Blog Tipz

Email subscriptions can be more valuable than just an RSS subscription.  If you think readers aren’t actively engaged in your feed (as many leave hundreds of items unread or simply scroll through them), it might be time to add a link for them to subscribe to your email feed/subscription.

Let’s Get This Straight

For this post, I am referring to the email subscription that it taken directly from the content on your site, in which the feed is sent to your subscribers as a daily digest.  It is not creating an additional newsletter or promotional material.

The Benefits

There are many benefits of offering an email subscription to your readers.

Typically, people want to be able to consume content whenever they have time.  There is no better way than having copies of your content, whether in the form of podcasts, posts, and so on directly in their inbox, reader for reference whenever they have it open.  While feed readers serve a similar purpose, most emails come with attachments, allowing you to directly save the attachments to your computer, so you can view the video, podcast, etc. even if you are working offline.

1. You are given more control over how your readers interact with the content.  You can customize who the emails are sent from, so it can be branded, rather than from a service.
2. You can personally communicate more effectively with the people that have subscribed to your feed through email.
3. Deliver your feed/new content to suit your general audience, rather than blog posts, which are published through feed shortly after hitting the publish button (date-specific).
4. It’ll be easier to promote posts than through RSS-only subscriptions.  
5. What is RSS?  Some people still don’t know what RSS is and what it does, nor do they know how to stay up-to-date with feeds, so email appears to be the obvious choice.
6. Some people will want multiple choices, so providing an email subscription will increase your subscribers.  Some devoted readers will even subscribe through both formats!

Services and Getting Started

While many people would first opt for a professional service for promoting their RSS subscription, you can start for free.  Many people are already connected through FeedBurner, which makes syndicating your content much easier than through multiple sources, and can also be used for email subscriptions.

First, you’ll want to log into your FeedBurner account, then click on the feed title that you want to allow email subscriptions for.  Next, click the “Publicize” tab, then “Email Subscriptions” in the sidebar services.  

You can choose FeedBurner, FeedBlitz, and Rmail (appears to be down) as your feed-via-email service provider.  Most people should feel comfortable using the default FeedBurner delivery method.  

Once you have clicked the Activate button, you will have to link the Subscription Form Code to your site, making it easier for readers to subscribe through this method.  You can choose your language and the blog platform (TypePad or Blogger) to place widget on your blog.  Otherwise, you should use the HTML code – copy and paste this into your template or through a sidebar widget.  In addition, you can choose whether it should be a subscription link code or a form.

The last remaining option is to send an email whenever people unsubscribe, which helps you manage and connect with people who may have unsubscribed from your feed.

Other Services

• Aweber – This service is targeted towards businesses who want to publish an additional “newsletter” to their customers who have subscribed, and starts at $19 per month.
• Other services – nearly al email marketing services will allow you to send your feeds as a message (even if they require you to export the contents).