RSS Feeds

I've had a family blog since 2007, but having a crafting/recipe blog is new to me.  I thought I'd share some of my nuggets of wisdom to all you other new bloggers out there.

Did you know that there is more than one way to "Follow" a blog?  

Those of us who have our own blog want lots of "Followers."  But there are other options to following blogs besides clicking the "Follow" button on someone's sidebar.

I use Feed Burner as my alternate to Google Friend Connect (clicking the "Follow" button).  Having an RSS Feed (like Feed Burner) gives people who want to follow your blog in a "reader" (like Google Reader) easy access to subscribing.

If you're curious, go ahead and click on my RSS Feed button (the orange one under "Subscribe Now" on my sidebar).  It will give you the option to choose where you would like to subscribe to my blog (Google, Yahoo, etc).  That way, if people don't have a blog, they can still follow you without being a "Follower".  They will be a "Subscriber" instead.

I personally use Google Reader and LOVE it!  If more people had an RSS Feed, it would make me happy.  When I become a follower of a blog, it doesn't automatically add it to my Google Reader.  I have to do it manually.  Having an RSS Feed takes out the middle step for your readers.  Plus, with Feed Burner, my readers also can choose to have new posts emailed to them.  So many options!

Does any of this make sense???

I have over 100 subscribers through Feed Burner and almost 100 followers through Google Friend Connect.  That brings my grand total to almost 200 followers, people!  If I didn't have my RSS Feed button available for people to subscribe to, would I have as many followers?  I don't know.  But I do know that I like to give people options.  

And it's fun watching the number of subscribers and followers grow!

And as soon as I reach 200 subscribers/followers, there may be a fun little giveaway . . . stay tuned!