Writer’s Workshop: Your Blog Feed

Share a blog tip that you’ve picked up along your blogging journey that you wish someone had shared with you long ago.

It took me four years of blogging to learn these little tricks and by the looks of the blogs I subscribe to, I can see I’m not the only one who’s been living in the dark. Today we’re going to talk about your blog feed.

When you hit publish on a blog post it publishes to your blog and is also pushed out to Google Readers and Email through Feedburner (or something similar).

If you don’t know anything about RSS Feeds I suggest you learn about them here and also here.

I prefer reading my favorite blogs via email and that’s where I noticed a couple issues.

1. I Can’t Subscribe To Your Blog Via Email

Too many bloggers do not have an option to subscribe via email. I tried a reader folks, I only use it when I’m really bored. My preferred method of blog reading is via email and I suspect I am not the only one. You should have this option available on your blog.

You can choose to create a box in your sidebar that allows readers to enter their email address and subscribe, or you can create a text link that readers can click to enter their email address. Like this:

Subscribe to Mama’s Losin’ It by Email

So how do you do that? I’m glad you asked:

Go to Feedburner.com
Select your site.
Click the Publicize tab.
Click Email Subscriptions in the left hand column.
Click Subscription Management.

2. Your Title Is Repetitive

Many blogs appear in email with the title of their blog in both the senders column and then it repeats in the subject column. You can actually change this so that it displays your blog in the senders column and the title of your latest post in the subject. I feel more enticed to click open an email and read posts when I can see the topic of that post.

So instead of receiving an email from Mama’s Losin’ It about Mama’s Losin’ It…you’d see an email from Mama’s Losin’ It about Your Blog Feed. Which would you be more likely to click open and which would you quickly to delete if you were feeling stretched for time?

So how do you tweak your RSS to reflect your latest blog post? This is actually a trick I learned from Francesca of SITS so be sure to thank her:

Go to Feedburner.com
Select your site.
Click the Publicize tab.
Click Email Subscriptions in the left hand column.
Click Email Branding in the left hand column.
Change your Email Subject/Title to: ${latestItemTitle}

BAM! Save and done.

3. Your Post Publishes Too Late

Look at what time your feed is published to your reader and email. A number of blogs I subscribe to publish in the evening. Now, this is completely up to you, but personally, when I get an email at 7pm with your latest blog post and I click through to your blog to see that your post actually went live at 7am and there are already 50 comments on it…I feel like I’m late to the party and don’t typically add my two cents. Since I’m a loyal subscriber to your blog, I want to be one of the FIRST to the party. I wish I was notified of your new post as soon as you hit that precious publish button.

So how do you see what time your blog publishes? I’m glad you asked!:

Go to Feedburner.com
Select your site.
Click the Publicize tab.
Click Email Subscriptions in the left hand column.
Click Delivery Options in the left hand column.
Select a time zone and delivery time.

4. You Don’t Publish The Full Feed

There is a great divide here about publishing a partial feed (a paragraph of your blog post) versus a full feed (your whole blog post) and some of my very good friends strongly prefer a partial feed so take this advice with a grain of salt. Just because I prefer it this way does not mean it’s the best way, but hear me out.

A lot of bloggers  feel like they can tease readers a bit with a partial feed and then get them to click over to their blog. With click-throughs to a blog our numbers go up and we all like numbers going up.

Here’s the thing…I subscribed to your blog because I want to keep up with it VIA EMAIL. I’m  not good about clicking over. I want to read quickly and I don’t really have time to click over and comment as much as I’d like. Sometimes your partial feed entices me to click over, but most of the time I try to get the gist of the post in the 5 sentences you’ve allowed me to read and then I just delete it. Also? I’m a little annoyed at you for trying to force me to click over. But I would never say that to your face. Except I just did.

I encourage you to spend some time getting to know all those little buttons in Feedburner. There are SO many more fun things you can do to optimize it!

Now it’s your turn!

Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and come back to add your name to the link list below. Be sure to sign up with the actual post URL and not just your basic blog URL (click on the title of your post for that URL). For good comment karma try to comment on the three blogs above your name!!

The Prompts:

1.) What five images paint a perfect picture of summer to you? Put those five images together in a piece of writing. (inspired by writingfix.com)

2.) Describe something that comes easy to you.

3.) Share a blog tip that you’ve picked up along your blogging journey that you wish someone had shared with you long ago.

4.) Ask your child what their favorite part of Summer has been and then blog about it.

5.) Tell us about one of the scariest moments of your life.