Syndication Through Email: Using FeedBlitz RSS to E-Mail Services
RSS Syndication services that allow users to receive email updates of your feed are a powerful means to communicate with your readers. There are quite a few RSS to email services out there, and most have a free service level. The question is which one to use, and why? Well, I am here to tell you! I have tried most of the major players in RSS to Email and have chosen FeedBlitz as my personal favorite.
Why To Use RSS Email Services To Promote Your Feed
Before I get into the nitty gritty of why I chose FeedBlitz over the other email syndication services, lets take a moment to talk about why you would want to have your RSS feed emailed at all. First of all not everyone has embraced RSS, there are still quite a few people who don’t know what it is, let alone how to use it. By having an easy to understand message on your blog that promotes your feed as well as offers subscription through email, you can capture that audience unsure of how to use the RSS chicklets and other RSS identifiers.
Since I use WordPress and to a certain extent, Blogger for my personal, business and clients blogs, I will go into detail about the plugins that exist for WordPress. I don’t recommend Blogger for a serious blog, I only use it when a client doesn’t have control over their server. I also still have 2 blogs over there that can’t be moved since Blogger will only transfer to a domain, not a sub folder of a domain.
Okay for WordPress the tool to use is the plugin What Would Seth Godin Do by Richard Miller. THis puts a nice little box either at the top or bottom of every post that prompts users to subscribe to the feed. It is easily modified to incorporate the FeedBlitz info into it. Below is the code used to show both my FeedBurner feed and the FeedBlitz signup page:
<p style=’border:thin dotted black; padding:3mm;’>If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my <a href=’http://feeds.feedburner.com/GetFoundNowInternetMarketing’>RSS feed</a>. Thanks for visiting!<br><br>If you would prefer to receive updates of this blog through your email, <a href=”http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=181069″>click here to subscribe to email updates.</a></p>
The result is a cool box at the bottom of my posts. You can opt to have it at the top, as well as use cookies to only show the box for the first 3 times someone visits your site. This is done by cookies, but I chose to have it show all the time at the bottom of the post since so many of us block cookies, and I really don’t think it is obtrusive. Here is a screen shot:
Since I have installed this plugin on my sites and all of my clients sites, our subscription rates have tripled!
FeedBlitz has multiple ways to insert their code into any type of system that you might use. They also have a sign up form that you can install right on your site. When a user hits the submit button they are sent to the FeedBlitz page that finalizes the sign up procedure. They will receive an email confirmation and that is it! The service is 100% free and will email your latest posts every night.
FeedBlitz also has premium services. For a few dollars a month you can upgrade to a Turbo edition that allows you to email our your posts on demand. They also have a pro version for $10.00 a month that allows you to customize the email your subscribers get with your logo, as well as customizing the sign up page.
Finally FeedBlitz just started a newsletter service. For a small fee you can turn your email RSS feed into a customizable newsletter. This is extremely useful for blogs that are part of a static site. You can promote your blog feed on every page of your main site. No matter which service you choose, the free or paid versions are a very powerful way to reach your subscribers.
