One of the most useful and user-friendly options for a blog owner is providing readers with the ability to subscribe. Subscribers receive your most recent post(s) in their email inbox or in their reader of choice.
This subscription function makes it easy for your fans to stay up to date on your posts without having to visit your blog to see if there’s anything new. It saves them time and energy which I'm sure you'll agree is a good thing.
As a blogger, it’s beneficial for you to use a subscription option for your readers because it ensures that you stay in touch with them – they won’t forget about you because your posts are being delivered to them.
Feedburner, owned by Google, is a service that makes it easy for anyone to subscribe regardless of their preferences for email or the various readers. And, it’s easy to do!
Here are the simple steps:
(1) Visit Feedburner.com and enter your URL. Feedburner will generate a feed URL for you.
(2) Determine what statistics and data you track. Don't worry, it's free.
(3) Finally, you’ll want to integrate your feed into your blog. Depending on the blogging platform you’re using the instructions will be different.
If, for example, you’re using a self hosted WordPress blog then you’ll download and activate a plugin called FeedSmith. You’ll verify your URLs and then voila, you’re done. Your theme may have the feed built in so make sure you check that. Once it's set up, the subscribe button should appear on your blog and readers will now have the option to subscribe in their favorite reader or via email.
It's important that you offer your readers every opportunity to become active in your community. Feedburner is one tool to help you get the job done!
