There are mainly two ways to subscribe blog post either by RSS feed or by Newsletter Subscription/Email Subscriptions. Your blog reader may choose one of the above option.
In my experience: subscribing blog post via RSS feed reader doesn’t make good sense. Reading blog post via RSS feed reader is not welcoming for your blog visitor at all. It need some bit of configuration. Grab the RSS URL, put it on your reader, etc. You will notice that your blog visitors doesn’t prefer RSS feed subscription at all due to this type of tidy configuration. If you take my example: whenever I find some interesting blog, either I bookmark it or subscribe their newsletter. So, in this discussion the word newsletter is appeared. Here newsletter means e-mail Newsletter.
If your blog has an option of Newsletter Subscription or Email Subscriptions (blog post updates via e-mail) that is more welcoming for your blog reader than RSS feed subscription. Subscribing blog post via Email Subscriptions doesn’t need any configuration. Those who have a valid e-mail ID, they can easily subscribe your blog’s future updates (whenever you publish new post) by just providing their e-mail ID and it is more easier than RSS feed subscription. Basically, we most of time prefer simple one…We don’t have much time to spend on…And in this regard e-mail subscription is the fastest and easiest one. Anyone can subscribe or unsubscribe without any hassle.
So, what are the benefits of publishing your Blog Post as Newsletter?
- Automated — at certain interval your subscribed reader get the updated blog post direct to their inbox.
- Trackable — you can track who gets subscribed, who read the post, etc with statistics. With MailChimp, MeeNews you can track easily.
- Customizable — you can customize the design of your newsletter in your own
Espreson email newsletter
How to do it?
- Google’s FeedBurner (FREE) — via Email Subscriptions option. Just put the code or link in your blog.
- MailChimp (FREE for up to 500 subscriber & 3000/month sending limit) — via MailChimp WordPress plug-in. Track the statistics with another plug-in called, MailChimp’s Analytics360 plugin.
- MeeNews (FREE) a another plug-in for WordPress.
In my experience: since I have installed newsletter subscription via MailChimp in my blog I have got good response.
Why I choose MailChimp rather than Google’s FeedBurner’s Email Subscriptions or MeeNews?
- FREE for upto 500 subscriber and send up to 3,000 emails/month
- Customizable design for newsletter
- Email Campaign Tracking (becomes easy with plug-in Analytics360)
- Easy Subscriber management
- and lots (look at their Features)