Build A Blog

How Important Are RSS Subscribers?

Written by Mandy

RSS Subscribers

Recently I have mentioned RSS subscribers when talking about the Blog Action Day results, and I thought I would talk a little more about them. If I want people to come back and keep reading my blog, which I do I write this blog for others as well as myself. Then I think RSS subscribers are the most important element for my blog. In a way even more than traffic, now I know that may seem a silly thing to say, but I would rather have a solid RSS subscriber base than a load of browsing traffic. Because the subscribers have chosen to follow my blog where as browsing traffic may just have a look around and not come back. Although I wouldn’t say no to more traffic don’t get me wrong, I still want to write a good enough blog to attract the browsing traffic and make them want to stay! Anyway, the subscribers do come back! They are my regular readers that I want to look after by building this blog into a useful resource, that is interesting to read and full of content that they can use. Although obviously not all the traffic that comes to this blog will become subscribers, I do work towards building them up and encourage readers to subscribe if they like the blog.

Subscribing to a blog that you are interested in, is the best way to stay up to date with what’s going on with the blog automatically. As a subscriber you can be sent your updates to a feed reader or your email inbox whichever you prefer, so there is no time wasted by surfing around to check up on your favourite blogs. I only learned about RSS and subscriptions when I started blogging in Feb 2007, before then I didn’t know what it was but I wish I had, because it would have made life a lot easier. If you would like to find out more about RSS and how to subscribe then you may like to read this article: What is RSS?

How Do I Deliver My Feed?

Every blog has a feed whether it’s RSS or Atom and this is how blog content is delivered. To help do this I use a media distribution service, the leading one in it’s field for blogs being Feedburner which I use to deliver or ‘burn’ my feed. Feedburner is a free service owned by Google who acquired it earlier this year, and currently Feedburner has 596,466 publishers who have burned 1,023,739 feeds and growing. Because RSS and Atom are slightly different, I don’t know exactly why because that starts to get technical, and it’s not something that I need to know so I stick to the basics, it can effect how easily the blog feed can be read by programs. So Feedburner formats the burned feed to make it easily read by anybody. They also makes it easy to subscribe to a feed, by having a choice of services you can use with your blog for readers to subscribe with. Including RSS and feed reader buttons like the ones on the right of this blog and an email service for your feed instead of the feed readers (also on the right).

I have found them to be a very reliable service and they have loads of tools and help that you can use to boost your blogs exposure and performance. I found out about Feedburner by accident and I knew nothing about them or feeds when I did. I have learned a lot and they have helped me get the best out of my blog when it comes to the feed!

Did you like this article? Then please Subscribe to my RSS Feed!

Mandy