Have you ever counted how many blogs you have subscribe in your feed reader? I have a total of 52 blogs in my Google reader. Is it considering a big number? It is actually not difficult to make people add one of your blogs to their feeds. You may not have to be the biggest name in your respective niche to attract subscribers.
I have talk about 8 simple ways to increase your RSS subscribers in one of my previous post. That is based from the view of a blogger. What and how a blogger needs to do to increase his RSS subscribers. In this post I intend to take a look from a visitor or reader’s view. What does a reader looks for to decide whether to subscribe a blog? I am also a visitor and reader of other blogs. There are a few things that influence my decision whether to subscribe or not.
5 Factors That Visitors Look For to Subscribe Your Blog
1. Your blog design
First impression really matters. It doesn’t matter whether you are using a premium theme or a free theme. A premium theme gives you a unique design but it doesn’t affect peoples’ decision whether to subscribe or not. I subscribe to a few blogs using free themes. The main factors people look for are:
- Use of white background
No doubt using a dark background has its own fair share of fans but you can’t deny most people are still more comfortable reading words on a white background. Your eyes won’t be feeling stress trying to figure out what the content is trying to talk about.
- Ease of space
Making use of white space in your blog will focus your content to your visitors. You should avoid adding a lot unnecessary widgets to your blog and makes it look clutter.
- Ease of navigation
People should have no problem navigating your blog to look for your popular posts, recent post and categories. Do make sure you add a search bar in your blog. It may look small in detail but it definitely helps people for easy navigation.
2.Your post frequency
If people landed on your blog on the main page and find your last post is posted 2-3 months back, do you think they will be interested in subscribing to your blog? I doubt so. To maintain a post frequency is important to a blogger especially if you want to attract new subscribers. You need to decide your post frequency based on your time committed to blogging.
If you posted too frequently, this will also cause some backlash to your visitors too. Unless you are in the technology niche which require the latest updates on new technology, people will expect it be frequent update every day. You are expected not to feed your visitors with too much information which your visitors find it hard to catch up with your blog.
3. Content that focus on solving problems
Your content should provide value to your targeted audience. You don’t have to use powerful English to interpret your post. Use of simple and concise words is enough for you to get the point into the mind of your visitors. You are not entering a writing competition. Words and sentences that are complicated are going to scare your visitors away as they have a hard time understand what you say.
Your post need to be scannable for readers too as some audience like to scan through your post without reading the whole post. Make use of listed and bulleted points to capture the attention of your visitors will help you to attract your visitors to stay longer.
4. Good networking with other bloggers
Spread your network with other bloggers is going to help you spread your influence online. If you maintain good relationship with other bloggers, their readers will be more willing to subscribe your blog if you are recommended by your blog friends. Just imagine if I come across your blog from somebody I visited regularly and respected, I will not hesitate to look for your RSS button once I landed on your site.
5. Number of Feedburner readers
Though this factor doesn’t influence me that much but people will judge the popularity of a blog based on the amount of readers they have. This will also influence their decision of subscribing to the blog. I put this as the last factor as this should be your last considerations. Give a read on the content, decide whether you like it or not. Don’t judge the blog before you read anything from the blogger.
Share Your Thoughts
What other factors do you think will influence the decision for people to subscribe your blog? Leave your comments below and share with us your thoughts. Thanks.
Share and Enjoy
I appreciate your kindness if you can share this post making use of the share buttons below. Alternatively, any retweeting of the post is helpful to my blog growth. Thank you very much for doing so. I look forward to see you soon.
If you like this article, you may also like:
I agree with your pointer Lye.
Having plenty of white space and using, short, punchy powerful wording are 2 secrets of my success. Readers appreciate getting to the point (wording) and seeing the point (white space.)
Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
Ryan Biddulph recently posted..cashgiftingcrew- How You Can Kill the Social Marketing Crowd With Content http-bitly-b6S1sI
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Ryan,
I am glad that you agree with me. Use of white space and short and concise sentences are the safest for a blogger to avoid making any mistakes.
Thanks for the comments.
Lye.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ryan Biddulph, Findmyblogway. Findmyblogway said: 5 Factors That Influence the Decision for People to Subscribe Your Blog http://goo.gl/lF5z [...]
Hi Lye
You covered the main points well; as always. For me, networking with other bloggers has definitely helped with traffic to my site. Because I am in a small niche I need to get the word out there that not only does my blog exist but that it is worth visiting.
Also, interacting with my visitors and answering their questions promptly is another positive for wanting to subscribe to my blog. Thanks for your post on this Lye.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia recently posted..Lavender Recipes-Flower Power in the Kitchen
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Patricia,
You are always doing great visiting and interacting with other bloggers. I have no doubt your networking efforts will bring you more subscribers to your blog.
Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Lye
Hi Lye,
Good points. I do actually notice that when my post frequency is steady, with maybe a day in between, my subscription numbers rise. But every once in a while, if I do a couple of posts in the same day, some of them will un-subscribe. So there does appear to be a definite correlation on my blog.
Richard recently posted..Innovative Blog Spotlight- The Blog Tyrant
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Richard,
It actually depend on the niche. If the posting frequency is not separated for too long, i believe it won’t affect much. But if you leave your blog unattended for few weeks, there will surely be a drop in subscribers.
Thanks for the support as always.
Lye
yes, I generally post at least twice a week, so I do see a general rise.
Richard recently posted..Timesaver Tips- Gain Twitter Followers Overnight
Awesome post Lye! I agree with all your points most especially the idea of providing content that solve problems. Thanks a lot for sharing. Have fun.
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Samuel,
Thanks for the support bro. Hope to see you around and talk soon.
Lye
i agree with the design point , we all are looking for good appearance before starting ,everything will be easy with experience since you’re enjoying as you said , very good point you talked about ! well done !!
Rahul recently posted..How to prevent WordPress Blog from Hackers
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Rahul,
Probably because i am considering from a visitor view, that’s why i tend to understand as this is what i look for in a blog.
Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Lye
Very good points. I think posting frequently has a big impact on the amount of subscribers a blog gets.
Hunter recently posted..SEO Link Building with CommentLuv
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Hunter,
Nice to see you here. Thanks for the comments.
Lye
Lye,
It seems you have great interest in this blog as well. Fabulous!!
Thanks a lot Kevin. I develop an interest on this topic while blogging in my Fmstory blog. Great to see you here commenting.
Thanks for the support as well.
Lye
I subscribed!!
I think it is interesting that you talk about RSS count, yet you show yours of 22 (23 now).
I actually had my count up once it hit 150, but I removed it because I honestly think that until it hits at least 500, there is not enough social proof for it to have a postivie effect and start influencing others to subscribe too.
Another point is to constantly write engaging stuff – like this!!
Alex recently posted..By- wp-popularcom » Blog Archive » Keyword Winner SEO Plug-in
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Alex,
Thanks for subscribing. 23 subscribers is definitely not enough to have a positive influence. The reason i am showing is i want my visitors to subscribe because they like what i am posting here and love for more.
Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Talk soon.
Lye
You have 23 subscribers but I believe you have thousand of visitors a month because of the value of your posts. I myself do not subscribe to all the blogs I like but I save the link and check it as often as I can. And yours is one — simple words yet valuable insights.
bendedspoon recently posted..Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldnt be able to fly but the bumblebee doesnt know that so it goes on flying anyway.
Twitter: Findmyblogway
Hi Bendedspoon,
To be honest, i haven’t got thousand of visitors yet but i am working toward that. Hopefully i will be able to achieve that. Thanks for the kind words and support.
Lye