As I wrote in another post, you cannot assume your blog readers know how to use RSS.
Even though you’re comfortable with it, the majority of web surfers simply don’t understand it.
So if you use Feedburner, make sure you also offer the “Subscribe by Email” feature in addition to your RSS feed.
This will allow people to subscribe to your blog with a more conventional, recognizable method.
Now, I personally think RSS is the best thing since sliced bread, but it’s not for everyone.
I have to admit. I just recently added the email feature myself. A lady was kind enough to suggest this on one of my posts.
To be honest, I’m not sure why I didn’t offer it at first.
I guess I just assumed my explanation of RSS would be enough. Apparently it wasn’t. Here’s a perfect example…
Read this comment posted by Bill last month.
I gotta say, Bill’s comment made me chuckle a bit, but he represents a lot of Web surfers today.
When I did add Feedburner’s email subscribe feature I immediately gained 200 subscribers in a couple of weeks.
More proof my audience is still not very comfortable with RSS. It took me much longer to gain 200 subscribers through my regular feed.
Unless you’re sure your audience understands how to use RSS, make sure you offer the Email Subscribe feature.
Of course you need FeedBurner’s service to do this. It’s completely free and easy to setup. You can export the email addresses to a local file if you wish. Plus, FeedBurner reports your subscriber stats.
And if you aren’t using FeedBurner and/or don’t plan on it, at least put a text link near your RSS feed explaining what RSS is and how to use it.
Remember, know your audience.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
great post as usual. honestly speaking i learned about rss from ur site.
if u put custom icon from popular web aggregators like my yahoo,google,bloglines etc…that way u can also get more subscriber. what u think??????
I have been telling myself to add the e-mail subscriber form on my blog.
I think I’ll do that, because I was thinking along the same lines as you: does the average visitor know what to do with the RSS feed, and how to incorporate that into a reader?
Lisa- Great advice as always…I’m off to try Feedburner myself… Thanks a million for EVERYTHING!
I may be a little dumb for asking, but I can’t seem to figure out feedburner. I bought FeedForAll after you did a post on it. I published the feed to my site, and have also, signed up for FeedBurner, but when I go to my feed burner address, it only shows up in the original xml format. Like, feeds2.feedburner.com/2createawebsite it shows up with feedburner, but when I go to mine feeds2.feedburner.com/luxurycomparison it just shows the original xml format. Am I doing something wrong?
Also, Thanks for all the very useful tips you give!! any insight would be great!!!! Thanks Lisa!
Hi Kirk
When I went to your feed feeds2.feedburner.com/luxurycomparison I was able to subscribe to it with my browser just like mine and I saw your recent posts in my reader.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks, I don’t know what happened, but I am now seeing it to! Thanks!
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If you use WordPRess and you don’t want to use Feedburner to offer mail subscriptions, there is a plugin for that: http://subscribe2.wordpress.com/category/installation/
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