Using RSS feeds can be like walking a high wire: you have to try to find a balance between RSS readers, site visits, and new readers, all the while not being too aggressive or too lax with any of them. Don't get me wrong, RSS feeds are great for hooking and keeping readers, but when you use them you run the risk of losing very important site visits, because your readers "don't have any reason" to actually view your site when they have your updates delivered right to them.
And as anyone who runs a monetized blog knows, to be profitable you need site visits.
The question then becomes: how do you use RSS feeds and still manage not to fall off the wire into poverty or obscurity? There is no exact science, but following these tips should help you strike a perfect balance of RSS readers and site visits, so that you keep your dedicated following without losing out on your money-making opportunities.
1. Write interactive posts
This doesn’t mean that you should make your posts literally dance or respond to a reader’s mouse clicks like a video game; rather, it means that you should ask for reader feedback in as many of your posts as possible (as long as it is appropriate and relevant to your content).
Asking for feedback, whether by posing questions your readers can answer, encouraging comments, taking polls, is a great way to get RSS readers to your page. The bottom line is that if they have an interest in your post and want to say something to you, they have to visit your page to be able to interact with your content.
A great way to subtly encourage feedback is to enable comment numbers on your page, so that readers will know how many other people have already commented.
This is a good tactic, but can be easily overused. Readers are shrewd and perceptive, so will know when they are being manipulated. Again, only ask for feedback when it is appropriate and relevant to your content.
2. Use links
While writing your new posts, if there is any place you can link back to your previous posts, or to any related content of yours that will lead readers back to your site, make use of the opportunity. If, for example, you are writing an article about stone soup and you already wrote an article about picking great stones, link to that post in the new one. This will increase the odds that a reader will actually visit your site, as the old content is no longer in the RSS feed.
Another good use of links (but one that can also be easily overused) is included a short list of links similar posts in some of your new posts. I would recommend using this strategy only sparingly, as it is glaringly obvious to readers that you want them to visit your site when you link in this way.
Finally, every year or six months, consider posting of list of your best posts and link to all of them. If your posts were exceptional, your readers will want to visit your site to read them again.
3. Publish post excerpts in the feed
This is a common strategy to get readers to visit a site, but is also one that can be very polarizing. Readers don’t like to feel manipulated, and nothing says “I’m using you” to some readers like an excerpt feed. Still, it works for a lot of folks, so use it if it feels right. Otherwise, give the other strategies a shot.
RSS feeds can be extremely effective tools when used correctly. However, if you are struggling with attracting readers to your page, try some of these techniques, and let me know how they work for you. (See what I did there?)
