Are RSS Subscribers Still Relevant Today?
Posted by Anand in Guests Posts, Internet, blogging tips, tags: blogging tips, rss feeds, rss subscribers, twitter followersThis is a guest post by Anand Srinivasan founder the World’s first Ask&Answer Website – KnewThis.com. Learn more about how the website works by clicking here
There were days when RSS subscriptions was the key to determine how big a website you have or how authoritative you are in your domain. It is still that way, to an extent. Bloggers still try to earn as many RSS subscribers as they can to their website. But with newer cyber-lifestyle, people don’t follow blogs, but follow people who write those blogs on Twitter. People share interesting articles on social networks. All this begets the question – Are RSS subscribers still relevant to the bloggers today?
From a personal standpoint, RSS subscribers still score over Twitter followers and will continue to do so. Let me explore a few reasons why I think this is the case.
First and foremost, in most cases, bloggers write in order to provide an “authority site” on the subject, not project themselves as thought leaders in the area. That being the case, it makes sense that you project your blog’s authority over your individual authority. Yes, this rule does not apply to people owning blogs on subjects like marketing. There, indeed the focus is on showing yourself as a thought leader. But in cases where people own more than one blog on domains like fitness, technology and finance, it makes better sense to project the site’s authority than your own.
The second point is an extension of the first. In many cases, people own a lot of blogs. Some full time bloggers own even around 50 or 60 blogs on so many niche topics. It always makes sense to keep your different targeted groups separate so that you may promote niche products to these different groups. Imagine a case where you have blogs on varied niche and all of them follow you on a Twitter account. Your tweets cannot cater to the needs of each of these groups separately. Of course, you may always create more than one twitter account. However, that increases your workload since you will have to not only manage your individual blogs, but also these individual twitter accounts.
Thirdly, you OWN your RSS subscribers. You also give freedom to your loyal readers an option to read your articles via an RSS reader or email. In case of Twitter, you do not own those Twitter followers in the first place. Also, you are creating an additional barrier to loyal readers of yours by asking them to register first with a third party (Twitter) in order to follow you. With RSS, the freedom of choice is with the subscriber. Wait, you also have the option to monetize this traffic.
So does this all mean RSS is here to stay for a long time to come? No one is sure of the answer. RSS still has a few flaws like time-lag in crawling through the web and misuse (There have been cases where RSS followers were automatically subscribed to other mailing lists). But these have been very few and far between and with improving technology, we can surely expect RSS to remain a no-pushover for a long time to come.
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Twitter: NotAProBlog
(4 comments) says:
I think RSS subscribers are definitely still relevant today. There’s much more “trust” bestowed upon you when someone adds you to their RSS reader in comparison to following you on Twitter.
Especially with programs like TweetDeck, it’s manageable enough to follow a whole heap load of people and not feel overwhelmed with the noise. RSS, on the other hand, can require much more effort on the reader to “tune out” – meaning they’re much more restrictive on permitting entry in the initial subscription.
For that reason alone, I value RSS subscribers (and e-mail list subs) more than social network friends, fans, followers, etc. and I don’t think it will change anytime in the near future.
Jordan Cooper´s last blog ..Greatest Liszt Post Ever Written
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Thanks for your comment Jordan. I agree that your twitter follower count means less as what compared to RSS subscribers. But, don’t you think a follower:following ratio on Twitter can better establish an individual’s authority than RSS count which can so easily be faked?
I’m just playing the devil’s advocate here…
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..KnewThis Blogger Contest – Earn All That We Earn
[Reply]
Jordan Cooper
Twitter: NotAProBlog
(4 comments) Reply:
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Really? Twitter follower ratio can be gamed just as easily as publishing a false count of RSS subscribers. Take a look at how many spammers and automatons have 10,000+ followers because so many use auto-follow tools in combination with 3rd party programs that make it easy to “manage relationships”.
As I said last week, why are we still relying on these numbers to determine a person’s authority and credibility in a field? I’d rather take someone’s content at face value and determine it’s worth – not some sort of scorecard in a popularity contest.
Jordan Cooper´s last blog ..Little Known New Wordpress 2.9 Features
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 24th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Ironically, that is how it used to be in the good old days – Establish authority by what the person has to say. But even that is so easily gamed these days with Feedburner plugins that can easily help spammers rip off other people’s content and showing it off as their own..
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..KnewThis Blogger Contest – Earn All That We Earn
Are RSS Subscribers Still Relevant Today?…
Bloggers still try to earn as many RSS subscribers as they can to their website. But with newer cyber-lifestyle, people don’t follow blogs, but follow people who write those blogs on Twitter. People share interesting articles on social networks. All th…
Twitter: extremejohn
(165 comments) says:
Excellent guest post. I know that I would rather have RSS subscribers over Twitter followers or even Facebook fans, it seems to be a more dedicated consistent feed of readers and traffic.
Extreme John´s last blog ..10 Reasons I Wouldn’t Copy Your Article
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Thanks John..The only problem I think I forgot to emphasize in the article is that with more number of Twitter followers, more traffic follows (assuming they are the retweeting kinds). But it is not so with RSS feeds. In fact, you stand to get more subscribers when you have more traffic. What do you think?
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..KnewThis Blogger Contest – Earn All That We Earn
[Reply]
Twitter: Ileane
(68 comments) says:
Hi Anand,
Very interesting post. I hear a lot about this topic so I am following it closely and it’s nice to hear different points of view. I think that more saavy bloggers and web surfers have grown to love their RSS feeders and the format has earned their respect. However, many, many new comers are unfamiliar with RSS. If you take a look at all of the A-list blogger’s sites you’ll see that they offer of description of RSS right next to the reader option so that people will know what RSS is and how it works. (They must get that question a lot!)
Although I consider myself a pretty saavy web surfer (yet a newbie blogger) I rarely look at my RSS feeds. I look at my own blog feeds more than I do any of the others. I’m not saying that I’m a trendsetter, I just think there is a huge gap between those that know and love RSS and those that have no clue.
The debate continues…
Thanks for sharing your views. Karen is lucky to have you here as a guest.
ileane´s last blog ..Fun Twitter Promotions for Your Blog
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Hi Ileane
I think learning about RSS comes out of a need (for that matter, who cared about tweaking pieces of code till we started using Wordpress!). So when you start following more and more blogs, it comes to a point when it becomes absolutely essential that there is a one place to read all the blogs from…
But like you say, this could be true for those who were active in the era when RSS was at its peak. With Twitter and the likes that let you read through content easier, maybe those who are active on the blogosphere today probably don’t see a need for RSS readers..
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..KnewThis Blogger Contest – Earn All That We Earn
[Reply]
Twitter: HollyJahangiri
(10 comments) says:
After MANY years, I’m just starting to use RSS feeds effectively. There was a time I could hold all my favorite blog URLs in my head and check them every day to see if there were new posts. Then I started bookmarking and blogrolling – and when I discovered Blogger’s feed reading blogroll, I was hooked. I started putting all my favorites into Google Reader. Even now, I sometimes forget to check, but it’s nice to have one easy-to-access place to look for updates. I never thought of it as being good for ME, as a blogger – though of course anything that functions like bread-crumbs to lead readers BACK to your blog is a good thing. I just thought of it as a convenience to readers.
Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..In-context Links? No Comment!
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
LOL..I can so much relate to what you’ve said..I was exactly the same way and graduated to the use of feed readers slowly when the number of blogs I started following began to increase substantially!
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..KnewThis Blogger Contest – Earn All That We Earn
[Reply]
Twitter: TeleGlass
(1 comments) says:
As an RSS user, it’s VERY relevant to me. I don’t think too much about how many people subscribe to my feed (or I would get depressed – ha!). Still – the ability to know that those people WILL be exposed to all that is in my feed, even if for just a second… I like it.
Gomez@windshield repair´s last blog ..Windshields Beware! Winter Windshield Road Hazards
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:32 pm
That’s interesting Gomez..Have you ever gotten worried anytime that people might read all your content but would never click through to your site? I’m asking this because a lot of people dislike RSS for this very reason.
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..KnewThis Blogger Contest – Earn All That We Earn
[Reply]
Twitter: JimiJones
(2 comments) says:
RSS remains very relevant as many readers will subscribe to your blog using this method because it’s easier to manage than email. It’s all point and click, no typing. Couple that with the many versatile feed readers of the day or the option of having the feed load onto your browser’s toolbar and it becomes a preferred method for many.
From an entrepreneur’s standpoint, I’d prefer the continual building of the mailing list, but the RSS does provide a means of constant contact and content delivery.
Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Using NetworkedBlogs With Facebook
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I agree with you there Jimi..There is nothing like lazing over a huge list of RSS feeds. I use keyboard shortcuts (J to move to next item) and that makes reading through all items much more comfortable..
With Twitter, if all those you follow decide to stop linking to good articles, you are doomed..
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..KnewThis Blogger Contest – Earn All That We Earn
[Reply]
Twitter: michaelaulia
(1 comments) says:
50 blogs…gosh..I wonder how they manage to take care of that many
Most Twitter followers are not genuine too where as RSS subscribers subscribe because they want to read your following posts.
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 24th, 2009 at 8:44 am
LOL..Some webmasters I have talked to don’t even remember all their sites. They get reminded only when some sites get those odd visits someday. It is more like throwing away at everything to see what sticks.
And it does seem to work for some..
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..KnewThis Blogger Contest – Earn All That We Earn
[Reply]
Twitter: JenaIsle
(5 comments) says:
They are because they update automatically, and this lessens manual tweaking. RSS has been a lot of help and I have been with the system since I stated blogging.
Jena Isle´s last blog ..Winners of the Virtual Book Tour for A Puppy, Not a Guppy!
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 24th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Agreed with you on this Jene..
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..KnewThis Blogger Contest – Earn All That We Earn
[Reply]
Twitter: AussieSire
(8 comments) says:
I personally would prefer that people subscribe to my RSS feed than follow me on Twitter. The reason for this being that I know those people who subscribe to my feed are interested in what I have to say. Not so when it comes to Twitter.
Sire´s last blog ..Of Gary Vaynerchuk And His Belief That You Can Cash In On Your Passion
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 24th, 2009 at 8:49 am
From the perspective of my article, I agree with you Sire..RSS subscribers give you more bragging rights than Twitter followers do. But what do you think from the point of marketing your site? More Twitter followers mean more traffic (provide they retweet,etc.). Not so with RSS…
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..KnewThis Blogger Contest – Earn All That We Earn
[Reply]
Sire
Twitter: AussieSire
(8 comments) Reply:
December 24th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Bragging rights only apply if you’re the type to paste it on your site, otherwise no-one would know. Bragging rights could also apply to Twitter, and you are more likely to have more twitter followers than rss subscribers.
I suppose you could say that more Twitter followers would mean more potential traffic. However if, and I’m only picking a number out of the air, 10% of your followers were to retweet an article you would need 1000 followers to get the same sort of effect as 100 RSS subscribers.
I suppose what makes Twitter unique is the domino effect, in that every person who tweets your article has their own set of followers who would then retweet it and so on.
Reckon I just shot myself in the foot with that comment
Sire´s last blog ..How Amazon And The Power Of Keywords Can Increase Your Earnings
[Reply]
Twitter: Happymaker
(37 comments) says:
I’m no expert, but I see Twitter and RSS as different entities entirely. They serve different purposes. Both are important and relevant, and useful tools for any blogger.
I love my RSS reader. I like to see the numbers light up when a friend has published a new thought. I like to be able to keep track of them, and go through them in a methodical way. Twitter is wonderful because it opens my eyes to so many new people sharing new ideas, and allows me to do the same. But RSS is kind of like the second step to me, inviting somebody into your home, making them part of your world.
Good post!
Heather Kephart´s last blog ..Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah!
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 11:38 am
You’re right Heather. But I think we are seeing it from two different angles. I wrote the article from a marketing perspective, while your points appear to be from a reader’s perspective.
But yes, both can be compared from a reader’s PoV as well, and RSS is still the better of the two in my opinion..
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..Best Niche Ideas : Digital Coin Counting Jar
[Reply]
For what it’s worth, I did my own little survey back in April, and if memory serves RSS far outweighed Twitter in preference.
Within that post is a link to another post where Darren Rowse stated 84% of People Would Prefer More Blog Readers than Twitter Followers.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Final “Official” Post For DSWM!
[Reply]
For what it’s worth, I did my own little survey back in April, and if memory serves RSS far outweighed Twitter in preference.
Within that post is a link to another post where Darren Rowse stated 84% of People Would Prefer More Blog Readers than Twitter Followers.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Final “Official” Post For DSWM!
[Reply]
Anand Srinivasan
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) Reply:
December 28th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Wow..Interesting results Dennis..Thanks for sharing that.
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..Best Niche Ideas : Digital Coin Counting Jar
[Reply]
Twitter: tycoonblogger
(1 comments) says:
My vote is for RSS, I do think it is still very relavant and I would prefer over Twitter. It is easy to get twitter followers but you really have to work for rss subscribers. I think they are much more valuable.
Tycoon Blogger @promote your blog´s last blog ..Top Guest Posts of 2009 (on Tycoon Blogger)
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[...] Are RSS subscribers still relevant? – Blazing Minds – This was a guest post featured on Blazing Minds that focuses on a question I have often pondered… [...]
Twitter: uttoransen
(7 comments) says:
Rss subscriber count is surely more valuable than twitter followers from the marketing point of view. Rss (feeds) is more about the blog, if some one is truly interested in the blog and wants to find out about the next post, only then he will subscribe, but for twitter, following someone on twitter can be for multiple reasons one of which is simply expecting a follow back in return…
i would be lot more happy to see my subscriber count increase because that way, i know more people are eager to find out about my next blog post
Uttoran Sen´s last blog ..2010 Plans – Big Dreams
[Reply]
Twitter: knewthis
(38 comments) says:
Bang on point, Uttoran..You pretty much summed it all…
Anand Srinivasan´s last blog ..Best Niche Ideas : Digital Coin Counting Jar
[Reply]