Bush Mackel

Yesterday, while I was still glowing about my awesome day this week, I came to a startling conclusion. If you didn’t know, this blog has “been in existence” from May 1st. And since then, I have gotten this site from approximately 14 pageviews a day to something around 78 (over the past 3 days). And I can only assume that the increase in numbers is due largely to the increase in readers to my feed. (Why I monitor and run through FeedBurner). To put it in context, I have been working on LSO for a long long time (seriously for about a year) trying to get links back to the site, creating quality content, worrying about keywords, all the rest, and currently I’m lucky if I break 5 page views a day.

As I’ve said before, when I started this whole process, I really didn’t know where to start but thankfully I found this page, 21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch. #3 on that list is RSS & Subscriptions. I’m so thankful that my alleged ADD didn’t kick in and I actually read that tip. (Probably because it’s only #3 on the list and didn’t have time to get bored). But yeah, putting the RSS icon right at the top helped out a lot when I dugg one of my better posts (in my opinion) and got some ppl to the site. And let me tell you, it’s not like that digg got me a ton of new ppl either, but it was enough, and some of those chose to subscribe.

And now, when I post something new, they get it on their feed reader and come back to check it out! (If it interests them of course). Honestly, I want to do more with my RSS as in bring more attention to it. I mean, I’m a pretty dialed in guy when it comes to the net, but the whole RSS and subscription thing is still pretty new to me just because I never thought that I or anyone else would want to subscribe to a page. But I mean, if it’s a place you like, why shouldn’t you? And that’s what I’m beginning to understand. With really good RSS readers out there and all kinds of widgets and gadgets out there for Vista and Mac OS whatever…It’s a no brainer. And I think one of things I’m gonna do next is again, bring more attention to the RSS icon, the e-mail subscribe, and also maybe a small blurb about WHY someone would want to subscribe.

So if you’re a new blogger and trying to get your stats up, you should make sure you have your RSS on lockdown. And even if you’re not a blogger but are looking for a good way to promote your site, don’t sleep on RSS feeds. I’m thinking about adding one to my other site to get some new visitors, and keep old ones coming back!