The Pendulum is Swinging Back....

Not too long ago, Matt Blumberg of Return Path wrote "It's interesting to note that after months (years?) of "email is dead" stories specifically around blogging, RSS feeds, and social media in general, the pendulum seems to be swinging back to email". You can read his full blog post here.

I manage a couple of blogs and it's interesting to note that the percentage of subscribers to these blogs via email is greater than via RSS....I guess this is part of the pendulum swinging back.

Of course, this hasn't always been the way...receiving blog posts via email is relatively new...but it seems to be catching on rapidly. I personally am a huge fan of email, and will choose subscribing to a blog via email over RSS any day....so much so, that if a blog doesn't offer subscriptions via email I most likely won't subscribe to it.

Subscriptions via email is very easy to implement and there are various ways of doing it - from using an Email Service Provider to using something like Feedburner, which has a very easy to use 2 click step when using a blog provider such as Typepad or Blogger or the like.

Anyhow - if you're a blog owner and you don't currently offer subscriptions via email, I would encourage you to consider adding it to your blog - who knows how many subscribers you are potentially missing by not having this available?

And if you're not, I'd love to hear back from you as to which method you use to subscribe to blogs - and why.

Comments

[Kath Pay]

Totally agree Chadrack...thanks for letting us know your preference. I believe RSS has a good, strong user base - it's really a case of more people are reading blogs now than before - so as you say, offering both options is a good way to cater for all desires/habits.
I also wonder how many people, like Daniel who do both RSS and email? Cheers!

[Chadrack]

I quite agree with you on the changing trend. Personally I prefer subscribing to RSS through email. However, because there are a lot of other content users who goes for feed readers offering both options is still important.

[Kath Pay]

Wow!...very impressive. I think that what you say about recieving essential blogs via email is true.

I'm generally so busy (aren't we all!) that things can escape me unless they jump out at me (i.e in my inbox)....and of course yes - all readers of this blog love email!

[daniel]

hiya, Kath, how are you?

I have a 4-pronged system for reading blogs I've subscribed to:

1. iGoogle through RSS for a quick check on the blogs I like
2. RSS bookmarks in Firefox for the blogs I need to keep a vague eye on throughout the day
3. Google Reader for the vast majority, which I batch read once a day.
4. Email for blogs so essential I want to keep them to hand (in my inbox)

I think that's a nice distinction too: RSS feeds feel a bit more transitory; Emails you can keep, forward, etc.

Course - it also depends on your readership. An 'email marketing' blog is likely to have email readers, as they're thoroughly bought into email itself.

daniel