Getting Legitimate RSS Subscribers

Posted on February 18, 2008
Filed Under Starting your Online Business

It would seem someone is trying to tell me something about RSS of late. It started rather innocently in a discussion with Vic about his RSS count which by the way is at 954 at the moment. We discussed ways to increase it and I kind of left it that. I have never made a big push for RSS subscriptions since I launched this blog. Shortly after that conversation I was exposed to a post by Maki at Dosh Dosh who put his feed count on his site. Maki said “ My feed count was also deactivated until I reached 8000 subscribers, which means no one could discover how many subscribers” That was accomplished in about a year. What’s more impressive is that he didn’t use conventional methods of building his count.

My goals are bit less ambitious than Maki’s for RSS count at the moment. I have decided not place my feed chicklet on my site until it reaches 500. I will tell you that securing RSS subscribers may be one of the most difficult challenges I have had since the launch of this site. Nonetheless I plod along. I read a post the other day about skewing your count , but that’s not really a good fit for me. Then out of the blue I get a e-mail from Sol at Wild About Math and he tells me he has 412 as of the date of his e-mail. 412 to a Math blog? I never went to school with anyone that liked math that much! So Im thinking; darn what am I doing wrong? I start doing some checking around and suddenly everyone seems to be on a RSS webathon to build those RSS counts. I subscribe to many sites myself and while reading through my list I see Tyler Cruz is running a contest to get more subscribers. I m reading about it and I get a newsletter from Yaro telling his folks to build their RSS lists. What is going on? Surely there is a message I should understand from all this RSS karma, right? So I started with some personal soul searching.

Should I challenge someone to a RSS DUEL?
Actually I gave this one some thought; I was going to challenge Vic but I’m thinking he would kick my butt so I stopped thinking about that

Should I give away $500.00 to the 500th subscriber?
This one would work I know it would, it’s that whole make money online thing. The problem is $ 500.00 is a lot of money by my standards and I feel like I’m buying love. Add to that the possibility of subscription manipulation. Not a good idea

Should I just outright beg for new subscribers?
Who likes a whiner right? I don’t so I didn’t give this one much thought, but for those of you with a tender heart…please

Why should people subscribe to my RSS?
Because you’re going to get truthful no nonsense information about running a home based business. You get it delivered to your email or in your chosen reader. Perhaps I should tell you that I subscribe to many sites. The truth is the feeds that I subscribe to by email get most of my attention. Were I you that’s would be what I would do with Making Sales Making Money. Try it for 2 weeks; it takes that long to develop a taste for it. That sounds fair doesn’t it. If you don’t like it after the 2 weeks, unsubscribe, no harm no foul

Should I just Stay the course?
I often end e-mails and posts with this phrase. I believe in it. I believe in what I’m doing. What I’m doing now will be different months from now. To quote Maki again “Readers subscribe to blogs when they provide an informational or entertainment value so great that it would be a loss to not subscribe to it.”This is probably the best option for me, but I’m going to ask you guys and gals to help me decide. Tell me what you think I should do, and below you have a opportunity to make a choice.

There are 3 options here for you to choose from

My Newsletter, here you get the best of both worlds you get my blog feed plus you get the Newsletter. The newsletter is where I do give things and products away. I recently gave a SBI subscription to Todd Geisen, and I’m planning a domain and hosting package giveaway this spring. I like receiving and the best way to receive is to give and I do. In fact for the first person that signs up for the Newsletter, Ill have a surprise for you.

My RSS e-mail subscription is your second best choice. Delivered to your e-mail , you can scan and choose to read or hit the delete button, just don’t tell me that ok?

My RSS , just click the button, choose your reader and you’re in. Just don’t forget to check it for my articles.

Welcome feel free to look around. Subscribing to my Feed or Newsletter guarantees you don't miss any new content, give it two weeks, you will love it RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! Hope to see you again soon.

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Tags:blogging, blogs, home based business, rss, yaro starak

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Comments

7 Responses to “Getting Legitimate RSS Subscribers”

bloggingzoom.com on February 18th, 2008 5:08 am

Getting Legitimate RSS Subscribers…

I have never promoted my RSS subscriptions and I was hesitant to do it now, but I had some thoughts I needed to express. I have a personal goal for adding my feed count to my site, not quite like Makis, but significant nonetheless. You may need to deve…
Evan on February 18th, 2008 10:22 pm

Hi Don,

One reason for the vibe is probably all of Yaro’s students and friends doing the same thing at the same time.

I subscribe to your newsletter and feed, so I guess my votes are in.

I hate the fake promotions thing. I only subscribe to blogs that deliver solid value (information for me - I’m very purpose driven and read novels for entertainment not blogs. Needless to say I’ll never subscribe to Maki’s blog. Also as is obvious I am unusual and there are many more people who do this - as his subscribers are about 1000 times more than mine).

I may add some reasons for why people would like to subscribe to my blog. I’m not sure whether most of my readers would know what this was about - I didn’t when I started out in the blogosphere. But as for competitions and what not - not my scene.
Don on February 19th, 2008 12:30 am

Evan I will take 100 faithful readers like you. If subscribers counts increase my hope is its because I have provided valued content. If the don’t increase Ill accept responsibility for missing the mark.
Jeff on February 19th, 2008 12:35 am

I, too, have struggled with RSS feed subscribers although I still consider myself a new blogger. Maybe I’m going through the typical newbie learning process right now. I don’t know.

Well, you added a subscriber - so maybe I should just post about RSS feeds. Hmmmm….
Jay on February 19th, 2008 3:01 am

Well, depending on your RSS Feed count, I would like to take a shot at the competition. But more than likely I would lose

Jay
Monika Mundell on February 19th, 2008 7:05 am

Hi Don,

Like you I was wondering what I did wrong not so long ago and all though I’m nowhere near 500 RSS subscribers yet I have actually stopped to worry about it.

I’m a strong believer in magnetic attraction and by constantly focusing on what’s not working and why, we only attract more.

Funny enough, it works. Anyway, I’ve subscribed to you for a few weeks now and always enjoy my visits.
Your numbers will come, don’t worry about it.
Holly on February 24th, 2008 4:18 am

I had read on ProBlogger about getting RSS subscribers–The big “secret” is that you have to build suspense. You have to make your readers think you are going to give them information that they simply cannot miss and if they don’t subscribe, they are missing out. Building suspense can be difficult in ways, but seems to be what attracts people and makes RSS numbers grow. Good luck!