How Important Are RSS Subscribers?
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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
Site Search Tags:email, feed readers, Feedburner, Google, readers, RSS, rss subscribersWhat Is RSS And How Does It Work?
I had no idea what a feed or RSS was a couple of months ago, but you can learn quick. I’m not going to try and explain the technical side to RSS here, I think this entry in Wikipedia puts it better than I ever could. In this article I refer to blogs, but there are some websites that are now offering feed subscription too.
What does Subscribing do for you?
As you surf around the internet you may find there are a lot of useful blogs and information that you would like to follow. So if you’re anything like me you have a long list of bookmarks. Which is all well and good, but you have to keep checking back to see if the blogs have been updated or posted to, and that can become tedious and time consuming.
And that’s where ‘Subscribing to a Feed’ comes in. When you subscribe to a feed you are sent the posts every time the blog is updated, whether it’s by email or feed readers. But the main point is, it keeps everything in the one place so it’s easy to track what the different blogs that you are interested in are doing. You can be reading any amount of blogs through their feeds and every time the blogs are posted to, they are updated in your feed reader. And that cuts out all the surfing around checking all the blogs individually, a great time saver.
So how do I Subscribe to a Feed?
Well on this blog - Build a Blog there are 3 different ways to subscribe:
1. Through the orange RSS icon button. That should be fairly obvious in the top right hand corner of the blog. All you do is click on the RSS icon. This is a universally recognised icon now, so whenever you see this icon it means you are able to subscribe to that blog/sites feed. When you click the icon it will take you to a page with several options on how you would like to view the feed (email, feed readers, embedded widget), and also shows the blogs most recent posts, so all you need to do is pick an option and your away.
2. Via the email subscription box. Fairly self explanatory, just enter your chosen email address (it’s completely safe and spam free) you will receive a confirmation email with an activation link that you will need to click and that’s it. Whenever the blog you are following has new content, you will find the posts from your feed in your inbox.
3. Through one of the feed reader buttons, whichever suits you the best.
Down the right hand side of this blog in the sidebar you will see a list of buttons, Google Yahoo, MSN etc. These are feed readers, and if you click whichever one you prefer it will take you to the feed reader software, where you will receive the feed and view it. There are a lot to choose from out there and most are free. I use Google feed reader, because I already have a Google account, so when I click it, it will log me in using my existing Google account. This is the same with most of Google tools once you have an account you can use the same details to log in to all the tools e.g., Adwords, Adsense, Gmail, Google feed reader etc. A pretty neat feature. Once I’m logged in Google gives me the choice of viewing the feed through the feed reader or adding it to my Google homepage, all you have to do is decide which is best for you. I use the feed reader just because I find it easier to read a lot of feeds using it.
There is not one option that is better than another, it’s just up to you and which one you prefer. All these options on this blog are managed by a service called Feedburner (this is when I subscribed), they provide me with a ‘burnt’ feed. They also provide me with statistics on my subscribers and the site, showing how many people subscribe through which option. From a blog owners point of view it is an essential service to offer to your readers. Making it easier for them to subscribe, and giving them the ability to follow your blog easily, and hopefully become a valued and loyal subscriber.
So if you have found this article or my blog interesting and would like to follow this blog, or you just enjoy it, then please subscribe to my RSS feed and keep up to date!
Thanks
Mandy
Site Search Tags:feed readers, Feedburner, Google, RSSCreate Blogs - Feeds
Added Subscription for Feeds
I just thought I would point out that I have added an email subscription form for my feed. Also there are some feed readers on the left for subscription if you prefer them (thought I’d cover all bases). Just in case your not sure what that means, if you would like to subscribe to either of these, you will be updated via email or your feed reader when my blog has been updated.
Handy if you like to follow what I am up to, or just enjoy the blog!!
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