RSS: The SPAM-Free Subscription Alternative
Who among us doesn’t want to reduce the amount of SPAM we get each day? I mean, do you really need another email about Viagra? No, me either.
Awhile back, I wrote about RSS From a User Perspective, but today I want to talk to you about RSS as a SPAM-free subscription alternative.
Which List Do You Build?
If you’ve been marketing online for any length of time, you’ve heard the adage, “The money’s in the list.” The list is your subscriber mailing list. You know…that list you work so hard to build so that SPAM filters and SPAM laws can make getting a message to your subscribers next to freakin’ impossible? Yeah, that list.
And you probably pay a fee somewhere to house your list, give you all kinds of nifty options of things you can do with your list (autoresponders, broadcast emails, schedule newsletters to go out in advance, etc.) while email gets more and more difficult to deliver. I swear I want to pull my hair out sometimes when I look at the dismally low open rates of some of the brilliant emails I’ve sent out to my various lists in my time.
But now, there’s a new subscriber list kid in town: RSS. He’s a square looking dude, all orange and obvious, and he says to your visitors, “Pssst…when there’s new stuff here, I’ll let you know instantly. All ya gotta do is subscribe and it’s yours - hot off the press, no waiting - with NO SPAM in the mix.” And best of all, this little dude is FREE. No monthly fees…for you OR your subscribers.
So now what? Do you work on building two subscriber lists? A regular one and an RSS one?
I Made the Switch and Here’s Why
Back when this site was not built in WordPress, I built and maintained a regular opt-in subscriber mailing list with my aWeber account, and I sent out newsletters to my subscribers. Then I converted this site to WordPress and my newsletters became nonexistent almost because I was blogging here. It dawned on me that with a blog, I really didn’t need to have a newsletter, too. I mean, what for? Double the work? No, thank you very much.
Still not sure? Read Feed101 over at Feedburner, the free service I use to make sure those of my subscribers who don’t want to use a reader and still want to get my stuff via email can. This way, when I post new content here, I’ve also just sent my ‘newsletter’, in effect. Genius! No more brain melts trying to decide what the heck to say in a newsletter that I haven’t already written about here.
Feed Plugins I Use
As Feed101 states, there are a number of different protocols for RSS still, and no consolidation toward a single standard appears to be imminent. So, I use the Feedburner Feedsmith Plugin to detect all ways to access my feed (e.g. http://www.vassistantservices.com/feed/ or http://www.vassistantservices.com/wp-rss2.php, etc.), and redirect them to my FeedBurner feed so I can track every possible subscriber. It will forward for my main posts feed and optionally, my main comments feed as well.
To thank my subscribers for subscribing, I use RSS Footer to add links to freebies and additional content at the end of each post in my feed. These links aren’t visible here on the site anywhere - they’re only accessible if you’re subscribed to my feed. So, maybe you should subscribe to my feed, eh?
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subcribe to the feed or get updates via email. There are freebies waiting for you if you subscribe!Related posts:
ahh…plugins. lovely. you officially earned a new subscriber today. i truly enjoy your writing style, too many internet marketing bloggers are muddling the message these days when the majority of the audience doesn’t speak the language. this makes for easy late night reading for those of us that do, too.
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