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The saying, “it is easier to get a repeat customer than a new customer” is very relevant in the world of blogging! It is much easier to keep return readers than to get a new one and you want to make sure you make it as easy as possible for them to return! This alone is a great reason to offer your readers an RSS feed. Having people subscribe to your blog is great because it increases the chance of them reading your content and returning to your blog. When I see a blog I like, I immediately subscribe so I don’t forget this blog because chances are, I will forget the URL of the blog and miss out on a blog I would have really enjoyed. Below are some ways to turn your readers into subscribers:

• Make your feed prominent - Make sure the subscribe link is very prominent on your blog. All too often I am seeing it hidden somewhere in the footer which is just not good. Now you don’t want a dancing RSS Icon floating across the screen; but make sure your link is noticable. The RSS icon is very well known so you may even be able to get away with just using that; I’m sure you can see mine just fine! It would probably be better for me to also include a text link in addition to the feed icon; but given my target audience are bloggers, the icon is pretty well known.
• Remind readers by email to subscribe - I use the Comment Relish plugin which sends an email to a visitor the first time they post and I recently modified it include a link to the rss feed. This is just another way to get your feed out there and another chance for that person to subscribe!
• Put a subscribe link at the top and bottom of each post - This is something I have seen done and am considering myself. I like the idea of giving them yet ANOTHER opportunity to respond, but I don’t want to suffocate them. Either way though, it is another option. I’d be interested to hear if anyone here does it.
• Make new readers aware of your feed - Install the What would seth Godin do? plugin. This is something I found out about in the Blog Forum and I thought it was a brilliant idea. The plugin shows vistors that are new to your blog a message that tells them about your feed. The message and style is completely configurable as well as the number of times a visitor has to visit before the message stops displaying. Here is what it looks like:

  

I’m interested to learn more ways to turn readers into subscribers. What do YOU do?

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 2:23 am and is filed under Blogging Basics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.