Let’s Talk Subscriptions
One great thing about blogs is the ability to let people subscribe to your updates. The vehicle for this is Real Simple Syndication (RSS). Blogs come with this functionality standard, but I like to use a third-party solution, in this case Feedburner, to manage my subscriptions for me. The caveat is that Feedburner can be a little flaky with subscription counts, but you get what you pay for which is nothing. I have also been told about Feedblitz which I have not personally tried.
In addition to RSS, Feedburner allows your readers to subscribe to your feed via email. This is very important because no matter how long RSS has been around, people are much more comfortable with email. About one half of my subscribers use the email option to stay up to date with my blog. If I didn’t have email subscription as an option, this is an audience that I may not be reaching. Depending on your target market, you may find this percentage to be even higher.
Another great thing about the Feedburner email subscription option is the ability to customize that email. You are able to customize the subject line, add a logo and customize the fonts to be used. Beyond the appearance, my favorite customization is defining when the email should be delivered to the reader’s inbox. As you go, you will probably play with the best time of day to publish a post until you get a feel for what works well. Once you know this, you can set your email to go out in that 2 hour time frame.
The last thing I want to mention about Feedburner is the analytics it provides. As I mentioned, it is a little flaky when it comes to subscriber numbers. Mine seem to be up and down significantly on a daily basis, but at least I can get a feel for where I am with respect to numbers. The analytics also break down how people are accessing your feed by showing which reader or if it is via email subscription. The analytics also show you which posts are the most accessed on a given day.
There is so much more that Feedburner offers that I haven’t discovered yet, but this is an overview of what you want to consider when adding subscription options to your business blog. What is your experience with Feedburner or another system?
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Great post Beth. I have lots of clients who are still just starting to understand RSS. I will certainly add this to the list of tools I use when explaining it to them.