RSS feeds increase Election Web Traffic: CNN shatters website traffic record

RSS feeds were used by CNN during the elections to provide updates on the election results. The website traffic increased by a significant amount and it actually shattered CNN's own record for the most traffic in a day (More than 600 Million page views).

Here is an article from the Lost Remote website about CNN's record breaking.

"CNN.com shatters website traffic record For a 24-hour period ending at 4pm ET today (November 2nd 2004), CNN.com racked up approximately 650 million page views. "We will look back on this moment as a watershed moment in election history when people seized the mouse as their new remote control," said CNN.com GM David Payne. More...PRESS RELEASE -- CNN.com reported record traffic on Election Day as it posted a new one-day high of more than 372 million page views, besting its one-day record on Sept. 12, 2001, when it recorded approximately 307 million page views. From 4 p.m. Nov. 2 until 4 p.m. today, Nov. 3, the site attracted another all-time high of approximately 650 million page views. For Election Day, CNN.com put users in control of their America Votes 2004 news, enabling them to select the election reports, analysis, videos and polls they wanted. "We will look back on this moment as a watershed moment in election history when people seized the mouse as their new remote control," said David Payne, senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com. "All over the world, people were able to get what they wanted from CNN in multiple ways, immediately. CNN.com satisfied a voracious demand for detailed information." Payne said, "Today, we are actually on pace to surpass yesterday's record-breaking numbers as people come to work and realize they can stay in touch through us with up-to-the-minute breaking news on the elections." Besides providing election results nationwide, CNN.com offered live video streams, photo galleries, countdown clocks for polls in each state and exit polls throughout the day. Site users, through CNN.com's "Your Races" feature, could customize their online experience by choosing up to 20 different presidential, federal and gubernatorial races. As the first Internet site dedicated to 24-hour news coverage, CNN.com ranks as the leading online news and information site, attracting an average of 23 million unique users each month. Launched in 1995, CNN.com draws from the worldwide resources of the CNN News Group to provide relevant, up-to-the minute news and information. CNN.com features the latest multimedia technologies, from live video streaming to audio packages to searchable archives of news features and background information.

You can start creating RSS feeds for your website using MyRSSCreator program. This is a web based program where one can create an RSS feed in minutes by filling a form. You don’t need any website or server space to host your content because they host everything for you, no software download, you wont need a feed reader to read your feeds as they have a web-based feed reader too. They will even publish the feed for you, provide all the graphics etc. They have pretty extensive features and support to create and publish an RSS feed. It costs $19.97/month but with a 30 Day Free trial, you can create your RSS feed today.

There are many other ways that you can use RSS to get more website traffic to your online business. I will soon publish on here a shortcut to the Yahoo directory that would have your RSS feed indexed and within hours instead of having to wait for weeks for your site to be indexed.