Blogging Best Practices: Make It Easy To Subscribe To Your Blog

This post has since been updated with new information.  You can find the latest version of it here.

Welcome to our series of posts on Blogging Best Practices! Each Thursday for 10 weeks, we'll debut a new post designed to help you create great content, share it with the world, and become a better blogger. Check out other posts in the series here!

Visitors to your site need an easy way to be notified when you publish new posts to your blog. You should let your audience choose how they prefer to be notified of updates, and it is a good idea to offer a variety of options for subscribing.

• Enable Post Feeds: By enabling the Post Feed at Settings > Feeds, readers of your site can subscribe to your feed in their preferred feed reader.

 

• Add The Subscribe Link: At Design > Content, add the Post Feed module to place the Subscribe link and RSS chicklet in your blog's sidebar.

 

• Connect To FeedBurner: By connecting your blog to FeedBurner, anyone who tries to view your blog's feed URL directly in their browser will be presented with an easy to read website with options to subscribe to the feed via Google, AOL, and several other services. Click here to get started!

 

• Add Email Subscribe Form: Many visitors to your site may not be familiar with feed readers and prefer to receive an email with your new posts. Using FeedBurner's Email Subscription feature, you add the form to your sidebar. Anyone can enter their email address in the form to begin their subscription. Click here to get started!

 

• Add Facebook Like Button: At Settings > Sharing, click to connect to Facebook to add the Like button. Anyone who clicks the Facebook Like button added to your blog will see any updates to your blog directly in their Facebook newsfeed. Click here to get started! (Facebook also has other Like button options if you would prefer a Like Box or a Badge.)

 

• Add Follow Me Module: At Design > Content, add the Follow Me Module to your blog's sidebar to give others in the Typepad community the option to follow your Typepad activity directly from their Typepad Dashboard. (more info)

By offering options to subscribe in a feed reader, sign up for email notifications, track updates in their Facebook newsfeed, and follow with Typepad, you are making sure no one misses the great content you publish to your blog!

Comments

[Bill Bowen]

I publish once a week and receive comments throughout the week. I'd like to have readers receive an e-mail when I post, but not when people make a comment. Does anyone know if this is possible? If so, how?

bbowen7@comcast.net

[A Twitter User]

Yup, that option is mentioned here "Add Email Subscribe Form." If your readers click that option in your blog, and input their email address, every time you post, they will be updated through their email. But that is only, if your readers choose that option or click that "Email Subscribe" form. So you need to really promote your blog and persuade your readers to subscribe to your blog via email.

[Anna Farmery]

Is it true Google are discontinuing Feedburner in Oct? If so what plans do Typepad have for keeping this option open via another means?

[Account Deleted]

This article was helpful. I'm wondering though, on my dashboard it says I've completed only 61% of getting started tasks for my blog. I am a very new newbie... what tasks make up the other 39%?
many thanks from a new blogger.

[twitter.com/rebeccacaroe]

Anna
No, it's not true that Google will discontinue FeedBurner, only the API will stop.
BUT it is being discussed online that this may be a first sign that it may stop FeedBurner in the future.
http://www.socialfish.org/2012/08/why-how-and-when-to-quit-feedburner.html
http://www.blogaid.net/will-google-shut-down-feedburner

Strongly recommend you look at alternatives.

I work for Feedblitz and they offer a free service to deliver RSS feeds (like FeedBurner) and a paid service to deliver email. They have awesome help and support unlike FeedBurner who have none.
Here's their ebook on how to move your feed
http://www.feedblitz.com/the-feedburner-migration-guide/

Plus they aren't shutting down LOL!

[Dimitra8]

FeedBurner stop??? OMG!

[Jen]

Hi Amy!

We have more information on completing the getting started tasks here: http://help.typepad.com/complete-getting-started-tasks.html

Completing the getting started tasks is optional, however.

[chrisreda]

There are plenty of good plugins to place your sign up page more prominently on the page to improve your sign up rate.