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NewestOnTheNet.com is a blog by Fred Petersabout blogging, social media, internet marketing and any closely related topics. In Fred’s own words:
I have created Newest on the Net to provide you with the latest trends occurring in our online world. This blog was born from my love of technology and my fascination with social networking, blogging, podcasting and all the other ways the Internet is allowing humans to communicate with one another. When I was younger, I used to always think that my grandparents were so lucky to have experienced some of the greatest inventions, e.g. cars, airplanes, rockets and television. However, with the invention of the Internet I am no longer envious. The Internet is the greatest invention of our time, maybe of all time.
That alone should get you to head over there and poke around if you’re a techie and and internet junkie like me, but I agreed to a free review and “free” means I can be completely objective, with no regard to Fred’s feelings. [insert evil laugh here] Time to dig in.
It’s a blog, so after reading the About page (most of which I’ve copied and pasted above), I headed straight for the first post, StumbleUpon – A Blogger’s Secret Weapon, and I agreed with it before even getting past the title. StumbleUpon was, for me, a kind of mental note that got ignored. For a while, it was that social media site that I kept meaning to play with, but didn’t really see the value in it. Anyway, I’m not reviewing SU here, but let’s just say I had a moment of clarity a month or two ago and now realize the incredible value of StumbleUpon to a blogger. Fred gives a good description of StumbleUpon and why you should use it, points out where you can find him on the site (critical thinking there, Fred), follows with a 4 step guide to promoting your blog articles with the site, and finishes with more follow-up resources than you can swallow. It’s a good read and definitely bookmarkable [Shut up, Firefox spell-checker! I'm MAKING it a word]. I liked it enough to stumble it, and that’s what’s important. If you’re thinking of heading over there for this article, check out his series-starter, From Zero to 190,000 Page Views In Just 3 Months.
Moving on, I decided to read 35 Guaranteed Ways To Increase Your RSS Subscribers, the first article listed in his “Most Popular Articles” list, because the guy has 238 RSS subscribers in just a few months and I want that action, too. It had some of the typical information I’ve read several times on several blogs, but I did find a couple new tips I hadn’t seen before.
Write an article explaining what RSS is and how to subscribe to your blog. Bloggers tend to be very technologically savvy. Sometimes we forget that our readers might not know what RSS feeds are and how to use them. You should write an article on your blog explaining what RSS is so that your readers will know that subscriptions are available. Darren Rowse has a great What is RSS? page on Problogger.net. DoshDosh also has written a great example for how to tell your readers about RSS subscriptions. Also, please check out Rich Gilcrest’s article describing RSS feeds.
That’s a nice idea, and I imagine it will help, but how much? Maybe I shouldn’t question the guy who has a lot more subscribers than me. Still, I have to think that this next bit was a lot more valuable, and is something I hadn’t even thought of, as simple as it is:
Use the MyBlogLog Widget. One of the best ways to increase the number of people who subscribe to you blog is to ask them to subscribe. Sometimes readers need to be encouraged or coaxed to subscribe. Maybe they aren’t even thinking about subscribing or maybe they are not using an RSS Reader. By asking them to subscribe, you remind them that subscription services are available. These next few tips provide ways for you to track who is visiting your blog, so that you can send them messages requesting them to subscribe. The MyBlogLog widget allows me to track who is visiting my site. When a new MyBlogLog visitor appears in my sidebar, I click their avatar and send them a message. I typically thank them for visiting and ask them to subscribe, including a link to my RSS feed.
When I promised to review blogs, products, etc for free for anyone who asked, I was worried I’d have to start it with a scathing review, but Fred’s blog gave me a free pass. In short, he’s got subscriber #239, and I clearly have some promotional tricks to learn.
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Stumble it!
on December 12th, 2007 at 3:23 am
Joe,
Thank you so much for writing this review. I am going to write a post about it today. Thank you so much!
By the way, with respect to describing “what is RSS” to your readers, you would be surprised at how many people don’t know what RSS is. If they don’t know about it, they don’t know how it could improve their Internet experience.
Here is my recent “What is RSS” article. I will write a similar article every other month. http://newestonthenet.com/what-is-rss/
Again, thank you so much for your review.
on December 12th, 2007 at 8:47 am
[...] may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Joe from Joe Tech has written a very nice review of Newest on the Net. Joe also wrote about several of my recent [...]
on December 12th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Joe,
I’ve been a fan of Fred’s since I discovered his blog through his great post on “35 Guaranteed Ways To Increase Your RSS Subscribers”.
Good for you for writing a review of his blog. Nice work as well.
Mark
on December 12th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Fred: No problem… I have a services site review to do now, too. We’ll see how that goes later today or tomorrow.
on December 12th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Mark: Thanks for the kudos. I figure this makes me feel better than reviewing for PayPerPost or a similar site and Google won’t penalize me (Matt Cutts tells me that my PR5 rank is likely coming back). Look for another blog review this week, too.
on December 12th, 2007 at 10:27 am
I ve always liked his site , good review