How to Boost Your Feed Readers

July 6th, 2007 · by David Bradley >> 10 Comments

Recently, I left a comment on a fellow blogger’s site suggesting he add a small link to a “What is RSS?” post close to his feed subscription button. My rationale was based on my experience with Sciencebase subscriber numbers and some insider knowledge on web surfing habits and how these might translate into subscriptions.

Adding that link added at least 30-40% new RSS subscribers at Sciencebase, bringing the count up from around 1500-1600 to well over 2500 and some days showing 2700-ish.

Is posting a “What is RSS?” post patronising? Well, for the relatively small number of visitors to any site who are tech savvy, feed aware, or generally already in the know, they may be mildly offended. How could you, the blogger, think that they, the reader, may have overlooked something that most bloggers consider a fundamental feature of their sites? Well, market research shows that anywhere between 90 and 95% of the population still do not know what a blog is. Even while they are reading a blog many visitors will not see a distinction between a blog with a latent newsfeed and an ordinary site with no RSS. Many certainly will not know that clicking one of those trendy (orange) feed icons will take them into a whole new realm in which they can read a website without even having to visit it.

I still get blank stares from friends and relatives when I mention blogs, rss, rdf, newsfeeds, and such, and even one or two web designer colleagues are yet to embrace the technology. Adding that “What is RSS?” post might just make all the difference between their never finding out and actually subscribing to your feed with Bloglines, Google Reader, or Firefox Active Bookmarks.

Most people still hit sites almost randomly while searching for their keywords in a search engine. So, make it easy for them to stick around. Add a “What is RSS?” post and bring them into the fold. You never know you might even find some of your friends and family subscribing to your newsfeed.

As an afterthought, it occurred to me that you do not even need to create the actual What is RSS? page if you are using Feedburner. Just add the text to make it look like a link below your feed icon but have it point just the same as the icon to the feed itself and let Feedburner do the explaining for you. If a visitor using Firefox clicks the link they may get Firefox’s explanation instead, but either way it’s an explanation nonetheless.

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10 responses so far ↓

Robert Irizarry // Jul 6, 2007 at 5:51 pm

I think adding a “What is RSS?” link is a great idea. My blog isn’t technology related so this has a great deal of potential for growing RSS subscribers.
David Bradley // Jul 6, 2007 at 5:58 pm

Yep, I always had a page on Sciencebase explaining what RSS is, but never really put the icon and the explanation together in a coherent way. With Sciencetext, I’m experimenting with a “What is RSS?” tag as part of the icon itself, see above left. That leads straight to the feed, but hopefully the majority of users are going to see something sensible either courtesy of their browser or Feedburner…numbers are up by about 15% since yesterday but that might just be a blip, I’ll give it a week to have a real impact and if it doesn’t I’ll point the phrase to a proper expo page.

db
David Bradley // Jul 6, 2007 at 6:44 pm

As an additional thought for boosting one’s feed readers, never forget the email option. You may only vaguely remember mailing lists…those newsletters that arrived plumb in your inbox on a regular basis before the days of blogs, rss, rdf, atom, wikis, wakis, waikikis etc.

It is always worth providing the option. There are still a good number of people who might have an invaluable contribution to make who would instantly sign up for an email “feed” but might still be reluctant to added your rss to their aggregator.

And, of course, there are those people who haven’t yet been turned on to rss at all…let alone wakiwikis. (Which is where the “What is RSS?” tag comes into its own).
Wayne Smallman // Jul 10, 2007 at 12:01 pm

I think it’s a valid point because you can never assume too much about the tech’ savviness of the people traipsing around your website.

I certainly wouldn’t be offended by seeing such a thing.

I might even try it myself…
Hsien Lei // Jul 11, 2007 at 9:01 am

I think the better alternative is the email option because people who don’t understand RSS are probably less likely to even use an aggregator like Google Reader or My Yahoo.
David Bradley // Jul 11, 2007 at 10:32 am

Hsien, I think you’re right, but the big disadvantage of the mailing list option is that it is the kind of missive that will easily get caught up in spam filters. But, point taken!
Wayne Smallman // Jul 11, 2007 at 10:41 am

Email is good as an option, but not as a default.

Thinking things through, it means that the process gets broken, or at least interrupted.

Which means there’s a better than average chance the recipient just won’t follow the CTA (Call To Action) up.

Not the ideal scenario…
Hsien Lei // Jul 11, 2007 at 11:06 am

There’s no perfect way. Most of my friends and family visit sites directly. My husband, who’s generally pretty up on things, asked me just last week what RSS meant!
Wayne Smallman // Jul 11, 2007 at 2:26 pm

OK, here’s the fix: David, I think you ought to start a petition for an RSS Day, build some education and inform people of the benefits.

RSS is a rising star these days, what with Yahoo! Pipes doing funky stuff with feeds, so there’s still room for growth.

But the thing is, if you’re using an up-to-date browser, you don’t even need to know what RSS means.

With the likes of Firefox, feeds from websites and ‘blogs are discovered automatically…
David Bradley // Jul 11, 2007 at 5:04 pm

Great idea Wayne, I’m designing the branded buttons and banners right now…watch this space.