visitYou Don’t Get RSS Without Asking
- January 26th, 2009
Yup you guessed it, time for another round of Blog Mistake Mondays. Nothing kicks off a week better then learning what won’t make you successful in the world of blogging! This week I thought it would be good to share a couple of thoughts and tips on building RSS readership and a common mistake I see on many great blogs.
First let me begin by saying that if you don’t know what RSS is then you can check out My Definition of RSS where I breifly explain the concept. Building a strong foundation of readers is essential to any successful blog; this should go without saying. Despite how trival this point might seem, it’s amazing how many sites don’t actually ask for readers to join their RSS. One of the best pieces of advice you can live by is, “You don’t get anything without asking.” It’s mind boggling how many times you actually get what you want when you simply ask for it. However many times you not only have to ask, but ask in the proper manner. Enter the RSS join button and What Would Seth Godin Do plugin.
If you’ve ever gone to a site and had to search for the RSS button, then you can relate to this mistake. I believe it’s very important to have you’re RSS join button prominently display on your site so potential subscribers can’t miss it. Furthermore make it easy for them to subscribe and offer email sign up. Another easy tip is to integrate the What Would Seth Godin Do plugin into your blog. This plugin allows you to post a custom message at the beginning or end of your blog posts. You can use it to promote anything, including signing up for your RSS feed! What a great way to “ask” for a signup.
These are just a couple of tools that I use on my blogs to help drive RSS subscriptions. If you have any other tips or techniques please share with others below in the comments section. We’d love to hear them! I’d be pretty hypocritical if I didn’t ask you to join the AverageGal RSS Feed before finishing this post. Have a great week. 
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Good writeup !! RSS is definitely important for any blog!!
Taris Janitens’s last blog post..Going Down to One Post Per Day
thanks for the reminder! Perfect timing. I have so many bugs to work on with my new template. The biggest is my RSS, I have lost the button; actually, I need help! lol
off I go to get some 
Laura-Whateverebay’s last blog post..Welcome to FeedBurner
I just made the biggest mistake with my Rss feed. I have been that busy recently i forgot to change my feeds over from feedburner to feedburner.google and as a result i lost over 400 subscribers.
Ah well back to rebuilding my subscribers.
David Hobson’s last blog post..Introducing The Seo Basement – Link Building Services
Asking applies not just to RSS but to other things as well. If you end your blog post with a question, people will also likely respond. What do you think?
start blogging’s last blog post..Food of the Week: Kale
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I would agree with that. The blogs that I see the most comments on try to engage the reader with exactly that – a question at the end. It gives the reader something to do / answer other than – great post.
I think I was lucky on the RSS side because it came with my template built in so all I did was sign up for feedburner and enter the code – then change to google a week later
Ben’s last blog post..Heres the low down on From Pink Slip
It never hurts to ask. I;m very partial to subscribing via email. In fact these days I’m so busy that I’ve not got the time to really give RSS reader time the attention it deserves. So, if I can’t subscribe via email – I’m not subscribin’
And no, I don’t mind the inbox clutter – it takes a couple of nanoseconds to hit delete. Not only that but after an initial scan if I want to read the entire article I just leave the notice in my inbox. This becomes a to do list for the day of sorts.
Cheers!
George
Tumblemoose’s last blog post..The long and the short of it
looks like for blogs you really want to archive, the email subscription is a better option. But for blogs which you just want to skan through, at least have the reader available.
Start Blogging’s last blog post..Food of the Week: Collard Greens
This was a lesson that I was taught early on through Yaro Starak’s ” Blog Mastermind ” course.
I am often amazed by the lack of knowledge as to this important aspect of blogging and also on the part of a lot of ” surfers ” on the net now a days ( although, I have found that folks around my age, still haven’t a clue as to what a blog is, more or less it’s purpose and making a living from one ) so, it’s a good idea to remind people about this…especially ” Older Domestic Types ” like me!
Lew Newmark’s last blog post..A Positive Mental Outlook, Week2, Day5 Comes To An End
This is too true. Sometimes I miss the forest for all the trees, and its good to go back to basics. Simply ask readers to join, profoundly simple.
Thanks for the great reminder, and I am going to try out the Seth Godin Plugin.
MAtt Borden’s last blog post..Doing What You Love
Why post the icon for RSS? There’s always one icon in the address bar in ff and opera (I don’t know about ie but I think it’s the same). Als I don’t know, I only subscribe to RSS when I feel the need to do it not because someone asks me for it.