The only value I see (and why I use it), is so that I can track how many RSS readers I have.
Also interesting - RSS (for me anyways) converts really poorly. On 100,000 pageviews, I only pick up about 100 or so RSS subscribers.
Also interesting - RSS (for me anyways) converts really poorly. On 100,000 pageviews, I only pick up about 100 or so RSS subscribers.
That said, some sites do it badly, my personal experience of ARS Technica for example. I'll often see an interesting article I want to read, but then see something like "Read the other 52 paragraphs" and decide to come back later at which I never do. There's an art to creating feeds, almost like sales-people that excel at converting window shoppers into actual shoppers due to how they design their shop windows.
What I have found is that the few RSS subscribers I have are an excellent distribution channel on Twitter/HN/etc...