Many blogs are rated on the basis of the number of RSS Feed subscribers the blog has. It remains an important criteria everywhere. So here are 5 important tips that can help you increase your RSS subscribers.
1) Make it stand out
If the user is not able to locate your RSS button, you are probably losing a subscriber. No one’s gonna email you asking you why you don’t have an RSS feed. So, if you have a button on your blog, make it stantd out well. You need not use the biggest rss button as Revieme uses, but atleast make it easily locatable. Don’t hide it somewhere like on this blog.
2) Offer a full feed
No one’s going to subscribe to your feed if you just offer the short ugly excerpts. Instead they might read directly from your blog (happens rarely) or might just leave your blog. So, when you offer a feed, offer it in full. And try to provide it ad-free so that you can link to your Feed saying “Read my blog Ad-free By subscribing to my Feed”.
3) Subscriber count
This is a mistake that most bloggers do. Feedburner offers a cool widget that displays the number of subscribers. Don’t start using it when you have small numbers. Wait till you have atleast 150+ subscribers before you display it. As John chow says, “People in general are like sheep. They’re scare to step outside their comfort zone and won’t do it until they see others do it.”
4) Multiple buttons
There is no rule that you are allowed to display your RSS button only once per page. Display it in as many places as you can. But don’t make it too annoying. Problogger has 4 links on the sidebar and also has a page dedicated to various methods of subscribing. You can also add this magic statement at the end of each post “If you liked this post, subscribe to my full RSS feed“.
5) Email Subscription
Not everyone uses feed readers. But, of course most of your blog readers would be having an email address. So, your email subscription can boost your subscribers count very well. Feedburner itself offers email subscription. But you can read this and choose among Feedburner, Feedblitz, Zookoda and AWeber.
Hope this has helped you. If you liked this post, consider subscribing to my Full RSS Feed. ;)
I have just launched a Feedburner competition on Sciencetext.com. Double your count before Labor Day and you could win a free text link on the site.
Visit the site for for tips on how to boost your feed readers
db
Thats a very cool competition that you run over there David. Will a winner be selected at random, or will everyone who accomplishes it will have their text link for 3 months.
Either way, i’ll submit my entry tomorrow.
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title o.us poetry. Thanks for informative article
I agree with Jakob: Thanks for informative article.
thank you Hari , really useful tips
I am currently doing everything mentioned on my blog RajaieTalks.com and my subscribers have been increasing steadily! :)
Thanks for the killer Tips! Indeed I gained something valuable from it!
Cheers!
Nadeesha.
thanks for these tips.. it will surely help my blog to increase some subscribers!
Thanks a lot :) will try and use these as well. I am going to be getting my blog to grow. Thanks again Hari
You are Welcome :)
wow..nice tips! I need more subsciber and you are here to tell me what to do! thanks :)
Number 3 is a huge one – I see so many people sitting there with 3 rss subscribers lol. They may as well be saying, “My blog sucks. Don’t subscribe.”
However, if you don’t let anybody know that your blog sucks, nobody will care. :)
Ha ha… Very well said Taylor..
Hey, great tips on getting subscribers. I never considered making sure you have a meaning full number before posting the number…Im thinking about trying to build an audience soon. Great info!
Shaw
@shaw, thats one of the important points.. I followed it here on GotChance and achieved positive results.. :)
Tips are great but I really don’t know how many people really like the posts sent to their e-mail.
I personally don’t like it at all, rather stick to my Reader.
Great tips on getting new readers and hopefully they subscribers also. Nice job, i’ll be sure to utilize these tips whenever I can with my blog also. Thanks.
the best way is write an ebook, make your user subscribe and give to them for free :) this is an evil way but is work for me :)
Hi,
Makes sense about having your feed in some key areas. I noticed that you have it in your header, then at the end of post, and finally where comments start. Probably all the key places a person will visit, increasing your chances of getting the subscriber…and making it easy for the reader:)
Yup.. You are right..
I’m new to wp and blogging but I have a question: Why is it important to increase readership? What are blogs being rated for?
This is definitely a great post. Another note I want to point out is this: RSS Subscribers aren’t always too important. If you’re getting loads of organic traffic they don’t really matter anyway. Especially if you’re earning on a PPC basis because for the most part, subscriber are smart enough not to click ads.
Still though, you have a great post and a blog going here. I want to give you advice on your AdSense ad. Have you tried using the 336×280? I’ve found that it works way better than the ad format you’re using. And I mean way better.
Let me know if you need help with AdSense or anything.
@Jeremy,
As always, content is king.. Write good content and readers will come your way..
@how to fall asleep easily,
Both those points are very valid.
1) If one gets good organic traffic, RSS count is not important.
2) As long as PPC income is good, RSS count doesn’t matter.
But still many use the RSS subscriber count to estimate the quality of a blog..
And, which adsense unit are you talking about ?
I was talking about the 468×60 ad. If you used a 336×280 instead you would definitely get more clicks.
oh okay.. I didn’t use that unit or any other square unit because it’ll be more annoying for users..
thanks for the tips Hari. i think i’ll be incresing the number of RSS buttons on my blog.
Hi Hari,
Couldn’t help but notice the small discussion on adsense. Do you have any thoughts or ideas on what kind of theme, color, ad placement works best? Matt
Matt,
Mostly i use the color scheme that blends with the content.. :)
When your RRS readership increases do you see a corresponding increase in adsense income? I heard people say that “readers” don’t click ads and was curious if this has been your experience. Thanks
You’ve got some solid points here. I’m going to try #2 right away and report back to see if my feed count goes up!
It makes sense not to show everyone when you only have a few subscribers. I don’t know that I would want to show how many people are on my blog either way. You have really given me something to think about.
Really nice tips to increase your Rss traffic. Just when you think you know everything you understand there are lots more to learn.
Thanks for the tips on this! I will use feedburner on my site soon, then I can display how many users I have on my RSS feed. I think that having an high RSS feed reader group shows that the blog has quality content and that the users are interested in reading more! Everybody should aim for that!
I’ve only got 9 readers on my RSS feeds. The tips you have is going to help me increase that. Thanks.
Nice tips. I’ll try it and see how it goes.