Why Not Just Ask For Subscribers?

I found this crazy way of getting new feed subscribers while checking out a few blogs this morning.

Building our feed subscriber base is essentially list building. We take all kinds of creative actions to build that list. Flashy graphics, links everywhere, even run contests and give-a-ways just to grow our rss readers.

Do we ever just ask for new subscribers? Why not dedicate an entire post to ask others to subscribe? That’s exactly what Rocky John Tayaban of TheWeblogZone has done with his post Why Subscribe To TheWeblogZone Feed. Actually, he not only asked but gives reasons you should subscribe.

This is so simple I think few of us would have thought of it. I may be over-reacting a little but I think it’s ingenious.

Extreme Ezine - Interested in internet marketing? You will find tips, articles and resources on internet marketing, web site promotion and online business. The Extreme Ezine can help you make money online.

Post edit on the advice of Adrian Jock.

So without further ado…

Please Subscribe to Our Feed

Email:

Subscribe in a reader

Please subscribe to our newsletter – The Extreme Ezine

Here’s Why You Should:
We are tracking your IP address and know where you live… Joking :)

  1. We are in our sixth year and have learned a lot and want to share our expertise with you.
  2. We don’t send out emails every time some other marketer puts together some lame affiliate program. We have far too much respect for our subscribers to blast offers everyday.
  3. We spread the love. I am a big believer in credit where credit is do and won’t think twice about linking to other ezines, websites, resources and blogs if I think it will benefit our readers. In fact, we just started a new edition of the Extreme Ezine called the Social Editon. We acknowledge a lot of other marketers that we have noticed and impressed us. You do not have to be a top marketer or guru to be recognized by us.
  4. I’m honest. I don’t hype everything trying to impress or mislead everyone. If I make a mistake I admit it and apologize. I don’t paste huge checks or screen prints of PayPal activity to impress you into spending your money. I don’t promote anything I don’t believe in myself.

There you have it, several reasons you should subscribe to both our RSS feed and the Extreme Ezine.

Please subscribe and then go over to TheWeblogZone and subscribe there too.

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Brian on March 12, 2009 | Filed Under Ezine News, Featured Articles

27 Comments

Adrian from Ezine Advertising Info Newsletter  on March 13th, 2009

Hi Brian, I think that you should improve it a little bit, especially item # 1.

Something important is missing.

“We are in our sixth year and have learned a lot and want to share our expertise with you.”

You have learned a lot about what? Weight loss? Shoes selling? :-) What kind of information will you actually share with your subscribers?

Got it? What this ezine is about? :-)

People don’t subscribe to an ezine because you’re friendly or honest, etc. They have to be interested in the topic of your ezine. Otherwise, in vain you’re honest if they are not interested in your topic.

I’m skinny and I won’t subscribe to a weight loss ezine, even if the publisher is honest, has experience, etc. :)

Adrians last blog post..How to identify top quality ezines for your advertising needs? (Part 3)

Brian  on March 13th, 2009

Hi Adrian, lol I can always count on you for an honest opinion. I see your point and I might agree if we hadn’t spent years build our brand as the Ezine for Internet Marketers. I believe most visitors that read that post understand the post is about marketing more than gaining a few new subscribers. That’s what we do here – look for new, and classic, ways of promotion and share the results.

As far as being honest, that’s just good business and I disagree that being honest won’t help gain subscribers. When you have someone tired of all the daily emails loaded with hype and lies and they see an Ezine that understands and promises not to follow suit then you have a new subscriber. Assuming, that is, they are on our site because they’re interested in Internet Marketing, making money online, blogging etc..

And friendly… Most people that’s been to my personal blog will probably disagree. ;)

Adrian from Ezine Advertising Info Newsletter  on March 13th, 2009

LOL You didn’t write this post for your subscribers & friends, did you? :-)

I assumed that you wrote this post for people who does NOT know your ezine, so that to convince them to subscribe to it. If they don’t know your ezine, then your post is unclear as concernining a very important aspect: the topic of the ezine.

Even if you worked a lot on Extreme Ezine brand, this is not actually a known brand. MacDonald’s & Ford are known brands.

There are tens of thousands of people who start their online venture TODAY. They don’t know your “brand” and this post doesn’t help them to know what you’re talking about in your ezine. That was my point. If they will visit more pages from your blog, they may discover what your ezine is about. However, the real people don’t do this and you may lose a visitor the next second after reading this post and not understanding what your ezine is about.

As for “I disagree that being honest won’t help gain subscribers” … I didn’t say that. What I said is that if I don’t know you and your ezine and I land on this page … the simple fact that you’re honest doesn’t make me subscribe to your ezine. First of all I need to know your ezine’s topic. If I’m not interested in the ezine’s topic, it doesn’t help that you’re honest… I won’t subscribe to the ezine.

“they are on our site because they’re interested in Internet Marketing”

How do you know that?

Sometimes my blog receives also visits from people who hardly know their own name (I’m joking. I’m talking about real newbies). Seeing your comments on my blog, they may arrive here, on your blog. It doesn’t mean that they are interested in Internet Marketing. They may not even know what internet marketing is :-)

Finally, do a simple math:

1) If you don’t edit the post like I suggested and I’m wrong, that’s fine … you don’t lose anything.

2) However, if you don’t edit it and I have right, then you may lose subscribers.

When you edit the post like I suggested, you won’t lose anything, you only add some information. Vital information ;-)

You decide what is gonna be :-)

Adrians last blog post..How to identify top quality ezines for your advertising needs? (Part 3)

Kikolani from Blogging, Poetry, Photography  on March 13th, 2009

It makes sense. Another way to make sure you grab new subscribers is to make sure your feed is accessible at “pause points” on your site. I have my subscription links at the top of every article, right under the title, at the top left of the sidebar so it’s big and bold throughout the site, at the end of the content of every single post, and after someone submits a comment, in the “waiting for approval” message. Plus, I have a “What is RSS” page that describes the benefits of subscribing – not just specifically for my site, but in general.

~ Kristi

Kikolanis last blog post..How to Keep Your RSS Subscribers

YS from CigArest  on March 14th, 2009

Brian

You don’t need to give me another 10 reasons to subscribe. I’ve done so long before you ask me…. ;)

Yan

Brian  on March 14th, 2009

@Adrian: I’m reluctant to edit posts once they have been published because it’s already gone out to over a thousand people. But, you may have a point. In fact, your comment made me take a look at the front page and I realized there was very little description without clicking the ‘about‘ link. So I edited both the post and the front page. I appreciate your input :)

@Kristi: I like your Why Subscribe via RSS? page. That’s a great idea. And I’ve noticed the ‘waiting approval‘ notice after submitting a comment. Is that a plugin?

@Yan: Well Buddy, you just left the 1,000th approved comment! That looked so cool this morning, I wish I had paid more attention. I could have turned it into a contest. Still, I think you deserve some sort of prize. I’ll give it some thought.

YS from CigArest  on March 14th, 2009

You know what? I’m participating in the SEO contest so a link back to CigArest would be ideal. The contest ended in Apr 02, 09.

I was #2 till Google decided to play with me in the sandbox. Damn!

Yan

Brian  on March 14th, 2009

Letting me off the hook easy Yan :) Let me know what you think, in the sidebar. I used your key words in both the ‘id’ and ‘title’ tags.

YS from CigArest  on March 14th, 2009

WOW! That’s awesome. Thanks for the plug, Brian. If I win, you win too. Keep the fingers crossed. I’m sure once the big G pulls me out of the sandbox (hopefully in the next 14 days), I’m gonna be in the first 3.

Yan

Dennis Edell  on March 14th, 2009

Yan inadvertantly raised the point I’m here to make, when he said, “You don’t need to give me another 10 reasons to subscribe. I’ve done so long before you ask me….”

When doing your post like this, make sure your promotional mojo is in order afterward as most of your core readers are most likely subscribed already.

Dennis Edells last blog post..Do You Charge For Blog Reviews?

Brian  on March 14th, 2009

Thanks Dennis, I know I can always count on you guys :) Hey, that a cool phrase ‘promotional mojo’. It has a nice ring to it and…

wait for it…

The domain PromotionalMojo.com is available lol

Kikolani  on March 14th, 2009

No, it’s the default setting that I want to approve my comments before they post. I just went into the comments.php and modified the standard text to add in the RSS feed invitation, and I just recently modified it to include my Twitter and Facebook as well. I figure that some people may not look around the rest of the site, just drop in on an article and comment, which is great, but this way I can give them a few extra bits of info when they get confirmation about their comment being in the approval queue.

~ Kristi

Kikolanis last blog post..Fetching Friday – Web 2.0 At the Bookstore, Twitter Resources

Brian  on March 16th, 2009

That was a great idea. Just like the 404 error pages is another place to grab the attention of visitors.

Kikolani from Blogging, Poetry, Photography  on March 18th, 2009

I just tweaked my 404 page too. Hopefully it will grab someone’s attention when they end up where they didn’t expect to be. :)

http://kikolani.com/404

~ Kristi

Kikolanis last blog post..How to Keep Your RSS Subscribers

Brian  on March 19th, 2009

Hi Kristi, Sorry I missed your comment somehow. That’s a nice 404. i like the photo too. I followed it to Eduardo!’s Flickr and found some awesome shots.

Kikolani from Blogging, Poetry, Photography  on March 19th, 2009

Thanks. I thought it would be fun to take a way the “oops” part and make it more like a bonus to land there. :)

~ Kristi

Kikolanis last blog post..Ways to Write Great Blogging Meme Responses

Jim Rose from Deerfield Pest Control  on March 19th, 2009

great post, i think that asking for subscribers is a great idea to get new blood into your site. I believe you should probably wait until you have some good content on the site first, that way at least you can give reasons why to join besides i promise to be good and compelling in the future.

Brian  on March 20th, 2009

Thanks Jim, I agree, asking for subscribers too early is a mistake unless you are awful good at convincing others on just a promise.

I just purchased a WordPress plugin that should increase our subscription rate. I’m pretty excited about it and will install it tomorrow and let everyone know about it and what it does.

Hesham  on March 22nd, 2009

Hello Brian, I have subscribed already I love the extreme ezine blog!

being here, I have learned lots! Thanks.

Heshams last blog post..How Blog Visitor Create a Feedback Experience by commenting on your blog?

Brian  on March 22nd, 2009

Thanks Hesham, I like your blogs too.

Pheak Tol  on March 26th, 2009

hey Brian,

from the posts i’ve read and my interaction with you, i think you’re one of the most genuine and honest person out there. and just to make sure, i subscribed to ya, so i know for sure that i am. unfortunately i get tons of emails and can’t keep up which is sad.

but i agree with your side of the post though as well.

Brian  on March 26th, 2009

Thanks Pheak, you are very kind. I’m going to add that to my testimonials section if you don’t mind.

DeViLnoAnGeL InFo  on March 27th, 2009

that’s a nice move brian, this one make me really want to subscribe your site. that will make me more easier to know what’s new post here. I’m subscribing now. thanks brian.

DeViLnoAnGeL InFos last blog post..The New Canon EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR Camera With Full HD Video Capture Feature

Brad West  on March 28th, 2009

Thanks Brian Not you have given me another aspect to look at for the Blog Co-Op. After all that would be another great promo for the members.

Great job with this post loots to think about again.
Brad West ~ onomoney

Brad Wests last blog post..What is ooVoo?

Work At Home Blog  on March 29th, 2009

Hi Brian,

Well since you asked, I just subscribed and confirmed too. Well I too asked although I have it as a ‘Why Subscribe’ at my top nav bar. Well I’m going to ask you too. Please subscribe to mine if you haven’t done so. LOL!

Peter Lee

Work At Home Blogs last blog post..Case Study:How Top Twitter Client Gave Me 293 Page Views

Chris  on April 28th, 2009

Hi

As a new reader (literally this is the first post I have read on this site) can I recommend that you actually put a few links to what you might consider your top or typical articles, something that I can quickly look through to get a feel for what you would write about, the quality of it, and what I would expect if I subscribed.

That’s what I was looking for anyway :)

Btw the email subscribe thing on the comments is awesome… where did you get it?

Chriss last blog post..Starting your niche site

Brian  on April 28th, 2009

That’s kind of why I’m using this WP theme. I thought it did a pretty good job of showing our top or typical articles.

We have a featured post at the top, the four scrollable random posts, then the last nine posts next the top ten most popular posts and then four more featured articles at the bottom. We also have a search form, categories, tag cloud and site map. All this is right from the first page. I do appreciate the feedback though.

The subscribe box next to the comment section is a WordPress plugin called Action PopUp by Robert Plank http://www.actionpopup.com/