... Or if you prefer, Subscribe by e-mail 
... What is RSS?
I seems like everyone is looking to increase the number of RSS Subscribers to their sites, and rightly so. If someone puts you into their RSS folder or Subscription service, it means they are interested in what you have to say and want to stay updated when you post something new. But, not everyone Likes RSS or doesn’t want to subscribe through a service for whatever reason, maybe they just don’t know how. I know because I was one of them until I got IE7 with it’s auto feed finder.
Prior to that I would subscribe to someones Blog IF they offered an e-mail subscription service. It didn’t matter to me if it was generated by FeedBurner or another service, as long as it showed up in my mailbox when something new was posted by those I wanted to read.
I have offered both RSS and e-mail subscriptions since I was introduced to FeedBurner about two years ago while investigating ways to increase readership. I started to wonder how many other Bloggers offered both types of subscriptions to their readers, so I started looking at some of my Favorite Blogs to see what they were doing to get additional subscribers. I was really surprised at what I found.
Out of 39 Bloggers I have in Favorites:
- 35 offer RSS
- 17 offer RSS AND e-mail
- 3 offer NEITHER
I, personally, think these individuals are experts in their respective niches. What they have to offer is important to their readers. Why not offer every way possible for your audience to follow your newest (and possibly your best) posts?
Why Offer e-mail subscriptions?
- Everyone has e-mail
- People are comfortable with e-mail
- Not everyone is comfortable with RSS
- e-mail Subscribers go through extra steps to subscribe, they must be interested
- They are less likely to unsubscribe than RSS users
- Why not?
These are just a few of the reasons I came up with FOR offering e-mail subscriptions to your readers. Can you come up with any others?
* Darren over at ProBlogger is having a poll this week related to this subject: How many RSS Readers does your Blog have? Go on over and take the poll.
Article Series - Blogging Tips
- Blogging Tip #1-Like What You Write
- Blogging Tip #2-Be Part of the Community
- Blogging Tip #3-Use Trackbacks
- Blogging Tip #4-Help Your Readers Navigate
- Blogging Tip #5-Make RSS Accessible
- Blogging Tip #6 Pre-Post
- Blogging Tip #7-Proofread
- Blogging Tip #8-Create an About Page
- Blogging Tip #9-Link,Link,Link
- Blogging Tip #10-Use Pics in Posts
- Blogging Tip #11-Write It Down
- Blogging Tip #12-Back Up
- 7 Necessary Steps When Launching a New Blog
- Blogging Tip #14-Don’t Forget About e-mail Subscribers
- Is Hosting a Blog Carnival Worth the Effort?
4 Comments
Well certainly yes email subscriber’s are more worthy cause only those people will subscribe who know what they want and are definately interested in you posts on you blog.
Hey Nadim,
I don’t know if they are more worthy, but they are certainly worth considering as a major portion of our readership. They might not have the numbers that regular RSS subscribers have, but they are certainly less fickle and more likely to stick with you long term.
Thanks for your input, it is always appreciated.
It’s definitely worthwhile offering email subscriptions, especially for non-tech readers. Close to 15% of the subscribers at Shards subscribe by email. At my theatre website, 99% use email.
Hey Rick,
I agree wholeheartedly. There are quite a few people that just plain prefer e-mail too.
You would be really suprised WHO is in the list of NOT offering e-mail subscriptions, I know you know most of them. But I won’t drop names.