Written on February 6th, 2008 at 12:02 am by Darren Rowse
A Secret to Finding New Subscribers for Your Blog
‘How do I find new subscribers for my blog?’
This question hits my inbox so regularly that I that I’d answer it publicly rather than retyping my answer to each person who asks – it’s a topic that is on the mind of many bloggers these days so lets tackle it head on.
I’ve written an extended entry on this topic with 11 practical suggestions at Ways to Find New RSS Subscribers for Your Blog – however there’s one ’secret’ that I’m increasingly convinced is a key to increasing subscriber numbers on a blog.
I say ’secret’ because it eluded me for years – although in the end it was staring me in the face.
This ’secret’ has helped me build both of my blogs into the 40,000 subscriber range (and beyond) and it’s something I see many other bloggers using to build their blogs – sometimes strategically and sometimes intuitively.
Today I want to introduce this secret and then over the next few days I want to follow it up with some practical tips on how to use it in practice.
At the hear of what I want to talk about is a simple question:
Why do People Subscribe to Feeds?
I am sure there are numerous reasons that people subscribe to a blogs feed – however in most cases they simple truth is that they subscribe for one obvious yet powerful reason:
they think that the blog might produce content that they’ll want to know about at some point in the future.
As I say – this is a simple (and very obvious) truth – but it is actually a secret to building RSS subscriber numbers and it’s worth repeating.
People will subscribe to your blog if they think that it will enhance their lives in some way in the foreseeable future.
Ponder that for a few moments before reading on…..
Perhaps instead of asking ‘how can I get people to subscribe to my blog’ a better question to ask is:
‘how can I convince people that I will write something tomorrow, next week or next month that they just can’t miss out on.’
This ’secret’ of building your subscriber numbers to your blog is to create a sense of anticipation in those who visit your blog. Build this and you’ll find people seek out ways to track with you rather than you having to find ways to shove your means of anticipation down their throats.
How to Create Anticipation on a Blog
My hypothesis is that creating a sense of anticipation among your readers increases the chances that they’ll subscribe to it.
But how do you do it?
This is where I create a little anticipation of my own and let you know that I’m going to unpack this further tomorrow when I’ll give you some practical tips on how to create anticipation on your blog. (update: here’s my next two posts in this series -how to build anticipation on your blog and more on how to build anticipation on your blog).
In the mean time – some questions for discussion:
- How do you build anticipation on your blog?
- How have you seen others do it effectively?
Feel free to share specific examples if you’ve got them.
Subscribe to my feed to get notified of my next post in this series.
update: Read the next post in this series at How to Create a Sense of Anticipation on Your Blog and a followup post with More On How to Build Anticipation on Your Blog.
115 Responses to “A Secret to Finding New Subscribers for Your Blog” - Add Yours
RT the fitness guy
February 6th, 2008 12:23 am
Of course!
Nice work.
Best stuff is simple…
Miracle
February 6th, 2008 12:24 am
One of the best posts you’ve written.
It could be that I’m at the point of my blog where I am truly worrying about my subscriber count..
But I think the reason why it is truly a great post is how you changed the question about subscriptions to.. “How can I convince people that I will write something next… that they cant miss out on.”
Wonderful insight
bonchibuji
February 6th, 2008 12:27 am
I expected a more elaborate post from you, darren..anyway..one of the trick is to give a hint(or sort of one) in the latest post about what you might write next…like..if you had written someting about the Microsoft bid for Yahoo, maybe you can end with a hint about some previous acquisitions by Microsoft (like the Norwegian company Fast Search) which are not popularised..
one more way is by improving your profile(if the blog is hosted on blogger or wordpress..tell the topics and subjects that you are passionate about in your profile..someone will strike the cord with your thoughts and subscribe to the feed..
anyway..thx Darren..
jmarv
February 6th, 2008 12:48 am
Lots of bloggers have their own “secret” about how they raised the quantity of subscribers for their blog, but these really makes sense.
And no questions asked, your feed proves it… :)
Jacky
February 6th, 2008 12:52 am
Writing a series of posts will creat a sense of anticipation in your readers. ^.^
Jamie Harrop
February 6th, 2008 12:52 am
I remember going off topic in some of my posts to say things like “Oh, that reminds me. Look out for my X Post on X Topic in the next few days. It won’t disappoint”. Something as simple as that sparked discussion in the comments and brought in new subscribers.
I suppose that’s the most basic form of creating anticipation.
Hazel
February 6th, 2008 1:00 am
I think even just having a fixed posting schedule can show that you’re going to keep posting quality content in the future.
If I know when the next thing will be posted I’ll look forward to that particular date, and am more likely to subscribe since I know what I can expect.
GradeMoney.com
February 6th, 2008 1:01 am
This is a very true and useful information…
=)
Tejvan Pettinger
February 6th, 2008 1:04 am
Very True, I often find myself subscribing to blogs who have blog writing contest e.t.c.
I’ve tried to do it by answering readers questions with some success.
Definitely food for thought
Anthony Lawrence
February 6th, 2008 1:13 am
I think it probably eluded you more than it alluded you :-)
Martin
February 6th, 2008 1:21 am
When I check out new blogs/feeds, I look at the previous 10-15 posts to see if there is anything that impresses me, or looks like it might produce similar useful posts in the future.
If nothing looks interesting enough, I dismiss it. If just one post is vaguely useful, I’ll bookmark that one post. If at least one post is fantastic (or if several are vaguely useful), I’ll subscribe to the feed.
Aside from one or two multi-part posts – where I whet the appetite of readers by explaining what was coming up in the next part – I haven’t done much to create anticipation on my own site.
But it’s a fair point and I really like this post. So I’ll see what I can do to remedy things on my site for the future.
Dan Cole
February 6th, 2008 1:25 am
I always used anticipation to keep RSS readers and frequent visitors, but I guess it works with picking up new readers and subscribers too.
I’ve created anticipation on my blog by starting projects and alluding to what their going to turn out as. Although this plan doesn’t work on all blog types.
Creating anticipation means planning for tomorrow, something a lot of blogs don’t do.
Adrian @ Path to Your Destiny
February 6th, 2008 1:33 am
For the blogs I subscribe to, I don’t think it’s anticipation over new content that drove me to subscribe; it’s because I *expect* something great to be produced. The blogs I subscribe to deliver useful, valuable content; because of this, they get another number in their RSS ticker.
Content, content, content!
Ron Pereira
February 6th, 2008 1:36 am
My niche is focused on teaching people about the “Toyota Production System.” With this said we study the people of Japan quite closely.
So, when I announced I was headed to Japan to tour 5 top Japanese companies, including Toyota, I saw my RSS subsciptions take a nice bump.
As the trip approaches I plan to start “teasing” my readers a bit more… I plan to take video, record podcasts, etc.
Skellie
February 6th, 2008 1:46 am
Darren, I don’t often read metablogging posts anymore where I go ‘Ah huh!’, but this one did that. I’d never thought about this way before. It makes a whole heap of sense.
Thanks for giving me some real food for thought :-).
domin mercier
February 6th, 2008 1:46 am
Hi Darren,
Mine it’s a new blog. For building anticipation in my blog (of course, I think that anticipation is an important element, sure) I create a series of interview.
Hunter Nuttall
February 6th, 2008 1:56 am
Ooh, that’s evil. :) Now I have to come back tomorrow to see the exciting conclusion. Then again, I was already subscribed. I’m not sure this anticipation thing would have much effect on me personally. If I see that someone is writing good posts, I’ll naturally anticipate that they’ll continue to do so. But maybe a little persuasion can help win over some people.
Human Resource Manipulation
February 6th, 2008 1:59 am
“This is where I create a little anticipation of my own and let you know that I’m going to unpack this further tomorrow when I’ll give you some practical tips on how to create anticipation on your blog.”
- Well Darren, how’s that for creating anticipation on your blog? :)
By the way, the viewpoint discussed here, was a real eye opener for me. Couldn’t agree with you more on that. The only reason why people subscribe is because they want to see how the future posts will benefit them. And in doing that, they need some assurance that the future article is as useful as the article that drew them to ths blog at the first place.
Creating anticipation – as you have said – is the key. As it makes the prospective subscriber wonder about what future holds when he/she actually subscribes for that. Adding something, it mentally influences a human to trial out the blog subscription, making that prospective subscriber, an actual subscriber.
Marty Weil
February 6th, 2008 2:00 am
Darren, to attract subscribers, I do a “Sneak Preview” posts. The sneak previews highlights upcoming blog posts. For instance, tomorrow a sneak preview post will talk feature upcoming interviews, including an interview with a Risqué French Postcard collector whose site was recently banned by the major search engines.
This is a real “teaser” sneak preview that I hope will entice subscribers.
Adam | Adam's Peace
February 6th, 2008 2:15 am
Hmmm… I did this without thinking about it yesterday…
I’m guilty of writing monolithic posts… I write my entire thought out in one long post at a time. (It’s amazing that I’ve kept up with three posts per week for the past month… I don’t think I’ll be able to keep that rate up, though.)
Usually these posts are very self-contained. I’ll cover a topic as fully as I can at the time, then work on a different topic. Every once in a while, about once every other or every three months, I’ll write a series. Looking back, it’s about halfway through each series where I get a boost in my subscribers. (At this point, the boost is about 5 new readers… which is a big deal, considering I’m averaging just under 40 right now.)
Looking at the raw numbers, I might want to trim down some future posts and explore their tangents a bit more in different series-based posts.
I do have to say, though, that I generally don’t like the rapid-fire posts that I’ve seen some people use. I would say to those people that if you can’t convey the entire concept in 5 paragraphs, and you’re tempted to say “to be continued,” please just keep writing in the same post. In my opinion, a series of posts should be like different chapters in a book… All loosely based on the same topic, but each with their own main theme. Having to wait another day for a continuation of the same idea makes me want to hit the unsubscribe link and be done with it.
Cheapest Man
February 6th, 2008 2:24 am
I love the idea of a teaser post. Give them an appetizer then deliver the main course down the road.
I try and do ‘theme’ days on one of my sites. Monday is the weekend in review, Tuesday is ‘Question of the Week’, Wednesday is ‘Sponsor Highlight’, Thursday and Friday is ‘Weekend Preview’. This gives people some idea of how the site functions and doesn’t make me have to keep thinking of something new to post each week.
Famous Quotes
February 6th, 2008 2:39 am
Good post. Writing useful content and creating anticipation is a powerful combination to attract subscribers.
DJ at Fermentarium
February 6th, 2008 2:40 am
Actually the answer is very simple, and I’ll tell you the answer on my blog…. tomorrow. ;)
LOL! Great advice and I think that’s an astute view into the psyche of the RSS reader. I’ll have to think about how to work this into my posts.
Hector
February 6th, 2008 2:50 am
My question is: why is the number of RSS subscribers so crucial?
Steph
February 6th, 2008 2:52 am
What a fabulous and well-timed post, Darren!
I JUST posted (this morning) introducing a five-part series, “Health Made Easy” for my total health blog, Live Lighter.
What do you think? Did I effectively create anticipation?
I’ve seen Brian Clark of CopyBlogger do this successfully with his Magnetic Headlines Series.
Super great post, Darren. Thank you!!
RandomThinker
February 6th, 2008 2:54 am
thanks for the insight. being a new blogger is a bit of an uphill battle, so I appreciate the great advice. I’ve created my blog as a learning experience on my end, and i’ll just post what I learn. Not rocket science, but without technical skills and not being an expert on one topic in particular, I think it’s important for me to have people “follow” me through my blogging journey, and hopefully we can learn from each other.
Laura Bennett
February 6th, 2008 2:58 am
Brilliant, love it!
Andrea >> Become a consultant
February 6th, 2008 3:00 am
Ha ha ha! Clever use of the technique!
Jason Curlee
February 6th, 2008 3:03 am
I think this also does tag in with creating a niche and stetting yourself as an authority….But I will agree…I’m going to subscribe if I think you will write something that will add value to my world.
arshad
February 6th, 2008 3:04 am
never ever display ur feedburner count until u get a decent no. of subscribers ———- this is the basic method u have to follow to get subscribers [ apart from quality content ] .
CurlyBrace
February 6th, 2008 3:21 am
Definitely one of the things that amazes me most — how you drive subscribers in.
In fact a just yesterday I wrote a post about why I think ProBlogger’s visitors are more loyal compared to ShoeMoney or John Chow:
http://blog.websoda.net/2008/02/04/problogger-shoemoney-and-john-chow-problogger-users-more-loyal/
It’s no big discovery but I’m sure it’s a little bit interesting :)
DJ at Fermentarium
February 6th, 2008 3:25 am
Actually that is a good point? Do you or do you not display the subscriber count? At what point do you show it? Is it really bad to show a count less than 100?
Louis
February 6th, 2008 3:29 am
That is a really interesting concept, and one that sounds so simple, but when you really think about it, its genius. Thanks Darren.
Carl
February 6th, 2008 3:49 am
Way to put into words something I just realized last week at my own site. I’ve started to create anticipation by running contests (who wins? I don’t know!) and by running a series on common beginning blogger mistakes on my blog. If you like the first entry you’ll want to check in again for the next one.
John
February 6th, 2008 3:51 am
Excellent post — never really thought of it that way – looking at the future. I always tend to focus on getting the best content out today.
I think using post series is a great way, a contest, or a mystery post where an answer will be revealed at a later date can also help.
Anthony Lawrence
February 6th, 2008 4:14 am
I’m sorry, but I have to take a contrarian view of this. RSS is only a metric of success, and it’s a flawed metric at best.
I’ve written more about this at the link under my name, but consider this:
99% of my ad revenue comes from one time visitors. RSS readers and the the few hundred “regulars” contribute almost nothing – if my main concern is income, I’m far better off scheming about SEO and Google results position than I am caring about RSS readers.
Moreover, everyone of us knows that just because my RSS reader goes to fetch your feed every day doesn’t mean that I’m actually reading it. I might just be skimming headlines, or I might just be reading the feed with a program looking for certain key words.
And yet a Google search for “Increase RSS subscribers” turns up thousands of articles like this.
Comparing RSS subscribers can be interesting, but it’s only one measure and it often isn’t measuring what people think it is.
ruudik niitmets
February 6th, 2008 4:26 am
Thought about this as i read your post. Interesting, some write blogs with this in as something usual. Like a continuing story that no one wants to miss, what happens next. I must know this first. Or they subscribe because it is simply easier to check on new posts they are interested in via a simple rss reader rather than checking the site again.
Anuj Seth
February 6th, 2008 4:36 am
Interesting concept.
This is something that I surely need to work on to improve the subscriber count for my blog.
David LaFerney
February 6th, 2008 4:36 am
You’re right. It’s remarkably obvious – now that you’ve pointed it out. The smart money in old media do it constantly with teasers, and trailers.
I’ve got a great article in the works on this subject for Friday. You won’t be disappointed. ;)
Money Never Sleeps
February 6th, 2008 4:53 am
Darrin…you are really a professional writer and marketer. Creating a blog post about anticipation and then ending it with you saying that you will “unpack this further tommorrow” is brilliant! You should be a Soap Opera writer!
Ross Hill from Hatchthat
February 6th, 2008 4:54 am
Great post Darren! I’ve been thinking about the idea a bit for my upcoming hatchthat.com redesign.
- Show a popular articles list, people will see at least your top headlines and hopefully click through to read them.
- Show a recent articles list, make sure they are different to the popular articles list and are all still interesting headlines.
- Only show dates if you post often enough.
- Only show subscriber counts if you have enough to brag about.
- Post about upcoming content, but not too often.
- Prompt them to subscribe so that they don’t miss out, immediately after you mention something upcoming.
- Run a series of posts on a topic, linking to previous ones but also showing how many more are to come and what topics they will be on.
- Make sure every piece of the page represents value, they want to see signal not noise. Don’t post those link roundups until you have enough to make it a proper resource list.
- Make sure you have lots of comments on your posts. If you don’t have comments you either need to promote commenting or post less so that the comments pile up on your most recent posts.
- If you have a multi-author blog show each authors recent popular posts so the visitor knows what to expect from each person.
- Show third party endorsements such as blog network badges, sponsor links and mybloglog recent avatars. Mention it when a popular industry blog links to you, but not too often.
- Have a great template design, nicer blogs generally have nicer content. If it has a tight design like the A-listers you can most likely fool a few people.
- Have an about page that paints a good picture of you and promotes interest in not only what you have done but what you are working on next. Give them a photo of you so they know who is actually writing.
- Order your archives by interestingness, not just date or alphabetical category.
- Add value in absolutely every post, don’t report what other people are posting because a visitor can just go straight to the source instead.
- Have recurring themes and mention them clearly either at the end of a post or somewhere in the menu. The same applies for categories, but make sure your categories reflect your content as a whole and remember to kill off categories that don’t.
- Keep it focussed and on-topic. If you have a blogroll make sure you only link to sites that are relevant to the blogs topic.
I’ll be keen to see what I missed in tomorrow’s post :)
Frances
February 6th, 2008 5:13 am
I don’t know that I have been able to create a sense of anticipation but now that you mention it….
However, I do notice that most of the blogs I subscribe to are really good at this. In fact, there is one blog in particular that I just wait for new posts each day because this blog teaches me things that you just can’t learn anywhere else…
Amrit Hallan - Content Blog
February 6th, 2008 5:13 am
Anticipation is a big reason why people subscribe and a totally agree with you. This also begins with producing great content now, that is, it should be a continuous process because people often anticipate your next move considering what you have been doing in your previous moves. Great post :-).
Veerasundar
February 6th, 2008 5:38 am
As U said, Expectation brings the user again and again to the blog. Raise the expectation and raise the reader base!
Warren of Zen Problog
February 6th, 2008 5:42 am
I think you subtly answered your own question. You create anticipation by writing an excellent article that will get people’s attention but then you cut it off saying it is the first in a ’series.’ Then people will want to come back for more.
Leon
February 6th, 2008 5:43 am
Terrific tips Darren. Well, you could, every now and again, do an interesting post and split it up into sequels. That way no one would want to miss it! I know a lot of commenters have already stated this, but its the only one that comes to mind.
Joanna Young
February 6th, 2008 5:45 am
Hi Darren
I think you should have headlined this “the” secret to finding new subscribers :-)
You’re right – as readers we want to be looking ahead and remembering to go back to a site where we know something good lies ahead…
But you can’t overdo it (not that I’m suggesting you do or would…) If it’s all ‘jam tomorrow’ people would pretty soon get fed up and unsubscribe.
A bit like a brilliant headline – you need to follow up and deliver with the content to match.
Joanna
Andy MacDonald
February 6th, 2008 5:55 am
You have done a great job of creating anticipation for me Darren. I am now gagging to hear how i can put this into action on my own blog.
I think that a good way of creating anticipation is telling somebody what is to come, and how it can help them at the end of your posts. What you will be posting about tomorrow, how they may benefit from it, and imediately at the end of each post, provide a way for them to subscribe.
Don’t make them go looking for your subscription buttons. Put it right where they have just read what they might be able to benefit by reading tomorrows post.
Christian Cawley
February 6th, 2008 6:33 am
Wow – I think I kind of half hit on this at the weekend when I planned the posts for my blog, and decided to split some big subjects up into smaller sizes.
I’ve got half a dozen websites and I reckon they all half get it too – it’s the “convincing” part of it that is missing!
Looking forward to the rest of this series :)
Steve
February 6th, 2008 6:35 am
Nice layout and topic! At the end of the day whether you are an up and coming Blogger or a multi page web publisher it gets down to content or the WHY in the equation. If you write well and meaningful content and have a bit of pizzazzzz you will draw attention. Then its all about freshness and being able to continue a high level of content that the reader loves to hear about.
Good luck all
Shannon Lilly
February 6th, 2008 6:40 am
I couldnt agree more, writing what people want to read will yield excellent results!
Cookiemouse
February 6th, 2008 7:18 am
Dammit! I read this post too late on my RSS feed! I was thinking of putting a “and tomorrow I’ll be talking about” on my blog today, but for some reason I didn’t. Then I read this. Ah well, next time, and by the way on my blog tomorrow…ha, ha.
Martin
February 6th, 2008 7:37 am
This is a long way down the comments list, so you probably won’t see it, but could you tell us what events triggered those two huge jumps on your subscription count (going from about 1,000-4,000 subscribers, and then 10,000-19,000)… that would be interesting I reckon.
Collin LaHay
February 6th, 2008 7:54 am
“I’m going to unpack this further tomorrow when I’ll give you some practical tips on how to create anticipation on your blog”
I believe that statement answered the million dollar question. Now we are all waiting for tomorrows post, which means hello feedburner increase for you today!
Darren Alff - Bicycle Touring Pro
February 6th, 2008 8:17 am
My website was mentioned in an email newsletter that is sent out by another bicycle touring organization, and they build some anticipation about my website without me even having to do a lick of work. Here is what they wrote:
“There are a few other websites that exist for bicycle tourists, but my goals with this website is to show you exactly how I’ve been able to make seven long distance bicycle trips over the last seven years.” So writes Darren Alff, who has traveled by bike through twently-nine of the fifty United States, as well as several foreign countries. “I have absolutely no idea how many miles/kilometers I have ridden,” he adds, saying that he doesn’t use an odometer (and that he’ll tell readers why in a future post).
The blurb went on a little further and mentioned my website and recommended the readers check it out. But what is important here is how they said, “he’ll tell readers why in a future post.” (refering to why I don’t ride with an odometer.)
This one little line drove over 2000 people to my website in just one day. I received over 500 emails that day, had over 450 people sign up for my newsletter, and my income from the site that day rose dramatically!
Yes, anticipation really does drive traffic to your site and keep them coming back for more.
I’m using anticipation on my site now by letting my readers know that I am going to soon be releasing information on how you can actually make money by riding your bike! And that has gotten a lot of interest from my readers/subscribers. Anticipation works! Thanks Darren! I’m “anticipating” your next post!
Darren Rowse
February 6th, 2008 8:21 am
Martin, I don’t remember what triggered the first jump but the 2nd one was when Feedburner started counting Google Reader stats. Everyone’s figures jumped up at that point. I suspect the 1st jump was something similar.
Troy
February 6th, 2008 8:54 am
RSS subscribers have been elusive for me, even when I get a lot of traffic. Posting consistently and staying squarely on-topic have helped quite a lot, but I think often it’s also a function of popularity. People see a popular blog and thing “everyone’s reading such and such, I’d better not miss out” and they subscribe. If you don’t have the authority yet, a good strategy would be to seem like you do :)
Kevin
February 6th, 2008 9:01 am
A multi-part series of posts is always a good way to build anticipation (much like this one). You can also hint at upcoming posts in related post. E.g, when reviewing a book you could mention that you’ll be giving away a few copies in X number of days once you receive them.
@Darren: I believe it was actually that Google began to report the number of readers from Google Reader, not necessarily that Feedburner started to count them.
Darren Rowse
February 6th, 2008 9:39 am
Kevin – true, it was when Google made their stats available that the jump happened, enabling Feedburner to start to count them :-)
Kristen
February 6th, 2008 10:13 am
Good post and good comments! I’m attempting to build anticipation by posting certain topics on certain days — Monday: best book club books Wednesday: what I’m reading Thursday: what book is your state (from Columbia Spectator) Sunday: favorite links of the week. Then I give myself the freedom to write whatever strikes my fancy on Tues and Thu (or take those days off!). My blog is new… we’ll see if it works!
ChowMunga!
February 6th, 2008 10:38 am
Excellent post.
There are certainly MANY reasons that people subscribe to an RSS. However, I think you make a strong argument for people doing it for future possibilities. This certainly applies for people that read quality content and WANT MORE. If you can leave people wanting more, they will come back for more…hence signing up for your feed. Thanks for the new perspective.
Ross Hill
February 6th, 2008 11:25 am
Great post Darren! I’ve been thinking about the idea a bit for my upcoming hatchthat.com redesign.
- Show a popular articles list, people will see at least your top headlines and hopefully click through to read them.
- Show a recent articles list, make sure they are different to the popular articles list and are all still interesting headlines.
- Only show dates if you post often enough.
- Only show subscriber counts if you have enough to brag about.
- Post about upcoming content, but not too often.
- Prompt them to subscribe so that they don’t miss out, immediately after you mention something upcoming.
- Run a series of posts on a topic, linking to previous ones but also showing how many more are to come and what topics they will be on.
- Make sure every piece of the page represents value, they want to see signal not noise. Don’t post those link roundups until you have enough to make it a proper resource list.
- Make sure you have lots of comments on your posts. If you don’t have comments you either need to promote commenting or post less so that the comments pile up on your most recent posts.
- If you have a multi-author blog show each authors recent popular posts so the visitor knows what to expect from each person.
- Show third party endorsements such as blog network badges, sponsor links and mybloglog recent avatars. Mention it when a popular industry blog links to you, but not too often.
- Have a great template design, nicer blogs generally have nicer content. If it has a tight design like the A-listers you can most likely fool a few people.
- Have an about page that paints a good picture of you and promotes interest in not only what you have done but what you are working on next. Give them a photo of you so they know who is actually writing.
- Order your archives by interestingness, not just date or alphabetical category.
- Add value in absolutely every post, don’t report what other people are posting because a visitor can just go straight to the source instead.
- Have recurring themes and mention them clearly either at the end of a post or somewhere in the menu. The same applies for categories, but make sure your categories reflect your content as a whole and remember to kill off categories that don’t.
- Keep it focussed and on-topic. If you have a blogroll make sure you only link to sites that are relevant to the blogs topic.
I’ll be keen to see what I missed in tomorrow’s post :)
Brad V.
February 6th, 2008 11:26 am
Great post Darren! And I look forward to you next few posts on this topic.
Actually, this post comes at a great time, as I’ve been pondering ways to increase the number of subscribers to my monthly newsletter. Indeed, building anticipation is a rather simple solution. But I think it’s easier said than done.
But before I speculate too much, I’m going to see what Darren says first.
Simple Mindz
February 6th, 2008 11:48 am
I don’t know…I tend to RSS feed someone because I like their writing style. Or I enjoy what they have to say. I do like to learn and I find myself eager to learn, but when I feel that they are no longer “teaching” me (or holding my interest) I end the subscription and find another. That’s just me though. ;)
Daryl Tay
February 6th, 2008 12:29 pm
That was totally sneaky! I love it. I’ve always toyed with the thought of ending posts with “Tomorrow: Topic A”, but for some reason never got around to it. I think a friend commented that it would seem like i’m doing pre-mediated blogging rather than something spontaneous.
Steve Karmazenuk
February 6th, 2008 1:03 pm
Hmm…while pointing out some a very useful bit of information, I can’t help but notice that the overriding theme of your post is like this old joke:
–How do you keep a moron in suspense?
–I don’t know; how DO you keep a moron in suspense?
–I’ll tell you tomorrow.
…and yet, I’m subscribing to the feed…so obviously you’re right on the money about that one.
Catherine L
February 6th, 2008 1:09 pm
That’s not fair. I was getting really excited then too.
I suppose you do it with series posts, upcoming competitions – anything that will make readers come back.
Maybe I’ll give away free beer on my blog tomorrow!
BloggingForBillions.com
February 6th, 2008 1:37 pm
I agree onehundred percent about building anticipation. I am new to blogging myself but this post made me think of the old show right before commercial break when they say, “Don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right back so you can see what happens next.”
My goal is to build that type of anticipation in my blog and then totally deliver.
Great post.
Thanks,
Rob West
Chetan
February 6th, 2008 2:45 pm
Making an off topic post in a new blog with a couple hundred subscribers can make us lose many subscribers as they get the impression of the future of the blog to be a crap one.
Thanks for the tips :)
Pjammez
February 6th, 2008 3:24 pm
That was a brilliant blog. So brilliant, in fact, that I went to Digg it, but then realised I have to sign up to Digg and I cbf so bl.
Shay
February 6th, 2008 3:41 pm
Good suggestions Darren, and I’m impressed with some other readers’ responses :)
Devon Lambert
February 6th, 2008 5:12 pm
Great Post Darren!
I for one am moving on to the 3rd part of my 5 part mini series on how to make money in the world of Video Games. I know the whole make money online thing has been done but let’s have fun with it now, shall we?
ashok
February 6th, 2008 5:36 pm
Hmm. I’m debating with myself over whether I’ve implicitly followed your advice or not.
1. The Case that I Haven’t: My posts are long and difficult and boring. The ones on news can’t be followed up on because they’re op-eds dashed off as soon as a a major story breaks, and my blog doesn’t follow any one particular story long enough. The ones on older books are meant to give the blog lasting value, but do so at the expense of the future. I still feel my best posts are early on, and I promote with that in mind.
2. The Case that I Have: What does it take to make something important, not just useful?
Sampath
February 6th, 2008 6:45 pm
Hi,
I think you are quite correct with this. It is a very good way of increasing number of subscribers. Thank you very much for your information. I really appreciate it.
John
February 6th, 2008 10:18 pm
Darren, without a doubt, I would agree with you when it comes to building readership to a “tech” or “make money online blog”, but…(there is always a BUT right…LOL) I have a pretty successful little blog in a small but competitive sports niche with just over 19,000 unique visitors every month, and to date 3,070 subscribers to a free report via email.
We only have just under 60 feed subscribers? Now maybe it has a lot to do with site design and the prominence of a “subscribe to this feed” icon (we have just paid over 2.5 K for a site redesign and this will go live in a few weeks), but the question remains “Do sports enthusiasts, subscribe to, or are even interested in subscribing to a feed?” What are the statistics of subscribers to rss feeds to sports blogs as opposed to tech oriented or make money online blogs?
I read an interesting post the other day (can’t remember who blogged it), about how sports oriented blogs can increase readership via email, rather than rss, as sports enthusiasts are not “as” tech savvy?
Is this the case?
I use iContact for my email marketing, and most of the email subscribers we have accumulated via facebook ads and adwords to subscribe to a free 10 week report that we provide.
Now, as a test, I used to send out 1 post from my blog every week, plus a weekly newsletter…Test everything right. We used to drive many sales (we offer a paid e-book also) by doing this.
Since then I cut down on this kind of promotion as I lost too many subscribers because of this, but am willing to try again as sales have been down over January compared to December.
So, the question remains, would a sports oriented blog benefit from collecting email adresses and them adding them to your rss feed (if your email provider allows this), and “officially” count these subscribers as rss subscribers?
Or, should rss be counted as just people who click on the subscribe to this feed icon on your website?
Any other sports bloggers out there thinking along the same lines?
Probably out of the scope of this post, but still relevant don’t you think?
David Bradley
February 6th, 2008 10:44 pm
I instigated a Saturday QuickTip (SQT) slot on my sciencetext.com site and figured that it would be a nice tease to finish each one with a hint as to what the next week’s quick tip will be. It takes discipline to always be a week ahead of myself, but I’m hoping it will create the kind of anticipation you talk about here. By the way, my next SQT is all about using an Air Voice Recorder so you never forget an idea ever again ;-)
db
Anthony Lawrence
February 6th, 2008 11:02 pm
@john
Email subscribers are actually a much better indicator of real engagement than RSS is (see the link under my name and my comment further up the page for more on that).
In the case of sports sites, generally you are going to have less “computer techy” people visiting, so it’s not surprising that they aren’t big RSS fans.
Nor do they need to be: if they are getting your newsletter they are completely engaged already.
There’s far too much emphasis on RSS in this thread. Readers and visitors are what matters, and RSS is just one metric – and it doesn’t do a very good job at that!
penantang
February 7th, 2008 2:31 am
Nice article.
I like your style n i hope i can learn more from you.
suresh
February 7th, 2008 4:08 am
I would like to add a point that
A content divided into different posts and publishing regularly
may demand an observation from a visitor and hence subscription.
Sarah (Real Life)
February 7th, 2008 5:19 am
This is a great tip,. Darren. I’m looking forward to hearing more of your thought on creating anticipation. (You’ve obviously done this very effectively.)
I’ve recently had a boost in subscribers, and there are two things I did. I began a weekly feature, called Friday’s Frugal Feast, sharing frugal recipes for families. At the end of each post, I write, “Don’t miss the next Friday’s Frugal Feast, subscribe today.” I get a lot of SE hits for recipes, too.
I also recently started doing reviews and giveaways. I always give subscribers an extra entry, in addition to their comment, so it behooves them to subscribe.
Anyway, just a few of my ideas. I can’t wait to hear yours.
James Duthie
February 7th, 2008 2:23 pm
Hmmm… I suspect anticipation is indeed an important ingredient in increasing blog subscribers. But I wouldn’t say it’s the secret. After all, no one is going to subscribe to a blog in anticipation of a series of crap content.
I’d say anticipation in combination with regular quality content would be a winner (which obviously Darren in managing to do quite well).
rodel
February 7th, 2008 4:24 pm
have u guys run a survey on this as to how many of these readers do actually read blogs being forwarded to their email addy’s for a fact that most of these people are so bussy?..
worst, it’ll just clog their mailboxes..
this has been my question over and over agin.. “if there’s a high rate of people reading blog’s thru feeds”..
I’m really convince or it’s just aesthetic tool for all blogs.. ;)
Peter Parks
February 7th, 2008 8:12 pm
That was a great post Darren, its seems many are a lost when it comes to getting subscribers, so I’d like to add a little secret sauce that might help out the readership as well.
Increasing your subscribers and getting targeted visitors to your site or blog is all about providing value to your niche.
When you provide rock solid content in actionable steps that helps your prospect come closer to solving their problem without trying to sell them something, you’ll experience faster growth in your readership.
Instead of writing general content about your niche, write targeted content and put it in a place where there are thousands of eyeballs a day that will see it.
Many readers want to know about something specific and will want to continue see what you have to offer, so just focus on a particular problem and write just about that.
what happens here is the internet is growing exponentially so your niche is only going to expand, so if you can get your targeted content online now every day a new prospect will come online searching for specific information about their problem and you have a solution for it.
Personally you want to create a great deal of content thats specifically targeted to your niche and then give away a series of special reports to entice your prospect to join your mailing list.
Then after you’ve done that simply show them step by step through a follow up sequence how to create and giveaway their own reports if they want to build some type of following themselves and tell them were to give the report away so they can turn around and build their list as well.
Or if they’re not into that then simply set up your special reports with a viral element as everyone has at least one or two friends or someone in their circle with the same or similar problems
When you provide value to your niche, you’ll attract many prospects and they’ll turn themselves into your subscribers without you having to do anything.
hope that helps ;-)
Many more strategies and principles for quick list building coming at you in the future
to everyones continued online success
Peter Parks
millionaireondemand dotcom
socks blog
February 8th, 2008 1:52 am
Excellent post.
Many people subscribe to an RSS. They are waiting However quality content
Cully Perlman
February 8th, 2008 8:03 am
Darren,
I’m new to the blog, but I have to tell you, it’s a definite eye-opener, and while it may sound cheesy, I do enjoy and value your blog as a resource. I’m in the marketing business, working with very large companies, but there’s clearly plenty for me to learn every day. Your blog is now one my top ten list of blogs to read on a daily basis.
Thanks
Cully
Jones Johnson
February 8th, 2008 11:29 am
Awesome post! I’m extremely new to blogging and I find it serendipitous that in my post today, I told the few readers that I have about an upcoming website that I plan on launching.
I’ve learned so much just from this post and from all the comments.
I plan on applying what I’ve learned (and what I’ll learn tomorrow and in your future posts) to my blog and future projects.
I thank you sincerely.
Anil Tandon
February 8th, 2008 11:43 pm
How to monitor how many people have subsribed to your feed. I am using B2evolution platform
nonstopblogging
February 9th, 2008 1:16 am
as usuall very simple but powerfull
Thanks
Laurence James
February 9th, 2008 9:51 am
Hi Darren
I’ve just converted my static website into a blog using Wordpress, and am using your tips on building readership (and other advice), to hopefully lay down the foundations of a successful blog.
As a professional copywriter of over 10 years’ experience, I really appreciate your focus on providing quality content for readers. That’s why I started my blog – I was getting so many questions from clients about various elements of copywriting, I thought I’d write one post to all of them instead of answering each person individually. In this context, I love the idea of building relationships with readers who I might be able to use my experience to help.
My attempts at blogging are in their infancy, but I think your model of providing genuine value through high quality content is a good one to aspire to. I’ll be interested to see how my blogging adventure folds out over the next few months and years.
Thanks for your commitment and keep up the great work.
Kind regards
Laurence James
MD, The Copy Box
http://www.thecopybox.com
Terra Andersen
February 9th, 2008 5:24 pm
This almost seems like common sense, but many people don’t do this as often as they should (myself included). Thanks for adding clarity to this subject! You rock!
Michele - Writing the Cyber Highway
February 9th, 2008 6:27 pm
I love how you SHOW and not just tell. It’s awesome. As we read, it’s obvious that you’re showing your audience what to do to gain subscribers, rather than just talking about it – great job!
Create anticipation… got it.
Lueni Blog
February 10th, 2008 3:34 am
very useful tips, thanks for sharing..
my blog still have nosubscriber, although it is have pr5… :(
1 Million in 365 Day
February 10th, 2008 4:15 am
I am actually asking myself this very question, how to get more people to check my blog out and eventually subscribe.
Right now I am holding a contest, which seems to be really popular right now, and thus I will increase my feed count. Check my contest and vote for me (A Million Readers) if you have some time: http://www.goldsmithjewelry.com/pages/diamond-stud-earring-giveaway.php Thanks!
David Scrivner
February 10th, 2008 9:41 am
And why didn’t I think of that. I have been spinning my wheels trying to make more and more content when I need to settle down and start creating works that build anticipation and make people want to come back. Great post Darren; as usual.
mar
February 10th, 2008 12:41 pm
Increasing the RSS feed to generate net income? I really am not fan of doing business online. Alot of hypes on this industry. However, it pays for the hosting fee of my sites. But its always healthy to have a real job. Jobs which pays for your food, pay your bills and secure your children’s’ future. Net income is relatively proportion to the effort you put in advertising your site. No one is paid more for less they do. Everyone cannot be rich.Face it.. internet marketing is much more complex than you think. You cannot make money just by placing *googs adcents and other revenue generating affiliates without investing your real money before taking your cut.Internet marketing is an art and not just a direct selling approach to the buying public. No one can get reach here. Ask the boss..
Connie
February 10th, 2008 3:26 pm
I found your commentary on how to entice people to your blog very interesting. I am new to blogging and looking for information on how to get my blog out to people.
I am going to try and put into effect what you wrote down.
Thank you for giving out the information.
Webhosting Reality
February 10th, 2008 8:00 pm
Thanks for sharing with us your insights. In addition to what you’ve said, it is important that there is consistency of quality for every post in any given day.
Budzer
February 10th, 2008 8:28 pm
Totally brilliant post. I remember reading your 31 Days to Building a Better Blog.
troy
February 11th, 2008 1:17 am
Superb and masterful. I hope that someday I will be able to accomplish this at my site.
Ria Ludy
February 11th, 2008 8:34 am
Brausch talks alot about getting RSS subscribers vs getting email subscribers and of course based on the business model being used, the argument could go to either one of them.
Darren is engaged with his RSS subscribers offering solid advice, incentives for reading (example – this post) and uses a business model in which RSS subscribers helps “sell” advertising space. Ok that’s pretty obvious but lots of new bloggers don’t think in those terms yet. I was one of them.
Blog readers are good, we always want more. First though, determine the business model you want to implement and then decide if RSS subscribers or email subscribers are more beneficial to that model. Then start using Darren’s tactics.
johnathan
February 11th, 2008 5:49 pm
i really need to learn this tactics and pay attention to detail.
SWoda
February 12th, 2008 12:37 am
Terrific post. I completely agree with your thoughts here, and I am really looking forward to your upcoming posts.
CanCar
February 16th, 2008 7:28 am
In my opinion, a series of posts should be like different chapters in a book… All loosely based on the same topic, but each with their own main theme. Having to wait another day for a continuation of the same idea makes me want to hit the unsubscribe link and be done with it.
Scott
February 21st, 2008 9:24 am
I am in the beginning stages of my wifes local real estate blog. It seems most folks in our local area are not RSS feed savy. For the most part blog savy. So email subscriptions seem to be understandable solution. Anybody elses opinion on email vs feeds?
Steve
March 11th, 2008 1:29 am
Anticipation comes in many forms and creates quite the buzz. We are by no means a big site with 1000’s of visitors per day. Now in our 9th month of existence we have seen our unique visitor rate climb from 10 per day to now 300 per day all with content. We have found that adding a “contest” with a real prize has now created a surge in the month of march. We have an article writing contest with a case of our Mona Vie juice as the prize. In itself this is a $140 gift and we plan on doing this every month.
By having an article contest we also create MORE content on our site which enriches our pull on the Net itself. Yes, its a bit more work for us but by the end of this first ever contest we should have some interesting pull stats to review….
Steve
March 11th, 2008 2:12 am
Scott, Real Estate is visual. Both in the product you are managing for sale and the person/agent (your wife in this case) looking for prospects that can meet all the requirements to purchase the home or property. We found that email was one level of good communication but clearly not a personal approach. We found a company that provides Video Email but not by sending MB’s to the inbox. They send you a nicely configured (visually) email that is clickable to a site where they host and manage the actual video message. We have quite a few Real Estate and Travel Agents using this service now. We use it to thank our clients and make them aware of anything special like our Monthly Contest but with a visual email that carries our brand. Click on my name above and you will go to the service site. This is a great addition to blogging!
Darryl Heron
March 11th, 2008 6:42 pm
Darren:
You have some good ideas in your post. as well as several of the comments have hit upon this as well, but I’m not really in a position where I can consistantly follow a posting schedule or know what my next post will be. I find myself to be drowning in all the administrative things (which are all new to me) and searching to find decent information about attacting new readers. For me it is annoying when I find a post that I think will help and then I need try to find the rest of the post or worse find that it is only a teaser. Something to consider. I do hope that I can get into a postion where I can ceate and follow a posting schedule and build anticipation.
Darryl
Terry
March 19th, 2008 7:07 am
I agree with your post. My entire blog is built upon anticipation (I hope) as I tell the story of my real estate investment exploits complete with the actual financial performance of my deals. Just starting and tough getting the name out there. However, your blog has saved me a ton of time trying to figure it out by myself.
Terry
susy
March 19th, 2008 11:57 pm
Thanks for giving me so much to think about. I’m an old blogger– but just recently have started thinking about it as a much more important tool for me, as a self-employed designer.
I’m really enjoying trying to find my own ways to put your advice to use, and I’m now checking problogger lately.
Thanks for sharing all this info.
susy
Rob
March 22nd, 2008 4:24 am
I look forward to learning about this. In a sense I detect that you used this as a way to make anticipation on this post : p.
Clams
March 22nd, 2008 3:54 pm
Anticipation is a wonderful thing and you’ve shown that anticipation is the driving force that keeps us coming back again and again to a blog that’s exciting and insightful.
Thanks again Darren for another wonderful article.
Clams
http://www.EducationalToys4Tots.com/
Debt Free Hispanic
March 26th, 2008 7:23 am
I think anticipation is key. Your blog must create urgency so people can feel the importance.
Dot Design
May 9th, 2008 1:01 am
Great article, I’ve recently started a blob on my site and will certainly be taking all your comments on board to make it a success. Many thanks. Gareth
Shirley
July 17th, 2008 1:37 pm
Yes… Anticipation.
The only problem with this is that you have to publish a series of related articles, you just can’t pick a random subject and go… After all, if you create anticipation, you don’t want to let your readers down.
Gaje Master
July 27th, 2008 4:04 am
I didn’t read all the comments but this is definitely a good post for anticipation since we would have to wait to find out the full scoop.
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