What are subscribers and why do you need them?
My kingdom for a subscriber…
To subscribe or not subscribe…
This past week I had an author ask me why she needed different types of subscribers? After a bit of questioning, I realized that she really wasn’t clear about a whole bunch of things from what was already set up on her account, to the differences between different types of subscriptions.
That brings me to today’s post. Let’s talk about subscribers….
It is possible for your readers to sign up for two different types of subscriptions:
They can subscribe to your blog posts
They can subscribe to your newsletter
Let’s talk about one at a time.
You want people to subscribe to your blog post so that these posts are delivered directly to them (usually by email). This removes all barriers to you sharing your thoughts with your readers. If your blog posts arrive in their inbox, they will likely at least glance at it – if not read the whole thing.
Subscribing to your blog post is an action that your readers have to take. You can encourage them to subscribe, but you shouldn’t add them against their will. This isn’t against any rules, but it’s guaranteed to piss off a bunch of readers if you do.
How does this take place? – There are a couple of common ways to offer subscriptions to your blog posts:
a) Jetpack (from WordPress) offers a subscription widget that you can put on your sidebar. On my book blog, it looks like the screenshot below:
Fairly clear – enter an email address and click on subscribe.
b) Feedburner – although many say that Feedburner is no longer used, but I’ve had it in place on several blogs for years. It regularly delivers posts to subscribers.
Again, this is fairly clear – the reader enters their email address and clicks on the subscribe button and they have been subscribed.
c) BlogLovin’ is a combination of a feedreader and subscription service that is popular amongst many groups of bloggers. To encourage subscription, a button like you see below, is put on the blog’s sidebar. Anyone who has a free BlogLovin’ account can read the blogs they subscribe to on the BlogLovin’ site. They also get an email reminding them when there are new blog posts to read.
I’m quite fond of BlogLovin’ personally and it is fairly popular on several sites that I manage.
There is a 4th choice for blog subscribers – using Mailchimp or something similar – but we’ll talk about that in the next section.
To summarize – You want readers to subscribe to your blog’s posts so that they get them reliably in their inbox. Blog subscription is something that you should be encouraging your readers to do. But…please don’t be overly helpful and signup your friends and neighbors without their permission. 
You want to be creating a community not pissing people off. One last comment and that is regarding stats – since we have recently been learning about blog stats. People who read your blog posts through a subscription, likely don’t visit your blog and don’t count as a hit on your stats. The only way they would visit your blog is if your subscription is set up as an excerpt and then they need to go to your site to read the whole posts. Which do you have?
You should be subscribed to your own blog so that you know what your readers are seeing!
Newsletters
As the experts suggest, every author should be gathering names/email addresses for readers interested in receiving a future newsletter. As I tell many of my new authors, it doesn’t matter if you have the nerve or the inclination to send out a newsletter at this point. You should be collecting names regardless…you know…for when you gather your courage and send out a note to them.
If you never collect names/email addresses, when you gather your courage to send out a note, you won’t have anyone to send to.
So…How do you tell the difference between a subscription to a newsletter and a subscription to a blog. The short answer is – sometimes with difficulty.
Let’s start with some basics. Generally speaking, emails for a potential newsletter are collected by a mail/newsletter service such as Mailchimp
There are many different mail/newsletter services. Some are free to a certain point, some are a paid service from the beginning. Just do a Google search and you will see the selection of companies available. Of all the choices, Mailchimp tends to be the most popular with authors and other beginning bloggers as they allow for 2000 subscribers before the paid version kicks in. This allows the creation of a decent following before paying.
I frequently have authors tell me that they don’t need a mail/newsletter service, they just send emails out from their regular email account. Remember, you are a professional and you are running a business. It is not a good idea to use your regular email account for newsletters because of the following:
can’t brand the emails
doesn’t comply with the CAN-SPAM act (my explanation here)- with fines of $16,000 per offense this is important
studies show that mail/newsletter services can reduce the number of emails that end up in spam folders rather than inboxes
Mail/newsletter services can be used to send out a branded blog subscriptions as well
Let’s talk about each point individually
Branding – you want to create the same look and feel across your platform so that your readers can tell at a glance where the information is coming from. Not too clear about why to brand a newsletter? I challenge you to subscribe to a couple of big name author newsletters and study what they send. Learn and apply
The CAN-SPAM act is serious. Offenses can carry of fine of $16,000.00 USD each. You can comply with the CAN-SPAM act using your usual email address, but it is more difficult/time consuming than when using a service.
As many as 35% of your emails (if sent out in large numbers) will end up in spam folders and some people have their email service (knowingly or unknowingly) set to automatically delete spam. So they never see what you are trying to share. This number will vary by your email provider and the receiver’s settings, but to me, 35% is a large number of my subscribers! I care about this!
As I mentioned above, it is possible to send out your blog posts to subscribers using a mail/newsletter service to do the delivery. I do this for several sites as it allows for branding of the note, but also allows me to include extra information as needed – announcements of new releases, special offers, etc. This information can be changed easily as needed.
Remember above I said that sometimes it is difficult to determine what is being signed up for. the graphic above is the default subscription widget as shown on one of my blogs from Mailchimp. It clearly says “Subscribe to my Newsletter.” As the owner of a blog/website, it is your job to ensure that people are clear what they are signing up for so that they can make an informed decision.
I hope this clears up some misunderstandings about subscriptions. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, and stay tuned for a short tutorial being created on using Mailchimp!
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I’d like to thank you for dropping by today! If you have a friend that would benefit from this post, please use the share buttons below to pass it on. I have created 25 or so videos to address sticky problems on blogs that I frequently get questions about. If you are interested in getting these videos or any of my posts delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for my Tech hints newsletter off to the right sidebar⇒
I’ve now re-worked and republished the four of my books. They were written in hopes of helping authors and bloggers. If they sound interesting, click on the covers and you will be taken to Amazon. For those of you who have been following along, The Book Blogger Platform was published a short time ago. In other news, ‘Blogging for Authors’ has been released and is available on Amazon and other retailers. Click on the cover below to purchase.
Secondly in news – I’m almost finished the analysis of the survey of book bloggers – expect something from that front soon!
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