Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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June 26, 2006

Email Subscriptions Got My Mother-in-law & 2 Nuns to Read My Blog

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 11:11 am

Who Wants a Blog by Email?

See the subscription form in the sidebar under the search box? It looks like this.

Zookoda email subscription form

I put it on my blog as an experiment. I was skeptical. I thought Who’d want a blog in their email box? Wouldn’t that change the whole experience?

3 Good Reasons

My dad used to say get 3 good reasons for what you want to do. I did my homework, and I got them. Three good reasons for trying email to my blog.

Two other reasons I gave email subscriptions a try were that I don’t have to pay anything, and I like the way the email version of my blog looks. I made a screen so that you could see for yourself.

This is an issue that went out a few days ago. You might remember the posts if you read Successful Blog that day.

Successful Blog News

Each excerpt has a click through to my blog, like an RSS feed does. At the bottom are links to past posts readers might have missed. The coolest part is via email I was able to subscribe family and friends who would never read a blog any other way.

I’m Sold

I’m a convert to email subscriptions. They’re a great way to expand readership into the 3-D world where new business clients are. They’re a branding brochure and a promotional tool.

When you’re talking to customers hand them a business card, also give them an email edition of your blog and ask if you can send them a subscription. It’s a wonderful way for them to get to know you better and another way for you to keep clients informed. Your emails will also keep your name and your business in front ofthem when the need for your service happens to fall across their door.

Oh yeah, I should tell you that I fibbed about my mother-in-law. She still thinks I ghostwrite spy novels for some major publisher. It’s just easier that way. The nuns, however, are real fans. They get my blog by email everyday.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
To take your ideas to a higher level, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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Filed under Basics, Branding, Marketing, Successful Blog, Tools | 31 Comments »




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31 Comments to “Email Subscriptions Got My Mother-in-law & 2 Nuns to Read My Blog”

  1. June 26th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
    Abhijit Nadgouda said

    Yes, I think it is pretty effective. I also liked the idea of providing email subscriptions through feeds. I had covered some services in my post.

  2. June 26th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Abhijit!
    Good to see you!
    I’m delighted by how it works. It’s really quit an addition, not something that takes anything away at all. Thanks for adding your thoughts about it. I’ll be over to check out your post. :)

  3. June 26th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
    ann michael said

    When I started my blog, I set up a Google group with 65 of my closest friends and colleagues :-)

    I still send them a summary once a week with click throughs (only I prepare the email manually – yuck!). They prefer it that way. Interestingly, they do not prefer more than one or two emails a week. I usually do only one unless there is something I’m dying to tell them.

    They mostly prefer email and don’t venture out into the blog world!

  4. June 26th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
    Joe said

    Hey Liz,
    Never fib about your M-in-L the Nuns won’t like it… ;-)
    Joe
    Me, Bzy,Bzy,Bzy
    New Home and all…
    J.
    Ps, can you make sure your links are forwarded to my new house, please…

  5. June 26th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Joe,
    I’ve already talked to the nuns about my m-i-l, and they know that she’s a special lady. So they said that it’s okay not to make her read my blog. They say that they’re reading it for penance anyway. :)

    I can update the SOB links in a little while. I’m not sure how long it will take to find all of the others. I’ll catch them as I have a chance to. Hope you understand . . . :0

  6. June 26th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Ann,
    Yes, that’s just it. Email is one more way to treat readers the way THEY want to be treated, not the way we think they should be.

    It’s a concept that keeps coming up when you and I talk — not everyone thinks the same as we do. And that’s perfectly fine! :)

  7. June 26th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
    Joe said

    Liz,
    The only reason I ask is that I do get a few page views from the SOB links.
    Take your time, I just appreciate your taking the time at all.
    Joe

  8. June 26th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
    ME Strauss said

    No problem Joe.
    You’re an SOB. You earned the link, and people should see your new home.

  9. June 26th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
    ah pek said

    Hi Liz,
    I’m back. ’bout this e-mial thingy, will it kill off the interactivity between the bloggers and their readers? I mean, if if iget all your postings thru e-mails, my visit here will be less wouldn’t it? Is that good? I am just wondering.
    And thanks for letting me link you.

  10. June 26th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
    ME Strauss said

    No Ah Pek,
    Actually it does not, because if the reader likes the excerpt then he or she clicks through to the blog and reads just the same as you are doing now. What it says him or her is having to bookmark the blog and remember to go to it, and maybe get there to find a post that is not something he or she has time for.

    It’s like a taste that invites the reader to come to see more. The click is much easier than finding their way here. :)

  11. June 26th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
    Scot Herrick said

    Hi LIz,

    First, I LOVE the new header on the blog. Nice, nice, nice.

    Second, most of the people that I am trying to reach through my blogs do not understand RSS (although I couldn’t live without it….). All, however, understand e-mail. Once they see the e-mail come through, they are more likely to click over to the blog.

    It is a good addition to the subscription listing, IMHO.

    Scot

  12. June 26th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Scot,
    Thanks about the header. I was out of my mind crazy for it, when Cat sent it. It was just a surprise. I had so wanted to do something great for this little blog and have no cash and she just made it appear. That Cat is a good ‘un, a keeper for sure.

    I’m with you, as you can tell on the email thing. Sold completely. It just makes so much sense to me now. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner. There are so many new opportunities that emailing offers. It starts with the built in permission that they ask you to send it.

    It’s almost like having the opportunities of your blog raised exponetially. (Don’t tell them on the other post that I just used a big word.) :)

  13. June 26th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
    HART (1-800-HART) said

    It’s a nice header, but now the background color doesn’t fit as neatly as the other masthead did .. Of course, I am probably the wrong person to ask which color would fit well .. according to my wife (whenever I try to decorate the house) .. but, I’d suggest a color something like .. lemonchiffon (#FFFACD)

  14. June 27th, 2006 at 12:08 am
    ME Strauss said

    HI Hart!
    Lemon chiffon isn’t the first thing I would have guessed would have been your style. I would have taken you more for a lavendar guy. :)

  15. June 27th, 2006 at 12:24 am
    HART (1-800-HART) said

    I must be hungry … :) although I did come up with that color logically! I was looking at the Mandarin site.. in two windows and scrolling up and down the color chart.

  16. June 27th, 2006 at 3:03 am
    Hans said

    It’s definetely positive to offer e-mail subription to any users that prefer to check their inbox for new postings. If you’d like to give explaining RSS feeds another go, check out BBC’s Feed Factory for a good and simple introduction to what feeds is, why feeds could enrichen your web experience and how to use feeds.

  17. June 27th, 2006 at 3:22 am
    Greg Kiernan said

    Hi Liz, an interesting post there. I like the idea of blog by email i guess mainly because it means you have an easy way to keep yourself in the mind of your readers, they never need to remember where your blog is to catch up. Also for many the idea of RSS or feeds is “too hard” – this way you keep them happy and in contact :-)

    Again an enjoyable post indeed !

  18. June 27th, 2006 at 3:34 am
    Bloggers Buzz said

    [...] Be converted at Successful Blog    Posted in Blogging and Blogging Tools     [...]

  19. June 27th, 2006 at 6:54 am
    ME Strauss said

    EVERYBODY: HART!
    Hi Hart!
    I hope you found lots of lemon tarts and lemon pound cake in the sidebar.

  20. June 27th, 2006 at 6:57 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Hans,
    Welcome.
    Thanks for the link to the BBC explanation. I usually have to resort to a demonstration. I’ll check it out and it will probably end up on the NEW BLOGGERS PAGE. I know when I was a new blogger it was hard for me to understand.
    It’s great to have readers who add things that help other readers know how to do things.
    Liz

  21. June 27th, 2006 at 6:59 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Greg!
    You pinpointed the strength of the email idea. It keeps us in the mind of our readers and keeps our readers happy too. I still thinking of the benefits of using it and ways that it can extend the reach and the power of a blog.

    It’s surprising that email could do so much.

    Great to see you!

  22. June 27th, 2006 at 9:50 am
    Tony Lawrence said

    When I started my blog, I had an email list, but I took it down after I added RSS.. that was a mistake, I now think.

    But I wasn’t entirely sure why the disengagement gave me pause until I read this.. duh, of course I should have left the email list in place.

    I very recently switched my RSS to FeedBurner and noticed that they offer to provide my feed by email, so I enabled that. “Better late than never” doesn’t quite apply, but it’s close enough.

  23. June 27th, 2006 at 9:57 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Tony,
    I understand what would motivate you to take it down. When I first started blogging they seemed the same to me too. In fact, they did until very recently. Now I realize they can serve two different purposes and two different audiences.

    Guess we’ll have to keep learning as we go along. :P

  24. June 27th, 2006 at 10:21 am
    HART (1-800-HART) said

    I have a built-in wordpress plugin for email subscriptions on my PetLvr blog .. but I noticed that it publishes everything in real time as I publish new blog entries. Unfortunately, this includes the times I publish i.e. 30 entries in one sitting, but change the timestamp so the posts present themselves periodically instead of all at once.

    Had a reader not bring this to my attention, I would just be blindly spamming my readers. Since then, I put a disclaimer and forewarning that this might happen – plus signed up myself.

    That’s highly recommended if you use email subscriptions – sign up yourself to see what others are getting! (or, is that too obvious?)

  25. June 27th, 2006 at 10:24 am
    ME Strauss said

    That’s a great point, Hart. Everyday I get a notice two hours before my email goes out so that I can check to be sure I don’t want to adjust it. I like feature a lot, even though I’ve never had to use it.

    Then I get my email sent to me anyway. Just so that I know that it went like it should.

  26. June 27th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
    Thilak said

    Yeah, I just put up a Zookoda Subscription Box on my blog and with 2 – 3 day my Mailing list already 100 members strong.

    Most of the people prefer Email Updates rather than RSS.

  27. June 27th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Wow! Thilak,
    That’s fabulous! I’m delighted to hear about it! Congratulations you deserve such a following!
    Liz

  28. September 7th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
    katiebird said

    Hi Liz — What a weird day, I don’t think I’ve had a chance to visit here at all.

    Everyday, I think — Today’s the day I’ll start doing email subscriptions. But everyday slides away and doesn’t happen.

    Are you still happy with them?

  29. September 7th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Katie,
    That is so weird, I was just looking at this post for another reason.

    Yeah, I’m happy with my email subscriptions. They serve a different reader as far as I can tell and they’ve been growing quite steadily since I wrote this post. :)

  30. September 7th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
    katiebird said

    Liz, That’s weird, because I don’t know what made me read this tonight. I followed a link. But I don’t know where it was.

    One step beyond…Successful Blog edition…

  31. September 7th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
    ME Strauss said

    First time warps, Katie. Now this . . .

    My blog has been link crazy for about two weeks now it’s linky weird. :)

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