Are Email Subscriptions A Good Idea?
After visiting almost every blog that I know of, I realized that I’m missing a key element — Email Subscriptions. The simple fact is that many people don’t really check their RSS readers. Email Subscriptions can be a good idea and maybe thats why I’m currently figuring out a way to install it in my sidebar. For now though, you can subscribe using the form at the end of this post. Today, I’d want to talk about why email subscriptions can be a good idea.
The first reason that comes to my business mind is cost. Well, most of us have Feedburner so its completely free. I mean, it doesn’t hurt to implement it since theres no cost associated with it. When you login and select your feed in Feedburner then click on Publicize and select Email Subscriptions in the sidebar. Make sure to activate it and you’re ready to go. This is what your page should look like.
Secondly, it helps expand your subscription options by allowing people to use their email accounts instead of an RSS reader. Also, now when you have an ebook or a “special report” then you can entice people into subscribing to your blog through email subscriptions. It will not only help you increase the number of RSS subscribers but you’ll also be able to gain more exposure through the ebook or special report that you offer.
Lastly, I notice that many people don’t even check their RSS readers and I’m guilty of that and willing to accept. I mostly just open my browser and visit the blog because thats the way I’ve always done it. Email subscriptions will allow you to help appeal to those who either don’t use their RSS reader or those who don’t have one. Its basically a way for you to boost your RSS subscriber count.
I think what turns people off from Email Subscriptions is that they have to part with their email address and they’re worried that they’d get spammed and if not with advertisers, by you, the blogger. How is that possible? Well consider this, if you blog several times a day, your poor RSS readers will constantly be bombarded with emails with your latest post which occurs every 3 hours. But thats not going to be the case when you subscribe to my blog. You’ll get an email once or maybe twice and your information will never be used or sold to any third parties nor will it be used by me to advertise products or services to you.
So theres my email subscription form that you should soon see in the sidebar. If you’d like to subscribe by email then use the form above. I hope that you liked this post as I’ll be doing a case study to see how adding the email subscription has helped my RSS count. Do you guys prefer Email Subscriptions over an RSS Reader?
Hey,
You should really get the email subscriptions going — they do help. But, you don’t have much to worry about, because the majority of people do use their readers.
I’ve noticed almost every blogger I know has the majority of their subscribers through a reader and a small percentage through email subscriptions — that includes me as well.
But, you should definitely still have it as an option! I hope you find a way to implement in your sidebar!
Yeah, I’m going to implement it during the weekend. I think email subscriptions are taking away about 10-20% of potential readers so its a good option to have.
Yes the main worry of some people are that they might get spammed, but I think email subscription is one of the best ways to stay updated with blogs. Bloggers who don’t have this option enabled are losing a lot of subscribers.
Even I love email subscriptions (though I’m subscribed to you through a reader). I think feedburner aggregates posts everyday and mails then the next day. So you don’t get more than one mail per day. That mail will have all posts of the prev day.
You should give your readers plenty of options. So if your blog doesn’t have this option, you are losing out.
Email subs is a good idea. I had them on my blog for a while and recently removed them with the new design, this post is making me reconsider it and I will probably put them back up.
I haven’t had email subscriptions on the blog until this post. Now i just have to figure out how to get it in my sidebar!
I actually only subscribe to feeds via email. When I get a notice in my email with the entire feed and it’s interesting, I’ll go to the blog and read more and comment.
I’ve actually never used an actual reader and I can’t say that I would. It’s just another account I’d have to babysit and would be less likely to regularly read the latest posts on my favorite blogs.