RSS is for Chumps

Newsletter or RSS Subscriptions?

This is a question that I don’t see asked much in the blogosphere, and I have to wonder why. Maybe people don’t care. Perhaps others never really thought about it. Yet, the majority of bloggers (well, people in general) follow others like a herd of sheep, and don’t attempt to figure out the best solution. Either way, it’s a topic worth discussing.

Obviously You Could Offer Both

Offering and promoting are two different things though. Aggressively promoting both is something I don’t recommend. The thing that most bloggers don’t understand is, your average internet user still has no clue what RSS is. Here’s the message I see, when visiting a blog that tries to shove two subscriptions down a reader’s throat:

“Hey, I know this is your first time visiting my site, but why don’t you go ahead and subscribe to my newsletter, and then subscribe to this other thing called RSS, even though you have no clue what RSS is, and you may not even understand the point of a newsletter. Yes, I know you had to subscribe not once, but twice, and now you’re confused. It’s ok, because so am I.”

Yup, perfect marketing strategy…

/sarcasm.

Why RSS is Overrated

• Reduces the amount of visitors and pageviews to your actual site. Why come to your site, when you haven’t given them a reason to? You already sent the content to their email (assuming you have a full feed).

• Doesn’t promote community. If regular readers are reading your content through email, and not coming to your site, how are you suppose to make them feel like part of your community? Participating in polls, on the forums, in the comments, etc. This is the kind of interaction that will put your site ahead of the competition.

• Confused visitors. Again, bloggers just assume that everyone now knows what RSS is. This is far from the truth. Sure, you could dedicate an entire page to explaining what RSS is, but if you haven’t learned yet, people are lazy. Giving them an empty box to fill out their email address is almost too much to ask the average reader. Now you’re trying to educate them with a full info page? Good luck.

• A subscription base full of nobodies. Bloggers like to run contests and then make it a rule, that participants have to subscribe to the RSS feed. Do you actually think someone is giving you their daily email address, or that they intend to stay subscribed with their real address, after the contest is over? Of course not. They gave you the email dedicated to spam. Congratulations, you have 1000 subscribers. 5 of them are human.

• Most readers don’t like receiving daily emails with your content, no matter how much they love it. They’d rather come to your site when they’re ready.

Why a Newsletter is a Better Choice

• Simple. Most people know what a newsletter is. Now just add an incentive as to why they should subscribe. Exclusive content? Ebook?

• Convenient. Offer options as to how often they receive the newsletter. I like to promote two options, weekly, and monthly. This way you can do a roundup of all the articles that have been published since the last newsletter. You can also throw in any exclusive content, and even some advertising. These less frequent newsletter updates will remind them to continue visiting your site, without annoying them and causing them to unsubscribe.

• Same benefits as RSS. Still offers social proof, as well as the ability to add RSS into the newsletter.

Final Thoughts

OFFER readers the ability to subscribe to both RSS and a newsletter. A small RSS box strategically placed is all it takes for people to find it (the ones who are truly interested in reading your content via RSS). PROMOTE a newsletter. Allow multiple options, so that readers can choose how often they receive updates.

If you plan to sell your site, running contests to increase your subscriber base works. However, if you want to see how many people actually care to subscribe, making your newsletter visible should be your priority, rather than forcing the subscription.

Isn’t this article bullshit since SlamBlogger doesn’t have a newsletter? No, because…

1. SlamBlogger doesn’t claim not to be hypocritical.
2. As stated in my first post, subscribers isn’t what I’m interested in at this point. SlamBlogger is a place to share thoughts. Growing the blog’s income and subscriber base, is something I may choose to do in the future.

What are some advantages and disadvantages of RSS and newsletters that you can think of?