How To Use RSS Feeds And 6 Ways To Increase Subscribers
When you start a blog, you probably have 2 objectives in mind:
1. Write Great Content
2. Attract Lots Of Readers (Or get traffic & and make money)
In the very beginning, writing great content is pretty easy. There’s nothing holding you back from doing it. Attracting lots of readers, however, is a whole other ball game. There’s promoting your blog by doing things like guest blogging, blog commenting, social media, and of course, link building. You also need to create the perfect mix of blog traffic.
That stuff will get you a long way, but you know what all the biggest blogs have in common? They have thousands of RSS subscribers! RSS stands for really simple syndication. Kind of simple, really (LOL). Anyway, building a huge group of RSS subscribers is what’s going to take your blog to the next level—the level of online dominance and becoming a true authority in your niche.
Basically, an RSS feed is an online feed of regularly updated content, like blog posts, audio, and video. In your feed, you can show your content in full or in short snippets. RSS feeds allow your readers to get your blog posts instantly delivered to them in many different ways. So if you don’t have a feed set up, you need to head over to Feedburner (run by Google) and set up a feed for your blog.
Also, make sure you enable email subscriptions. Out of all delivery options I’ve tested, people seem to love email subscriptions. Think about this for a second… over the period of months or a few years, you build up 10,000 RSS subscribers. Whenever you publish a post, those 10,000 people will be instantly notified about your blog post and get a link to your post.
Even if just 50% of them click onto your post, that’s 5,000 visitors! Think about what that traffic could do for you, for virtually no extra work. Should RSS subscriptions replace email marketing? Nope, you should still focus on building an email list, more than RSS subscriptions. BUT—if you can have both, why not?
Here are 6 interesting ways to get more RSS subscribers starting today:
1. Promote Your Feed Above The Fold
We all know that if we want to promote something, we should do it as close to the top of the page as possible. People pay attention to things above the fold, they just do.
So if you would like to gain A LOT of RSS subscribers and start a steady growth from today onwards, place an icon/link to your RSS feed above the fold. Just make it a prominent feature that readers can’t miss when they visit your blog.
2. Place RSS Icon In Sidebar
This is an essential step you must take if you want to increase your RSS subscription rates. It’s a very well-known fact: the more people see things, the more likely they are to check it out. In Feedburner, you’ll find several RSS icons, or you can just search for them on Google.
You should really place a LARGE RSS icon in your sidebar with a strong call to action saying “Like my stuff? Get updates via RSS; click the icon to learn more.” The key is to promote your feed in several places. It’s not exactly rocket science, but most people need to be told something they already know before they take action.
3. Teach Your Readers
The problem I had when I started using RSS feeds was that 95% of people didn’t have a clue what they were or what they did. Even today, at least 90% of people don’t know what RSS feeds are, yet they are used all the time. Anyway, you need to educate your readers on exactly what RSS feeds are. Teach them what they are and how they can subscribe to your feed to get updates on your blog posts quickly and easily.
4. Create A Dedicated RSS Page
As I said, most people don’t have a clue what the hell RSS means. So you need to educate them, and a dedicated RSS page can do exactly that. It will also boost subscription rates dramatically. A great example of someone who’s done this successfully is Copyblogger. Check out his page.
That’s what a good RSS page looks like, and you can check it out live here. Once created, make sure you promote it A LOT. Put P.S. lines at the end of your blog posts saying “Click here to subscribe to the RSS feed to get regular updates.” Put a link to the page in your blog’s navigation bar.
5. Promote Your Feed Off-page
You can just use the above techniques to build your list of RSS subscribers, and you should use them more than anything else. Saying that, you can greatly promote your feed by off-page stuff. From my testing and reading elsewhere, I’ve found that guest blogging really is the ultimate way to promote your feed off-page. In every guest post you publish on another blog, you’re generally allowed 2 links to your website/blog.
One link can go to your homepage, and the other can go to your feed. It works VERY well. Besides that, promote it in emails! The chances are your subscribers are either subscribed to your RSS feed or email list. Only a very small percentage of them will be subscribed to both. So to make your email subscribers sign up for RSS updates, use P.S. lines in your emails linking to the email subscription page of your RSS feed.
6. Offer A Bonus
Everyone loves free stuff, right? Offering a bonus is essentially bribing people to subscribe to your feed. Don’t worry; it’s a completely ethical bribe. Like anything, if you want people to do stuff, you can offer them an incentive. Just like you use opt-in bait to capture email subscribers, do the same for your RSS feed.
Offer a free report, video, plugin, or complete training series when people subscribe to your feed. It’s very easily done with WordPress and Feedburner.
Conclusion
That just about wraps up 6 interesting ways to get more RSS subscribers. Seriously, don’t underestimate the power of Really Simple Syndication. A lot of huge blogs don’t even use them. They are making a huge mistake! However, the smart guys heavily use them. For example, Copyblogger, a huge Internet Marketing blog that has something crazy like 100,000 subscribers.
Whenever they publish a post, 100,000+ people get notified, and the post gets flooded with traffic. I’m talking like 10-50,000 visitors. Think about what that could do for you in terms of monetization and even Alexa rankings. Without the RSS subscribers, Copyblogger may get 1,000 or 2,000 visitors, just from the traffic that naturally goes to the homepage each day. With them—10-50,000. You tell me, do you think it’s worth using RSS feeds?
In Prosperity,
David Wood
P.S. Let me know your thoughts, questions, and comments in the box below.
Comments
John Davis, October 31, 2011, 10:15
This is an insightful article! I’ve been using RSS feeds for a while but never thought about some of the tips you mentioned here, especially the idea of creating a dedicated RSS page. I’ll definitely implement that and see how it impacts my subscriber count. Thanks for sharing, David!
Susan Mitchell, October 31, 2011, 12:40
Hi David, I’ve been struggling with getting more subscribers to my blog. Your advice on promoting the RSS feed above the fold and placing it in the sidebar seems like a no-brainer, but something I’ve overlooked. I appreciate your tips and will start implementing them right away.
Michael Johnson, October 31, 2011, 14:05
I never realized how powerful RSS feeds could be until I read this. It’s interesting how something so simple can have such a big impact on driving traffic. I’m going to revisit my blog’s layout and make sure I’m using RSS feeds to their full potential. Thanks, David, for the great advice!
Lisa Smith, October 31, 2011, 15:30
The idea of offering a bonus for subscribing to an RSS feed is brilliant. I’ve always done this for email lists but never thought to apply it to RSS. I’m excited to try this out and see how it affects my subscriber numbers. Keep up the great work, David!
Chris Thompson, October 31, 2011, 16:55
Great post as usual, David! I’ve been following your blog for a while now and your advice has always been spot on. I’m looking forward to seeing more content like this. By the way, any thoughts on how to balance email and RSS subscriptions effectively? I’d love to hear your take on it.
Amelia Turner, November 1, 2011, 09:10
David, this post was just what I needed! I’ve been trying to figure out how to increase my blog’s RSS subscribers, and your tips are super helpful. I’m especially interested in the idea of teaching readers about RSS feeds—something I’ve definitely overlooked. Thanks so much for this!
Oliver Hayes, November 1, 2011, 11:30
I really appreciate this article. It’s packed with practical advice that I can start using immediately. The part about promoting your feed above the fold was an eye-opener for me. I can’t wait to see how these changes impact my blog’s traffic. Thanks, David!
Sophia Barrett, November 1, 2011, 13:05
Hi David, I have a question about offering bonuses for RSS subscribers. What kind of bonuses do you think work best? I want to make sure the incentive is strong enough to encourage people to subscribe but not too costly or time-consuming to create. Would love to hear your thoughts!
Henry Lucas, November 1, 2011, 14:20
I’ve been skeptical about using RSS feeds, but your post has convinced me to give it a try. The potential for increased traffic is too good to pass up. I’m also curious about how to integrate RSS with other marketing strategies. Do you have any suggestions for combining RSS with social media or email campaigns?
Grace Mitchell, November 1, 2011, 16:45
I love the practical tips you’ve shared here, David! The idea of creating a dedicated RSS page is something I hadn’t thought of before. I’m going to get started on that right away. Thanks for consistently delivering valuable content.
