Although RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds bring readers to Web sites, it may not be as good at getting people to register or to subscribe to newsletters, says mbites. Net users who subscribe to RSS feeds may click on a link leading them to an article within a Web site, read the article, and click away without checking out anything else from that particular Web site, mbites writes. According to this theory, RSS feeds bring visitors to a Web site, but they do not guarantee an audience. In other words, they promote the content, rather than the site. "The simplicity of RSS, in theory, eats into a publisher's ability to define its audience through registration, and lessens the incentive to hand over crucial audience data like an email address," mbites writes. Page impressions may go up thanks to RSS, but RSS feeds could also bring down site registrations and e-mail subscribers.

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