If you already enjoyed the first article about "How to get more RSS subscribers", here are some more tips on how to boost your RSS subscribers base.

Everybody knows that subscribing is free

Pitches like “You can get an email account for free” or “Host your site with us free of charge” used to work ages ago. Unless you focus on an older than average audience, don’t use anything along the lines of “Subscribe to our feed FOR FREE!” Subscribing to RSS feeds IS free, and even the least tech-savvy people who know how to open a browser might be using Google Reader. Mentioning, even remotely, that subscribing to your feed is free of charge will only raise some warning flags in the minds of your readers (it’s free to sign up, then they’ll bug me to do something else—thanks but no, thanks!)

Use a theme that ‘knows’ RSS

When setting up a new blog, make sure you have a ‘RSS-enabled’ theme. Especially if you are on a tight budget, it will cost you more to buy a dull premium theme and hire a freelancer to modify it than getting a good one from the very beginning. Your theme should display a RSS box in a place where it’s clearly visible, with a design smoothly blended in.

Offer a feed for mobile users

It’s the 21st century and almost everybody owns at least a smartphone. It’s the age of tablets, so a lot of your readers will already own an iPad or a Galaxy Tab. People use mobile devices to chat on MSN, read their email, browse their favorite sites and, most important, read their favorite blogs. This is a field you should be banking on. You can’t ignore the phenomenon, since it’s one of the fastest growing markets in the world. You can forward your feed to a third party service like Mobify or use a Wordpress plugin like Touch to offer a version of your blog to mobile subscribers.

Ethical bribes

Rest assured, an ethical bribe isn’t even remotely against the law. You should offer your subscribers an incentive—a free ebook, report or video series of whatever you are selling. Yes, you may have thought that this only works with email marketing, but no, you can offer dedicated content solely to your subscribers with a Wordpress plugin like Text Link Ads’ Feedvertising. This plugin allows you to display a few lines at the bottom of the feed, content which can only be read by your RSS subscribers. Use your imagination and give them something worth their while.

Offer a dedicated subscription landing page

Set up a page on your Wordpress blog dedicated just to converting visitors into feed subscribers. Present them the benefits of reading your feed, and start driving traffic to it. Use any ethical technique you are about to, from SEO to PPC.

This wraps up our second episode on how to get subscribers to your RSS feed. How many subscribers do you have and how did you get them to click the button?