Just last week I watched the movie Everest. The movie was intense and also incredibly sad. It was based on a true story and quite a few people died. Yes, that is depressing it was difficult to watch at times but it was also riveting.
Something that struck me about the movie was the nomenclature that they used. Sometimes they would talk about things and I would be a bit confused. Every single industry has this,l even blogging.
Thankfully blogging is not a dangerous sport but sometimes it does feel like a sport to me. We are competing for the first page of Google after.
In the world of blogging there are a lot of terms that just get thrown around in conversation. If a new blogger happens to jump into the middle of the conversation they could easily get confused.
One such situation revolves around a question that I get asked fairly often.
What is the difference between a blog subscriber and an email subscriber?
This is a great question.
What is a blog subscriber?
A blog subscriber is someone who signed up to receive email notifications when you release a new blog post.
What is good about having blog subscribers?
1. This means they like your content and want more.
2. Once they signup and confirm all of the work is done. You don't have to do anything again, besides blog more and they don't have to do anything again besides read.
There is only one way that that having blog subscribers could impact your blog in a potentially bad way. If you are sending them the entire blog post, instead of a snippet.
If your blog subscriber is receiving the full post in their email, they will have no incentive to click thru to your live blog.
Why is this bad?
1. If you have ads or affiliate banners, they will not see them and therefore can't click on them.
2. They will be less likely to leave a comment.
3. They will be less likely to share your posts on social media.
Blog subscribers are great and I love each and every one of mine. Knowing that they are there encourages me to keep blogging.
So now let's discuss email subscribers and how they are different.
What is an email subscriber?
An email subscriber is someone who signed up for your email newsletter list. They have "opted-in" to receive occasional email updates from you.
In today's world of digital the phrase that is most often tossed around is "the money is in the list."
What does that mean?
It means that the more people that are on your email newsletter list, the more people that you have to pitch to. This sounds harsh and it is a harsh business way of looking at it.
Here is a warning about email list coming at you!
If you only pitch to your list they will unsubscribe. You better be prepared to offer them outrageous amounts of value first.
Value! Value! Value! Value! Pitch! Repeat!
What are the cons of having an email newsletter?
There is only 1 and it is that you have to do some work. This is not as passive as blog subscribers. You have to nurture your list by emailing them great and generally, original content. They need to be happy to read your newsletter when it hits their inbox.
Which do you want or do you want both?
The answer to this question is completely up to you. I tend to say that you want both but this comes with a bit of a warning.
If you push both at the same time on your blog, you may get neither. When you ask too much of a blog reader, they tend to do nothing. So my suggestion is to try focusing on at a time and see how it goes.
Conclusion
There is nothing saying that you can't try and grow your email newsletter list AND your RSS feed list. The only issue is that you should try and do both at the same time.
The common wisdom of today is that your email newsletter list is EVERYTHING but I would counter that. I believe that you should also nurture a core set of readers.
You have to build that tribe. That tribe or readers that can't wait to see what you say next. So if you are just starting out, consider building that RSS feed list first.
This is just my two cents worth but what do you think?
“And please do me a little favor and share this guide with others, for there’s a good chance that it will help them with their blogs.” ~Thank you very much, Renee'
When they subscribe to my blog, I have been assuming that they want emails as well, although I haven’t sent any extra yet. Either way, they are giving you permission to show up in this inbox, which is a privilege. And you want them tho actually OPEN the e-mail, so it’s important that whatever you send is of value to them.
Cathy,
You are so right on. It is a privilege indeed.
Blog on,
-Renee’