Feeds: Connect with your Visitors

Feeds are an integral component of building a successful blog. They are a convenient way for readers to stay informed of  new content without having to visit each day. A subscriber simply loads up their preferred news reader to browse what interests them including your blog. Providing this service helps you stay engaged after an initial visit without asking a visitor to register or give out personal information. It's easy for the reader and opens the door for repeat visits.

What is a Feed?
Feeds are a specific portion of blog or website content made available to readers without requiring they load the entire website. These feeds primarily include articles or post content either in the form of links or summaries. Combined with news aggregators a reader can view information from several sources at once, then visit sites with relevant information. Feeds are an excellent way for browsers to keep up with many websites and blogs at once, including yours.

Why Should I Care about My Feed?
Building a group of followers to frequent a blog is essential to success. Feeds enable visitors to establish a connection back to your content quickly and easily. There are no clumsy forms to fill out, logins to remember, bookmarks cluttering up the place and no personal information required. The easier it is to make the initial connection the better your chance to retain readers. Make it simple and in time you'll see benefits of repeat visits.

Does My Blog Have a Feed?
Three of the more popular blogging platforms Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr each provide feeds with the free blogs. Most other blog service providers offer similar capabilities, though each varies. Check with your blog provider for details, but odds are your blog has feeds capability.

How Do I  Make A Feed Available?
Generally, it's as simple as finding the url to the blog feed then posting a link in a prominent place on your blog. Most feeds include a subscribe option once visited making it easy for readers to subscribe. Often times a visitors web browser gives the subscribe option in the address bar as well, though it's a good idea to make a subscribe link available. Check with your provider for exact details, search for help on feeds and browse through widgets/gadgets for subscribe options. Blogging services know feeds are important and try to make it easy to include.

Conclusion
Utilizing a blog feed to its maximum is a great way to grow your readership by providing easy access to site updates. Make the process simple for visitors to establish that first connection and keep up with your postings. In time this leads to repeat visits and a more read blog. Research how best to give users options through your blogging service and make it happen.

This is the first in a series of posts on feeds. Subscribe to the JS Blog Stop feed or follow through one of the links in the upper right column for future updates.

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