I’ve received a few requests to write a blog post on how to increase the number of RSS subscribers. Here are some tips on how to rocket that FeedBurner RSS counter.
Why Do You Want A Big RSS Subscription?
Before you try to increase the number of subscribers to your blog, you need to decide if this is what you want to do. A RSS feed is much harder to monetize than a blog. Income from RSS accounted for only $99.80 of the blog’s $7011.05 August income. That’s really bad when you consider over 3,000 people read this blog from RSS everyday.
Despite the low income, there are many valid reasons to increase RSS subscriptions. The main one being RSS represents a loyal reader base and as such, anything you can do to increase it helps your blog in the long run. Another reason to increase RSS is because some ad networks, like ReviewMe, take RSS subscribers into account when determining your price – the higher the RSS number, the more stars you get.
Offer A Full Feed
If you really want to increase your RSS base, then you must offer a full feed. Many RSS users won’t subscribe to your feed if it’s not full. I have over 30 feeds in my Google reader. Everyone single one of them is a full feed. If you don’t have a full feed, I’m not subscribing.
I use my RSS feed to give my readers a mostly ad free version of this blog. Do not use RSS as a teaser in the hopes that the reader will click to the blog in order to read the full post. Unless your blog is updated 20+ times per day, reader won’t sign up to the RSS in the first place.
Don’t Show Your RSS Count When It’s Small
FeedBurner offers a nice chicklet that displays the number of RSS readers on your blog. Right now, it shows 3,812 for this blog. The number represents the amount of people who access the blog via RSS yesterday. I don’t recommend a blog shows this chicklet until the subscriber counted reaches at least 50.
This is human psychology at work. People in general are like sheeps. They’re scare to step outside their comfort zone and won’t do it until they see others do it. When they see a blog with a chicklet showing six readers, their tendency is not to subscribe. It’s best to hide your RSS number until you have enough subscribers to display a decent number. Big RSS numbers makes people subscribe. Small RSS numbers turns them away. It’s not fair, but that’s how it work.
If you want to be evil, you can fake a RSS feed count by displaying someone else’s Chicklet number. Net Business Blog wrote about how to do that in How I Got 283k Feed Subscribers in 1 Day.
Make Sure Your RSS Button Is visible
Your RSS button should be placed near the top of the blog and be visible without scrolling. You want to let the readers know right away that you have a RSS feed and you can’t do that if your button is out of site. I label my button with “Full Feed RSS” to let the readers know they can read all my content from RSS. If you really want to get the readers attention, you can try integrating the world’s biggest RSS button into your blog.
rss-button
Ask Readers To Subscribe
If you want readers to sign up for your RSS, then ask them. The best way to ask is at the end of the post. Add a line that says, “If you like this post, then consider subscribing to myfull feed RSS.”
Instead of adding that line on every single post, an easier way would be to edit your template files. In WordPress, you would edit the single.php or page.php file. You can also edit the index.php if you want the request to show on the blog home page.
Monetizing The RSS Feed
The best way to make money off a full feed RSS is to encourage readers to visit your blog. I wrote about that in how to get RSS readers to visit your blog.
My RSS feed is monetized with FeedBurner Ad Network and Text Links Ads Feedvertising. FeedBurner Ad Network ads are CPM based display ads that appear below a post. The CPM rates can get very high (up to $8) but the fill rate is very low.
Text Link Ads Feedvertising ads are just like text links for a blog. Instead of buying a link on a blog, the advertiser buys a link in the RSS feed. Like TLA links on a blog, pricing is flat rate so you don’t have to worry about variable CPM rates or click fraud. When you sign up for Text Link Ads, you are given a choice to add Feedvertising in your RSS. If you are already a TLA publisher and would like to add Feedvertising, you can do so by editing your listing in the TLA control panel. Feedvertising requires WordPress 2.0 or higher.
A Feedvertising link on this blog cost . However, new advertisers can use this $100 coupon to bring the price down a bit.
I found the woman in the cowboy hat who serves stewed pork leg at her stand just outside of the Old City at the north wall in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was a phenomenal meal. It reminded me of my mom’s beef pot roast, but with pork and a slightly thinner, although unbelievably tasty, sauce. Some people are pork people and others are beef people. I am a pork guy. It is like you are either an Elvis or Beatles person. Sorry Elvis.
I had read that the woman in the cowboy hat started her shift at 5 PM, so I arrived a little bit early thinking her stand might quickly get crowded on a Saturday night. I could tell I had found her stand when I saw her picture emblazoned street side. There were 3 guys getting things set up, putting the pork on the stand, cooking rice, cleaning tables, etc. I walked around looking for something to drink. Then I saw her walking toward her stand. I said “It’s you. I saw you 6 months ago on American TV and now I am here.” She nodded, smiled, pointed to her stand, and continued walking. I realized I might have been a bit too exuberant for her as she started her shift. And clearly she has heard this more than a few times.
After I got my drink, I returned to her stand, and saw I could sit at a table, and someone would take my order and bring me the stewed pork goodness. As I sat there, in the dining area behind the stand, I watched her work. Then it dawned on me. While this is all very exciting for me, a dream realized, a new taste treat experienced, everyday for the past 6 months since I saw her on TV, our woman in the cowboy hat has been standing there at her stand, moving a stewed pork leg to her chopping block, skillfully extracting the meat from the bone, chopping the pork into bite size bits, and serving it up on a plate of rice. All the while, she is dressed in fine clothes, wears a cowboy hat, and never seems to get a drop of pork stew on her.
I know there is a myth that implies that every moment may be filled with bliss. Follow your passion, and do what you love, and everyday will be filled with rainbows and unicorns. Anyone who has gone down this road will tell you this bliss myth is utter crap. Our woman in the cowboy hat looks to have it all. She makes good money here in Thailand. She is famous. I watched 5 different people within 30 minutes walk up to her and take pictures. She owns her own business. She has been on television. And she is beautiful. All of this supports the myth.
Still, every day for 6 or more hours, she stands in one little spot, and chops the pork. There must be times where she says to herself, “If I have to chop one more pork leg, I think I am going to scream!” or “If another American man comes up to me to tell me his story, I am going to throw my cleaver at him!” But she doesn’t. Every day she chops. Everyday she deals with the pictures and notoriety. Everyday she puts out an amazing product for the world to enjoy. As I sat there observing her while she prepared my dish, my appreciation for her grew.
I was reminded in that moment that those of us who want to get something done in the world, we work. We work when it is new and exciting, and we work when it feels a bit like drudgery. It doesn’t matter how we feel. We are clear that this is what we are to do to get the results we want, and so we do it. It is the consistency that demonstrates maturity. We don’t work sometimes, or when we feel like it. We work. We produce. We have pride in the quality of our work. We deliver.
It is the consistency that impresses me. The woman in the cowboy hat stands and chops. Day in and day out, she chops. She wears a big ol’ cowboy hat no matter how hot and humid it is in Chiang Mai. She serves the best tasting pork stew I have ever tasted. Day in and day out, she stands for 6 hours serving up dish after dish. Every day she chops.
Everyday, she is my hero.
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
Aces in their places. My friend Doug told me this many years ago. Doug is really good at making hamburgers and now has the best hamburger joint in Nashville, Tennessee called Gabby Burgers and Fries. His restaurant’s motto is “Living the Dream!” Right on Doug! Aces in their places. This phrase and its strategy has served me well. Find out what people are good at, and let them do it. Instead of trying to teach someone how to do something they are not good at, let them do what they do well. Why teach a fish to climb a tree? Let him swim! Aces in their places. I also use this in my own self-assessment.
Aces in their places. I had to ask myself these questions:
What am I good at? And what do I suck at?
Where do I shine, and where do I struggle? Remember this phrase. Aces in their places. It can change your life.
Recently I turned over a large chunk of my duties to a virtual assistant. Now, like magic, things are happening. I enjoy creating content and talking to people. It really is that simple for me. Truth be told, that is about all I am good at. I write reasonably well and can express some complex ideas in a simple manner. I can also talk very freely with anybody. I can be persuasive and impactful without seeming so. Put me in a weekend event with a group of people and I really shine. But ask me to figure out how to optimize my website and I get the MEGO effect (my eyes glaze over). Ask me to create an SEO plan to attract people to my website and I don’t know where to start. I will never make cheeseburgers and sweet potato fries like Doug. No way. Never.
Aces in their places.
Meet Jan. Jan is my partner. He is a virtual assistant and together, with my creativity and his technical wizardry, things are getting done. You see, there are people who don’t like to create content, nor talk 6 hours a day on the phone, nor lead weekend workshops. They would hate it. These folks are phenomenal at other things. Some build hamburger franchises, and some like Jan are phenomenal at all things Internet related. The invitation of this blog is to assess what you are really good at, and do that. Someone else can do the bits at which you don’t excel. Why do we make it so complicated?
Aces in their places. Thank you Doug!
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
As attention spans decrease, and more people consume their content on their mobile devices, it is increasingly important for marketers to make sure that their content is optimized for mobile use. In fact, many marketers are taking a design-for-mobile-first approach.
Until recently, designing for mobile devices was done as an afterthought. Nowadays, mobile design should be front and center. In addition, content marketers should pay attention to how consumers like to digest their content.
With so many social media channels and the vast amounts of user data that comes with them, marketers have an unprecedented opportunity to learn how people interact with content and what their preferences are.
For instance, image-driven sites like Instagram and Pinterest are teaching us that people prefer images over text, in many cases.
Here are some tips for creating digestible content that is also mobile-friendly.
Take a modular approach
Start by breaking content up into small, digestible bits. People can always click “read more” if they like the content. One way to do this is through a slide deck of photos with captions. Another is to divide long articles into sections and use lots of sub-headers and lists to make your content easy to scan or read.
Focus on the summary
Put extra effort into your article summary – this is the portion of your article that is most likely to be read, especially on mobile devices. If your summary is punchy and entertaining, your readers will stay with you.
Variety is the spice of life
Generate a variety of content and vary the lengths of your pieces. Keep in mind that long-form content is good for SEO and short content is better for mobile. Break up articles with slide-decks, videos, infographics and images. A variety of content will appeal to more people and will be accessible on more devices.
Since your content is likely to be viewed on a mobile device, it is important to take a less-is-more attitude. In other words, make your important points right away and write with efficiency.
Pay attention to the format of your content:
Use easy-to-read fonts
Incorporate visual elements
Streamline your text layout
Link to secondary content
Close-crop images
Write tight headlines
Mobile devices, along with social media like Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest have changed the way we digest content. Marketers who are aware of this and design their content to be mobile-friendly and broken up into bite-sized digestible bits will stand a better chance of attracting and engaging an audience.
Monitoring the social media marketing landscape is vital to your success. If you’d like to have access to even more powerful marketing tips, as well as a way to generate conversion-ready Internet marketing prospects each month, click here to learn about my done-for-you system.
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
I do quite a bit of writing. The truth about writing to which most authors will readily admit is it is often a laborious chore. Sure, there are times in which a rich wave of inspiration hits, and the words freely flow out of your fingertips on to the keyboard and are then made real on the screen, but that is rare. Instead, I sit down at the same time each day, usually in the same spot, although I do mix it up when I can and sit in a coffee shop or restaurant, and I look at a blank screen. This scenario is just the beginning. This is where the work begins. Inspired or not, I will start to type.
One thing that I do which supports me in my writing is to combine my love of music with my writing time. Some writers need complete silence. I do not. Music is a catalyst for my emotions. Music brings up memories. Music makes me happy. Ever since I heard Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin back in high school, I knew music would be a part of my life. Make no mistake, I am not a musician. I can’t sing, and don’t play an instrument. But let me listen to 28 minutes of Dazed and Confused and nine times out of ten I will have tears in my eyes during the guitar solos. Music touches my soul.
Over the past year, I have been creating a playlist in ITunes entitled “AA – Writing Music.” First thing I did was add a few artists that I knew belonged on the list: Van Morrison. Miles Davis, Radiohead, Bob (Marley and Dylan), Leonard Cohen and of course, Keith Jarrett. I had seen Keith Jarrett in concert several times in my twenties. He is such a unique performer, improvising the entire concert. He needed absolute silence or else he would either yell at the protagonist, or refuse to perform. In addition to his virtuoso piano playing, he would also vocalize a bit, working with everything he had to get the most out of himself and his instrument. I remember feeling grateful to experience such brave and marvelous performances.
Now, decades later, as I look at the blank screen, I often think of Keith Jarrett in front of thousands, with a blank canvas in front of him, creating something from nothing. When I hear his Koln Concert performance in my earphones, I am inspired. What one man can do, another can do. Now as I write, I hear the music of some of my all time greats playing and some new artists too. The list continues to evolve. I recently added an Irish musician Hozier and the new CD by Annie Lennox. Writing has become less of a chore, for it is now also an opportunity to do something I love which is to listen to music. As I write this, a live version of John Coltrane’s Naima is playing. I am off into my own little world with all my writing and musician buddies. How amazing this life is!
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.