For as long as I have been blogging, I have been terrible at subscribing to peoples’ blogs. I had a lot of concerns about it. For example, would I just go to those sites and never find anybody new? Would I get so far behind that I would just do what so many have done and delete the whole mess?
It was quite an interior battle. However, today the stalemate broke. I decided I am just plain tired of missing blog posts, or coming in so late that I am comment number 7 million. By that time, there are too many comments to read every single one and yet you kind of have to so you don’t become “that person” who repeats what has already been said 7 times. It bums me out. Therefore, I proclaimed today “National Subscribe to Blogs Day” and I became the first (so far as I know) to celebrate.
In the process of going through the online world and finding blog posts I wanted to subscribe to, I encountered a lot of roadblocks in my way. I wanted to share those with you so that you can make sure people find it really easy to subscribe to your blog posts. I mean, I was out there with the PURPOSE of subscribing. Many people will only opt to describe after they’ve read a post of yours they like.
With that said, here are some important things to look out for.
1. Hard to find or hard to identify subscribe buttons
I know the temptation on your blog sites is to get really creative with design, but there are some things that should probably remain really boring and plain. Your subscribe button falls into that category. I should not have to guess where the button is. I should not have to look for it either, because…I probably won’t. Have it out there. Be loud, be proud.
2. Technology that doesn’t work
On a lot of blogs that I tried to subscribe to, the RSS button took me to an XML code page that was worthless for my cause. This happened in Chrome but not in Safari. However, in Safari, the only way to subscribe via email was to use a program already on your computer (for me, Mac Mail). I was using my Gmail account. I lost patience and did not subscribe to those sites. It was taking too much time to figure out. Test your subscription options yourself and make sure they are working the way you want them to.
3. An email icon that takes me to your contact page
On a few websites, the icons are a little confusing/misleading. On some sites, the email icon is a subscribe button. On others, it stands for “Email me.” On some sites the RSS button is just for readers while on others it also offers the email option. Don’t make your potential subscribers guess what they should click on. Gently guide them to the promised land of subscriber happiness.
4. Buried buttons
Related to point number one, but a surprising number of sites had subscribe options that were buried way down under the page. To me, this is a higher priority than the people who have “liked” you on Facebook. The people who engage with you on your blog and who are willing to read your ramblings whenever you write them are pure gold. Move those buttons up, up, up.
5. Invite people to subscribe, but don’t be pushy
One thing I don’t do enough is making the ask. When I was working on my engagement series last year, I made a point of mentioning now and then that you could subscribe to keep up with the series. Guess what? My number of subscribers increased by about 100%. When I stopped making those reminders, my number of subscribers stopped growing as fast. Not much of a mystery, right?
With that being said, I’m not a huge fan of the 20-sentence-long invite to subscribe that some folks have at the bottom of every post. I suppose it makes sense, but it drives me nuts. Be gentle with me. I’m fragile.
Have you checked out your blog site as if you were a visitor and not, well, you? Have you clicked your subscribe buttons to make sure they are working? Are your subscribe options super easy to find?
What other important things are there to look out for when it comes to building your subscriber list?
Oh, and by the way, if you want to subscribe to my posts, the subscribe buttons are right over there, in the upper right-hand corner 🙂
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/documentarist/473086629/ via Creative Commons
Good post Margie – I’ve also found it to be incredibly difficult to subscribe to various blogs.
If I can’t find a way to subscribe via RSS and I really want to, I copy and paste the URL into my Reader. Voila — I’m subscribed. I no longer subscribe via email – my inbox was overflowing and I ended up deleting 90% of them without reading the posts. That’s what I’ve been doing over the past couple of months — unsubscribing from emails and adding to my Reader. I do wish when I unsubscribe (via email), there was a place to explain that I’ve moved them to the Reader, but there doesn’t seem to be a spot to do that.
@Sherree_W I’m a little worried about my inbox exploding too, but I used my non-work email to subscribe, and I’m going to create a special folder and…well, we’ll see what happens 🙂
Excellent suggestions!! I immediately went to my site as a “visitor” and realized that I didn’t have (gasp) a contact form. I now have a contact submission form so….thank you. And, you are right, it probably wouldn’t hurt to remind people that they can, in fact, subscribe to the posts.
Thanks margieclayman for some helpful words of wisdom!
Claudia
@SocialMediaDDS So glad it helped 🙂
Thanks to fondalo for tweeting this. Loved it! On that note, I’d love for you (Marjorie) to subscribe to my blog and let me know how easy it was. Everyone’s invited to do so, as well. 😉 http://mileinmine.blogspot.com/
@Deena Anreise Alright, I bit 🙂
Didn’t Betsy and Shirley scream at you for your activities today? While I appreciate the fact that you launched “National Subscribe to Blogs Day,” I am not sure that they appreciated the clicks and then the typing of this post.
Thanks so much for these reminders and I would say “YES” you are the first to celebrate this very special day.
@janetcallaway I think it’s safe to say that the migraine I got later today was fair punishment. Like all good holiday celebrations, there are ramifications 🙂 Doing better now.
Thanks Janet!
Good Margie! Currently get blog post notify via email. Trying to figure out RSS feed!
@dabarlow Good for you! 🙂
PREACH! I’m so glad you created this post. First of all, I’m an RSS reader chick too. I make time on the weekends to catch up on blogs and I feel bad when I get behind (like I am now)!
Here’s another one to add (or even for you to create a blog post about called “are you losing out on tweets”) – when I want to retweet someone’s post using the Tweet button, it doesn’t list their twitter handle…it’s usually ‘sharethis’ or ‘addthis’ and I know it’s because people don’t know how to set it up or even realize it’s an option. But I hate to go searching for someone’s twitter handle before sending a tweet. Otherwise, I figure what’s the point of tweeting the post when they don’t get the true credit??? Just as frustrating as not having a working RSS feed link…
~Kesha
@uncommonchick That is a huge point. I realized I was doing that wrong pretty early on in my blogging career. Another big problem is if a person just plain doesn’t have their real name anywhere on the site. That means you can’t even look for them on Twitter if you want to. Excellent point indeed!
Hey Margie,
a tip for you. I had the same issue with xml files, but i found great solution. IF you go Chrome Web Store search for Reader Plus 4.0.1 extension and install it, it give your Google Reader few more features. Once installed go into your Google Reader, on right handsite you will see settings —> open and select Reader Settings and navigate to Goodies. In Goodies you will find at the end if you scroll down a bookmark Subscribe, drag the icon to your bookmarks bar. Then, when you’re on a web page, you can click the bookmark to view it in Google Reader and be able to subscribe to feed immediately. Helped me a lot 🙂
Ps
Great Post!
@jureklepic Aha! You have the answers to everything! I’ll have to print this out and see if I can figure it out 🙂
Thanks, Jure!
I’m finally starting a real subscription system for BruceSallan.com…am quite nervous about instituting it as I don’t like to be pushy (on my site)…
@BruceSallan1 haha 🙂 Nice qualifier there m’friend 🙂
I am so glad you said you aren’t ON your site, lol! *wink* @BruceSallan1
Thanks Margie, you just made my blog to-do list a little bit longer. Better twitter button and email subscribe.
I’m interested in any tips for the chrome RSS subscribe issues, Jure’s is good for us as users, but it doesn’t help our visitors. Is there a way to make it work in default chrome installs? Maybe Feedburner fixes this?
Alright, one more high priority update to make for my blog…
@Wittlake Feedburner seems to be immune to browser issues – if in doubt, it seems like that’s the safest road to take.
Sorry to give you work to do 🙂
Oh, my, I had exactly the same interior debate, and made exactly the same decision for the same reasons. Thus, I’ve been doing the exact same thing over the past week, and finding the exact same issues. I’ve been debating whether to write a polite email saying I’d love to subscribe but I can’t or am too dumb to figure out how. And there our paths diverged :). Thanks for writing it for me.
@ShakirahDawud I do what I can for my friends 😉 Thanks. Glad it helped!
Browser issues can wreak havoc in all sorts of ways because our pages don’t render the same in all. Your advice to check our sites out as if we were visitors is quite sound.
I try to make a point to ask friends to take a look at my blog periodically just to see if anything jumps out at them.
As for subscribing I rarely do it primarily because it makes me crazy when I get backed up. So I have a list of blogs that I visit. Given the choice I usually prefer to go direct and see what is going on there.
@TheJackB Ain’t that the truth. As a marketer it is amazing how much different browsers can present different experiences. woo boy.
I have been going direct for a year now but I just feel like I am missing too much. For example, how can I make sure I read your posts when they are fresh? I don’t want to chance it sir. No indeed.
@margieclayman Hey even my stale posts are tasty and delectable. Now if only Livefyre would hook up my most recent instead of something that is ancient….
I really love bloglovin.com to get my blog articles. You can easily see which ones you have missed, read those, or delete the whole mess 🙂 I also and “favorite” them which makes a good place to store quality blog posts. And, when you are seeing the blog post, it looks exactly like the website – not just words like an RSS feed. Anyhoo, that is how I solved my subscription dilemma!
@Kesha So, how DO you set up the tweet to use your handle? This is a great point.
@Deena Anreise@kesha I think it’s under “tools” and then “sharing.” You fill in your Twitter handle there. I *think*
Thanks for the helpful tips and insights, Margie. Great suggestions. And, you are not even charging the usual $47 for it 😉
martinamcgowan
@Doc_1 *cough* 🙂
Margie!
Ok, I have to ask… Would you be willing, if you have a moment, to “check” me? Would you go and click and make sure subscribe means subscribe and RSS is what is needed?
Sadly, I come from kind of an internet-ignorant family circle. It would mean a lot to me. I have (had??) one friend here online, that couldn’t, but I am not sure if it was my website dramas or her reader …? Now, I rarely see or hear from her (sad face…).
Thank you (either way, I know you are busy!!).
~Amber-Lee
@girlygrizzly Easy peasy. I’m subscribed 🙂
@margieclayman Thank you. Really!
I’m always amazed at how many folks don’t have email subscription enabled in feedburner Margie. I know most folks use RSS, but many others only use email. And when the email subscribe isn’t visible, they’ve lost me.
Considering it takes about 20 seconds to add that to feedburner, folks really should have it.
Just my 2 cents 😉
marcus
@Marcus_Sheridan I’m an email subscriber too. I don’t have the patience to figure out RSS feeders, at least not right now. Always good to leave as many options as possible. Well, online anyway 🙂
I found your subscription pretty easily there, Margie. 🙂
It is true though. I do the pushy thing on the bottom of the Story Dam site, but I also have a little more polite method on the top of the sidebar. I do not, however, use RSS reader option on there. Maybe I should add it.
The parenting blog, though I did add it per request. I don’t hide it, but we are using some pretty convenient tabs to save sidebar space. Subscriptions are slow, but we did just start back up a week ago. And I’m sure me not asking doesn’t help either. We’ll see how it goes.
@BrandonPDuncan Story Dam seems a little different to me because keeping up on the posts is part of being in the community. It’s like the dues you have to pay 😀 On a personal blog, or one where it’s not *technically* essential you read every post every day, I think you can back off a bit.
(I tried to leave this comment on BlogHer, but ironically, even though I’m logged in, LiveFyre won’t let me sign in! This is what I was going to say there.)
It’s great advice to frequently view your blog as a visitor rather than the owner, but especially so regarding subscribing.
Related to #3 would be to check that links work. One errant character can make it all for naught.
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