you will receive a notification containing links to all of the relevant content that was posted prior to that specific time. Choosing “as it happens,” on the other hand, will result in an individual email being sent every time a piece of relevant content is posted.

In most cases, selecting the “once a day” option is the best choice, as choosing to receive email notifications “as it happens” can result in your email account getting bombarded by emails throughout the day. Depending upon the popularity of your topic, this could become quite annoying and problematic.

Of course, even if you do select the “once a day” option, your email notification may include numerous links to content created by unreliable sources. Therefore, you might want to limit your maximum number of links to 20. Although you can set your maximum to 50, choosing to receive 50 links per day may result in receiving links to less trusted sites. When you select 20, on the other hand, you will only receive results from the most trusted sites. If you feel as if you want to receive links to all of the sites, you might want to set up a separate account to receive the bulkier notifications. This way, you can take a closer look at those links once you have more time available.

Even if you are going to restrict your email notifications to only 20 links, it is still a good idea to set up an alias email account. This way, if you are out of the office for a few days, you don’t have to worry about emails from Google Alerts piling up in your inbox and cluttering it up while you’re away. You might also choose to set up several separate Google Alerts for different phrases. For example, if there are certain phrases you need to receive immediate notification for, you can set up one with that phrase and set it up for “as it happens.” For other topics that might be less time-sensitive, you might set the alerts of for “once a day.”

Do you want to add apps to your Website in order to enhance the user experience by making your site more interactive and easier to use? If so, you might want to consider having certain applications made with the help of a Web technology known as Ajax.

Ajax is a group of technologies that are combined together in order to create interactive Web applications. This is made possible because JavaScript accesses the information through the DOM and displays it in a way that allows the user to interact with it. In short, Ajax is a practice that involves using pre-existing, proven and reliable technology in a new and different way that enhances the user experience.

Although Ajax is not necessarily the right method for developing every Web application, there are certain benefits to using this Web development technology. Namely, these benefits include:

• Make the Web site more attractive and convenient to use
• Reduce the amount of data that is transferred
• Decrease the cost of Web hosting

The fact that Ajax allows applications to make asynchronous calls to the server is quite possibly the greatest benefit to using this technology when creating applications. Thanks to the asynchronous nature of Ajax, people who visit your site do not need to wait for all of the data to arrive before they can take another action because the user doesn’t have to take any action in order to start the transfer of data. In other words, the content, data and design are brought together as a whole and automatically start becoming prepared for the user to use, which results in very little lag time. For this reason, Ajax is sometimes referred to as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.

In addition to reducing lag time, which enhances the user experience, Ajax acts as an intermediary that reduces the amount of data that has to be transferred. This means the data actually works within the Web browser in order to render the application. As a result, the Ajax engine maintains most of the information within it, making it possible for the engine to handle the request. This can greatly improve network performance within sites and locations where restrictions are placed on data transfer.

Since a limited amount of data has to be sent to the server, Ajax also reduces the amount of work the server is required to do. For example, the server doesn’t need to process all form elements, to process the viewstate, to send images back to the client or to send a full page back to the client. As a result, the costs associated Website hosting are reduced.

Thanks to the many benefits that Ajax has to offer, this technology is most useful with the following applications:

• Validating forms – rather than waiting until the use completes and submits the form, using Ajax makes it possible to notify users about errors as they are typing
• Comments – Ajax allows blog and article comments to appear immediately on the page if desired
• Data filtering – Ajax can help you make a Web table with filters and sorters so it behaves more like Excel
• Polls and surveys – site visitors can instantly see the results of a poll or survey after clicking their vote

These are just a few examples of how Ajax can be used. If you have certain applications that you would like to see on your Website, let us know and we will help you determine if creating them with Ajax is the best way to go.