Let's be honest. There's three types of people in the world.
* Yahoos
* Googlers
* People who are neither, or both.
I've been lurking in forums, and I realized something - they seem to be a lot saner than I am. But then, almost everyone is.
I've been a Google gal for a while. There. I said it. And why not? Google has been good to me.
But Yahoo finally has me convinced that they are at minimum, the top contender for the title of heavyweight search engine champion of the world. I now take them very seriously for many reasons.
What really has the potential to turn me into a type 2 or 3 is the attention Yahoo pays to RSS. Like everyone, I heard the big announcement back in February of this year that Yahoo was developing an RSS Directory, and had re-launched their Beta RSS Headlines module of "My Yahoo!".
Still, I took my time hopping on the "marketing through RSS" bandwagon, though I've had feeds on most of my sites since late 2002.
When I finally started using my feeds during some research, I ran across Yahoo's "Add to My Yahoo!" button on many sites that also carry the orange "XML" insignia,
And I have to say, it shocks me how easy it seems to be to get Yahoo to pay attention to your feed.
The folks at Yahoo tell you that they are forming an RSS Directory on this page: http://my.yahoo.com/s/publishers.html#find
The page goes on to tell you that getting your feed included is as simple as adding your feed to your own "My Yahoo" Page.
You may be thinking, as I was, that this can't be the same Yahoo we're talking about. The one whose search engine many secretly hoped would fail, in the off chance that we could go back to the Google-on-Yahoo days? (Don't look at me. I'm not THAT much of a Google gal.)
But yes, the same Yahoo whose directory many found so difficult to get into in days of yore, lists your feed in their directory almost immediately.
Furthering my investigation, I blew the dust off my own Yahoo page, unused since 2003, scrolled down to the bottom, and clicked the "choose content" button.
They didn't even try to hide it. In five steps, taking me less than a minute, my link was added.
Under the first section of the options for "My Front Page", under "My Yahoo! Essentials", was "RSS Headlines (BETA)New!". I chose that (step one), and on the next page, all I had to do was type in my news feed, (step two) click search (step four), and then when the page re-loaded, click on the "Finished" button (step five).
I logged into my site's control panel and checked the logs that show my most recent visitors. I saw the line "YahooFeedSeeker/1.0", not just at my feed, but at the links it was pointing to, almost immediately.
A few hours later, I went to search the directory for feeds similar to mine. A search for "traffic secret" popped my site up - now that is fast inclusion.
I noticed the next day that every time I updated the portion of my site that has the feed, the number of visitors on that page doubled. So it looks like if you're not in a crowded niche, now is a great time to add your feed - there were about 48 results for "internet marketing", but only 7 for "sunglasses".
Once you've submitted, don't forget to stick one of the "Add to My Yahoo!" buttons in a visible spot on your web property. The following link will take you directly to the instructions at Yahoo:
http://my.yahoo.com/s/publishers.html#promote - or if you're as lazy as I am, get Yahoo to do the work for you- http://my.yahoo.com/s/button.html .
Want to search Yahoo's RSS Directory for your site or others? Just go to your "My Yahoo!" page, find where you added the RSS Headlines block and click "Edit", usually in the upper right hand corner of the block of content.
That will take you to a new page. Now, where you would normally type a URL, type your keyword, or if you know a site has a feed but don't know the address, type in the home page.
Advanced users can also click on the Import feature to import feeds through their .OPML file. You can display up to 50 feeds per page, but there does not appear to be a limitation on how many feeds you can include in Yahoo.
When does a browse-able version of Yahoo's RSS Directory open, and how much more traffic can you expect when it does? I haven't heard any speculation on when the Beta period will be up, but I'd be willing to be it will be soon.
My suggestion? Add your link now, while Yahoo appears to be taking all comers.
Does this convert me back to my Yahoo-loving days of yore? Not quite yet.
But the ice that formed over the Yahoo spot in my heart... slowly... melting...
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