It may be about time to put an end to the debate about whether feeds are going mainstream. Adding to our list of 19th century publishers (they're not our first, or even our third: we checked), The Wall Street Journal Online, the largest paid subscription site on the Web, MarketWatch.com, a leading investing and financial news site, and Barron’s Online, America's premier financial weekly, are now offering enhanced FeedBurner feeds for their sites, blogs and podcasts. Dow Jones has also selected the FeedBurner Ad Network as its choice for monetizing these feeds.
The Dow Jones properties are relying on FeedBurner to integrate with the Web's most popular social media services like digg and del.icio.us using our innovative FeedFlare service. As John Gartner points out on the MarketingShift.com site today, "FeedFlare can include links for many of the Web 2.0 services that can give a tremendous boost to an article's visibility." (That's right: feeds can drive traffic and revenue. Dow Jones just might be on to something here.)
The Wall Street Journal Online currently offers 206 text and podcast feeds, Barron’s Online offers 45 feeds, and MarketWatch.com’s more than 212 text and podcast feeds will be available later this month. Content feeds such as Walt Mossberg’s Personal Technology column and MarketWatch’s Morning Stock Talk podcast feature one-click subscription to popular feed-reading clients like Google Reader or iTunes. WSJ.com even has a feed about holiday sales trends to get you in the spirit.
Is your publication stuck in the 19th century, looking for a 21st century way to drive traffic to your site, generate revenue from your content, and add value for your audience? Contact us. The future awaits.
(Fame and fortune await anyone who wants to guess in the comments who the other 19th century early adopters are. Disclaimer: our lawyers require us to point out that by "fortune", we mean "fame". As in "Internet famous." ...At FeedBurner's headquarters, anyway. No wagering.)