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5 Tips for Gaining Subscribers to Your Blog

Posted by ocim • 10/15/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: SEO

Are you ready to celebrate the successful launch of your new company blog? Technically speaking, the launch went off without a hitch. Your content is fresh, informative and even entertaining. And your blog’s design is well-branded and intriguing.

But before you pop open the bottle of champagne, consider one more piece of the puzzle: blog subscribers. You’ve made an RSS feed available, but no one seems to be subscribing.

In order for a blog to generate links and traffic over the long term, you must devise a strategy to acquire an active group of passionate and engaged readers. Use these 5 basic tips as a starting point for gaining blog RSS feed.

1. Make it easy and obvious for readers to subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed. You can achieve this by:

1. Allowing one-click subscriptions
2. Offering email subscription for the large percentage of readers who may not be familiar with RSS
3. Using auto-discovery tags so the RSS icon will appear on the side of the address bar of most browsers
4. Displaying the RSS icon where readers will see it (above the fold, on every blog page and at the bottom of every post)
5. Including text with the RSS icon for readers not familiar with RSS (for example, “Subscribe Now!”)

2. Take advantage of feed directories. With feed directories, you won’t see hundreds of new blog subscribers to your RSS feed immediately. But you will reach the portion of readers who use these directories to find and subscribe to new feeds. Find a list of submission URLs for RSS directories that you can submit your feed to.

3. Leverage all available resources. If you have an existing blog, newsletter, forum or social media following, you may have an easy time convincing that audience to subscribe to your new blog’s RSS feed. Plus, if they truly enjoy your content, they may recommend your RSS feed to others. If you don’t have a ready-made audience to rely on, identify a related blog to leverage. Work out an agreement where you’ll promote his or her blog on yours, and vice versa.

4. Think outside the box. Offer an interactive quiz or poll on your blog to entice and entertain readers, but require them to become blog subscribers in order to participate. Or, run a contest that requires a subscription, and create a badge for the winner to be placed on his or her site and link back to your blog. Have some fun and draw added attention to your RSS feed icon by incorporating an animated image.

5. Write often and write well. Don’t underestimate the power of quality content. Without relevant, timely and entertaining content, your readers have no incentive to subscribe to your blog RSS feed. Also, publish frequently and consistently—not just for search ranking purposes, but also so potential blog subscribers know your site is active.

What tactics do you think are most effective for gaining subscribers to your blog?

vist my blog speechyourm1nd.blogspot.com/2009/10/5-tips-for-gaining-subscribers-to-your....

User Comments

10/15/09

owlbarn

Some great tips. I like the idea of a contest you explained in point no. 4.

[reply]
1. 10/16/09
  
  crazyTsu
  
  so... are you also giving away your money?
10/15/09

ocim

thanks for the respond about this tips

[reply]
10/15/09

AtlanticEquity

Ocim,

Good advice. Very nice. (I sense some possible guest-author requests coming your way!)

Since you seem to be somewhat of an expert, you should offer your services to critique bloggers on the layout and tools configuration presently in their blogs and provide feedback and instruction

Source Blogger
www.source-blogger.com

Your source for better Alexa Rank, Google PageRank, SEO, Making Money Online, and Affiliate Marketing.

"If it's about blogging - it's here!"

[reply]
1. 10/16/09
  
  ocim
  
  thanks for support
10/16/09

JP2112

I found these tips on a blog post from September 4th.

www.toprankblog.com/2009/09/gaining-blog-subscribers/

Nice try though!

[reply]
1. 10/17/09
  
  ocim
  
  I'm sorry I forgot I should have put the source, including the love for your attention
10/16/09

smitakas

Nice tips.. I should learn more about RSS feed now.

[reply]
1. 10/16/09
  
  acousticguitarist
  
  yes
10/16/09

acousticguitarist

thanks great borrowing of other content

www.toprankblog.com/2009/09/gaining-blog-subscribers/

why not reference the source

[reply]
1. 10/17/09
  
  ocim
  
  I'm sorry I forgot I should have put the source, including the love for your attention
2. 10/17/09
  
  acousticguitarist
  
  cheers
  
  It's quite ok to be be seen as a good resource of both your own information and other peoples. It doesn't matter where the info comes from, so long as it is inspiring
3. 10/18/09
  
  JP2112
  
  Taking the post down, or converting it to a summary, is the only appropriate response. Crediting it with a link doesn't make it okay.
10/16/09

palo25

Thanks Ali I Excellent and Professional Information

[reply]
1. 10/17/09
  
  ocim
  
  thank u vey much palo
10/17/09

samureyed

Most of my subscribers come from like-minded blogs that I visit often and communicate with.

However, good SEO also brings in a large percentage of my visitors..but that's another topic for another day.

[reply]
1. 10/17/09
  
  ocim
  
  thanks u
10/18/09

ocim

ceck new speechyourm1nd.blogspot.com/2009/10/guide-seo-increase-site-visitors.html

[reply]
10/18/09

OnlineBlogger

Thanks! Nice tips!
Especially tip no 4

[reply]