» January 18, 2008 in
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There have been 150001.7 articles written on how to increase rss subscribers. I'm sure you've probably read or seen half of them.
I'm looking to increase the readership here in 2008, so, what is your BEST tip for increasing rss readership?
Share with me and the others.
Ideas
In the video I mention a couple ideas like creating contests for people to subscribe.
Here is another: Micheal Martine describes creating an ebook and giving it away to people when they subscribe to their feed (with some impressive results). I really like the idea, not with ebooks, but maybe with some of the free scripts I give away. I'm just not sure the details on making it work without annoying people too much.
What is your best tip to increase rss readership that you've seen around?
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joshspaulding () says on January 18, 2008:
Any type of relevant link bait will do the trick. In your case, as you mentioned, free scripts. Your Top 100 list probably shot your subscribers and traffic through the roof.For those of us who are technically challenged, good, solid, useful content.
I like the idea of the ebook for subscription though.
45n5 () says on January 18, 2008:
@josh - for sure good content reigns supreme, but I reckon I'm asking for more specific examples on how to actually get the visitors to convert to subscribers, like the ebook idea.Iantrepreneur says on January 18, 2008
I do contest, feed footers, giving them exclusive downloads to reports and ebooks I create etc
so far contest has been the best for me - subscribing and seein how else they can increase their chances of winning
45n5 () says on January 18, 2008:
thanks for the feedback ian, I wonder if anybody does the contest/promototions with rss that also offers a full feed?Ie, my info would be seen from just clickin on the feed without actually subscribing?
michaelmartine () says on January 18, 2008:
Thanks for the mention, Mark. It almost sounds like you're saying I'm annoying my visitors. ;) Just because I did this once doesn't make me an expert, but one thing about what I did is that it was a good fit for my site and my readers.Maybe instead of one big book, you do several smaller ones, or a buncha white papers. Or subscriber only videos or slideshare shows (slideshare.net). Or some kinda "members only" content that subscribing gives them the password to. Or you'll pick people at random and link to them/review them. Possibilities are endless.
But you're all about making money online, so my vote would be a basic "stuff nobody ever told you" or "missing manual" kind of thing.
45n5 () says on January 18, 2008:
@Micheal - I didn't mean to imply you were annoying your visitors, I liked your idea. Rather, i wanted to do something like it but not annoy MY visitors because i provide a full feed and it may be tricky. Also because I'm not sure people want to wait until the next post to get the download.
Thanks again for sharing the info on your blog.
MarketLeverage () says on January 18, 2008:
I emailed John Chow when I first started blogging and I asked him what would be the best way to increase my traffic. He replied with hold a contest. Get someone or a company to donate the prize so it won't cost you anything. Then you can test it and see how many subscribers you gain. The RSS contest that Shoemoney & John Chow had resulted in them keeping a lot of their subscribers. John Chow just made a post that he reached his 15,000 mark. So many of them must have stuck around after the contest.
Have a great weekend and see you in Vegas!
~Debby
m07 says on January 19, 2008
nice tips.thanx for sharing.
marko says on January 19, 2008
Man here's a tip from a kid blogger (not carl ocab). I think that the best thing about increasing RSS subscribers is organizing a contest or giving away an e-book. If you are organizing a contest that make the only entry ticket subscribing by email, and if you are giving away an ebook do the same but when people subscribe give more that you pro messed. That will keep them subscribed! I recently did a guest post on Carl Ocab about increasing RSS subscribers (you can see that I am not Carl) and the url is http://www.carlocab.com/increasing-feed-count-number-easy-how/ Hope I helped you somehow ;)
Harry says on January 19, 2008
I am planning for some contest to increase subscribers. This post helps.
digitalnomad says on January 19, 2008
Here is a tip Mark. Make sure your subscription software works. I am not getting email notifications from 45n5.
However, when I try to subscribe again (via email), I get a message that I am already subscribed.
I don't know what else to do, whilst tell you about the problem.
moneyreign () says on January 19, 2008:
Best content and time will get the RSS up... it sucks to wait, but branding is a journey.Nice shirt by the way! :)
45n5 () says on January 19, 2008:
@moneyreign - certainly branding is a journey however specifically I'm sure there are some tricks to getting people to subscribe, an obvious one is put your subscribe button above the fold. I like the shirt also ;)@digitalnomad - I just subscribed to my own email feed, I'll let you know if i get it.
@marko, @harry, @MarketLeverage - I reckon I never think of contests is because I never participate in the contests however it seems to be a popular piece of advice, I'll keep it in mind, thanks.
beertubetv.com says on January 19, 2008
Oh yea....
Freeeeeeeeeee Beer on my Beer site.
www.BeerTubeTv.com
blantonious () says on January 19, 2008:
What I'm about to reveal is ground breaking!That was to get everyone's attention. :-)
One thing that works well is to end posts as though this is just the beginning of the great information to come. Making people want to hear what you have to say next.
Series posts really accomplish this. Let people know that this is part 1 of a 3 part series. Then a the end tell them to subscribe so they don't miss the next part of this great series.
This is just 1 great tip you can find from bloggers like Mark at 45n5.com and myself over at www.successforyourblog.com
Oh and don't forget to subscribe to both our blogs. ;-)
Hows that?
45n5 () says on January 19, 2008:
@beer - i don't plan on giving away beer@blantonious - good idea and yeah obvious. Looking at my stats yesterday shows 63% of people that visit here are new, I was kinda surprised, so dropping some subscribe info at the bottom of posts is a good idea.
beertubetv.com says on January 19, 2008
Mark: I mean...you gave me a good idea...will get beer advertisers or the product manufacturers to give me free beer to advertise on my beer site.
thanks
45n5 () says on January 20, 2008:
@beer - I don't encourage beer drinking.@digitalnomad - I got my email today with my feed update so it's working. Maybe it's getting caught in your spam filter?
it comes from @emailenfuego.net address
Deals says on January 21, 2008
BEG or at least ASK! Activating people to become new subscribers can be just a matter of asking them while its "top of mind" and there on you page. A polite "become a subcriber" at the bottom of each post would get at least some of those 63% new visitors to join up. Customise them with each post!
"More crazy PPC experience each Monday!
- am I going to get slammed with a "too obvious comment?
/Scott
Sapphire says on January 22, 2008
I put footers on every single post that invite you (with links) to subscribe to RSS or email (you can see this at bluemushrooms.com). That doubled my feed stats very quickly on several different sites when I first started doing it. So simple, yet it makes a difference.
45n5 () says on January 22, 2008:
thanks all on the footer trick, I'll be doing it along with a few other suggestions in a fewCharles says on January 30, 2008
I hope it is helpful for me, thank you so much for sharing your experience.
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