LifeDev

So now that we’ve covered 5 time saving RSS hacks for readers, I thought it might be fitting to give some tips for RSS publishers (like bloggers). RSS is crucial to developing a blog’s reader base for two main reasons; 1) It saves the reader time and 2) allows for more ways to distribute your content around the web instantly. You don’t have to wait anymore for readers to come to you; now you can send the site to your readers. So take advantage of this great technology and give your blog a lift in traffic with these 6 tips.

1. Use Feedburner

Feedburner is a feed tracking service will show you everything you need to know about your readership. What they’re reading, how popular each story is, when and where the readers come from–it’s all there. And it’s free. You can get even more stats from their paid account if you wish.

Stats are crucial for a blog. If you know what stories you’ve written are popular, you know what types of people are reading your blog. You can tailor your posts to fit their needs and make them feel welcome. And a good portion of readers are bloggers themselves, so they may even blog about you. That’s how a blog really grows: Incoming links from other bloggers.

2. Add FeedFlare

Aside from just stats, Feedburner allows for these things called FeedFare. Basically, FeedFlare allows your readers to email the story, save to del.icio.us, email the author, send to digg, and anything else you can dream of. It’s a way to add interaction to your blog posts, even though the users aren’t viewing them at your site. FeedFlare gives a whole new dimension to your feed.

Check out LifeDev’s feed for an example. You’ll see that I use the flares email post, add to del.icio.us, number of comments and number of links at technorati.

3. Provide a RSS email newsletter

This is a HUGE thing that many overlook. Email is still way better than RSS. Why? Because it’s delivered to their mailbox, which virtually everyone uses way too much. Unfortunately not very many people really use RSS readers yet, but everyone checks their email at least once a day. You know they’re going to see it.

I’m kind of ashamed to admit this but I have a blog that I started that had a couple hundred readers via email, and the subscriber base has remained virtually the same even though I haven’t added any content since last March. That just wouldn’t fly in the fickle world of RSS users. RSS users would drop me like a bad habit.

I use Feedblitz for my newsletter needs here at LifeDev, if anyone is looking for a recommendation.

4. Provide content on a regular basis

I know it’s a no-brainer, but you would not believe how much this actually helps your RSS subscriber base. If you post once a month for three months, no matter how unbelievably mind-bending and earth-changing your content, you’re not going to keep your readers.

I visit TechCrunch every day. Why? Because I KNOW that unless the world has stopped, there is going to be fresh content on TechCrunch. I can count on it. I’d even set my watch to it. If you looked up “regularity” in the dictionary, there would be a picture of prunes, and below that would be a picture of TechCrunch. I think it’s no coincidence that they have over 100K feed subscribers.

5. Publish Your Category Feeds

Like I said earlier, one of the main benefits of RSS is that it saves time and makes creates a better experience for your readers. Well, if you really want to please your readers, publish your category feeds as well.

I started doing this at LifeDev because I realized that I was touching on a plethora of different topics. Granted, they all fall under the umbrella of personal development, but that can contain a lot of different things. So, based on my readership stats and what articles were most popular, I published 4 sub feeds of LifeDev’s content to help my readers who only wanted to read about one or two aspects of personal development, not all of them.

Will this mean a smaller readership? Maybe. But this way I can hang on to those readers who would have only read a few posts a month, when they probably would have dropped me like a hot potato after a couple weeks of discouraged reading.

If you’re using Wordpress and a K2 theme, it’s very easy to publish only certain category feeds with the function called Asides. Basically, asides are category feeds that you deem important. Very easy, and very slick.

6. Market Like Crazy

There are tons of places and ways to market your RSS feed. I recommend going to TopRankResult’s Monster Blog Directory Submit list and submitting your blog to every RSS directory you can. Every link helps in the long run.

If you found this article helpful, you might sign up for the newsletter to have the LifeDev content delivered to you piping hot as it rolls off the presses.