Written on November 14th, 2008 at 12:11 am by Darren Rowse
Are RSS Subscribers Worthwhile if they Don’t Visit Your Blog?
“Why do bloggers put so much focus upon growing RSS subscriber numbers to their blog if most of them only ever read your content in Feed Readers and don’t visit your blog?”
This question (or variations of it) hit my inbox 3 times in 24 hours from different people so I thought I’d tackle it as a post instead of individual replies.
Let me start by saying that this problem can be frustrating. You see your RSS subscriber number growing by your actual visitor numbers remain steady – as do your comment numbers. It can actually feel like you’re wasting your time – I remember myself feeling kinda like this guy when I first noticed this happening to me:
Image by Sybren Stüvel
However all is not lost.
There are a number of points that I’d like to make in responding to this question about RSS subscribers not visiting a blog. I hope that they give those facing this problem a little hope, encouragement and also a few ways forward.
1. A subscriber that never visits is better than a one off visitor who never returns
I had one blogger recently tell me that he’d removed the option to subscribe to his blog via RSS from his blog because he didn’t want to ‘give away’ his content. He wanted people who read his content to ‘pay’ him by visiting his blog (and earning him money from his advertising) and he saw RSS subscribers as ‘freeloaders’.
My response to him was that I’d rather have a subscriber who rarely visits my actual blog than a one off visitors who never returns because they have no way of keeping in touch.
While a subscriber might not actually visit your blog they are a powerful connection to have. My reasons for this will hopefully become evident in the points that follow.
2. Every post you put in front of a subscriber is an opportunity to reinforce your brand.
RSS subscribers are opting in to receive your content. When they hit ’subscribe’ they are putting themselves inside your sphere of influence and are asking you to teach, inspire and communicate with them.
Each time you hit publish on a post and a subscriber sees something that you’ve written you have the potential to deepen the relationship, trust and influence that you have with your subscriber. While this might not have an immediate pay off in terms of advertising revenue – it can have a long term ‘pay off’.
3. RSS subscribers are Influencers
RSS is used by a smallish percentage of the population (around 11% at latest reports).
While the percentage may be smallish – I have a suspicion that they are a reasonably tech savvy and influential bunch of people. I’m guessing here – but I suspect that those who use RSS are also likely to have blogs themselves, they’re more likely to be into social networking, messaging and bookmarking tools.
This makes RSS readers a potentially very influential audience – capable of spreading news of your posts and blog throughout the web very quickly.
4. Making the Mind shift from Traffic to Influence
When I started blogging one of the main indicators that I looked at when measuring the success of my blog was traffic. If I had a day with lots of visitors I was happier than if I did not have anyone visit my blog.
While traffic is still important to me – I’ve noticed lately that I’m checking my visitor stats less than I used to. These days I’m increasingly interested in ‘influence’.
I don’t mind so much if someone reads my content on my blog, in an RSS reader or in some other tool – what matters to me is that people are reading it, that in doing so they interact with me, that they are drawn into some sort of ‘relationship’ or ‘community’ around the content.
My reason for this is that I’m finding that while traffic can be monetized directly – influence is actually a more powerful (and potentially profitable) thing. Let me explain more in my next point.
5. Influence can Lead to Profits
More and more bloggers are discovering that while direct income earners like advertising are great – that there’s also incredible potential for bloggers to earn an income through other more indirect income sources. Making money ‘because’ of a blog rather than directly ‘from’ a blog is possible in may ways including consulting, writing books, running training and workshops, selling products, landing other paid writing gigs, speaking at conferences etc.
The more people that you have some kind of influence with the increased chances of being able to monetize that influence in one of these indirect methods.
A subscriber might not be visiting your blog each day but if you provide great content on a daily basis to them you can bet that the day they decide that they need to hire a consultant on your topic that they’ll come knocking on your door.
6. Other Monetization Models for RSS
Indirect income is not the only possibility for RSS. There is also RSS advertising – this industry is still in its infancy and while isn’t hugely profitable using tools like AdSense I’m hearing bloggers reporting that it’s a growing income source for them.
The other great opportunity for income from RSS subscribers is affiliate programs. This taps into point #5 above – when you have ‘influence’ or trust established with readers an affiliate program can be very profitable.
7. The challenge of drawing subscribers into your blog
Just because someone subscribes to your blog does not mean that they’ll never visit it. In fact RSS subscribers can be among your most regular visitors to your blog if you draw them into actually visiting it.
I won’t go into a lot of techniques for this in this post but using techniques like asking questions, running polls, interlinking posts, writing ‘best of’ lists and more techniques can draw subscribers into visiting your blog on a daily basis.
Read more detailed tips on getting RSS readers visiting your blog.
Tags: , Blog Promotion, RSS, RSS Subscribers, Visitor Numbers
150 Responses to “Are RSS Subscribers Worthwhile if they Don’t Visit Your Blog?” - Add Yours
Ruchir Chawdhry
November 14th, 2008 12:13 am
I also used to think that RSS subscribers were worthless. But then I realized that my RSS subs were the ones promoting my blog for me, they were ones who were spreading the word. Bloggers focus too much on traffic. Focus on profits, not traffic.
Ganesh
November 14th, 2008 12:14 am
I prefer email subscribers rather than those who read the blog in a reader. I feel as if email subscribers subscribe because they want me to teach and talk with them. Whereas the idea of RSS does not appeal to me. I don’t know whether a person reads my feed or subscribes to it without any interest. I’m pretty sure that those who subscribe to my blog are interested in the the content that I’m going to write about.
I have heard about monetizing RSS feeds but hey the money is in the list. And you can build a list using email subscriptions, right?
Mike Mueller
November 14th, 2008 12:22 am
An RSS subscriber, like me, can be easily drawn out of his feed reader when he finds a great article (this goes with the influencer) and shares that with his friends in Facebook or Twitter.
I did just that seconds ago for a twitip post I liked.
That post just hit another couple of thousand people.
One word on drawing people in.
For me, (an avid RSS Reader) I will more than likely unsubscribe from a clipped feed.
Give me the full feed and I’ll read each and every one of your posts.
Healthy Gaming
November 14th, 2008 12:36 am
Thanks Darren, great post!
I haven’t thought much about modifying my feeds…
Does anyone have any good feed-related Wordpress plugin suggestions? Just wondering if i’m missing out on some good features. Thanks!
Monologue Blogger
November 14th, 2008 12:43 am
Informative Darren. I’m glad you pointed out for us how it is important NOT to take for granted your RSS subscribers as well as the reason why. Good note. =)
Tom
November 14th, 2008 12:47 am
Good post. It’s all about building your brand, and being influential in your field.
Sue
November 14th, 2008 12:55 am
Darren,
You’ve just described an Authority Blogger. :-)
And this validates my own opinion, that subscribers (especially email ones) are more important than traffic. They forward their emails to others, who then subscribe. They’re the ones who look forward to the next post. They’re the ones who contact you when they need an answer. They’re my little community. And I’m humbled and honored when someone thinks enough of my site to subscribe.
About monetization: Adsense doesn’t work for everyone, and I personally refuse to clutter up my site with it. Direct advertising (with relevant advertisers) is the way to go and with something like the RSS footer plugin for WordPress, it’s easy to add an advertisement to the feed and email. In fact, it’s a lot more targeted that way, because those subscribers are already interested in your subject.
Chris
November 14th, 2008 12:55 am
I have many blogs on my rss feed and the best ones I visit probably at least once a week. Take your site for example I have it on an RSS feed but I have probably visited it 4 or 5 times in the last week trying to figure out how to make money off a new blog. I greatly appreciate the information you put out there.
Krzysztof Lis
November 14th, 2008 12:57 am
Unless you have a way to monetize your RSS feed, any RSS subscriber does not present any direct value. I am not even sure if it’s easier to earn any money on RSS readers than on any random new guy who visits your blog.
Plugin To Improve Blog SEO
November 14th, 2008 1:01 am
Blog is about building community, I don’t care if my blog has a lot of traffic gone because of RSS, but I do care if my readers following me!
I can easily get them to visit my blog if I want to! Just have a contest or ask them to comment, they will be back.
The most important thing, if they are following my post, they are my prospect!
FFB
November 14th, 2008 1:04 am
When I look for links to use in my posts the first place I go to is my RSS reader. RSS is a powerful way to get your articles out there for other bloggers to link to.
Kimber
November 14th, 2008 1:05 am
Is it a coincidence that I have 3 subscribers to my RSS feed
and have 3 sites replicating my content (the verbage only)?
Am I being paraonoid?
Eric
November 14th, 2008 1:08 am
Hey Darren,
I was wondering if you (or any of your readers) could clarify something. A newsletter subscription service like Aweber automatically stores and gives you access to the email addresses that are used to subscribe to them.
What about RSS emails? When someone subscribes to your feed via RSS, do you have access to that email subscriber list like you would with Aweber?
Thanks,
Eric
Pace
November 14th, 2008 1:21 am
I think I’m coming from a different angle than most of your readers. To me, the most important thing is that the information gets out there and helps the people who want it. Traffic and profits are only important insofar as they help more people get more of that useful information. So from my point of view, RSS subscribers are great, regardless of whether they visit or sneeze or give me money.
Heather of Maternal Spark
November 14th, 2008 1:25 am
You know, I was just thinking about this the other day as I am really struggling to get my traffic up…but my RSS readership grows everyday.
Then I got a couple emails from subscribers and i realized that these people are REALLY reading my blog – everyday! And they care and if I need support, or have a question to ask well, they are there for me. Often, I also connect with these people on twitter as well. So yes, they are valuable and I wouldn’t want to go without them one bit.
Something else I realized is that there is a high level of trust with subscribers. They’ve permitted me into their email (or reader) and if I promote something, they are more likely to jump on board because they trust me. They would also be the first ones to pass my url or tweets around to their friends. Why would anyone want to go without that?
Swim University
November 14th, 2008 1:31 am
Actually for me it works the opposite. I get more visitors to my blog than RSS subscribers. I am really starting to think that my audience really isn’t computer savvy.
Michael Buchanan
November 14th, 2008 1:34 am
FYI, I found this story from a link on twitter. And I’ve seen that twitterfeed can allow users to post your feed directly to twitter, so their followers find it.
Grant Griffiths
November 14th, 2008 1:34 am
Darren seems you and I have the same brain when it comes to RSS recently. I did a post just other day about this. http://is.gd/7lAV
For a business or corporation who blogs, I am not sure they have the same concerns as a blogger who is monetizing their blog. While I do see why someone monetizing may not want to give full feed, there is really no reason for a business now to.
As far as RSS subscribers not visiting the blog, again, the business blogger does not have the same concerns. And I also don’t think a business blogger should worry about monetizing their RSS feed. These bloggers should be more concerned about providing information and who cares if their readers get this from the RSS feed without visiting the blog.
There a number of ways to get your readers to visit the blog even if they only read RSS. However, I do believe the business blogger should be more concerned about getting people to bookmark their blog as an information source then how many RSS readers they have. If the 11% figure is correct, the average blog reader is not using RSS anyway. And this is why a business blog has to be attractive and function correctly. If these readers are not using RSS, then they are visiting the blog either from a bookmark or some other method. And if these blogs are not appealing to the eye, the visitors is not going to become a reader.
I am not certain RSS has the same impact on the business blogger as it does on the huge number of bloggers attempting to make a living by monetizing their blogs. However I also agree, the business blogger can not overlook this part of their audience.
Arjewtino
November 14th, 2008 1:41 am
Darren, I have been a subscriber of your blog for 2 years and though I rarely click through onto your blog itself, I read you everyday.
This is my way of saying we’re out here, we’re reading you, and we’re gaining valuable insights from your blog.
And thank you.
Auction Thumbs
November 14th, 2008 1:41 am
I think one key thing was missed in this article that can make RSS detractors feel better about the offline aspect of email/RSS readers – employing summaries.
In Feedburner (and I believe in WP too), you can specify that subscribers only get a summary of your post (the first x characters) and are forced to click through to the site to get the rest.
This is the best of both worlds.
You may wonder what is the purpose then of having a feed at all if they’ll need to click to your site anyway. If you choose to employ summaries, you can consider the feed as a notifier so that your readers are aware of new content vs. it being a tool for consuming content in totality – your readers are notified of brand new content and are directed to your site. This prevents them from having to constantly check your site when nothing new is available.
Brandon
November 14th, 2008 1:49 am
I think it also begs the question of our purpose. Yes we’d like to maximize our click revenue, but ultimately, we need to want to give great content for our readers whether they click through or not… but we certainly hope for clicks too!
PhotoKungFu
November 14th, 2008 1:52 am
Also don’t forget that not all RSS subscribers read the full content in an RSS reader. I aggregate all my feeds using NetVibes which only shows article titles and a very small excerpt of the article content. This works well for me as I follow so many sites. So if I find an article grabs my attention, I click through to the original article, pretty much the same as you would from an email subscription of the last weeks content.
Barb D.
November 14th, 2008 1:55 am
Darren–What I like about your RSS feeds is the fact that I can click on “comments” below each post. The comments actually draw me back to your website. So I enjoy the convenience of RSS, and that I can click easily back to your website in the “comments” section. RSS is definitely a worthwhile thing!
Barb
Stuart Foster
November 14th, 2008 1:56 am
You can add revenue from RSS feeds now :) Google recently made this available and you can now place Google ad-sense within your rss feeds…and make a little bit of money that way.
new media photographer
November 14th, 2008 1:59 am
I agree 100%. I always subscribe to blogs I enjoy. I think that if a post is of great interest, reader will often hit a link to goto the actual blog. At least I do.
I’m sure their a number of blogs I enjoy reading that I would have lost track of it is wasn’t for subscriptions.
Plus, if you concerned about making money. A loyal audience is much easier to sell to when new products come out.
Freeloaders, no, your real fans!!!
Rosh
Ed
November 14th, 2008 2:31 am
Hi Darren,
I seldom post my comments here but today I’d like to let you know that for the last couple of entries make you blog positively very differentiated from other well-known blogs like johnchow’s that I extremely benefit from reading your ideas and content. To make it even better it would be great to post more about blog success stories(like the wine guy’s) and this kind of article(how to/why). Thanks a lot.
C.J. Harley
November 14th, 2008 2:45 am
I love my RSS subscribers. I get a little extra jolt when I see the number go up. I’m glad that you shared this. Just the other day I was wondering why my traffic was staying the same, but my subscribers were going up. Thanks for the information.
Mr Javo
November 14th, 2008 2:55 am
“I don’t mind so much if someone reads my content on my blog, in an RSS reader or in some other tool – what matters to me is that people are reading it, that in doing so they interact with me, that they are drawn into some sort of ‘relationship’ or ‘community’ around the content”
That’s very truth Darren, and this is why we blog right? I felt frustrated once for the this reason, I was seeing the rss counter increasing but my visits were stuck at the same level…
When somebody subscribes to your blog, a sense of loyalty is created between you and the subscriber, and that’s the important thing…
Shafar
November 14th, 2008 2:56 am
Great Post. I liked the point “Influence can Lead to Profits” :)
DavidC
November 14th, 2008 3:00 am
I took a 2 year hiatus from posting on my blog, simply because I had other personal and professional projects that trumped it on the priority list.
I recently resurrected the blog, and was pleased to find that a percentage of my RSS subscribers where still active. Not huge, but it allowed me to get some immediate readership, without completely starting from scratch.
I’m certainly not recommending the practice, but these loyal subscribers immediately began reviewing my site after I started posting again. That certainly counts for something, even if it doesn’t immediately put money in the bank.
Lipton of Starfeeder
November 14th, 2008 3:03 am
That blogger you talk about in point 1 Darren is an asshole.. I hate bloggers or web content creators that act all selfish like that.
I mean of course making sure you get credit for your work is important, but some people fail to realize how small and usually insignificant they are in the giant sea that is the web.
I’ve had an experience with a site that puts up videos on youtube, I embeded their videos in some of my posts with links to their main website and they still got upset. Like hello idiots this is the web and if you put stuff on youtube it’s called “Sharing”…
Anyways I don’t link to or even mention them anymore, my bet is once starcraft 2 is out (the topic of both our sites) they will fade away into nothing because they don’t understand the power of sharing on the web. Right now they would be benefiting from my traffic since I get x10 more… if I blogged more of their videos.
great post.
willbill from That was HOT!
November 14th, 2008 3:04 am
I like your idea about shifting your focus from traffic to influence. It is really important to be influential and the number of rss subscriber determines your level of influential. This fact alone will determine your success as a blogger. Traffic will change from time to time but influence does not. If your influence were already established, what ever you do, people will still follow you, be it wrong or not. John Chow for example, there are lots who are saying that he no longer doing good or are helpful but still people still follow him because his influence are already established.
Blogging School
November 14th, 2008 3:11 am
I think they’re worthless unless you use them for social proof.
David B Katague
November 14th, 2008 3:19 am
Excellent article. I agree with your guess, that majority of those who subscribe to RRS feed are probably bloggers themselves
Peter Cooper
November 14th, 2008 3:22 am
Including the “Comments” FeedFlare helps a lot – because once a couple of people have commented, a lot of other people then see it in the feed and come to the site to see what the discussion’s about! I think this FeedFlare might only work on WP blogs though.
For anyone who thinks they’d rather keep site traffic high with partial text feeds – don’t! I have 17000 subscribers on one of my blogs and there’s /no/ way I would have got to that with partial feeds. Even if you lose traffic in the short term, full text feeds are worth it to get that subscriber number high.
William Cox
November 14th, 2008 3:25 am
Darren,
Don’t forget to mention that RSS subscribers is also a good metric for measuring a blog’s popularity. It can be a helpful number to throw around, especially if you don’t drive enough traffic to rank well on Alexa or Compete.com.
Kathy Purdy
November 14th, 2008 3:26 am
So, are you harming yourself by providing a feed that is excerpt only, which requires the subscriber to click to your site to read the rest of the article?
David B Katague
November 14th, 2008 3:30 am
Darren and others: I have a question,not related to this posting. Perhaps, you and others could answer it. I have seven blog sites. I want to combine it to only three sites based on the topics. Is there an easy way to do it? I am thinking of copy and paste way, but that will take sometime. Is there a way to change the blog site address in the “EDIT” mode? I am new on blogging and not really a computer wizard. Your response will be appreciated
Laugh It Out
November 14th, 2008 3:40 am
After Google added support for “Adsense For Feed” , RSS subscriber makes good sense from revenue point too.
Ari Herzog
November 14th, 2008 3:43 am
In the spirit of drawing people to my brand via RSS, here’s another tip that I picked up the other day (forget where; may have been on Daniel Scocco’s Daily Blog Tips): When posting your website or blog in a comment, such as the “link” for my name above, include your RSS feed.
Which is what I’ve done here as many ProBlogger readers are web-savvy: If you click my name, you’re brought to my RSS feed subscription page. You can still read the content but if you’d like to read my advice on social media and online marketing, I’m making it easier for you (and providing supplemental advice to Darren’s above).
Toma Bonciu
November 14th, 2008 3:44 am
Hi,
RSS can help you build audience and reinforce your brand. It can also help you make money by running AdSense. It can be a proof to you that you create great copy : if people opens it.
Thank you
Kevin
November 14th, 2008 4:08 am
Thanks for the great post. Keep it up!
I subscribe to many blogs through Google Reader and use the share feature for the articles I like the most and on my personal blog my readers can see the clips I am sharing with my widget. While I do not typically visit each blog I often find myself commenting on a number of posts, which forces me to actually visit the blog. So I am of the belief that RSS readers are not a bad thing. I would agree that most people using feed readers are probably among the most tech savvy and many are active in the blogging community.
So how does an RSS feed differ from a newsletter subscriber, if at all?
Steph
November 14th, 2008 4:10 am
Being on both sides of the debate, I prefer RSS feeds. Firstly, as a reader, I much prefer to read blogs through RSS. This allows me to keep track of what I’ve read, what’s new, etc. For many blogs, if it wasn’t for the RSS feeds I don’t think I’d be there nearly as often. In all honesty, I caught this post through the RSS feed.
On the other side, being a blogger I love having RSS feed subscriber. Sure you can’t really market ads to them, but they’re also probably a lot less likely to click anyways in the first (they’re use to your blog). But like you’re suggesting Darren, they’re great to build a community around your brand.
A great example of this is the book you released. I’m sure a lot of people found out about the book through your RSS feed. I know I did. Had you not had an RSS feed and I only intermittently checked, well I might have missed some crucial posts.
And it’s not just your books (or Amazon, etc.). If you build a large community you will have other opportunities come to you. The more you’re in people’s mind, the better.
And as you say, never ever doubt the power of influencers!!!
Jez
November 14th, 2008 4:13 am
I see a nice advert at the bottom of the article in gReader. Do you know whether or not you get $0.01 everytime someone VIEWS the article? or do they have to click..
BTW i will soon unsubcribe to a feed if its plastered in ads, but what you have is more than enough!
Maddie Grant
November 14th, 2008 4:36 am
Don’t forget your RSS subscribers are also likely to be those people who tweet links to your posts on Twitter – which link directly to your blog, not to their RSS feed of your blog. So they may actually be sending people to you.
The other aspect is that bloggers like me who do most of their blog reading in a reader, also will link back to your posts in our own posts and those links also are the direct permalinks.
Maddie Grant
November 14th, 2008 4:41 am
Don’t forget your RSS subscribers are also likely to be those people who tweet links to your posts on Twitter – which link directly to your blog, not to their RSS feed of your blog. So they may actually be sending people to you.
The other aspect is that bloggers like me who do most of their blog reading in a reader, also will link back to your posts in our own posts and those links also are the direct permalinks.
That sounds really confusing but the point is that your RSS subscribers are spreading the word about you.
TheAndySan
November 14th, 2008 5:38 am
I totally agree with this post!
Bloggers are beginning to realize that it’s not all about how many clicks your ads get or how much daily traffic you’re getting, although they are important.
I decided to take the advice of Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips (http://www.dailyblogtips.com/50-simple-ways-to-gain-rss-subscribers/) and made some changes to my blog yesterday. As of today, I have 7 subscribers. Sure, it’s not much, but it’s 7 more than I had before.
Like Darren says, it’s about how much influence you have. One of those 7 subscribers could be someone looking for a guest blogger or an angel investor looking for the next big thing on the internet or just an average Joe curious to see what people in Ohio do.
Either way, it’s nice to know that people are reading and watching my content.
DanoSongs
November 14th, 2008 6:08 am
If you do full feeds and include affiliate links in the header and footer of each post in your xml feed (using the wordpress PostPost plugin for example) then RSS is just another viewer for your entire advertising-based revenue generating blog business. Thats awesome – come on splogs, steal my stuff (just leave the links intact)!
Optimizator
November 14th, 2008 6:13 am
it’s a good post, i thing the real value for any blog is subscribers, the can visit your blog onse and then rean information from readers
thats i think why so little comments, for example Darren blog has 66k subscribbers, but comment only a very small percent.
RaSh
November 14th, 2008 6:28 am
Really interesting topic. For people who post different content (like me, I post Tech & Sketches), RSS is great, as not everyone would be interested in seeing all posts.
I read loads of blogs through RSS, though I hardly comment on most. But whenever there’s something interesting, I make sure I leave a comment. I guess that’s where the purpose of RSS Subscribers is served :)
ashok
November 14th, 2008 6:51 am
The traffic/influence distinction you raise implies that RSS subscribers are better for gaining the latter.
I’ll never sneeze at subscribers. In fact, I really would like a ton more. But if you want “buzz” even of a small scale sort, well, it looks like “buzz” is a traffic-driven phenomenon, unless some high profile bloggers subscribe to your feed.
For a blogger starting out, it seems “buzz” is more than useful – it’s pretty much necessary. You need a knockout post or two that everyone reads. “Influence” in this case mainly means getting lots of diverse traffic to that post.
I guess what I’m saying is that the game changes at different stages in a blog’s life cycle. One thing worth addressing is whether a blog produces content more suitable for social media or RSS – those list posts, for me, get pretty annoying to have in one’s reader over and over again, even though they do generate buzz.
Roberto @ Psychbits.com
November 14th, 2008 6:55 am
Excellent post. Even thought I’m a newbie, this question crosses my mind since day one. Thank you for taking the time to clarify and provide your insight on this topic.
I totally agree that influence is way much better.
MLRebecca
November 14th, 2008 7:10 am
RSS subscriptions are indicative of the quality of your blog. If a person likes your blog enough to take the extra step to subscribe, it means they enjoy what you have to say, and they want more of it. RSS does help to build your brand. In addition, it is possible to run campaigns on your RSS as well. Thanks for sharing your views on this topic.
rss feeder
November 14th, 2008 7:16 am
Well, it seems to be that the ultimate point is conversion and whether they visit my blog or not doesn’t really matter but the percentage of converting these visitors into sale really matters.
Globetrotting Bride
November 14th, 2008 7:20 am
Really interesting article. My RSS subscriber has been slowly growing and I get really excited to think my fan base is growing. I am trying to build traffic and I thought a contest would do the trick but I’ve just gotten a trickle of responders. Is it better to have people email me to win or leave comments? I thought comments but maybe its better to leave readers wondering how many people are entering….
Michael Martine - Remarkablogger
November 14th, 2008 7:27 am
I have more direct influence over my Twitter Followers and email subscribers than RSS readers, but it is through RSS that most linking takes place: RSS readers decide to post on their own blog and link back to me.
RSS subscribers are very, very worthwhile. They are the lifeblood of blog traffic and activity!
Rosemary Slosek
November 14th, 2008 7:57 am
I read hundreds of feeds. I also disseminate hundreds of posts to a wide range of people. If I can’t read the full feed in my feed reader, then I don’t read your blog. Your loss, not mine. It’s not practical to read each feed in the blog.
Search Engine SEO
November 14th, 2008 8:51 am
Excellent post, I definitely agree that RSS is what i look for in a blog now rather than alexa or pagerank or anything else.
Tina Kubala
November 14th, 2008 8:56 am
I switched from using a “blogroll” to make visits to blogs to subscribing in Google Reader. I can tell you, I read and visit more blogs more often because RSS is a much more efficient use of my time. I click through to leave comments and for blogs with Entrecard (I know, totally different topic).
So, the best way to turn RSS readers into visits is to write content that makes me NEED to comment.
jennine
November 14th, 2008 8:57 am
i know with my main blog i have a really nice subscriber count, and it does keep growing… my traffic… has doubled in the last few months, but it’s not as steady as the rss.
that said, i know personally, if you don’t have an rss, i won’t read your blog. nothing personal, i’m just too lazy to remember where you were.
;)
Kelvin Kao
November 14th, 2008 9:27 am
I’m an RSS reader and I’ve just clicked on the title of the post to comment here. So yeah, RSS does lead to me to come back to the actual website.
Also, Darren here has mentioned the use of mailing lists, and the idea of keeping that audience and build trust before you actually try to sell anything. I think this is the same idea.
Beth Norman
November 14th, 2008 9:31 am
Wow, lots of comments on this post. I’m a reader via e-mail and I don’t come over often. BUT, I do read each and every article of yours, and I have your book which I read twice. I don’t leave comments on your blog because I’m all about rubberstamping and don’t feel I fit in your league, but please know you have taught me a lot, and my numbers keep rising from the tips and tricks I learn from you. Thanks for all your hard work. I really appreciate all your posts.
Michael Aulia
November 14th, 2008 10:13 am
Spot on Darren! I use to concern with the way AdSense giving me cents and focusing on how to get more search engine traffic.
The focus has been shifted a bit now towards my readers and my “influence”.
I guess another good point to make, is that having a good number of RSS readers (and show it on your blog) attract private advertisers
Mike Martin
November 14th, 2008 10:19 am
RSS Subscribers are far from useless. If someone is subscribed to your RSS feed it means that they really enjoy your content and do not want to miss it. Furthermore, someone subscribed to RSS will still visit the blog in order to participate in comments, look at design changes, or participate in polls. A visitor is anyone on the internet who happens to find your site. A subscriber is a truly engaged reader.
Lenin Nair
November 14th, 2008 11:12 am
I believe your friend should have enabled a post summary only RSS feed. You can yourself enable it for your readers to check out any valuable posts by coming to your blog, now that your brand is sufficiently established.
Joel Drapper
November 14th, 2008 11:49 am
I hardly ever read an actual post in my rss reader 1) because I don’t like the formatting of my rss reader. I prefer to visit the blog and have a change of design and 2) because you can’t leave a comment from within an rss reader.
It’s seems strange to me that most people don’t click through but since that is the case. Great post I must say.
Coop
November 14th, 2008 12:22 pm
I haven’t begun to work on my RSS feeds. This is a good kick in the butt to get moving on this.
Paul
November 14th, 2008 12:33 pm
Want to get more visits from your RSS subscribers? Easy, compel or entice them to comment! Either write comment-worthy material, or use comments as incentive for something else (eg competitions, the chance to be included in a list in a later post, etc).
Melvin
November 14th, 2008 12:59 pm
Great article Darren.. But the thing I dont like about rss subscriptions is that in terms of blog contests. Most people do subscribe and unsubscribe right after the contest which I find very silly…
Mike Martin
November 14th, 2008 1:27 pm
Lenin, I understand the concept behind summary only RSS feeds, but I really do not like them. They seem to completely erase the point of RSS feeds. I subscribe to a blog because I really enjoy the content there, don’t ruin a great technology and make me click a link just to read your work. Does it really matter if the reader readers in in NNW, NF, or Google Reader as opposed to on your page? They are still engaging in your content
GLenn
November 14th, 2008 1:34 pm
This is a very nice post Darren.. I am one of your thousand subscribers.. I just visit your site once a month.. and just read your post via feeds.. but when I read this great post from my yahoo rss feed account.. I cant stop my self to read your post directly from your site and to place my comment too.
Lisa Angelettie
November 14th, 2008 4:08 pm
I must admit that this same question has crossed my mind, but I knew that having both would be beneficial so I never questioned it.
As far as the type of customer I am – I prefer email hands down. Even though I am swamped with them, I HAVE to read them for personal, business, shopping etc. I don’t have to go through my RSS subscriptions. That is something I must remember to do.
I think it’s important to offer both options, and hopefully the reader picks the option that they really use.
Bill Masson (WWAH)
November 14th, 2008 4:24 pm
The more you can spread your influence the better as far as I’m concerned. It’s just another part of the jigsaw of blogging, for me it fits in with the rest of my strategy. I agree over the long term RSS subscribers will bring benefit in many ways by spreading the word. I don’t use Google, but I do put the occasional affiliate link in.
I think another great benefit of RSS is the open syndication where other blog or website owners can use feeds for their visitors.
sony
November 14th, 2008 4:51 pm
Hello! Sir, this is sony, I have a blog on blogspot which have a Page Rank 2 and 1800 back links. I have recently build a site on wordpress and exported all my blogspot posts to wordpress installed site and I have submitted my wp site to google and got indexed.
But my problem is that my blogspot blog hits 1500 to 2000 views every day and most of the traffic to this blogspot blog is from search engine. Now I have no traffic from search engine to my blogspot. This is my problem. I don’t what are the reasons for this. I think google thinking that I have copied all the content from wp to my blogspot. If it is the case what should I do to rectify my problem sir.
Please help me.
Yours Truly
Thank you.
Sarah
November 14th, 2008 7:49 pm
I think it’s important to realise that RSS subscribers are the real followers of a blog. A person who just flits in and out of a blog may never come back. If I see something interesting in my feed reader I’ll go to the blog to have a look and see what else is on there – I like to read older posts and look at comments, and do that quite regularly with all of the blogs I subscribe to.
I tend to read RSS feed items more thoroughly than I do email newsletters, which I just skim and delete. I also find myself commenting more on posts from feeds than I have ever done when I’ve actually been visiting sites (I think that might just be me being strange, though). I also agree that RSS subscribers can be key to growing your blog readership. I certainly promote those I subscribe to on my own blog, in comments, etc.
I would be more than happy to have people subscribing to my blog via RSS and stopping by now and again, rather than high, one-off traffic.
Dilip Shaw
November 14th, 2008 8:03 pm
Sony this is the problem with having a blog hosted with sources you don’t have control on. If it was a blog where you had control of servers you could have used *permanent redirect* and got rid of the problem.
However the best advice now is that you continue to concentrate on the blog that’s giving you most traffic.
Dilip Shaw
http://www.DilipShaw.com/
sony
November 14th, 2008 8:32 pm
i can’t get u. Sir i have deleted all the exported posts and submitted sitemap for the both blogs now, is it ok? Or is there any other solution?
Chris F
November 14th, 2008 8:33 pm
I might be some kind of RSS mutant, but whenever I see an interesting-looking article in my reader, I click through to the website to read it.
Ryan McLean
November 14th, 2008 11:40 pm
I run a commenting competition on my blog where you can win $150 just by commenting on my blog. This way my RSS subscribers need to actually visit my blog and comment so they can have a chance of winning the grande prize.
But I like the fact that even though they may never read your blog directly you can still sell to them through affiliate links and you can make money from people who never ever visit your website. My subscriber count just hit the 300 mark and I am super excited to continue to increase it even if some of them don’t come back to my blog all the time
Christian Menniss
November 15th, 2008 12:09 am
Hi,
Does the number of RSS subscribers have any impact on SEO? I’m sure as Google owns Feedburner they know how many people have subscribed to your blog perhaps giving you extra ‘points’ in the SERPS.
Social Networking North
November 15th, 2008 1:34 am
I subscribe to over 100 different feeds and use feedreaders to montior what content my favourite sites are publishing. However if I do see a post I’d like to read in full I always click though to view the hosts website. Giving people the option to view your content in as many ways as possible and ‘reminding them you exist’ through feed readers will always lead to visits in my experience.
Takumi86
November 15th, 2008 2:17 am
to me, subscriber is the support tools to encourage me to post more, blog without subscriber will be meaningless even though you have lots of good post inside
Josh Miller
November 15th, 2008 2:51 am
Comment also posted on Social Median, which brings up a whole other section of this sort of argument on types of readers.
This article does a good job of pointing out why RSS subscribers are good. Especially in point 4. There are a couple of types of bloggers at work here. Bloggers who hope to make money from their blog 9generally through advertising) and those who just want to push conetnet and influence).
You can actually be bot of these at the same time.
Anyway, I prefer to push people to subscribe to my blogs on RSS. I have a few ads I’ve never made money off of but I’m also not interested in making money off of my blog. I’d rather have every visitor continue to receive my content through my RSS feeds than try to coax them into returning for a later visit.
JB @ Cool Products
November 15th, 2008 6:46 am
I really enjoyed reading the sections about “influence” in relation to blogs. It really made some of my problems much clearer now, thanks for posting Darren.
Massimo Belloni
November 15th, 2008 10:06 am
I believe you’re right: anyway RSS sbubscribers, “silent”or not, are the best way to promeote your blog. Also if I have a personal (photo)blog from few time, I discovered that RSS is one of the main sources of traffic. Maybe that who subscribe is really intrigued by my images that they won’t loose anything, and RSS is the best way to stay informed.
Tony Lawrence
November 15th, 2008 10:37 am
It’s interesting.
Quantcast.com tell me that some about 150,000 folks visit me monthly and that about 10% are “regulars” – that’s 15,000 people if their figures can be trusted (and maybe not – I’ve only had them measuring about a week now).
But RSS subscribers? It varies, but it’s never hit 1,000.
So even if Quantcast is off a bit – say the regulars are only 5%, not 10% – a LOT of people don’t use RSS.
Ken Stewart
November 15th, 2008 10:54 am
Darren, what more can I say than what each of these fine people have said. This is a great post, and thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
Warmest Regards,
Ken Stewart | ChangeForge.com
Theblogrevenue
November 15th, 2008 2:49 pm
Rss just a bait for them to read and commented at our blog. We may lose reader,if it’s interesting,reader still visit our blog and response with it.
Lisa
November 15th, 2008 3:32 pm
Great post, Darren. I, for one, am always excited to log on and find my subscriber count has grown. I find that most people not only read my feeds, but it’s a reminder for them to visit also.
mohawkdonkeydotcom
November 15th, 2008 5:19 pm
I don’t have this problem. I’ve got visitors but no RSS readers.
Bcarter
November 15th, 2008 9:15 pm
I’ve subscribed to your blog by email for quite some time. Most times I at least open the email I receive to see what you have to say. If I feel my own two cents needs to be added I’ll pop on over and leave a comment.
In my point of view, the way to get readers to your blog is write something they’ll want to comment on.
Traffic and readers are equally important in my eyes. People don’t discover you without traffic and most of the time they probably won’t come back without subscribing to your feed.
Christine Range
November 16th, 2008 4:42 am
Wow – what an interesting topic which brought some terrific comments and points of view.
From my perspective, I am more concerned about readers accessing my blog content for any useful information they may find, regardless of the venue they choose. I tend to place less emphasis on traffic and more on influence because I am looking at the long-term goal of my blog (establishing credibility in my field and gaining loyal followers) versus short term – direct results.
I am a RSS subscriber to many feeds. It is here, that I often get content ideas for my own blog and stay on top of what other bloggers are writing about in my areas of interest. Rarely do I just read the feeds without visiting some of the blogs that post really interesting articles.
I believe RSS feeds can lead to ultimate traffic. I became aware of your blog via RSS feed and now I am hooked. Your site is on my blogroll and I visit regularly because you consistently provide valuable content.
Thanks so much for all that you share with us fellow bloggers!!
Karl Hadwen
November 16th, 2008 4:55 am
Good Blog Post, and it’s very good to get Hits aswell as readers, but its a 50/50 opinion to be fair.
LEADSExplorer
November 16th, 2008 7:20 am
We consider our blog as promoting the brand or solution.
Whatever channel is used by the reader:
- the blog itself
- reading on rss
- reading on a blog aggregation website
- a micro blog site
The display of our content linked with the brandname of the solution works like advertising.
Search engines show the link to the blog post on specific matters.
Thus whatever channel we can use to distribute our blog content, the more we can brand our solution.
Bonus:
If a blog post gets bookmarked, the number of visitors gets multiplied by 10 during one day.
Miamiwebdesign
November 16th, 2008 11:45 am
Darren, as usual thanks for the great tips!
shun2u
November 16th, 2008 12:33 pm
great post. Thanks for sharing. But most my visitors are frm social book marking,
VitaMan
November 16th, 2008 3:10 pm
Honestly I thought it would be common sense.
Many people don’t want to visit 247 sites a day, so they take RSS feeds. Unless you are one of their top few favorite blogs, they wouldn’t be reading your content at all without a feed. That feed provides an (almost) permanent connection with that reader – ensuring that at one point they may return.
Besides, if you ever, even once in a while do a product review or something of the sort, and include affiliate links in your blog, that link will transfer to the RSS feed, which could turn into profit. I don’t understand why anybody would devalue the use of a subscriber enough to remove the ability to do so, lol.
pokrate
November 16th, 2008 4:22 pm
There is a option in many blog service providers where only a certain portion is available via feeds like only first 50 characters. If post looks good, visitors click on titles to land on actual post.
Julie Walraven
November 16th, 2008 11:20 pm
I think the reason I subscribe to blogs both by e-mail and RSS is to be able to find them again. Before Twitter, I just ran into blogs from other blogs. If I liked them, I wanted to know that I could find them again.
Whether it comes in by e-mail or RSS, I am likely to go to the actual blog page, either to leave a comment or to read other people’s comments.
Thank you problogger for all you do to educate us, not only in this blog but in Twitips!
all top blogs
November 17th, 2008 3:24 am
great post.
Jeff
November 17th, 2008 9:15 am
Yes,, sometime RSS is important
Justin
November 17th, 2008 1:28 pm
I like to use the similar posts plugin to include similar posts in my RSS feed. This can sometimes lead the RSS subscribers to click on other posts and get exposed to more of the website.
Paid survey Reviews
November 17th, 2008 11:55 pm
I think Feed is all about brand. According to me people who take the feed usually bookmark the blog also. They visit whenever they feel like getting some information from your site & feed only helps them so that they do not miss any content that you post in future.
Tia
November 18th, 2008 1:11 am
Definitely, RSS is important. Not only it will monetize directly (as with ads for RSS), but it constitutes a gate for more people to eventually come. I would like you to stress the importance of submitting your RSS feed to RSS submission portals, it is not a negligible source of traffic.
Nathan Creitz
November 18th, 2008 12:43 pm
I think RSS is important. I’ve listed 8 reasons why someone should subscribe to my blog. These reasons are meant to be funny. The first one is: “A subscription to my blog will ensure that you always step in it while it’s still fresh (and hopefully some of it will stick to your shoe so that others can get a whiff).” You are welcome to link to this post if you are trying to give people reasons to subscribe to you (I’ll even give you some return link love).
Brent Haeseker
November 18th, 2008 1:15 pm
Wow – great article. I RSS a lot of blogs – it is the only way to keep up. If I didn’t RSS, those blogs I follow would never get visited. I probably only open 1 out of 20 feeds to the actual blog site, but again, if I didn’t have those feeds hitting me all the time, the blog sites would be forward lost in that void I call bookmarks. Most of the good blog reads I see and post comments on (like this one) come from a Twitter post – the ultimate RSS feed! :-)
Autopilot Blueprint
November 18th, 2008 3:04 pm
IMHO. Some people will still prefer to click the title and it will open a new windows and read the news instead of read it on RSS Reader / full feed viewed on their email.
Totally free online dating
November 18th, 2008 7:31 pm
Thank you for this post. I was allways thinking if the RSS feeds had any real long term value. I think Twitter is a great “alternative” to RSS feeds, well it certanly works for me :).
Hayley Weatherburn
November 18th, 2008 7:40 pm
RSS feeds are an interesting concept – and I have to agree, someone who reads the RSS regularly but doesn’t visit the site is a better customer than just one that fleetingly visits! It is about quality not quantity.
Hazel Edmunds
November 19th, 2008 12:51 am
I think the RSS v email v “get them into the actual blog” arguments depend very largely on WHY you created the blog in the first place. Mine is essentially an information providing exercise for guidance practitioners in the UK as an offshoot of a more direct service to a discrete membership network. Easy, quick, gives them what they need and if readers want more help / advice / information then they know who and how to contact.
Web Talk
November 19th, 2008 12:53 am
the importance of RSS is known is long. Sadly a lot of blogger doesnt know about it yet. They should promote their RSS since thanks to it they will get a lot of direct traffic!
Luke smith
November 19th, 2008 4:39 am
It’s an idea i’ve been toying with, but i’m not sure whether i’ve even got the coverage on most of my sites to get RSS subscribers!
deden
November 19th, 2008 5:12 am
thanks for sharing your mind about RSS subscribers.
Lisa
November 19th, 2008 3:01 pm
My readers don’t even know how to get most out of RSS feeds. But they respond to newsletters sent through emails.
Don Mega
November 19th, 2008 3:55 pm
Great article!,
I think first you have to educate your readers about RSS. It’s funny but when some people hear the word “subscribe” they tend to think it’s something they have to pay for.
Once you educate your readers about RSS and how easy it is to subscribe and read their favorite articles in a reader then they will begin to utilize this function. I know alot of great blogs where the webmasters don’t even provide RSS, which can really bring in some decent traffic.
Promoting your RSS feed cannot be over-looked either it goes hand in hand with placing that ever so friendly subscribe button on your webpage or blog.
I wrote a good article about educating your readers on RSS that should also help your subscriber count. Feel free to link or copy the post to your blog, please try to place a link back and or crediting me for the original message.
Oh, and please do not HOTLINK my RSS button from the post, it will just eat up bandwidth on my server.
Thanks in Advance!
http://www.megaonlineprofits.com/139/12-ways-to-recruit-new-rss-subscribers-for-your-blog/
Omar
November 20th, 2008 12:03 am
Though I don’t have advertisements on my blogs – I too thought that I was waiting my time with RSS subscribers; it seems I was wrong.
Thanks for the advice.
sudan
November 20th, 2008 12:46 am
I agree with you and thank for your idea about RSS subscriber.
Great Information.
Robert Grundulis
November 20th, 2008 3:14 am
All it takes is for one interesting headline to catch a non-visiting subscriber’s attention in their reader to get another visit to your blog. From that one visit you may get just one hit, or the visitor might blog about it themselves, thus bringing in more visitors. So yes, in my opinion all RSS subscribers have some value – even if it isn’t obvious.
Noobpreneur
November 20th, 2008 4:39 am
Darren,
Agreed.
However, in my situation, I need to figure it out how to get more people to subscribe to my blog’s feed.
Being charming helps, but I’m not sure that it is all needed to get tons of feed readers :D
Cheers!
David Perel
November 20th, 2008 5:55 am
I cannot agree more. People too often confuse hits in quantity for quality. You could be getting 200,000 hits a day but if you aren’t getting comments / refferals / business then it doesn’t mean much does it?
So I say that as long as your 500 subscribers are reading your posts, be it on there feed or your site, you will have a huge opportunity of word of mouth. The tail is long, so RSS subscribers do count. 100%.
Jay
November 20th, 2008 12:21 pm
Very useful information indeed. Some great tips to help me as I’m getting ready to start my first blog. Better late then never.
Living on Adsense Blog
November 20th, 2008 5:23 pm
Ok I didn’t all 121 comments ahead of me, so I hopefully I am not repeating what any of the peeps ahead of me said.
My personal strategy is to link to a few of my greatest posts with in my posts. Almost like making the link an extension of the post you are writing. If you can add a few intriguing links to other posts within your blog then those subscribers will be comin’ to your actual blog.
Also if you are writing really ‘good sh!t’ then I’m the your RSS peeps will head to your blog to leave a comment. Just like I did hear. I had to get up, walk away from my RSS feed, head to Problogger just to give in my 2 cents.
Let’s face it kids, you need to stop crying that your RSS subscribers are not coming to your blog, cause guess what…they are
Nimish
November 20th, 2008 7:47 pm
I think we are losing our track. Its the same old story Who came first – Chicken or Egg? Is it the crave to earn money from your blog inspired you to blog or is it to write your mind inspired you to blog. I started blogging as a voice to be heard and not the source to earn money.
Harish
November 21st, 2008 2:11 am
I afford email subscription as using any reader is useless.Email subscriptions are the best
Oliver
November 21st, 2008 3:05 am
I just started my official blog about a week ago now, I’ve kind of been experimenting for a couple of months to get the hang of it, and I’ve learnt quite a lot.
I cannot wait till I get RSS subscribers on my blog, even if they don’t actually visit my blog, you must do everything you can to get your blog to read as many people as possible.
You never know, those readers can tell their friends, and then hey, you just gained another subscriber.
I feel that blogging is all about networking, getting yourself known and showing how many people actually read the content on your website. RSS is kind of a leech seed to be honest, you are tempting them to read the content on the blog, rather than the feed itself.
All I can see is benefits really, theres no reason not to use RSS.
Mike Martin
November 21st, 2008 9:00 am
Harish, for advanced users, I believe that RSS is a better option. More streamlined, less inbox mess, and separates emails from rss feeds which are truthfully 2 different types of content. However, for non-tech oriented users, email is just as good, if not better than RSS, because many of them are not familiar with an RSS reader.
Mike Martin
November 21st, 2008 9:00 am
Harish, for advanced users, I believe that RSS is a better option. More streamlined, less inbox mess, and separates emails from rss feeds which are truthfully 2 different types of content. However, for non-tech oriented users, email is just as good, if not better than RSS, because many of them are not familiar with an RSS reader.
Infonote
November 21st, 2008 11:20 pm
Well, Problogger has full feeds but I still visit the page due to comments.
So to answer your question, make people comment on your posts and you will have more visitors.
Rowell
November 22nd, 2008 4:11 am
I think of RSS as another way to get yourself out there but I learned a valuable tip from the first comment, focus on profits not traffic.
If you focus on the profits the traffic will follow!
VonBytch.com
November 22nd, 2008 3:42 pm
Good point! Afterall, word of mouth is the best form of advertising!
venkat
November 22nd, 2008 9:54 pm
I definitely prefer email subscription over RSS ,because email subscribers read the content they tell their opinions on blog by commenting,I want to be touch with my subscribers and also with this RSS the subscriber count shows some times low ,this will not apply when you have only email subscribers it stays the same.
Kevin
November 23rd, 2008 2:28 am
Many times i noticed that visitors count to my blogs is far less than the feed burner subscriber counts. So even if there are many rss subscribers, reader who really visits your blog will be less…many be many reads directly from rss readers like google reader and wont come to blog.
Andy
November 23rd, 2008 6:31 am
Great post. I have been wondering about this as my RSS base grows. I even used RSS to calculate the value of each reader, not a great gauge.
Franck Silvestre
November 23rd, 2008 9:06 am
Someone who subscribed to your RSS feed is somewhat already in your sphere of influence, and one of your followers.
As an example, I didn’t visit your site for a long time (several months), but I’m here today looking for what you got.
Franck
PennySeeds.com
November 24th, 2008 3:36 am
Personally, I keep up to date on my favorite websites by RSS alone. It tells me about things I want to read, and make sure I know what’s going on. Even if I forget to visit it’s in my reader – So if I see something interesting I click over.
You shouldn’t show the entire blog post in your RSS feed. That’s just suppose to notify people of new content they may like. “Hey! Look over here! I’ve got a great post about widgets!”
Title, attractive image, short description, and then they can click over to the full article of course.
Frontline Blogger
November 24th, 2008 5:03 am
I’ve never really focused on promoting my RSS feed. Sure, I add it to the occasional directory, but not on a massive scale. But like you said rather have a subscriber visiting you once in several months.
One billion time viewed page
November 25th, 2008 8:04 am
RSS subscriber are very essential weather they pay a visit to website or not . As seth gobin said build your tribe I think RSS subscriber are our tribe who follow us.
Well to be honest I don’t have billion subscriber but yeah had billionth viewed page which tragically earned 2 dollars coz nobody bothered to click adsense advert.
Anyway I am working on it though.
Jacob
November 26th, 2008 4:12 am
I haven’t really tried promoting my RSS feeds much either. I try spreading them around to get more exposure to my sites, but haven’t really focused on getting subscribers. Perhaps I should start doing that more earnestly and try to get them to subscribe and visit my sites more often.
Jason Slater
November 26th, 2008 8:12 pm
For me, I see it as offering choice, visitors can either visit my blog at http://www.jasonslater.co.uk, subscribe using RSS, or get updates via various social media sites for example LinkedIn or Facebook. As long as the content is proving useful to someone somewhere I don’t really mind which of the forms mentioned above it comes in.
peakclick
November 26th, 2008 9:14 pm
mmmmhhhh building a tribe :) interesting definiton
Robert Gebbie
November 26th, 2008 10:17 pm
I like the concept of influence over traffic. RSS is a convenient way for friends, clients, associates and followers to receive the latest posts or articles without the additional time required to visit my site. In my opinion it helps to retain contact with people I would otherwise be unable to get my message to.
Eva
November 27th, 2008 6:58 am
As a speaker and seminar leader, I send traffic to my blog when I speak. It makes me smile to hear you say that one’s blog can help you get a speaking gig. ie., it all comes full circle. We can make revenue not only from our blog but because we blog. We can speak to many from our blog and because we blog. Perfect.
Peggy Duncan
November 27th, 2008 2:42 pm
Great post! Many people have subscribed to so many feeds that they’re suffering from information overload…to the point that they’re not reading most of the feeds they subscribe to. I’m keen on the fact that my blog helps my expertise stay at the top of Google’s organic searches.
To increase readership, I have my blog feed set up in my email marketing software, iContact.com. Every time I write a new post, it goes to the people who sign up for my private email list that’s on my Website. The post and other related articles, all my links within the post, etc. go to all of my subscribers.
Karen
November 27th, 2008 10:12 pm
I hope that those who subscribe to my RSS feed are actually enjoying reading my posts, at least at the end of the day it shows that someone is reading my blog and in some hope they will also visit the blog to see what the comments are that people have hopefully made on the blog posts.
Melissa
January 19th, 2009 10:30 am
I don’t know that I’d ever read a blog with any frequency if it weren’t for email feeds. I get the posts in my inbox, don’t have to keep checking on blogs for updated content…just makes my life easier. And, many times, when I see interesting articles, I link to them via Twitter. So, I feel like I’m sending ppl to the blog even if I’m not visiting them myself.
ginevra
January 19th, 2009 11:31 am
No-one’s mentioned that Google Reader has a little script that lets you click from blog to blog reading your subscriptions.
For me, the first time I come to your blog it’s an audition. If I like it, I’ll subscribe, otherwise, I’ll never be back (unless at least 3 other bloggers I respect post about how good your blog is…).
I have 400+ feeds in my reader, that’s average, isn’t it? I read them, in full, each day, takes about 1 hour
Only thing I wish for is that Google Reader would let me read all my feeds in a particular folder (category of interest) together, rather than presenting them in a time-based way …
sikiş videoları
March 25th, 2009 9:56 am
I just started my official blog about a week ago now, I’ve kind of been experimenting for a couple of months to get the hang of it, and I’ve learnt quite a lot.
I cannot wait till I get RSS subscribers on my blog, even if they don’t actually visit my blog, you must do everything you can to get your blog to read as many people as possible.
You never know, those readers can tell their friends, and then hey, you just gained another subscriber.
I feel that blogging is all about networking, getting yourself known and showing how many sikiş videoları people actually read the content on your website. RSS is kind of a leech seed to be honest, you are tempting them to read the content on the blog, rather than the feed itself.
All I can see is benefits really, theres no reason not to use RSS.
desiree fawn
May 10th, 2009 8:44 am
I’ve often thought about this, but I figure hey, some like to subscribe because it’s SO simple. I value them just as much as those who choose to subscribe to my page.
SEO Link Builder
May 10th, 2009 8:48 am
I say, if it doesn`t hurt, then it`s helping. Creating Brand Awareness is never a bad thing. Your feed is putting your brand into the users head. They may not be visiting, but this doesn`t mean they aren`t telling their friends….
Steff (Inari)
May 10th, 2009 8:56 am
I’m both an RSS subscriber and a blogger. The blogs I subscribe to via RSS are not those that I visit on a day-to-day basis, but I read their feeds religiously, Tweet the articles I find most interesting and sometimes use as jumpling-off points for my own posts. Apart from the blogs and websites that I absolutely must read to do my (other) job, if a blog only offers a summary, I unsubscribe. Readers are busy too, and having to click through feels like an inconvenience.
As a blogger, my blog is very young and doesn’t carry any advertising, so it makes no difference to me whether somebody reads my posts in a reader or on the blog itself. What I am using my blog for is a way of reaching out and communicating with people. For the moment. I do have a couple of plans for monetising the blog, but even when I begin, I don’t see summaries as the way to go. Readers (or customers, or even profit units) appreciate convenience.
Comments will be closed off on this post 90 days after it is published. Apologies to those this impacts but it's a regrettable and temporary measure to combat a growing comment spam problem. See our most recent posts where you can comment here.