Just read on MicroPersuasion that USA Today has RSS feeds for classifieds. When I checked out the RSS page I thought of a few things:
- The RSS page does a great job of explaining to the average reader what RSS is all about. It is also well organized by topic so readers don’t have to search for the feeds they are interested in.
- I wonder how many people sign up for advertising feeds? My first instinct is that no one would volunteer to be inundated with more ads, but when you stop and think about it, it’s not advertising that bugs us so much as it is inappropriate advertising.
I’m interested in seeing ads for products or services that I want to use. Selling sporting goods? I want to hear about it. Feminine hygiene, i.e. "Got that not so fresh feeling"? Forget about it. - How are they selling the feeds? Are they bundled with regular ad sales, or are they sold separately? Can they measure results? If so, how?
If this works I think it’s going to have a huge impact on the publishing industry, just as search advertising has had a huge impact over the last couple of years. Should be interesting.
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Befuddled 
Speaking of advertising feeds: I currently have an ad company that wants me to allow them to add their ad feed to my blog feed, even posting 2-5 ads a day even on days when I might not post. They say the ads would be visible in feed readers and aggregators even if the reader never clicks on my site. I declined as I fear that might cause readers to dump my feed altogether. I’m all for advertising, it’s currently paying my webhosting and then some, but while I do have some ads in my posts as well as ads in my sidebar, I fear ads in my feed is crossing the line of what most readers will tolerate.
Billy,
I think you made the right call. Once you start feeding your readers ads without content you’ve basically stepped into the world of spam. The difference between what they were selling you and what it looks like USA Today is doing is that your readers subscribed to your content, while anyone getting the USA Today ad feeds literally subscribed to them (asked for them). Essentially you would have violated their trust