rssHugger Update: 20 Feed Subscribers Reached Within 1 Day.
I promised an update as soon as I received 20 new feed subscribers. The problem is, however, I have no way of knowing how many actually came from rssHugger, how many were bloggers coming across my blog through other services and those darned sploggers who seem to find my posts intriguing. As of today, I have 93 readers, down 15 from Sunday. The first few hours of using rssHugger the feed count spiked to 108 from 83, which is an increase of 25 readers.
What I Don’t Like About rssHugger
rssHugger gives a blogger no actual way of promoting his/her blog. The Top 100, which resets monthly is a joke, (although a friend of mine, blueyes is currently #94). If resetting the Top 100 is meant to be fair- reset on a daily or even weekly basis. Why? Because the top blogs we all know about will always be at the top. Sure, these blogs would be at the top on a daily or weekly basis as well, but more blogs would be available to view by those of us searching. Which brings me to the “random blog” feature. I could click 50 times and not come across a blog which interested me in the least. Perhaps a categories feature would be more appropriate. Most bloggers look for particular types of blogs to read and clicking random doesn’t assist me much. As with the Top 100 and New Blogs-what if I don’t find a blog I want to subscribe to from these lists?
What I Like About rssHugger
To be honest, the only aspect I like is the concept behind the service. Gaining new subscribers is one thing every blogger attempts to do, but adding a subscribe button isn’t always enough. Having a database of those participating is a wonderful idea-but it needs a little work.
Suggested Features
- A way to track the number of subscribers coming from rssHugger-this could be added to the RSS panel.
- Resetting the feeds available either on a daily or weekly basis. This does give everyone an equal chance of promoting a feed. Also-do “views” mean the number of people who just viewed the RSS panel, or those who subscribed?
- Categorical listings of available RSS feeds. This function would work much better than clicking the Random Blog button 100 times. A blogger could browse categories, view the feeds of particular blogs then subscribe. A better promotion method than being a random blog, in what is now close to 300 feeds.
These are just a few of my thoughts on the service. For those of you who have signed up with rssHugger-what are your thoughts?
Thank you Beth for your wonderful insight about Entrecard. I do understand what you meant. By reading and leaving comments on every new blogs I visited might slow me down and making it (still) cheap to drop your card on my blog, it’s really worth it. I’ve been learning quite a bit such as this one
I know because I received emails from Entrecard telling me such and such blogs doesn’t want me to advertise on their well groomed blog. Reasons – either they have become too big-headed or doesn’t find my blog not up to par with theirs. I don’t know where the words not relevance came from?
Greetings and lotta loves from Malaysia.
! ArahMan7
our feed was #6 before it was reset. Rsshugger is good, I’d suggest stumbling your own feed on rsshugger.
I do agree there should be a better way to promote your feed, whether its a forum of some kind, or a “random” feed thing
thanks for buying a card
oh and arah you can put your card on our site
lol
Arah: Yes EntreCard.com is a good service, but I do have a few things to say about it as well
Matthew: The point of the service, though, is promotion within rssHugger of your feed. Can you imagine the number of Stumbles going through JUST for those of us using rssHugger? lol… I have a lot of posts that are Stumbled which would give others the chance to subscribe if interested. Who knows, maybe I’ll try it, but I shouldn’t have to use one networking service to promote my site on another networking service. Oh and you’re welcome
I understand what your saying and they hopefully will take that criticism and make it better. For now, might as well get on top while you can.
I stumbled your rsshugger feed, so hopefully you can get on top soon
Matthew: Thanks for the Stumble.
I’ll return the favor.
Ya know, I read your article, then looked at the site. I’m going to have to go back and look again, because I’m just not getting it.
looks like your #8 on the top feeds
lol Free Me- the only point is to get people to subscribe to your feed.
Matthew: I’m number 7 now. But still, having to stumble the dang thing? LOL
Dang – I thought I was brilliant for stumbling my rsshugger page last month.
This month I’m at a loss as to what to do with that thing…
giving you another stumble how2
Hey Beth,
Didn’t really think of the points you made about the things you don’t like about rssHugger but I’ll have to agree with you. Perhaps over time the service will become a little more “mature” I guess you can say and incorporate some kind of community, but give it some kind of unique twist so that it isn’t just like all the other 20-million blogging community (social networking) sites out there.
Anyways, great review of rssHugger, one of the best I’ve seen so far with all of them that are out there… I admire the honesty and how you look at it from all angles.
Often these things take some time to shake down, the main thing is that they are willing to listen to suggestions and implement the good ones.
Hopefully they read here!
Hi Beth,
I completely agree with your views on rssHugger. To be completely honest, I joined up because it was free and another backlink. If everyone gets on board, it will be a nice PR juice for my own blog. However, I don’t expect it to generate me any new readers as the application stands right now.
I don’t know about you, but I never go to blog or web directories to look for something new to read so I can’t see how it would appeal the others to do the same just by reading feed headlines.
It needs a killer twist.
Yeah, it definitely needs something to keep people active. As it stands now, you sign up, your feed is shown basically only to you unless someone searches for the keywords used or if it happens to pop up through a random search. This isn’t promoting your feed in any way. It just sits there with no way to actively promote.