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. 