Many beginning bloggers are just happy to look at their Google Analytics and see that people have actually been reading their blog. While having readers is great and all, the best kind of readers are return visitors who have decided that they like your content enough to keep coming back. So how do you set it up so readers can subscribe to your blog?
Feedburner, like Analytics, is another free, brilliant Google product from the brilliant folks at Google. It’s easy to use and wildly popular among new and seasoned bloggers alike. Once you sign up for the service, it gives you a little bit of code to add to a text widget (or Blogger gadget) in your sidebar that allows readers to subscribe by email or rss.
Once readers subscribe by email, they will receive your updates in their inbox once a day when there is a new post. You can choose the timeframe that you want the updates sent out and you can do a bit of customization to the branding of the email, including font, colors and logo.
RSS
This option allows readers to subscribe to your blog using their favorite reader, like Bloglines (my fave!) or Google Reader. But then, these guys can explain RSS way better than I can.
Today’s assignment
Add a subscribe option to your blog through Feedburner or another subscription service of your choice. And make it highly visible – either on the very top left or right on your blog’s sidebar. You want it to be a priority for folks to sign up to get your blog updates on a regular basis. What should you say? Here are a few key phrases:
- Subscribe to this blog
- Subscribe to receive blog updates
- Subscribe to new posts
- Get new posts automatically
- Subscribe for free
- Get this blog in your inbox
- Subscribe by RSS or email
…the “call to action” possibilities are endless. And you can use exclamation points if you’re the excitable type.
Are you using a subscribe option to build readership for your blog? Are you getting more readers as a result? Please share your experience in the comments!
Done! http://www.chasingsoul.com
I think I did it right… although I'm not sure if I have two widgets for the same thing? I have the WordPress widget – Click to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email – and now I also have the Feedburner widget – Subscribe in a reader. Can someone let me know if that is the same thing?
http://www.madelynteresa.wordpress.com
You have to first “burn your feed” and basically sign up for the Feedburner service before you can get the code.
You have to first “burn your feed” and basically sign up for the Feedburner service before you can get the code.
when i clicked on the feedburner link, i didn't see a code that i could add…i'll try it again though.
i promise i really wanna add a subscription widget!
Funny enough, the Feedburner link is what I added for the widget exercise! I think it might be too small though… what do you guys think?
http://employedpanache.blogspot.com/
The point is not always to get people on your site, but to give them options of how to get your content the way they prefer to view it. Some people will only read your blog on their cell phones and that's fine as long as they are reading! They will always have to come to your site if they want to comment.
I don't know why you wouldn't want people to be able to subscribe to your blog…some people don't want a newsletter, they just want to get your posts.
You add the code in a text widget just like you did with the Twitter widget
That's a great idea. I may have to do the same!
Done! Check it out: http://www.nikitatmitchell.com
One of the first things I did with my blog was to set up Feedburner and put links to it up front and center. I love it. It makes it easy for people to subscribe (without having to open another tab and copy and paste the RSS feed URL) and it tells me how many people are subscribed (or how many people unsubscribe, which sadly, has happened, possibly due to my inactivity).
However, one thing that I have been missing for a while is the reverse of a Feedburner but a blogroll, so I've finally taken some time to add this! It felt a little bit like I was taking a stand on what blogs I thought were great, which is scary.. but I know that the fact is that there are a lot of great blogs out there and it would look sloppy and way TLDR. So, even though I did my best to include some of the best, I know I'm still missing a lot so I added a quick little disclaimer in case anyone wants to send me suggestions or suchlike. For what it's worth, I'm pretty happy with how it looks now (length and formatting wise), even though I'm still not entirely feeling like I've covered / exposed everything notable in my niche.
yep, using wordpress!
I have RSS and a subscribe to a reader on my blog. I like having more than one option! I just added feedburner when we were tweaking widgets on a previous assignment.
Are you using wordpress?
i'm really confused about the feedburner thing. I'm not sure how to add the widget, and I can't find the URL for the feed so i can't use the feedburner. Can somone explain it to me?
Finally got it working this past weekend, and glad about it. Still fairly new, so no subscribers yet. I am considering doing an intro email as part of the public launch to get potential subscribers to the site.
I have attached an email widget and tested it with my friend to make sure it worked. http://www.chasingsoul.com
The blog subscription widget is at the very top of my blog's sidebar. I also have RSS feed icons underneath it.
I have two options for reader to subscribe to my blog, clicking on an RSS feed icon or sign up by email through Feedburner. I did see my readership increase since adding the email option. For today assignment, I change my call to action statements.
I've got an enewsletter up at the top right hand side of my site, does that count as a subscribe link?
http://www.wildwomanfundraising.com/
If not, I could always do an RSS link as well. do you think I should?
I've always had my subscription button at the top right of my blog but recently moved it farther down in the side bar. I just moved it back up per your suggestion. The blog is knocking on the 60 day mark and so far I have 21 subscribers. My only question is when readers subscribe and get the post in their email does that counteract the work of trying to get them onto the site??
I'm using feedburner and like it. In case #31bnb folks are looking around for helpful WordPress plugins, I created a list of the ones I use and like http://www.fusedc.org/blog