Getting Subscribers is Easy for a Blog

Apr 302010
 

First, may I say, getting subscribers is not easy. It takes work, regardless if you are managing a blog or not. If you are running a blog, a subscriber count could be the easiest thing to improve though.

When it comes to numbers for this site, I have three major goals that I try to accomplish. I try to get more unique visitors, I look for ways to keep them engaged longer (more pageviews per session), and I try to get more subscribers. I have the goals broken down in easy steps that I believe I can accomplish, and try to keep the three in sync.

Continue reading »

Are You Using Socialize on Feedburner?

Dec 162009
 

Looking into my little feed issue I was having with Feedburner yesterday…get my latest post titled “Invoice”? You were not supposed to. Anyhow, looking into it, I found Socialize. Socialize appears to be a new service for Feedburner for posting your feed onto Twitter.

Where Is Socialize?

To find Socialize, simply log into your Feedburner account, go to Publicize, and then go to Socialize. See the screenshot I took below. Continue reading »

Get Free Usability and Design Tips by Not Subscribing

Dec 022009
 

How do you get free usability and design tips from here by not subscribing? As the animated character Homer Simpson would put it, Dohhhh. Best Web Image does not have a subscription service, so you can’t subscribe to it. However, if you would still like to get my usability and design tips that I post here by email or RSS please visit this page: Get Free Usability and Design Tips.

Is this a shameless plug to get more feed followers? Not really, but it can’t hurt to ask. No, this post is really about the term subscriber, and how it could be killing your blog. Continue reading »

Google Analytic Goals and Feedburner Smith

Aug 312009
 

For those of you that know about the plugin Feedburner Smith you know how handy it is turning your Feedburner RSS link into a more friendly (your original) feed link. Last month I finally installed it on this site, and a week later I uninstalled it.

The reason for killing it off was because I was losing a more important part to my site, and that was the knowledge of where my subscribers are coming from. Here is a cool tip on how to track where your subscribers are coming from if you use Google Analytics, and how redirects are not cooperating, aka cool tip/bummer deal. Continue reading »

Believe Me, I Know How To Subscribe

Aug 202009
 

Researching methods to improve subscriber numbers I have found lots of ideas that could help, and a lot of them that just stunk. Here is a quick what not to do, and three great ways to get more. Read to the end on this one, the third and last tip could be one of your best bits of advice. Continue reading »

Poll – Do you prefer to subscribe to blogs by email or RSS?

Jul 302009
 

I almost completely forgot this weeks poll! Over the past week or so, I have read a few studies on how a large percentage of users don’t use the RSS buttons to subscribe to a feed. Many use emails. What I see on some of the sites that publish their numbers though, is that it’s the other way around. So this leads me to this weeks poll

Here is the poll: Do you prefer to subscribe to blogs by email or RSS?

Archive of Previous Polls on BWI

Poll – Why Do You Unsubscribe From RSS Feeds?

Jun 102009
 

I recently ran into a web forum discussion about losing RSS subscribers. They had listed a few predictable reason, and I immediately thought that this would work better as a poll.

Here is the poll: Why Do You Unsubscribe From RSS Feeds?

Archive of Web Usability and Design Polls

RSS Button On Home Page Introduction

May 142009
 

One of the things I like to do with my analytics is log the changes I make to a website using a journal. Another thing I like to do is look at those changes a month later.

Now You See it, Now You Don’t

A month ago today I returned my big RSS button found in the introduction message on my home page. Two months ago I had removed it to see if it would influence my subscriber growth at all. With it gone, I watched the numbers slowly dwindle, and it actually decreased my subscriber base by 5% over the course of a month. Ouch! . The day I returned the button my graph immediately turned around, and gained 10% more subscribers over this last month. Not great considering my numbers, but in the right direction for sure.

This lead me to another change that I made today, reducing the size of my introduction message just a little bit more. This put the RSS button even closer to the hot spot of this site making it an easier eye target. The other benefit of reducing the introduction message was that it simply removes descision and reading time. Giving information faster to get that desired action.

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