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Having your readers sign up for email alerts?

Posted by CreativeJunkie • 10/06/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: email alerts

I've read that one way to make your blog more accessible to readers is to have them sign up for email alerts.

How is this done? Do I need some sort of special software that alerts readers to a new blog post?

Do they get a simple alert telling them of a new post, or do they actually get the post emailed to them?

Thank you for any information!

User Comments

10/06/08

CreativeJunkie

~bumping~

[reply]
10/06/08

earthlingorgeous

I have no idea about email alerts what I know is Google alert if you have certain words you want to be alerted on.

The email thing I think your talking about is the subscription thingy that when you have new post your subscribers get email notification.

[reply]
10/06/08

timethief

@creativejunkie
Here are step-by-step instructions for setting up email updates for your readers via feedburner

Email updates - Set up to subscribe through Feedburner
These instructions result in offering readers the ability to subscribe to your blog by email.
1. Go to FeedBurner www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home
2. Register there.
3. Burn your feed.
Your feed address is your blog name with /feed at the end. Like this - example.wordpress.com/feed
4. Click ‘My Feeds’ at the top of the screen on the left
5. Click the name of your feed
6. Click the Publicize tab
7. Click the ‘Email Subscriptions’ in the left column
8. Choose FeedBurner, FeedBlitz, or Rmail to be your feed-via-email service provider.
9. Click ‘Activate’
10. You’ll be taken to the next page where you’ll need to scroll down to find the ”Subscription Link Code” and copy the code in the box underneath
11. Paste that code into a text widget on your blog
12. Remember to save your options at FeedBurner!
13. That’s all there is to it. You are now offering email subscriptions!

[reply]
1. 10/07/08
  
  evanjohnson
  
  thanks
10/06/08

DocNicole

You can add feedburner.com you should have an email and RSS option like what I have at my site. The downside is that it sends an email every time you post which annoys me and some readers...but they will just unsubscribe if they don't like your rate of posting. Welcome to the blogosphere

[reply]
1. 10/06/08
  
  DocNicole
  
  Ok...listen to Timethief! lol
2. 10/06/08
  
  timethief
  
  @DocNicole
  When I have time I will make up a file of copy and paste answers for questions commonly asked on the BC forum. lol
10/06/08

seaglassorganic

I use Feed Burner, they provide everything you need to set this up. Your readers can sign up for RSS feed and receive it via email through a sign up form you post on your blog. Every time you post it will automatically send it out. Very cool.

[reply]
10/06/08

mrigns

In addition to Feedburner maybe you should take a look at this Wordpress plugin: wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/

It basically adds the same functionality to Wordpress comments as you can see here and people can engage in discussion.

[reply]
10/06/08

CreativeJunkie

wow - thank you so much everyone, and timethief - as my kids would say - you rock!

[reply]
1. 10/06/08
  
  timethief
  
  You're welcome and happy blogging
10/06/08

curlydesigh

you guys do rock; i needed all this info also.

[reply]
1. 10/06/08
  
  timethief
  
  @curlydesign
  Hey two for one - that's sweet. I'm glad we helped you too.
11/01/08

CreativeJunkie

I haven't yet done this ... it's on my list of things to do that grows exponentially each day.

I'm not sure if this question will even make sense, but in reviewing this post, I was wondering ... if people get my posts by email, then they have no reason to visit my actual blog, right?

Won't my stats take a bit hit because of that?

Or, do they just get a snippet of the post and they have to visit the blog to get the whole post?

[reply]
1. 11/01/08
  
  timethief
  
  I'm sure that there are members who will argue both sides of this issue. Some feel offering "full" posts by email is a convenience to readers and others aren't as hyped on this. So here's my personal take on this:
  
  (1) If I set my RSS feeds to "full" and readers get the whole post by email will they click through to my site and comment?
  It's my experience that very few will click through and comment at all.
  
  WARNING: It's my experience that setting my RSS feeds to "full" guarantees that my posts will be sucked out of the RSS feed by blog scraping bots. Then I will have to spend my valuable time and energy on tracking them down, arguing with content thieves and making DMCA complaints so the stolen content is removed from the splog sites, which are, in essence, pseudo sites being pimped out for advertising income.
  
  (2) If I set my RSS feeds to "summary" and readers get the excerpt of the post by email will they click through to my site and comment?
  
  It's my experience that very few will click through and comment, and I can't tell if it's slightly more that those described in (1) or not.
  
  (3) I subscribe to many blogs myself. My Bloglines feedreader is backlogged as I can't seem to find the time to check it every day. Instead I tend to visit the sites I have been following on my BC dashboard more frequently than I do those I have subscribed to through Bloglines.
11/01/08

CreativeJunkie

Thank you, TT.

[reply]
1. 11/01/08
  
  timethief
  
  You're welcome and have a grand weekend.