Web Syndication And Free Content At The Heart Of Viral Marketing

Web Syndication: Another way to take your show on the road

You're an entrepreneur and you've been using the internet to attract business. You've also marketed articles online. Did you know there's still another way to use the internet to attract business?

Web syndication can be the next step for you. Just like re-runs of your favorite sit-coms when you were a kid were syndicated for use on other television stations, web syndication allows your website content, including your articles, to be used elsewhere.

Web syndication is used a lot: News headlines, blogs (or web blogs), and other items are used by millions of online publishers in what is called a standard format news feed. It's more than just a text hyperlink. With web syndication, the syndicated content is actually embedded in the website. When the host site changes the syndicated content, it is automatically changed on those sites where the syndicated material is used.

Everyone wins with web syndication: If you license your website content and articles to syndication, more people will see it and will be more likely to visit your website, thereby allowing you to increase your sales.

Conversely, if your website uses syndicated materials, you can quickly update your website. Frequent updates with new information will result in increased traffic to it, especially repeat visits. The more often someone visits, the more often he or she is likely to use your business.

Also, the increased number of visits can also improve your rankings in search engines if you have links to your site within the article that is syndicated. The more highly your site is ranked, the higher up your site will be in search engine lists when users type in search terms related to your business.

Say you're a financial advisor with a new website. A lot of your clients want up-to-date financial news but to get it on their own, they'd have to spend a lot of time wading through the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN on their own, trying to dig up information on their own. However, by using web syndication, you can arrange for the latest news from those publications to be on your site.

Here is how web syndication works in a nutshell: Your web browser has a file type (such as Netscape's RSS (Rich Site Summary)) that lists a headline and a summary. The web browser then checks these files to see if it has been updated and replaces the old content with the new when necessary. It is possible to use web syndication for specific content: Your financial advising site can limit its syndicated materials to financial matters.

Web syndication can also be used with article marketing. If your article is picked up by a site that syndicates its materials, its exposure can increase exponentially. That means that more people will learn about you and the work you do.

While web syndication can drive visitors to your site, do not rely solely on web syndication. You must have some of your own material, or else there is no point in having your own website is there?

If you are the author of syndicated material, you have to be sure to update it frequently or it will eventually be ignored. Also, while there are rules governing how syndicated material is used, there is still a chance that it will be changed by unscrupulous users. Your name could be removed or the information changed so that it is incomplete or inaccurate. They may replace the links and other references to you and your business with those of others. Or, in the interest of space considerations, they may edit your article to the point it is unrecognizable. Also, if your material is syndicated into a site that is accused of spamming, your name and your business' reputation could suffer.

Still, for generating business, web syndication and article marketing are great tools to have in today's internet-driven economy. Well-written information by an expert in the field (i.e., you) is a great way to draw interest in your business. Web syndication and article marketing can go hand-in-hand. Everyone benefits: those looking for information on your subject, webmasters always on the lookout for fresh content and most of all, you, who want to get the word out about your expertise and your business.