A Simple Tip to Improve Your RSS Readership
ADVERTISEMENTSA few weeks back I had checked on a few popular blogs having 1000+ RSS readers and one thing that caught my eye was a big RSS icon that they used to attract subscribers.
The trick is simple, just download the above RSS icon, place it somewhere on top of your blog’s sidebar (or wherever your readers will notice) and link to your feed address.
I tried it the last few days and it does seem to help. But ofcourse, quality content is what really matters if you want to have a large RSS readership.
Have you tried this tip? If yes, has it helped you?
Update: My RSS readers just increased from 393 to 523. May be this tip worked for me?
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Posted on November 23rd, 2006 | Category: Blogging | 15 Comments »
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Peter
November 23, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Well it doesn’t work for me. I put mega big icon of RSS numbers are the same. Anyway this is not so impotent to me but would be nice to have at least 300 readers.
Fanatyk
November 23, 2006 at 4:01 pm
I had just implement this ‘big icon’. I’ll see if it helps me
Whatever I belive it works
vibhash
November 23, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Great 393-529 this seems to work for you:)
I’ll definitely give this a try:)
Dj Flush
November 23, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Ah well John
In my case when i had this icon i use to have 350-400 Readers
now that i have changed and instead put Chicklets ( Or whatever you call it
) on my Blog i have experienced that my RSS Subscribers have jumped to 550 appx
Anyways Thx for the Tip
JohnTP
November 23, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Ah yes, Chicklets. I have not added them to my new theme yet. I am going to add them now.
Anyway, I suggest you put that RSS icon back.
sameer
November 23, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Hi John
We just released a set of widgets (buttons) that allows reader to monitor a blog (or comments for a post) via Instant Messenger, SMS or Email. Users get an alert with a short description and a link back to the full post on your site. Users can also filter headlines by keywords or phrases.
The intent is that mainstream readers dont have to know what RSS is or what a RSS reader is.
Take a look: http://zaptxt.com/home for the consumer service as well as the link for publishers.
kakashi
November 23, 2006 at 10:28 pm
can anyone teach me how make that RSS in my blog?
i’m beginner in blogging.please help!
Madhur kapoor
November 24, 2006 at 3:50 am
Am going to try it John . Lets see if it works for me ..
Andrew Grant
November 24, 2006 at 8:52 am
Also, make sure that RSD is working properly on your blog. Many people will use the built-in support in webbrowsers to subscribe to feeds.
sourcer
November 30, 2006 at 5:07 am
I did that a few time ago but i really don’t know how many RSS readers i have
can you tell me how to see that ? 
) ( do not laugh, it is not funny)
JohnTP
November 30, 2006 at 7:13 am
sourcer- You have to put the Feedcount from FeedBurner to see how many subscribers you have. Check out the benefits of FeedBurner.
Everton
December 3, 2006 at 2:47 am
I doubt your feed readership jumped because of the ‘big’ RSS icon. It’s probably jumped because the latest version of browsers makes it easier to subscribe to feeds, plus more users are appreciating the benefits of RSS.
What would make more sense is putting a ’subscribe to my feed’ link at the end of posts. Most of your traffic probably comes from users coming from google who go direct to a particular article that matches what they were looking for. The best place to capture them is at the end of the article they’ve just read – the last thing they will be looking at is your header.