Do I need a feed?

[AdamF24]

Let me tell you a bit about my site. It's called The Investor's Journal and it is a 'how-to' website for individuals who want to learn about the stock market. I usually post only 3 times a week (I'm going for quality over quantity), so it has me wondering if I should bother with having a feed subscribe link?

It seems that whenever I get linked from other sites, I get a few feed subscribers but after a day or two they just cancel their subscription. So I removed my feedburner subscribe link.

So do you think for a site like mine that only has 3 posts per week on average, that I should have a feedburner subscribe link?

[Brutha]

Yes, how else should your visitor know that you have wrote an interesting new post?

[AdamF24]

Well, they'd notice because there would be new posts on the front page.

But my point is that given that I only post 3 articles a week on average, it seems like most people don't stay subscribed to my feed for long. It seems like offering a feed subscription is implying that I post on a daily basis.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by AdamF24

Well, they'd notice because there would be new posts on the front page.

But my point is that given that I only post 3 articles a week on average, it seems like most people don't stay subscribed to my feed for long. It seems like offering a feed subscription is implying that I post on a daily basis.

Offering a feed subscription doesn't imply that you post on a daily basis. Posting frequency varies greatly from blog to blog and three times a week seems pretty reasonable to me, especially if you're focusing on producing quality articles. People might be canceling subscriptions for other reasons and that's what you should investigate further. But keep a feed link available, it's standard practice nowadays and not providing a feed is very likely to have an impact on your reader base in the long run. So what if there are few subscribers right now? Just focus on content and give people the option to read it however suits them best: through an RSS reader or directly on the blog. If you're offering quality content, people will read and subscribe.

[Brutha]

After rechecking your blog:
Your blog already has a feed.

Opera and Flock find the RSS link, but you have no link to your RSS feed on your site.

[AdamF24]

My apologies Brutha for the confusion. What I meant was do I need to include links to subscribe to my feed? I have a feed, but I never advertised it since I figured due to my low posting frequency there wouldn't be any interest in it.

But I've taken Patricia's advice and now have a link after each post that suggests to the reader to subscribe to the feed if they enjoyed the article they read.

[John P]

Originally Posted by AdamF24

But I've taken Patricia's advice and now have a link after each post that suggests to the reader to subscribe to the feed if they enjoyed the article they read.

I think that's good advice. As one blogger put it, "It's much better to give your content to your readers, rather than asking them to come to you and get it."

[Mark Lapierre]

Originally Posted by AdamF24

I have a feed, but I never advertised it since I figured due to my low posting frequency there wouldn't be any interest in it.

As far as I'm concerned, with any blog, having a low posting frequency is an ideal reason to have a feed (though as Patricia said, three times a week is fine).

I rarely use bookmarks anymore since most sites that I read have feeds. I might bookmark an individual article that I intend to read later, but if I find a site that I want to keep up-to-date with, if it doesn't have a feed I'm guaranteed to forget about it. A feed means I can subscribe and then not worry about checking to see if they've updated.

[AndrewJ]

Absolutely keep the feed button. Where's the problem in having regular readers?

Andrew

[fiar]

I should also add that feed subscriber numbers fluctuate based on a number of different variables. For example, certain feed readers report a subscriber regardless of whether the subscriber read his feeds that day, while others only report on days of active feed reader use.

It seems possible that you're looking at your feed subscriptions with a very overly micromanaged way. Look at overall trends over a month or two. If your subscriber base is not increasing, then you need to evaluate what improvements you can make to get a more positive trend.

As it's been mentioned in this thread, if your subscribe link is not prominent, it can be very off-putting to some potential subscribers, or just frustrating to others.

One last thing is quality, not quantity. You could post even just once a week and have a good size readership. It's the quality of the content/community that matters.

[mellom]

Definitely keep your feed. And make sure it's a full one as well.