This week I was interviewed for a podcast and I was asked what advice I would give to new bloggers wanting to build subscribers, but who are unfamiliar with RSS.

I said “Forget about RSS”.  And here is why.

1. Someone who subscribes to your RSS feed only receives your blog posts.
2. Someone who subscribes via another channel can also receive other messages from you.

Don’t Focus on RSS

My opinion is that if you want to build subscribers you should not focus on RSS or try to make it the primary subscription channel.  Though it varies from niche to niche, relatively few internet users know about RSS or use it.

Put yourself in the shoes of the average internet user.  They go online to read email, one or two social networks, and not much else.  To convert them into an RSS subscriber you need to educate them on what RSS is, how to use an RSS reader, and then hope that they understand it and make their RSS reader a regular part of the internet habits.

Or, you can convert them to a subscriber in a channel they are already using every day.

The Email Advantage

Like I said earlier, an RSS subscriber will only get your latest blog posts.  An email subscriber can receive much more from you, such as newsletters, bonus content, and special offers.

Email can be personalised, segmented and split tested for greater effectiveness.  RSS subscribers see the same blog post as everyone else.

Email signups can be easily incentivized with bonuses.  An RSS subscriber has to be won over by the content they see on your site, not always easy for a first time visitor.

A new email subscriber can receive an  autoresponder series of bonus content that you write once and then let run automatically, getting multiple uses out of that effort.  A new RSS subscriber only gets new blog posts that you write.

Other Subscription Channels

Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are also good subscription alternatives to offer your visitors, because you can engage in general discussion with your audience and build a strong connection with them over time.

Use the social networks that are most common for your own audience, but also try and funnel your audience towards email.  An email subscriber stays with you as long as they keep their email address (and most people go out of their way to keep email addresses), whereas a follower on another network is only with you as long as that network exists and remains interesting for that particular user.

Yes, You Still Need RSS

Although I’m saying you should not focus on RSS, I’m certainly not saying get rid of it completely.  I still offer it on all my blogs for people who prefer RSS, and the technology itself is usually how we syndicate our own content out to other channels such as email, Twitter and Facebook.

So don’t go out your way to disable it or remove it from your blog.

What Do You Think?

So do you agree or disagree with me about RSS?  Leave a comment below to let me know what you think.

Image Credit: Flickr

Tagged as: Email Marketing, Facebook, RSS, Twitter