According to Wikipedia, web syndication refers to making web feeds available from a site in order to provide other people with a summary of the website’s recently added content (for example, the latest news or forum posts).

The benefits of syndication are immense while the drawbacks are few, if there are any.   WebProNews talked with President of Newstex, Larry Schwartz about syndication.  He pointed out these benefits:

1. You can make easy money.

2. You gain recognition.

3. You are branding and marketing your product, which in this case is your blog.

Really with all of these wonderful and easy benefits of syndication, why wouldn’t you try?  So the next step is to figure out if you want to submit a full text RSS feed or a partial feed.

Schwartz approaches this topic with a view from both sides of the argument.  He said that for his company’s services, a full text feed is useful.

He went on to say that short posts don’t do well in syndication, and you should shoot for 500 to 700 words.  And of course it doesn’t hurt to post frequently.

Schwartz gave us one last tip; he recommended that you keep blogs separate. So if you are posting about marketing…leave your personal life out of it.  In sum if you want to blog about your personal life, just make sure it is separate from what your professional knowledge blog.

For more details of syndicating your blog, watch the video here on WebProNews. I promise you won’t be disappointed. And if you are…well then you will just have to blog about it and then syndicate the post to make some money. 

WebProNews presents videos and stories from the BlogWorld & New Media Expo taking place in Las Vegas. View our interviews and coverage of the event.

In a session called “Syndicating Your Blog For Profit,” Larry Schwartz shared some pointers on the matter.  Schwartz is the president of Newstex, and Newstex defines itself as “content on demand,” so he’s in a good position to know about syndication.

His first point, then, is that frequency matters.  Don’t plan to ignore your blog for weeks at a time and still keep people interested.  Also, you may not be able to hold their attention with short bursts – Schwartz said that longer posts are better, and cited 600-700 words as a good target range.

At the same time, you can’t ramble your way to an appropriate length – staying on topic is key.  You’ll want to stay non-exclusive, as well, and create some sort of summary RSS feed.  Schwartz recommended thinking about video as yet another option.

Granted, all of this may sound like a bit of work.  But as Schwartz said, “Big companies need blogs.”

WebProNews Video anchor Abby Prince contributed to this report.

Newstex snared a couple of high-profile blog brand names for its Blogs On Demand service. Full-text content deliverd by Newstex from the Gawker and Corante blog networks offers another syndication model for the two beyond their existing RSS feeds.

The company noted in a press release how it licenses and repurposes the content from those networks and makes it available elsewhere online:

Newstex automatically tags each blog post with company names, stock tickers, key people, and topical categories.

The company also said “each blog post delivered as part of Newstex Blogs On Demand will include Newstex’s proprietary PeopleTickering — a system that synthesizes metadata from numerous premium sources and quality blogs to create a unique database of people who make the news.”

Along with the Gawker and Corante announcement, Newstex also noted that LexisNexis customers would receive the full-text Blogs On Demand feed as well.

What impact does the delivery of blogger content to the legal and business users of LexisNexis mean for content syndication in general? Syndicate your thoughts on the topic at SyndicationPro.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.