I really love when somebody makes an appreciative comment. I like when they tell me they been reading my other articles too! So I'm thinking, "awesome, another subscriber!" But... I head over to my statistics page to look at my new subscribers and the person is not there. Huh? Did I miss something? Now I'm thinking that perhaps people are missing out by not understanding how they will benefit by subscribing. Let's look at that topic today. (if you are watching my picasa series, stay tuned, I'll be back on that again tomorrow)
Anytime you come across a good blogger, you should subscribe to them. I can't tell you how much I've learned over the past few years by subscribing to some really great and knowledgeable people who share their knowledge on the internet. The really amazing thing is that it is FREE to do it!
In ActiveRain, you've seen the "subscribe" button (it's over there >>> underneath the person's picture on the right hand side) Once you do, they will be in your subscriptions list. NOW WHAT?
Let's think of it in terms of Facebook. When you "friend" somebody, what happens? Whatever they post goes into YOUR NEWS FEED so that when you check in to FB you see what's new with all of your friends. ActiveRain is similar then isn't it? The home page is a news feed of all the featured posts. The second feed is when you click the blogs link. What you see at that point is a feed of Everybody in AR, the newest posts. (Be sure and check out the "newest posts" feed - you might discover the next ActiveRain Star, be sure and click suggest button on articles that you like!)
Now the other news feed, the one that you really cannot miss, is a news feed
of all the people that you are subscribed to. Initially, you see the people
you have subscribed to
listed on the blogs page, but...
this is NOT a news feed. It does show you in the order of the most recent
posts, but that is it. There are no articles titles or descriptions. If you
use this list, it is awkward, click in, click out, click in, click out. Give
up after a few.
If that is the case with you, then notice that the news feed view is MUCH BETTER and changes everything. Just above the blog posts listing is a menu of links. Choose the one that says "My Subscriptions"
In the figure below, you can see what your "Subscriptions News Feed" can look like - notice that it shows the title and the first few lines of the post. In this way, you can grab your cup of morning coffee and quickly scan through all that's new in your AR world and read the ones that interest you most.
If you have subscribed to my blog: THANK YOU. As you know, for a blogger, this is very rewarding because you know that all the effort you put out will get an audience.
If you are my subscribers list, watch out because I'm constantly looking for examples to highlight a good point. I go to my subscribers list to find good material. Also, I was thinking about upcoming articles where I feature specific examples of good AR layouts and profile pages. I'll be going to my subscribers list when I do that. Maybe you will be featured on an upcoming "craig's-list" (hmm, maybe I have to name it something else, I think that name may be taken!) Stay tuned!
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