Blogging: Blogger Blogs & Email Subscriptions

I visit a lot of blogs, and I subscribe to a lot of blogs, but one things stops me from subscribing; blogs with no email sign up. Sure, RSS feed is the future, but with several of the feed readers disappearing, maybe not so much. I know I’m not alone when I say I prefer blog notices to show up in my email, and for those of us who do Blogger has FINALLY made it easy for bloggers to add the option:

 

The video is a bit rushed because the program wouldn’t let me save one that was very long, but I think it shows the process.

Of course, if you have wordpress the subscribe by email has been in the widgets section for a long time.

Does your blog have a subscribe by email option? Why or why not?

 

 

The Biggest Blog Mistake

There are plenty of articles out there to tell you how to blog. They offer advice on how to decorate your blog, what links you should include in the sidebars, how to make your blog easily navigable and searchable. There are articles that give you ideas about how often to write, how long the posts should be, what the ideal time is to post, and even what your posts should be about. However, all of this is meaningless if your readers can not subscribe to you.

The point of posting a blog is to get people to read it, and if no one can read it then you’re wasting your time.  You want to make your blog as easy to get access to from as many devices/subscriptions types as you can. It takes a couple of seconds, and there’s no excuse not to.

Most blog hosts offer a default RSS subscription service. All you have to do is make sure that the link to it is visible in your toolbars/widgets.  RSS isn’t the only subscription route. For example, I don’t use RSS and the sad fact is that if I can’t subscribe to a blog via email, I don’t bother, no matter how interesting or entertaining it is. I simply don’t have time to book mark it and randomly check back. I’m not the only one.

If your blog host doesn’t offer an email subscription option (wordpress does – just go to your widgets and drag it over to your widget area), you can use feedburner.com to create one. They will generate code that you can paste into your blog’s sidebar (if you want to see it in action you can check here – look to the right). Feedburner is pretty easy to use, so I won’t go into details unless someone wants me to.

Remember, the point of blogging is to be read – so make it easy for your readers to read – and subscribe – to you, or they might not bother.