When you have a site that posts regular content, you need a way for users and clients to be notified when that content updates. There are multiple ways to offer these subscriptions, including offering an option to subscribe to your RSS feed via email.

What is an Email Subscription

An email subscription allows a user to subscribe to receive an email whenever you post new content. This is also called an email feed. This email notification will make sure your users and clients are notified of all your content updates.

Why offer an Email Subscription

There are a variety of ways to offer subscriptions to your content. While you may prefer one type of subscription, it’s important to remember that this is a very personal decision. The subscription option you prefer may not be what all your users prefer. It’s best to offer multiple options.

An email subscription option is typically the easiest vehicle for someone who is not used to blogging, to subscribe to your feed. They can easily understand that they will get an email when you update content. It’s likely that they also regularly check their email.

Another benefit to offering an email subscription is its readability on a PDA. Even longtime content subscribers may choose to switch to an email subscription once it’s offered because it’s the easiest way to read a new post on a PDA.

User and client convenience is key. Offering an email subscription means subscribers only need to check for updates in one place, and have the added benefit of reading on the go.

How to set up an Email subscription

There are many free email subscription options out there. Two of the more popular options are Feedburner and Feedblitz. Both sites allow you to claim your email feed and provide code to let you install an email subscription on your site. Feedburner is a free service offered by Google. Feedblitz has some costs associated with certain parts of its service offering but also offers some usability options that Feedburner does not.

Email Subscriptions Increase Your Visibility

There are many services available to provide an email subscription. However you choose to do it, this subscription option will allow your users an easy way to interact with your site and receive all content updates.