A couple of weeks back, I listed out 4 types of RSS subscribers and in this sequel to that article, I will be giving another 4 types of RSS subscribers that formed your blog RSS feed count.
As I have said in the preceding post, RSS feed count of blogs nowadays might possess different value even though the chicklet might be showing the same numbers.
If you are interested in what I have said about the following types of RSS subscribers, kindly proceed to 8 Types of RSS Subscribers Explained [Part 1].
- Subscribing readers
- Traders
- Friends
- Fans and followers
For those who wanted to know more on the composition of RSS feed count, you can continue reading this post which in the end, you might find more than 4 types of RSS subscribers are being presented to you.
Competitors
Competitors are bloggers within the same niche as yours. They subscribe from a different standpoint as opposed to what makes blogging friends and peers subscribe to your RSS feed. Competitors can also be categorized into those wanting a friendly competition and those who are willing to get nasty with you anytime.
Value of Competitors
It is hard to make yourself seen by others as a strong competitor. Having competitors signifies that you have certain values that others are fearful of or the standard that triggers the sense of competition. Apart from the numbers they will contribute to your feed count, you will also be able to amplify your presence within your niche, at least among those who are of the same rank as you.
Getting Competitors to Subscribe
Being proactive in building a base of competitors sounds funny as most would prefer to building a base of blogging pals. Getting the attention of bloggers within the same niche and have almost the same level of blogging as you will make a good start. Try to consistently produce good contents and constantly show off great stuffs on your blog. This is to magnify your presence and by posing a threat to their standings, they will monitor your blog by subscribing to it just to make sure that things don’t go out of hands.
Party-lovers
Party lovers, as the phrase sounds, will go everywhere that people are gathering. They like to socialize, of course, not just with the organizer of the event but mostly with the people attending the event. They can have a lot of places to hang out or just being loyal to a gathering venue.
Value of Party Lovers
Party lovers, although they give an easy going impression to most people, they might be the ones participating in activities held by your blogs, which include commenting, joining contests and help interacting with your readers, which most of these are hard to derive from RSS subscribers. Party lovers want attention and they will do or say something different which will in turn spark discussions.
Getting Party Lovers to Subscribe
To get party lovers to subscribe to your blog, you will need to go to places they gather, which will be forums, comment section of other blogs and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Dress up your blog to appeal for party lovers participation. They love people. You can try seeding a few comments for a start or if you already have a small commentator base, new party lovers should be able to blend in almost immediately.
Bots
Bots should be in the category right after this but why they are a major one? Almost all blog RSS directories, social bookmarking and social media sites, other niche blogs and search engines will provide an option for you to submit and subscribe to RSS feeds. You, as well as others may be subscribing to your own RSS feed via these sites, making bots owned by them to be included in your RSS feed count.
Value of Bots
They hold their own value as well although some bloggers use RSS directory submission method to increase their RSS feed count massively which might be seen by others as cheap. However, having your RSS feed count filled with bots shows that your blog post is getting exposure on various sites which excerpts of your articles might be featured.
Having bots included in your RSS feed count also means that whenever you update your blog, your content will be indexed almost immediately on these sites after your RSS feed has been updated. Such benefit might be seen as a minor one for successful blogs out there but the numbers and exposure that these bots can bring are highly valuable for new blogs.
Getting Bots to Subscribe
The one off way that will give you an enduring benefit is to allocate about 30 minutes to submit your blog’s RSS feed to all the RSS directories. It can be tedious but you will only need to do it for once. Also, try integrating your blog’s RSS feed onto pages that you have the authority to manage and edit, such as your social site profiles, Squidoo lenses and Hubpages hubs.
Minorities
The following will form RSS feed count for blogs as well but since they hold little or no value, I will just explain what they are and why they exist.
Content leechers
Content leechers publishes contents of others by using the RSS feed technology. Such technology can be in the form of softwares or scripts implemented onto splogs for the purpose of making money via Google AdSense. What bloggers will normally discover when their blogs are being leeched is the frequent pinging of trackbacks received from these "fake blogs".
Self subscription
Some evil bloggers have been creating hundreds of e-mail accounts to boast a fake RSS feed count. Avoid that! Self subscription should only be limited to 2 counts at most - one will be in the form of e-mail subscription and the other via a RSS reader. The reason for this is to keep yourself updated about the status and bugs related to your RSS feed that might appear from time to time.
Inactive subscriptions
Some inactive subscriptions do exist. For e-mail subscriptions, the subscription will be taken into account as long as the e-mail address is capable of receiving your RSS feed updates, even though the owner might have abandoned the account long ago. This causes inactive subscription that offers only the number for your feed count.
Multiple subscriptions
Humans tend to make mistakes and the same happens to subscription matters. Me myself is subscribing to some blogs with multiple methods. The reason for this are as follows:
- Pure mistake
- Subscribing with methods specified for a blog contest
- Discarded online-based RSS feed reader services
Summarizing on Types of RSS Subscribers
This two-part article is meant to help bloggers understand more on which type of RSS subscribers that they should aim for, along with some blogging tips on how to derive such subscribers.
What other types of RSS subscribers that you have in mind? Which type of RSS subscribers do you think your blog has the most? Also, what do you think is the best way to increase your RSS feed count?
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April 5th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Wow, thorough analysis of these RSS feed subscribers. Great information, thanks! makes more sense to me now (new blogger here)
April 5th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Thanks. Building RSS subscribers blindly can be a mistake as it will serve as a mist that might cause conversion or goal congruence throttle later on.
You can read up Part 1 of the article as well.
April 6th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Best ways are still, great content, useful posts and marketing!
As what you’re reading here, Wayne Liew’s readers!
Are comment subscribers composed of the same types as post subscribers, Wayne? What do you think?
April 6th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Well, it will have some difference I guess. I did not subscribe to comments before unless I need help (OK, found one type of comment subscriber
). I will go deeper into this.
Some people subscribe to comments with the intention to dominate the whole post with their comments. Sounds crazy but people does it.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Or to win contests, hehehe
April 8th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I have not come across bloggers who wanted to raise their comment subscriber count so I am unsure of this. Have you come across any?
July 11th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Hey Wayne, you should consider entering these tips in my Building RSS Group Writing Project:
http://groupwritingprojects.co.....g-project/
All you would need to qualify for over $350 in prizes - including consults with Liz Strauss and David Airey - is to link your above article to the announcement post at the above link. Although additional tips before Sunday night’s deadline would increase your chances of winning even more.