Thanks to everyone who has added their thoughts on why they unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed. There have been 109 comments left on that post so far and some interesting recurring themes have emerged.
I’ve attempted to categorize them below. Obviously with 103 opinions (and most people giving multiple reasons all in their own words) I’ve had to make some judgement calls in classifying comments left. Some of the categories below have overlap but I think you’ll get a pretty good picture of what motivates people to unsubscribe from RSS feeds.
34 Reasons Why People Unsubscribe from RSS feeds:
- Too many posts (the post levels are too overwhelming) – 37
- Infrequent Posting (or the blog is effectively dead) – 29
- Partial Excerpts Feeds – 25
- Blog Changes Focus (too much off topic posting) – 23
- Too many posts that I see elsewhere (Redundant, Repeated or Recycled News) – 19
- Uninteresting Content – 16
- Irrelevant Content – 13
- The Blogger’s Ego – Too much self promotion – 11
- Low Quality Content – 11
- Too many posts that are too long – 10
- Negative blogging – 7
- Feed Errors – Especially when a Feed Reloads the latest 10-20 posts every time – 7
- Offensive Content/Personal attacks/Discrimination – 6
- ‘infomercials’ (too much selling) – 6
- Blog Titles that Don’t Tell what the post is about – 5
- No or Poor Formatting in posts – 5
- My own interests as a reader change – 5
- No Longer Useful or Valuable – 4
- Too many links in the text and not enough content – 4
- Advertising – 3
- Inconsistent writing (style and focus) – 2
- Too Many Grammatical Errors – 2
- Found other feeds that are better – 2
- Too Narrow a focus – 1
- Too much repetition in topic – 1
- Pushiness of Blogger – 1
- Blogger Doesn’t Respond to Comments – 1
- No Images in the feed – 1
- Lack of Confidence or Opinion – 1
- Lack of a sense of who the blogger is – 1
- Too much clutter/extras at the end of posts – 1
- Talking Down to Readers – 1
- Too many quotes – 1
- Change of Primary blogger – 1
A few brief comments (I wouldn’t want to have a long post now….):
The Frequency of Posting is obviously a big factor with 35% of respondents saying that too many posts was reason for unsubscribing and 28% saying that infrequent posts was reason to delete a feed from their reader. Interestingly, the ‘infrequent posting’ vote was perhaps a little less than last time I asked a group of bloggers this question. I suspect that with advancements in Feed Readers that inactive feeds don’t bother as many people as they did previously (ie Google Reader has a mode where you simply don’t see a feed unless it’s updated).
The Partial Feeds Vote got off to a slow start but gained momentum as the comment thread grew. 24% of respondents said they unsubscribe from feeds that are partial or just title feeds.
Off Topic Posting and blogs changing direction/focus is an obvious annoyance to many (this one surprised me slightly) with 22% of people giving it as a reason.
Content – I found it interesting that the quality, relevance and nature of content came down the list. Things like the form and frequency of the feed dominated the discussion while the actual content itself came in as secondary importance. Perhaps this was skewed slightly by the way I asked the question and by the first responses (I suspect that some people were swayed by the issues that others already raised).
About Darren Rowse
My name is Darren Rowse and I’m a full time Blogger making a living from blogs like 
Iora – Too many posts. I’ve had it myself where you feel inundated with posts from a particular site that you start to think it’s time to unsubscribe. However there’s a reason why you subscribed in the first place so unless any of the other elements aren’t in play, too many posts should not be the sole reason to unsubscribe.
From “post everyday” in most “how to blog” posts to “too many posts makes readers unsubscribe from your feed?” That’s a big leap and ends up being rather confusing, if not even misleading. I can almost see people already worrying if they post too much – or too little, and changing what they currently do, based simply on this survey.
The questions, especially #1 and it’s opposite #2 should really have been qualified. How many is “too many?” How many is “too few?” I would have found it more useful if the question was qualified by asking something like “how many posts do you consider to be too many/too few? 1-3 posts/week/? 4-6, 6-8, more than 10 a week, less than 5/week” etc.
As it is, the questions and their answers are almost meaningless, because what constitutes “too much” or “too little” is relative. It also depends very much on the subject matter of the blog. A tech blog that posted infrequently would be left in the dust in no time. I concur with Robert.
Besides, if presented with many posts to read don’t people simply select those they wish to read and leave the rest??
“I don’t see how you can post 4 or more times a day and actually have good content and/or not regurgitating the same news.”
There are great blogs out there that post worthwhile, original content at this rate. That’s because they spend their time blogging, not self-promoting. That’s also why you’re probably not familiar with them.
Adding to what Trent has said, some blogs actually have multiple authors producing unique and great content throughout the day which could easily push post counts up to 4+ per day (Example: Boing Boing).
I’m not sure I understand the issue of the blog reposting the last 10-20 posts. This is something that’s out of our contol, no?
Totally different reaction to ‘infomercials’ (too much selling) — When will a standard emerge to help distinguish the commercial / selling oriented feeds from non-commercial? With how strong RSS seems to have taken hold, it seems we will need some standards around usage type.
Yes, like some other people, I’m a little surprised that people would leave because of too many posts. I post several times a day on a couple of my blogs and my subscriber list still continues to grow.
I also subscribe to a few blogs that post frequently and although it can be overwhelming at times, I simply scan the headlines until I find something that interests me.
Well, different strokes for different folks!
I guess I am one of the few that doesn’t care how many people subscribe to my feed. Honestly, I have never checked and probably never will. Blog feeds to people are like straw in the wind.
I write a food blog about my experiences in restaurants in the Phoenix metro area. I love finding great restaurants and putting out the information about my “find” to anyone who wishes to read it. If they do, great! If they don’t, then that is great, too.
My blog isn’t a hostage situation, however, and if I were to wring my hands or lose sleep every time someone unsubscribed from my feed, I would probably be a fingerless insomniac.
Cool list, thanks. I see you’ve also joined the Cool Kid’s Club (a.k.a StumbleUpon). There is hope for you, sir. -j
My rule of thumb: If you’re gonna post several posts in one day, make them short, tasty and targeted. Focus on one topic and come up with something that adds value. Seth Godin does this extremely well: Short sound bite posts with great insight.
Ultimately, I share Scoble’s point of view. It’s just too much of a hassle to try to shape yourself to meet all your reader expectations. You need to focus on keeping it real while writing about things you are passionate about.
Say someone avoids all 34 reasons. It’s still not an absolute guarantee that someone won’t unsubscribe from your blog.
We need to be less paranoid and uptight about readers deleting your blog feed.
People evolve and move on. No biggie, really.
“Blogger Doesn’t Respond to Comments”
Massive turn off for me.
When it’s a popular ‘blog like this, it’s not so bad because you know the guy is busy with stuff.
But when the smaller guys like me don’t bother replying, or worse still, just remove your comment, then I’m out of there…
I think we need to realize that blogging isn’t what it was when most of YOU started. The competition is much more fierce now and to just dismiss this list because you already have thousands (or millions) of subscribers is a bit dangerous especially when one of the reasons people unsubscribe is because of the ego of the blogger…
As mentioned in our previous post I took part in a podcast yesterday with the other finalists in the Best Business Blog category for the Irish Blog Awards 2007 (www.awards.ie). The podcast is now available for download from our website. We are planning to make this a regular series of podcasting articles and welcome any ideas or suggestions regarding topics that you would like us to cover. Let us know via the comments field what you think about the podcast or if you have any feedback on business blogging from your own experiences.
Remember to check out the other excellent business blogs;
Allagi Blog
Argolon
Ask Direct
Biz Growth News
Ice Cream Ireland
Also you should look at the following “34 Reasons Why Readers Unsubcribe From Your Blog” on tips on what not to do.
Very interesting topic. I recently unsubscribed to tvsquad.com’s feed because they kept putting 24 spoilers in their news stories. Three times this year I was burned by them so I posted a comment and told them I was leaving. I know it won’t make a difference (customer service on mainstream blogs means nothing IMHO) but I just wanted to post again about that.
Interesting of note is your own post on post frequency noting that “There is a strong correlation between the aging and post frequency of blogs and their authority and Technorati ranking.” Specifically, that the highest ranking blogs also have a higher frequency of posts.
Ironically, I increased my posting frequency because of that article you wrote!! But my subscriber numbers have also increased. I never post more than 2-3 times a day, and never more than one long post in a day.
Now I’m curious as to what really is at work here!
This was an interesting read! I wouldn’t have guessed some, and others I would have guessed would have been voted on more.
I’m surprised so many people are surprised by #1. I’m not. If I subscribe to a blog I am only allocating them so much time per day. If they post too much, just reviewing their posts requires me to take time away from other things.
There is NOTHING so important that that a blogger has to publish multiple times per day. They should instead filter out the crap and write better posts! Each reader’s subjective “average post rating” will increase for the blog if they do.
If a blog publishes more often than once per day, I *seriously* consider eliminating it from my reading schedule (this blog has come *real* close serveral times, but I’m still subscribed…)
BTW, I don’t read LifeHacker because she blogs too much.
Greetings all – If you keep your heart true, and your opinions founded, a following you will build.
Write from the heart no matter what the topic be it boring and mathematical, or wonderful and about life.
You are writing I hope for the love of it, to share your opinions and words with the world, to initiate change and challenge people’s thoughts.
It matters not if you are in IT and build sites, or a artist blogging about culture, the world is a huge a diverse place, rich in language and culture sites sounds a fountain of life.
Blog well, be upstanding have a soapbox, but most of all be true to your self and to your readers.
have a b l o g g i n g good day
I came across your website a few months ago and have basically used it as the bible for blogging. I recently place my blog on typepad. This article and site are helping me overcome “blogyard”. So I would just like to say thank you.
I lost readers because I changed my domain name ;) though it’s been a few days and all. I guess I might go off topic here and there though. Haven’t really found my niche yet.
(And ProBlogger would benefit from a basic print style sheet, too. Yah, off-topic, but needs to be said.)
did no offer your target audince focus information and
did not pay attention to their comment encourage readers to go away.
The choose of topic, people love news and some times need another opinions.
very nice information. i cite the number 1 as the main reason for unsubscribing as there are way too many sites around who are posting the same information (but with other words) hundreds of times during months. It is more spamming then blogging, then.
I think that the Rss reader used by the visitors can be responsible sometimes.
My friend is pushy when it comes to her blog. It makes me laugh. Then she says people aren’t visiting. Now we know why.
This is a great and valuable info! I will keep it in my mind, as RSS subscribers are maybe even more important that unique visitors, as they are loyal readers.
BTW, you have a good pace posting, as I am subscribed to your RSS.
A good list but it would take a lot of time to tick all those boxes! I suppose the reward is worth it!
Great job in here, very useful articles. Thank you
Mike
Well you just got another person subscribing to yours ;)
Great post and it looks like you’ve got a load of other great content on the site as well.
What are all the strange comments with the [...] at the beginning and the end of the comments? I keep deleting them from my blog thinking that someones just trying to spam me up. But I’ve just seen them here en mass and I guess I’m doing something daft and dont know why
210 comments, wow! what a post
Mercurythread – they are called trackbacks. Basically they mean someone’s written a post that links to this post. Click the link of the comment and you’ll see the post.
SEO Scotland – that makes 212…. or 213 now ;-)
I am new in blogging and this list surely helps me a lot.
Thank you.
Sweet post. Had never thought that sending out too much information could be dangerous. Am now developing a schedule and trying to put all my ideas into an order – rather than putting things live this may give me a bit more time to get ideas formulated and posts developed in advance. And here was me thinking that blogging was ‘sposed to be easy :) Cheers
I think the biggest killer for me is when the posts are partial excerpts in the feed. Why would I get the feed then, when I can go to the site to read the entire post? I know that’s the whole purpose of partial feeds, but it still is not good for feed readers.
irrelevant content can make me unsubscribe, but the most part, the real reason is that I’ve found out other website provide me with better content. It is just too much to read if I never subscribe the other blog.
From your post I know why there are few subscribers to my blog. I often write Irrelevant content and never see my blog from readers’ standing.
I am new blogger and this list surely helps me a lot.
yea too many post and not intresting content is the reason
I think the #1 reason is too many ads but it goes to #14
Anyway, nice post.
I’m going to follow these hints. Thank you.
This post seems to have gone international! My thoughts on the list: it really depends on the length and engagement of the posts. If you are sending out 5 posts each day that are around 100-200 words long but contain content that are useful, then it is not a big pain for subscribers to keep reading your posts.
I do enjoy reading a post that may be lengthy but contains great energy and useful content. However, if I receive 3 such posts in a day that are 600-800 words long, it can be frustrating trying to keep up with the blog and I generally start losing interest, especially if the topics do not vary much from each other.
Ah so manyyyy comments!
I wrote an article where you were mentioned. Please take a look:
http://destogate.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/blogs-why-readers-unsubscribe/
Thank you.
I had no idea that too many posts per day would make readers unsubscribe. I of course always thought that the more posts, the better. But I guess it makes sense, since people want quality, not quantity.
Very informative post.. as of now i am not yet losing readers. but i’ll take your advice.
seems like too many could be easily fixed..put aside extra post that are not date sensitive and use them on rainy or sick days.
The Frequency of Posting is a big factor for me, definitely. But grammatical mistakes talk a lot of about the author.
(I am sorry, my English is not so good. I am from eastern Europe.)
Very informative. Am looking to develop my blog further and appreciate your site tips very much. Thanks.
http://www.blackwomanthinks.blogspot.com
Zee.
very good list.
Very Goooood. I will use these tips on my blog.
I do enjoy reading a post that may be lengthy but contains great energy and useful content. However, if I receive 3 such posts in a day that are 600-800 words long, it can be frustrating trying to keep up with the blog and I generally start losing interest, especially if the topics do not vary much from each other.