Yahoo! has just made available a well-written and very useful RSS Publisher's Guide.

This new online reference is free to access and it provides a five-step process to support effective RSS publishing on the Web.

Yahoo! will be introducing new products and services-including publishing tools, advertising products and facilities that will allow the detailed tracking of visitors and readers to your site and RSS feeds.

The RSS format and content delivery and distribution format offers small independent publishers a simple and cost-effective way to extend their reach and visibility, make it easier for readers to stay up-to-date without having to come back to their site.

The freely available 5-step Yahoo Publisher's Guide includes:

1. RSS on Yahoo!

2. Submit Your RSS Feed

3. Promote Your Feed

4. Track Your Success

5. Earn Income From Your Site

Nonetheless Yahoo has not yet announced a service allowing small publishers to track and monitor the traffic to their sites and RSS feeds as well as the conversion results of their ad campaigns, it is very likely that, like Google and MSN, Yahoo is feverishly working at preparing one.

In the meanwhile Yahoo does report basic RSS usage already including:

a) the number of "active" subscribers

b) the total page views for those subscribers

While at present this data only represents a continuously refreshed 30-day period and therefore a smaller set of users than "all subscribers" to your content, it is already useful information and the first step in the right direction.
Some the tips provided inside the Yahoo Publisher's Guide to RSS include>

• Offer only one format of RSS


• Give your feed the right title


• Don't change your URL


• Update effectively – ping Yahoo!


• Use an Add-to-My Yahoo! button


• Use RSS auto-discovery

From Yahoo's own Step 5, "Monetize Your Site", it appears evident that Yahoo will soon enter this marketplace, by starting to provide direct and indirect monetization mechanisms that RSS publishers will be able to leverage to make their content more sustainable.

If you are interested in finding out more about these up-and-coming set of tools supporting online small publishers, please see this page and subscribe to the dedicated email news alert (Yahoo doesn't walk its talk here, asking for a full email disclosure, when it could have also provided a less intrusive RSS feed).

Lots of complementary and useful information about RSS and its use can also be found on the Yahoo RSS FAQ (frequently asked questions) page.

To send information, comments and communications back to the Yahoo Publisher's Network, you can use this easy-to-use online form:
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/my/cgi_rss