What do you do when your RSS feed hits a brick wall

In July I posted about how bloggers should take small steps towards their goal using weekly and monthly targets. One of the first things I try and target each month here is an increase in the number of subscribers. Sadly, I didn’t achieve the goal I set myself in August, infact, the number of subscribers here has levelled off at around 700 subscribers. Somehow the momentum that BloggingTips had the first few months came to a grinding halt in August.

Let’s look at the feedburner stats to better highlight this problem. Here is a screenprint showing the number of subscribers here since March 2007.

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be too much of a problem however the feedburner stats of the last 30 days tells a different story.

As you can see from the above, last month we didn’t really get many new subscribers to BloggingTips and when you consider the rate it was increasing in previous months it can definately be viewed as a poor performance in August.

* Although the RSS count did go up and down a little, this is more likely due to people logging into their browser readers than bloggers subscribing and unsubscribing. Check out Darren Rowse’s fantastic post ‘Why does my Feedburner Subscriber Count Fluctuate?‘ if you want to learn more about this.

What do you do when your RSS feed hits a brick wall?

Every website has it’s ups and downs and this one is no different. When your traffic drops you can do one of two things, you can give up and let your blog fade away into oblivion or you can get off your ass and do something about it!

So what can you do when the number of people subscribing to your blog stops increasing :-

• Recognise the main reasons why your feed count didn’t increase - This is the first thing you need to do and it is also the most important step in getting your RSS feed back on track. If you can’t take a step back and give your blog an honest review then you will find it much more difficult to increase your RSS count as you will not know what areas need improving.
  • Did search engine traffic drop?
  • Did you reduce or stop your advertising budget?
  • Did you write less posts?
  • Was the quality of your posts lower than usual?

  The above list is just some of the questions you should be asking yourself.

  Blogging Tips author Josh Mullineaux is in a similar position to myself. He posted yesterday about how disappointed he was when his RSS count didn’t reach it’s target in August. The reason I believe he will meet this target next month is because he is aware of the main reason his blog count didn’t increase. As I mentioned before, recognizing the problem is one of the most important steps in this process ie. you can’t resolve a problem until you know what it is!

  With regards to Blogging Tips, there are two main reasons I believe the RSS count didn’t increase much in August.

  • The blog changed from a single author blog to a multi author blog. I have been very pleased with the posts the Blogging Tips authors have been writing and the links to them in the blogosphere shows others feel the same way however I’m sure that this ‘transition period’ is partly the reason of the count slowing down (people don’t like change!). In the long term, I’m sure that this was a neccessary hurdle in reaching the site’s goals. Most of the largest blogs on the web are multi author blogs (eg. Techcrunch, Mashable etc) and I truly believe a large part of the success of this blog will come from writers who can bring something different to the table than myself.
  • The number of posts I personally wrote dropped considerably and the one’s I did write were not up to my previous standards. I’m sure this is one of the other reasons the RSS count has slowed down.

  I know I have spoke a lot about this one point but I do believe it’s the most important. Look at areas where your blog underperformed so that you are in a position to improve them.

• Get known on different blogs - Whether your advertising your blog on a website every month or just commentating on more popular blogs in order to get yourself known, a change in where your blog is being promoted can make a big difference. Particularly if a blog you are advertising on or commentating on isn’t getting much busier (from a traffic ppint of view), the number of new subscribers that blog will bring you will decrease over time since the regular readers will already be aware of you and your blog. By commentating/advertising on some different webistes you can expose your blog to a new whole audience.
• Guest blog for some larger blogs - Guest blogging is a fantastic way of exposing your blog to a new audience and showing the kind of quality content they can expect on your blog. You will get a better return if you write for a blog where you are not known too well (which I assume will mostly be true when you write for popular blogs in your niche).
• Improve your blog design - Give your blog design a much needed makeover. Tweak your design, remove the clutter and try and look at other areas your design could be improved. If you have some cash available, why not hire a designer to design a logo for you. Content is incredibly important however a lot of bloggers forget how much a good design can get you ahead of the competition. As the saying goes, the first bite is with the eye!
• Become active in related forums - Forums remain a fantastic way of networking and meeting like minded people. Try and take part in popular discussions and help others where you can. For a list of 10 of the best blogging forums please click here.
• Increase exposure of your RSS subscription link - It’s important to display your RSS feed details in a prominent position on your blog. Don’t make it difficult for readers to find your RSS subscription link. You should also encourage visitors to subscribe to your blog in your posts from time to time, a small statement at the end of your posts telling people that ‘if they liked your post they should subscribe’ can do wonders for your readership.

Further reading :

11 Ways to Find New RSS Subscribers for Your Blog
Increase the number of subscribers to your blog overnight
How to increase RSS Subscriptions
How to Increase Subscribers by 50% in 30 Days
A Very Simple Method to Increase your RSS Subscribers & MyBloglog community members
Increase blog subscribers with 7 easy steps
Increase RSS Subscribers By 60% Overnight
10 Effective Ways to Get More Blog Subscribers
5 Tips to Increase RSS Subscribers
14 Speedy Tips To Increase Your Blog RSS Subscriber Count.

Overview

Seeing your RSS subscriber count slow down or even decrease can be incredibly discouraging however by recognizing areas which can be improved and trying new ways to attract new readers you will find a way out of your slump.

If you have any tips for other readers please post them here.

Good luck

* On a related note, congrats to Daniel at Daily Blog Tips who last week reached 5,000 subscribers!