I remember when RSS feeds started becoming popular in 2005.  Many bloggers said RSS was going to be the death of e-mail.

Some even made the bold prediction that e-mail newsletters would be obsolete in a couple of years.

Well it’s 5 years later, and even though RSS is more well known and understood, there are thousands of people who still prefer e-mail updates.

Take my blog for example.  I usually publish my posts on Monday, but my Feedburner e-mail goes out Tuesday morning.  That’s also when I get the majority of my comments on any given post.

Also, my Feedburner e-mail subscription count recently passed my RSS feed reader count.

Now, a lot of this may have to do with my niche.  I tend to target beginners so that could be a reason why I have so many people who still prefer e-mail.  Perhaps a large part of my audience still doesn’t understand RSS.

On the flip side, a blog about Internet technology may have opposite results.  So I do think the niche plays a role.

Nevertheless, as I was checking my stats over the weekend, it brought me back to the days when people predicted RSS would kill e-mail.  That hasn’t happened quite yet.

So if you aren’t giving people the option to subscribe to your blog by e-mail, you could be hurting your readership.

How about you?  Have you noticed any trends with your blog readership?  Do you follow blogs with RSS readers, or do you read them the old fashioned way?

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.