On the heels of having survived the effects of social marketing, bum marketing, video directories, article directories, and search engine crackdowns, the next so-called threat to the survival of the Internet has arrived: autoblogging.

Exactly what is autoblogging? In its purest form, it is RSS (Really Simple Syndication) on a heat-seeking missile.

Really Simple Syndication is what allows anyone to submit updatable "feeds" of what's on their Web site. With an RSS feed reader on your computer or smart phone, you can always be on the cutting edge of the latest content from your favorite Web sites, whether they are big as CNN's or as small as a personal online diary.

Along with convenience, RSS can make it easier to build traffic to your site, which in turn can raise its rankings in the search engines. For Internet marketers, RSS feeds make it easier for bloggers to find relevant content that they can add to their own sites – along with your sales link. RSS feed symbols, usually orange and white, are now a standard sight on the Internet.

Really Simple Syndication is SO simple, however, it was almost unavoidable that someone would figure out how to turbo-charge the process. It is the development of RSS aggregator software that makes autoblogging possible.

By matching keywords, autoblogging looks for relevant content from thousands of RSS feeds and delivers them to your Web site as often as you wish – from four an hour to four a day. Standard blogginng platforms such as WordPress and Joomla now offer autoblogging plugins.

However, a site can find itself with content taken from the RSS feeds of practically any site WITH an RSS feed – and not everyone is happy about that.

Autoblogging has been described as plagiarism and theft, and others have expressed worries about an epidemic of duplicate content that will undermine both article quality and search engine rankings. But that's where the "syndication" part of Really Simple Syndication comes in: Ten people pasting your article from an article directory, ten people pasting it from an RSS feed, and ten people picking it up via autoblogging adds up to thirty extra readers – and if you're Internet marketer, thirty extra chances of making a sale.

The bottom line -- as usual -- is to use your common sense:

1. If you don't mind your content being autoblogged, make sure it includes your byline. Not all RSS aggregators copy them, however. If you see your content on a site with no byline, give the benefit of the doubt and just send a polite e-mail. And if you're doing article marketing, submit to directories that allow you to put a physical URL in the article's body.

2. If you DO mind your content being autoblogged, stop using RSS feeds, and don't submit to sites which use RSS feeds. If someone has to resort to actually copying and pasting your content without your permission, THEN you'll have grounds for charging them with theft.

3. If you have a site that could use a few good articles, autoblogging might help. Your subject should be broad enough for a variety of articles, reducing the chances of duplicates. Limit the frequency to four posts a day -- it will look more natural to the search engines, and give you time to check for overall quality and dead links. And of course, do NOT remove bylines or working physical URLs.

Autoblogging can be a smart passive income idea if you treat it like Tabasco sauce: the LESS you use, the better it works!