One of the things bloggers strife for is to increase the number of people that are subscribed to their RSS feed. When people subscribe to your RSS feed it’s almost guaranteed that the person will come back to your blog to read new posts - then you’ve turned a one-time visitor into a loyal reader that might read most of your blog posts for months and years to come. Having many subscribers can also have a snowballing effect - when I see a blog that has a few hundred and even a few thousand subscribers I think “since all those people subscribe to this blog it might be good” and I might subscribe to the feed just to give it a shot. Also, by having more subscribers you can usually earn more money through services like Text Link Ads and Review Me.
To get more subscribers you can of course write stellar posts again and again, get Dugg, get linked from a high-profile blog… But here is an easy trick to increase your RSS subscribers quickly. Just add a snippet similar to this one to the end of each post:
Did you enjoy this post? Why not subscribe to my RSS feed. That way you’ll never miss out on new blog posts. Click here for the feed.
You might want to give it more attention by adding a border. This is the HTML code that I’m using on this blog:
<div style="padding: 10px; border: 3px double #00f; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.65em; margin-bottom: 20px;">Did you enjoy this post? Why not <a href="http://www.hannesjohnson.com/feed/" target="_blank" title="Click to subscribe to this blog">subscribe to my RSS feed</a>. That way you'll <strong>never miss out on new blog posts</strong>. <a href="http://www.hannesjohnson.com/feed/" target="_blank">Click here for the feed</a>.</div>
I will probably change that text soon - make it more compelling and even link to better instructions on how people can subscribe to my RSS feed.
If want to put this on your own blog and you’re using WordPress just go to the Theme Editor (wp-admin > Presentation > Theme Editor) and edit the Main Index Template. Then put it somewhere between
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?> and <?php endwhile; ?> — preferably closer to <?php endwhile; ?>
Also edit the “Single Post” file (single.php) and put it between <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?> and <?php endwhile; else: ?>
After adding this bit of text (took me just a few minutes) I noticed my subscriber number increase very quickly - I had about 50 subscribers at the time but soon I saw the number go to 60 and a few days ago it said 70 subscribers. Right now the FeedBurner widget says 64 readers. So that’s about 30% increase in just a few days - and I didn’t do anything else. Not bad :)
Keywords: RSS, subscribers, text link ads, text-link-ads, reviewme, review me, code example, FeedBurner
19 responses so far ↓
harleyblues // Jun 1, 2007 at 2:17 am
Hello Harleyblues here,
would you mind helping a lil ol newbie like myself, Im not quite sure how to add the suggestion about the RSS feed to my blog, forget the HTML codes (shudders)
all the Best
Harleyblues
Hannes Johnson // Jun 1, 2007 at 10:38 am
OK, no problem Harleyblues. I thought my instructions were clear enough - it’s good to get feedback from readers :)
Well, are you using WordPress? Looking at the URL you gave as “website” it looks like you’re using Blogger.
You have to find the place where you can modify the template your blog platform is using. You want to edit the template for the main page and the template for individual posts.
You will need to modify the HTML code. Just take a backup of the template and then play around with it a little bit - paste the code example I gave in the post (but replace my feed with your RSS feed) and move it around until you’ve found the right place.
Let me know what specific parts you need help with.
MoneyNing // Jun 6, 2007 at 10:51 pm
I use something similar on my site and it definitely helps increase RSS readership!
Natron // Jun 7, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Been thinking of placing something like this for a while, might have to use your code to do so…
Hannes Johnson // Jun 7, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Go for it Natron! I had seen this on several other blogs so I decided to try it myself - and the results were positive so I definitely recommend it.
The Home Biz Blog // Jun 8, 2007 at 3:57 am
Some interesting posts from my other blog…
Well, since I have a new blog now I’m not sure how much I’m going to blog here. Especially since I had to turn off commenting on this blog… So, I recommend you check out Hannes Johnson dot Com and subscribe to the RSS feed. Here are some recent pos…
Ed Kohler // Jun 11, 2007 at 6:39 am
Great point. Chalk that up under, “it can’t hurt to ask.” And yes, it really works.
harleyblues // Jun 12, 2007 at 4:33 am
Oh my ….
thats is just a bit too complicated for a newbie like me I wouldn’t even know where to place the code, I donot know html at all..
All the best
Harleyblues
Hannes Johnson // Jun 13, 2007 at 12:03 am
Harleyblues - I would highly recommend learning just a little bit of HTML - enough for you to understand where you can edit things and add stuff.
Check out this HTML tutorial and these videos
harleyblues // Jun 13, 2007 at 1:24 am
Hello Mr Johnson
Ive been playing with it for a few weeks and have manged to do a few things give a poor girl a break..I seem to get road blogs when asking for help ..sorry to have bothered
HB
Calvin Woon // Jun 18, 2007 at 1:48 am
Hi,
thanks for providing the HTML code!
I believe that will certainly increase the no. of RSS subscribers to one’s blog.
However, I guess one does need to weigh the pros and cons as more RSS subscribers might mean lesser page views and thus a lower Alexa ranking.
Another thing is it could mean lesser comments on your blog. Nonetheless, this can be countered using other measures.
So having more RSS subscribers certainly has more benefits! :)
karenlim // Jun 21, 2007 at 2:48 am
Hey Hannes,
Great Tips. Been wanting to do that but not really not exactly sure of the right wordings. Thanks a million :)
Benjamin Cass // Jun 27, 2007 at 6:06 am
I’ve seen this on a ton of sites and I’ve always wondered how to do it. Thanks a ton for the information!
Saman Sadeghi // Jul 31, 2007 at 3:02 pm
This is a great idea - interesting to see that your readership increased so much!
AWord // Aug 1, 2007 at 1:50 am
Hannes
Great info concerning feed info. Thank you.
EveryDayFiction.com // Aug 1, 2007 at 5:58 pm
A call to action box, it works for landing pages it should work for normal posts.
You might want to add a few more options like email this to a friend, subscribe via email, find relative posts, donate to money, etc
- Steven Smethurst
Hannes Johnson // Aug 2, 2007 at 1:43 am
Steven - Good ideas, I’ve been thinking about something like that… “Subscribe via email” is definitely something I’m going to add - and also probably “What is RSS?” for those that aren’t familiar with RSS.
Tezza // Nov 30, 2007 at 10:53 am
Great suggestion Hannes. For those who aren’t as familiar or confident with HTML they can also find Wordpress plugins that will do something very similar. For example there is a plugin i use called:
What Would Seth Godin Do WordPress plugin which places a box similar to the one you have onto posts.
Guitar Tabs Universe // Mar 11, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I like do once and forget ideas like this, just one extra subscriber makes it worthwhile.
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