Wouldn’t it be great if people in your target audiences automatically received your blog posts, rather than having to rely completely on new readers to find your blog and repeat visitors to remember to visit your blog periodically?
There’s an easy answer — RSS feeds allow your author blog posts to be automatically delivered to your readers’ email or feed reader, and even to other websites. All you need to do is provide a sign up mechanism for your visitors to subscribe.
In the right column of this blog, under the heading "Get Blog Updates," is an area where readers can sign up to receive my author blog posts. I’ve reproduced it here for illustration. My blog visitors can enter their email address in the box to receive blog posts by email or click the "subscribe in a reader" link to choose their favorite feed reader or have my blog feed delivered to the "RSS Feeds" folder in Outlook.
Some blog visitors may not be familiar with RSS feeds. I created a "learn more" link that takes readers to this page for a brief explanation of how feeds work and how to sign up. I also offer a free bonus report on that page, as an added incentive.
FeedBurner is the best tool for managing your author blog subscriptions. Your blogging platform may provide an easy widget or plug-in for creating feeds, but it’s best to set up your own account at FeedBurner. You will have more flexibility in the set up and be able to track the number of subscribers to your author blog.
FeedBurner is now owned by Google, so you will use your Google user name and password to set up your account. For step-by-step instructions on setting up your RSS Feed in FeedBurner, I highly recommend Just the FAQs: Feeds by MaAnna Stephenson. This ebook walks you through the process of using FeedBurner to set up, optimize and manage feeds. You’ll learn how to best format your feeds for delivery to mobile devices, how to republish feeds on another website, how to offer updates by email, and more. The non-techie language make it a snap for anyone to master RSS feeds.
If you aren’t yet offering feeds on your blog, get started right away and watch your readership soar! And be sure to subscribe to The Savvy Book Marketer blog using the tools in the right column, so you don’t miss any posts!
This is a reprint from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.