Wordless Wednesday

Bug Killer Slippers

Wordless Wednesday

On Hiatus

Hello everyone, I will be on hiatus for two weeks to remedy some health issues. So no new posts except for my Wordless Wednesday posts which I schedule months in advance. But I will periodically check other blogs and comment as much as I can if my health permits. In the meantime feel free to browse around and read a few previous posts. Check out my blog roll to the left for some awesome blogs to read by other bloggers. I ask that you keep me in your prayers for a quick and speedy recovery. See you all in two weeks, hopefully sooner. Take care!!! Hugs and smooches to all my book gangstas, book addicts and blogaholics!!! Lena

10 Ways to Increase RSS Subscribers

One way one bloggers gain readers is through RSS (Really Simple Syndication). RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish regularly updated works such as blog entries, news headlines as well as audio and video in standardized form. RSS feed benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. I use Feedburner as a my RSS feed and management tool. There are many feed and management tools to choose from. Just do a google search and you'll find one. I find Feedburner quite adequate and it is one of the most popular ones around. If you have a Blogger blog you may generally use your GFC (Google Friends Connect) plug-in to gain subscribers/followers as well as an RSS feed. But for other blog formats such as Wordpress, they use an RSS feed for their subscribers. In general, bloggers want more subscribers and more subscribers hopefully leads to increased readership. So how can you increase your RSS subscribers? Here are 10 tips.

1. Make sure your RSS icon is highly visible and is placed above the fold. Meaning on the top of the page without having to scroll down to view it.


2. Don't overwhelm your new subscribers with extraneous posts. You don't want their feed to be cluttered with posts they don't want to read, which could lead them to unsubscribe from your blog. So make every post count.


3. Use your RSS feed link when you comment on other blogs. Instead of using your blog URL, put in your feed URL and that way it leads people to your feed to subscribe.


4. Make sure to display the RSS icon on every page of your blog. That way people don't have to go back to your home page to subscribe if they decide to follow your blog. Remember people are busy, make it easier for them every step of the way.


5. Urge your readers to subscribe at the end of every post.


6. Make it easy for visitors to subscribe to your blog. Make the subscription button highly visible and easy to utilize.


7. Offer your readers something for free in return that they subscribe to your blog. This can be done with a free ebook, newsletter, giveaway or contest.


8. Offer category feeds so visitors can choose a specific category or topic that interest them. This way they don't have to subscribe to the entire blog.


9. Utilize cross RSS promotion. Get other bloggers to advertise and promote your blog feed on their blog and vice versa.

10. Make sure to explain to your readers or visitors what RSS is so they know why it's important to subscribe and utilize it. Some people have no idea what the RSS icon is for and thus they don't use it.

One helpful tip: Make sure to check your feed periodically to make sure your feed is working and your link is working.

Hope you found some helpful tips today. Now be a dear and please subscribe to my RSS feed in the upper right hand corner :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Artist Gwen Murphy collects pairs of old shoes
and creates art with them. Amazing.