In my previous post, I’ve mentioned that the number of subscribers is one of the most popular measurement of blog success and I’ve explained 10 effective ways to increase blog subscribers.
Getting readers to subscribe is the first step. The second step is to get your subscribers to keep subscribing continuously which is a bit tougher. Readers can easily unsubscribe to a feed with just a push of the unsubscribe button in the feed reader. I feel that second step is as important as first step and blogger should not ignore it.
Of course it’s impossible to keep unsubscribing rate to zero but we should manage to keep the rate as low as possible. As a blogger, here are 7 ways to keep your unsubscribing rate low:
#1 Quality And Interesting Content
Content is always king. Without valuable content, readers or subscribers will not interested to read your blog post. You need to have passion and time to make it happen. Of course, you need to learn and keep information up-to-date. You should always double-check your post before clicking the publish or schedule button to make sure no spelling or grammer mistake or keep the mistake as low as possible. So make sure you always write about interesting and quality content without disappointing your readers.
#2 Make Sure Content Get Delivered
You should subscribe to your own blog feed and check if your blog content is delivered correctly in feed reader after you publish a new blog post. This is to maintain your credibility and keep the promise to deliver what it supposed to be. Subscribers will get frustrated if they can get what they’re expecting.
If you offer email subscription, make sure the stability of the email service provider and if the feed is delivered on time.
#3 Publish Full Feed
There is always a debate between full feed or partial feed publishing. Full feed publishing will make the reading a lot easier without clicking extra link in feed reader. In addition, it make the loading time faster even considering some readers are using low speed Internet connectioon. I prefer to read full feed and I’ll only view the original post if I’d like to make comment.
#4 Publish New Content Frequently
You don’t need to publish several posts a day but at least 2 to 3 posts a week to keep your blog content fresh. Imagine if a blog doesn’t update for a month, then how will you think? There is a high chance that I’ll unsubsribe the feed and look for other feed that can give me updated information.
#5 Be Original
People read your posts because they want to know what is your thinking about certain issues or they want to learn from you or your experience. If you just copy and paste the content from other sources, readers might just unsubscribe from your feed to switch to your competitors.
Blog is a place for people to know you better, it’s not a place for people to learn about the point of view from your competitor.
#6 Encourage Participation
You should always encourage your readers to participate by making comments in your blog. This can help to create a community under your brand and make readers stick to your blog. I’ll make a comment in other blogs if they’re asking so.
#7 Listen To Your Subscribers
Always listen to the opinions and comments from your subscribers and reply them as much as possible. This will make your subscribers feel that they’re important and think that you’re actually hearing to their opinions.
Conclusion
Currently I’m subscribing to 44 RSS feeds through Google Reader. Personally I’ll unsubscribe to a feed if I find it boring or not suitable to my taste later.
What is the unsubscribing rate of your blog? Do you have any other method to keep your subscriber? And do you have any comment for my blog? Kindly share with us below.
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