A first for me, I lost one of my subscribers over the weekend. This made me contemplate the process of why one subscribes to a blog and what may cause one to unsubscribe.
Subscribers to blogs are generally attracted by posts from our ActiveRain members that:
- Strike an interest in topic matters
- Well written
- Educational (how to messages, technology, building the business, etc)
- Has common interests
- Attributes that others admire such as photography
- Motivates, inspires, makes you laugh
Other features that draws attention:
- Short, concise, not too long
- Visual - presents itself with visuals, ease of reading, laid out reader friendly
How to draw subscribers to your blog:
- Be courteous, be known to respond back to those who leave comments on the post
- Send a personal email when the occasion warrants to a particular comment or general check in to a subscriber
- If a subscriber is consistent and is a frequent visitor to your blog, be sure to add him/her to you subscriber list and become a reader of their posts.
- Notice a new visitor with a great comment. Go to their blog and read a few of their posts and leave comments.
Your subscription list:
- Be loyal to your list, follow the posts and leave comments on as many if not all as you can.
- Become acquainted with the member, know about what they share regarding values, family, hobbies, passions. Remember that and when you leave comments be sure to incorporate what you know to add more of a link that you care, understand and have become like family, friend through their writings.
- Be sincere, interject your true responses.
- Be gracious, when a member goes out of their way to send an email, respond. After all we are family in AR and support one another, celebrate with one another and give advice, receive advice.
So this comes down to the question of why did I lose a subscriber? Not sure and shame on me, I don't know who it was which in itself gave pause for me to reflect. I do recommend that a periodic overview of whom you subscribe to be made.
- Keep your list fairly lean and at a manageable level so you can be a frequent reader and comment giver and stay more connected.
- Removed blogs from your list after a long period of time that no news posts were made.
- If the content of some just did not have the initial attraction that you had once sought then when you lose interest unsubscribe.
- If a blog just seems to turn more towards just listings on their inventory or a commercial of their services and no content of substance, if this is not what you seek in your subscriber relationship, unsubscribe.
- If the posts bring you down and are negative on a continued bases, unsubscribe, you can get that from page one of a newspaper.
Like seeds in a garden, your subscribers should increase as your presence on Active Rain grows. It requires nurturing, continued care, some rain from our members and it will bloom and give so much more back to you! Weed your garden and plant the positives of sunshine.
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So many good points here and what great pictures, I am completely on board with following and commenting on blogs that I like and support. I just realized that I have not subscribed to your blog but will do so right after submitting this comment!