Communication and the Problem with Blog and RSS is

Why is it difficult to reach potential customers and clients? It shouldn't be, but ironically, today's Internet technology and the constant introduction of new applications and technology is making it harder, not easier, to reach potential, and even regular customers.

Email
Email used to be the easiest way to reach your customers, clients, co-workers, and just about anybody else you wanted to reach, but that was before the invention of spam. Spammers provide about 50% of the emails that most of us receive these days, and consequently spam blocker applications, like Spam Fighter and Spam Boxer, have been developed to help people protect themselves from unwanted email. Spam blockers, in turn, have made it more difficult for marketers to get their advertising through to potential customers.

IP Messages
When IP messenger software was developed, a marketer could type in his message and dispatch it to a selected range of IP addresses. The message would reach the selected IP addresses in the form of a message-box window. IP messenger services were quickly discovered and abused by spammers, however, and to stop the abuse, software was developed that blocks IP advertising altogether. And now, most new operating systems have built-in tools that protect the user from unwanted IP messages.

Blogs and RSS Feeds
Blogs are a great way to reach a target audience and for every Blog there can be an RSS feed. Now that people are starting to use RSS Readers, you can give away your RSS link and see potential customers add it to their RSS Reader. The trick is to get your URL to rise to the top, and not get lost in the information-saturated world Blogs and RSS Readers, one lonely URL in the midst of dozens of others.

So, you ask, is there a way to reach your potential customer's desktop directly, without any hindrances? The answer is, yes--there is.

The Goal: To Get on Your Potential Customer's Desktop
Not everyone uses an RSS Reader, nor do they give away their email address to every newsletter signup that comes their way, even if they're interested in the topic--because of spam. Consequently, you need to provide potential customers with several friendly options. You want them to "op-in" to your Blog updates by subscribing to your RSS feed. This will allow you to notify them directly of be your latest posts.

You accomplish this by providing potential customers with a way to add your RSS feed automatically to their Reader. If you're RSS feed is easy to access, your more likely to end up on your potential customer's desktop in their Blog reader (Blog Express, for example), and then, bingo, you've got their undivided attention! Your RSS feed is on their desktop and they're being automatically notified of every update you make on your Blog without the hindrance of IP blockers or spam filters.