Tag: subscribers

Does Your Blog Have a Subscribe Button?

Posted on by Vanessa Wood

You put all that work into your blog, you want an audience, but have you given your readers a way to get notice of your updates? When a blog reader can click a subscribe button and choose to receive your next post that’s called SUBSCRIBING.

The big blogs all have easy subscribe options.

CBS News (yes, it uses RSS like a WordPress blog) gives readers several options to get the latest news stories (circled in green). Like CBS News on Facebook and you’ll get updates in your Facebook account. Not a Facebook user you can get updates in Twitter or Google+.  Like videos better than reading the news?– then you can subscribe in YouTube and watch news stories. The important lesson from CBS is that they are mainstream and so are their readers, so they give them mainstream options for following the latest news.

Subscribe Buttons on Blog

MTV has a follow button. It opens up a box that gives readers 6 options to read their latest entertainment news stories. They deliver their stories to the top “readers”: Google, Yahoo, Netvibes, Bloglines, Newsgator, and Windows Live.  See those black and gray buttons at the top of their page? MTV also has a Facebook page, Twitter account, and Google+. If you don’t want to follow MTV in a reader, you can get their latest news by following them on your favorite social networking site.

 

Check out your blog. Is it missing a way for people to subscribe? Give your readers at least one way to get your future posts via RSS feed and at lease one way to get updates on a social networking site. Today’s the day to reach more readers by getting this done.

Facebook vs Feedburner – Which to Use for Blog Subscribers?

Posted on by Vanessa Wood

mailbagsRemember the old saying, “Don’t sweat the details”?  When delivering your future blog posts to your readers you shouldn’t have to overthink the details. Knowing your options will make it easier to get your posts out to your readers.

RSS is the magic behind blogging and the basic way new blog articles are delivered to readers.  Someone who likes you or the topics you write about can click an orange RSS link to “subscribe” to the blog. They can choose to accept future blog posts into Outlook or readers like Google Reader or their AOL or Yahoo accounts. RSS isn’t just for techies, however it seems to baffle the average web visitor, so I always recommend that bloggers have alternative ways of subscribing.

Facebook has a bazillion users, right? When everyone you know is on Facebook, it’s an ideal way to deliver new blog posts to the people who want to read them.  You’ll need a Facebook  business page. You’ll need to give readers a way to “like” the page through your website and blog.  Then you’ll need to share you each future blog posts on your page.  The best result is that your readers will also share your posts, garnering you more “likes” on your Facebook page and more readers of your blog.  Check out the Design to Spec’s page (Thanks for  “like”-ing it while you’re there!).

Feedburner is a Google product that allows people to get blog posts via email. I’ve heard from many clients that this is the only way people subscribe to their blog. This comment seems to be true when you are aiming for readers who are less-than-techie, perhaps seniors, or still enjoy using email for communicating and receiving e-newsletters. You’ll notice on the Design to Spec website we have an opt-in box to “get email updates.”  Give it a try… it’s that simple.

Of course there’s  no reason you can’t offer all 3 ways to subscribe!