18 Things You Can Do To Increase Blog Subscription Rate

Subscribers BaseThere’s a world of difference between a Blog Reader and a Blog Subscriber. Earlier we shared some basic tips to increase your subscribers count and also some reasons why you should subscribe HBB. 😛 A Blog Subscriber is a loyal reader who not only reads your blog posts regularly but is also interested in being a part of it. Your subscribers form your mailing and marketing list, your basic ticket to sales furtherance strategies. Take a look at our great tips to increase your blog subscription rate phenomenally.

Note: Subscribing is not only applicable for Email Newsletters and RSS, but also for other Social networks, so you can apply these things on them too.

1. Devise an Efficient Content Strategy

Establish a steady content upload strategy so there’s always something fresh and interesting. Make the content fresh, light, funny, personal, valuable and meaningful. Tall order? Yes. You want subscribers? Do it.

Some useful Resources:

  • 7 Essential Tips To Produce Creative Quality Content
  • HOW TO: Brand Your Blog With Unique Content
  • 5 Ways You Can Get Fresh Content Inspiration
  • 2. Make Your Subscription Link Highly Visible

    Make sure your feed subscription button or link is highly visible on every page. Make that you include a subscription link with each post, in your email signature and in your guest posts and comments.

    3. Provide a Call To Action

    Sometimes you’ve got to tell people to take action, or else most of them just won’t bother. Put out a call to action, something aggressive yet humorous, like, “We know you loved this article! Why wait? Subscribe to our regular feeds now!”

    4. Create a ‘Subscribers Only’ Community On Your Blog

    Promote regular Subscribers Only polls, surveys, lotteries, reward schemes, prime content, discussion forums, or a free eBook. Create an exclusive ‘subscribers-only’ community and make your readers want to belong.

    5. Proudly Display Your Current Subscription Rate

    Prominently display the total subscriptions and average monthly subscription rate using a tool like FeedBurner. This will make the reader think that if so many people have subscribed, there must be something good in your feeds.

    6. Update Your SEO

    Update both on and off page Search Engine Optimization on your site to get more visitors to your site. The more visitors you get, the more the chances of increased subscription rates.

    7. Educate Your Readers about RSS Feeds

    How many people know that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication? Click an RSS logo and you’ll see a page of text that’s not very easy to understand. No wonder people just leave the page. Provide some explanation as to what RSS is all about, next to your RSS subscription button. The better your readers understand, the more interested they’ll be to subscribe. You can also create a “Subscribe” page explaining them how to subscribe.

    8. Use the Right WordPress Plugins

  • You can use the What Would Seth Godin Doplugin to customize limited time welcome messages targeted at new and repeat visitors. You can use the plugin to place customized Email or RSS subscription form in your posts as well.
  • The WP Greet Box WordPress plugin welcomes visitors with a small message and also allows you to include social icons and a RSS link.

9. Avoid Long Contact Forms

Keep your subscription forms simple and non-intimidating. If you want additional information, prompt users to provide it after a few feeds are delivered.

10. Design a Great Landing Page

Your landing page really ‘lands’ the user, if it is effectively and attractively designed. A landing page is solely dedicated to getting people to subscribe, so keep it distraction free.

11. Post Comments on Other Blogs

Drop your Feed URL or landing page in your comment link. Comment consistently and let the comments show your depth of understanding, intelligence, subject authority and astuteness. It also helps to use a clever avatar along with your comments. Brand your comments and become a hero in commenting.

12. Use the Right RSS Feed Tools

Use a tool such as FeedBlitz; it analyzes your blog’s computer-readable RSS feed and updates the latest stuff to subscribers via email, IM and Tweet.

13. Design an Attractive Signup Form

A boring subscription form is only going to get your readers yawning. Jazz it up a little, make it attractive, funny, interesting and exclusive to encourage readers to subscribe.

14. Use the Right Words

Check out the difference between, “If you like this article, please subscribe” and “We know you loved this article! Get our latest delivered to your inbox – sign up now!”. You get the point.

15. Focus On Target Niche Audience

Don’t dilute the impact you’re trying to make by marketing to everyone. Focus on getting your niche target audience to subscribe.

16. Do Your Guest Blogging from the Beginning

Don’t wait till you have 100 subscribers to begin guest blogging. Get your name out there right from the beginning; it’s the best way to get more subscribers. Check the basic benefits of Guest Blogging.

17. Write an eBook And Give It Away

Find out what your target audience needs and write a great eBook that helps them solve their problems. Offer this eBook as a reward to anyone who subscribes.

18. Make Sure Your About Us Page Creates an Impact

Your readers want to know you intimately in order to form an emotional connection. Use your About Us page to get up close and personal with your readers.

Do you know any other cool tips? Kindly share them in the comments please, thank you.

21 thoughts on “18 Things You Can Do To Increase Blog Subscription Rate”

  1. Almost i have been following some of the essential steps as well, though i'm not getting decent subscriber phase.. i think the sake is not posting regularly.

    Reply
  2. Awesome article. Will surely follow all these. By the way, I request you to write a post on how to write an SEO friendly blog post.

    Thank u

    Reply
  3. Good tips …to increase the subscription rate ..the quality of the content must be really good only then we can have good followers and that automatically results in good subscription rate

    Reply
  4. Good tips. But at the end of the day, it is the content that will work. In the absence of good content, other methods would not help in the long run.

    Reply
  5. Many people Don't know What is subscribe all about "Educate Your Readers about RSS Feeds" Is very important Point to take in mind.Thanks for sharing it.

    Reply
  6. Excellent tips Dean, I think you are very right in saying that many people are confused about what the heck an RSS feed does. So we certainly stands obliged in educating our valuable readers about it. Had thought of it earlier, but never implemented it. Thanks. And it makes an awful lot of impact our tone can make on our readers. I think as bloggers we definitely need to be proud about our content that we generate and ask our readers confidently to just SIGN UP rather than a unsure request. Liked that too Dean ! Looking forward to reading more interesting posts from you in the future.

    Reply
  7. great tips, i'm actually looking for a good call to action line below my posts. reply me if you have any

    Reply
  8. Well, the WP Greet Box is a great plugin, I use it on my blog, and it works nice. Thanks for all these tips.

    Reply

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