RSS reality check

I know RSS is a good idea and it very well may be the wave of the future. In fact, you may be reading this via RSS.

That being said, here’s the math from Europe according to Rebecca Jennings of Forrester, a normally reliable tech research firm…

Percent of European Internet users who subscribe to RSS feeds:  1%

Of course, this estimate may be off and in other markets, like North America, the percentage may be much higher, but it “feels” right.

Yes, among the technically adept folks I encounter which includes tech journalists and bloggers, the percentage is much, much higher. And these folks are influential well out of proportion to their small numbers, but the reality is that, currently at least, a very small number of your prospects and customers are RSS readers.

So if you’re sweating RSS, there’s still a lot of time on this slow moving and much-hyped technology.  If your resources are limited – and aren’t they always – this may be one technology you can put on the back burner.

– Ken McCarthy

P.S. For over 25 years I’ve been sharing the simple but powerful things that matter in business with my clients.

If you’d like direction for your business that will work today, tomorrow and twenty years from now, visit us at the System Club.

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3 Responses to RSS reality check

  1. Ken McCarthy April 21, 2006 at 6:02 pm #

    Antony VanCouvering, CEO of Names at Work and a very savvy Internet marketing veteran, has written a helpful overview of blogs and RSS:

    http://www.namesatwork.com/blogs/

  2. Travis Miller April 28, 2006 at 3:38 pm #

    Ken,

    An interesting discussion point here…

    Perhaps RSS usage is low when compared to the general population, but what are the numbers when measured only against those people who actually read blogs.

    I believe you would find that a large % of those people reading blogs use RSS.

    I think, by definition, if blogging is important, RSS is important.

  3. Ken McCarthy April 29, 2006 at 4:52 pm #

    Travis,

    Good point.

    And folks who take the trouble to subscribe to RSS feeds may be significantly more influential than those who don’t.

    Another good article on RSS that gets into the details that too many articles seem happy to gloss over:

    http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html

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