Posted: 1:58 am by tom in
Blog,
Blogging,
Push Standards
Despite receiving very pleasing traffic for it’s first couple of days Push Standards is lagging a bit on the subscribers front. Obviously, with any new blog it will take a while to build up a relationship with your readers in order for them to actively want to sign up. However, it doesn’t hurt to help them out a bit ;).
So here goes my shameless effort at enticing some of you to subscribe to my daily thoughts and articles:
Link to RSS Feed - For every time someone subscribes I promise to inflict my guitar playing on one less person!
Now we’ve got that unpleasant scenario out of the way I can get down to some tips to help improve your RSS Feed… As with your website as a whole you should never feel content with the way things are. A good blogger will constantly be attempting to improve their blog and gain new readership. RSS Feeds are a big part of this.
Here is my list of tips that every RSS Feed should try to follow:
Make it obvious! I’ve made the huge mistake (pointed out to me by various reviewers) of having quite a small RSS Feed in a position that doesn’t really grab the eye. However, what’s important here is that I’ll take this experience and use it to my advantage - so expect a more obvious RSS Feed icon coming soon. A prime spot for placing your RSS Feed is at the top of your sidebar, or even better above your most recent blog post. Try to think where your visitors eye will go to first.
Include a link to your RSS in the footer to each of your posts, this will create a clear link to your readers between your (hopefully) quality content and the option to subscribe to more of it.
Many blogs that I’ve commented on recently have automatically sent me an email thanking me for my comment and asking me to subscribe. Whilst I see two problems with this: 1. It feels a little impersonal rather than caring to send out automated email. 2. If you have already subscribed then the email may feel irritating pushing the point. (I’m not sure if there is an option not to send such emails to your current subscribers). However, despite these points I still think that it’s worthwhile to try out this technique in an effort to boost your subscribers. I’m sure that not everyone is as easily bothered as me by such proactive marketing.
Offer rewards and incentives. This is something that I won’t be doing as I’ve already overloaded the website with great contests. However, it usually seems to work when bloggers offer $5-$10 to a random commenter who has subscribed.
Don’t be afraid to post asking for your readers to subscribe. They won’t recoil in disgust as you’re spending the time to write for them. The worst that can happen is that they aren’t persuaded - nothing lost.
If you can take the time to style your RSS Feed, and at very least make sure that it displays images to accompany your posts. I’ve found Feedburner very easy to work with, and it shows all my posts clearly.
Finally, I debated whether or not to include this as it’s really the number one rule for all blogging. Just write great content. None of the techniques listed above are going to have any real impact unless you are writing content that people want to read. Read around your subjects, write with enthusiasm, develop a unique voice, whatever it takes…
As always I would love to hear your opinions about this post and the ways that you have increased your own subscribers! Don’t forget to subscribe now!
Nice site. I’ve subscribed. Look forward to receiving the latest
Ewan
I’m a subscriber.
Thankyou both of you for subscribing
I’ve just subscribed, you’ve posted some nice tips so far.
I’m hoping to make more friends in the blogosphere this year, I do pretty much what you do so it’s nice to see how people in my kind of position are getting along. I love to see blogs grow!
I hope you have success and I hope we can get to know each other over time. I’m working on my blog every day at the moment, gearing it up for launch. Tweaking the design, optimizing it for the search engines… Its a lot of work, but hopefully it will be worth it!
Thanks very much for subscribing Kieran! I’m glad that you’re finding my tips and articles helpful. Blogging is a great opportunity to meet new people, so I’m sure you’ll have no trouble doing so.
If you like you can email me a link to your blog via the contact page and I’ll consider you for a blogroll exchange
Of course, I’ll drop you an email when I unleash it in to the wild!
Sounds good.
hey tom, great site! Found you through Tish’s Blogging Gal review. So you come with a hefty recommendation to me and go straight to my Google Reader.
Nice tips and I am going to dig your content to find more stuff.
thanks! Tish’s blog is great, and it’s great to see us driving visitors to each other. Thanks for the diggs, and be sure to check back tomorrow night for my blogging diary