Promote Your RSS to Email Before Google Reader Shuts Down

ByMaAnna Stephenson

email-icon-bigYou only have three months to ensure that your website traffic does not take a hit when Google Reader expires. It’s clear that Google is getting out of the RSS business and the Feedburner service will likely be next. Now is the time to start encouraging folks to move into a new RSS to Email subscription and keep your blog posts in front of your readers. Here are tips to help you and your blog fans make the transition. 

Set Up a New Way

If you’re currently using Feedburner to deliver your RSS and RSS to email feeds, or you’re just letting folks subscribe to your raw feed, you need to set up a new delivery service pronto. Following are the most popular services you should consider.

FeedBlitz has long been the direct competitor to Feedburner. Their RSS subscription service is free, just like Feedburner. But, their RSS to email is not free. But, you can import your RSS to email subscriber list directly. They even have a handy guide to help you.

MailChimp is an email delivery service. While most folks use it for their newsletter, MailChimp also offers RSS to email. It’s free up to 2000 subscribers and you can import your Feedburner RSS to email subscribers directly in.

Aweber is another email delivery service. It also offers RSS to email. But, all phases of the service are paid.

For more on these options and others, download this free report Utlimate Feedburner Alternatives Guide.

For more on importing your subscriber list, download this free report How to Export Feedburner RSS and Set Up MailChimp RSS to Email.

Start Promoting

It’s not enough just to set up a new way for folks to subscribe. You need to tell them that you are making that change and ask them to switch. That’s very important for two reasons.

First, you won’t be able to bring in folks who subscribe to your raw feed. There’s no way to track those emails. And, if you don’t ask them to switch, you simply run the risk of losing them forever.

Second, your current RSS to email subscribers are going to suddenly be receiving emails that will be styled very differently than the one they were used to.

Notify the Easy Way

The best way to let your current RSS and RSS to email subscribers know about the switch is to write a blog post telling them. Hey, they already subscribe, they’ll get the post. Plus, it’s a great way to encourage new readers and those who follow you on social media only to get subscribed so that they never miss a post. Here’s my post asking folks to switch. Maybe it will give you some ideas.

Bonus Benefits

I know it sounds like a hassle to have to do this. But, it may be better for your site in the long run. Was for me. I made the switch last summer when it became clear to me that Feedburner was in a slow, controlled shut down by Google. Since I already used MailChimp for my newsletter, it was a no-brainer to use it for my RSS to email too.

And while I was at it, I revamped all of my subscription offers and it has been one of the best marketing moves I’ve made. Now I offer my newsletter, all blog posts, and two of the more popular categories on BlogAid, which are Tips Tuesday and the BlogAid Podcast. All of those choices are available with just one easy form. See it in the sidebar.

And, then read how you can Offer Multiple Subscriptions for Higher Visibility too.

Both you and your readers benefit! So, while it will take you a wee bit of time to do, it’s a win-win for everyone.

Just Ask

From now until the end of June, periodically ask your readers to make the switch. Post it on your social media platforms once in a while. Point them back to your post about it. Or, make a new page just for subscribers, like this one.

Need More Help?

Want to set up something like the subscriptions I use here on BlogAid? The MailChimp Video Course has everything you need to do it, and then a whole lot more.

Wrap Up

Are you using an RSS to email service now? How do you think the shutdown of Google Reader will affect your site traffic?

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MaAnna is a geek who can still speak in plain English. She helps DIY site owners plus webmasters and designers create sites that are secure, perform well, and get noticed by search engines and readers.

11 Comments

  1. Feedblitz is one of the best option after Feedburner there is no doubt in that. But the interface of feedburner is much easier that the feedblitz and I am quite used too of using feedburner. It seems very difficult for moving to feedblitz.

    1. Agreed, Feedblitz is an excellent alternative to FeedBurner, but there is a bit of learning curve. Fortunately, they’ve made super efforts to publish guides and tutorials to help folks make the move. They even offer import services for folks who have large followings or just want a little more help to get it all set up right.

  3. Great post MaAnna. What if you have a Blogger blog? I’ve removed the traditional subscribe options (which used FeecBurner) — But the only RSS options/URL’s I can find take you straight to a Feedburner RSS URL. Are Blogger blog owners just out of luck or can you point us in the right direction for that? Thanks!

    1. Since both Blogger and Feedburner are Google products, you’re probably stuck with that combo. And with them getting out of the RSS business, when Feedburner goes down, you’ll need to encourage folks to switch to your site’s raw feed URL. And there won’t be any options for RSS to email, I think. At least I’m not aware of any.

  4. Thanks for the quick reply.

    “when Feedburner goes down, you’ll need to encourage folks to switch to your site’s raw feed URL.” That’s what I mean… when I go add /feeds and such to end of URL to find the raw RSS feed – it’s a Feedburner one. Or oh, I see… Feedburner is my only option right now UNTIL FeedBurner goes down. Ugh. Guess I’m going to have to try to find time to set up a whole new self hosted site.

    1. Yep, going self-hosted is the best way. I’m actually writing a post now to help folks do that, from multiple platforms, including Blogger and old HTML static sites. It will probably be out next week.

  5. Self hosted is definitely the best way. I would also take the step to make sure that your domain name and your hosting are from different providers.
    I also would steer clear of mailchimp and stick to a professional paid auto-responder email service such as aweber or getresponse.
    Great post. Really love the content here.

    1. Thanks for your comments, Alan. I would disagree with one thing. I think MailChimp is just fine as an auto-responder service. I’ve been using it for years without issue.

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