Thursday, July 14, 2005 11:43 AM
As I have been adding new blawgs to the directory over the last month or so, I am noticing a return to the bad old days when many blawgs lacked a headline feed to which readers could subscribe. I can't say enough that unless you have a specific reason for not wanting people to subscribe to your blawg, please, please, please add a feed.
The blawgosphere is rapidly approaching 1000 blawgs, and the last survey I read said that the larger blogosphere includes something like 14 millions blogs. Now, realistically, how many people have the time during a typical workday to bounce around the web visiting various blawgs to see if there has been new content added?
On the other hand, by offering people a feed to your blawg the first time they visit, they can easily subscribe to your site. The subscription then allows them to receive notification (in their inbox, on their handheld, etc.) that you have added new content and then click-through the notification link to visit your site.
The main culprit continues to be blawgs created using Blogger. Apparently, Blogger does not make adding a feed easy enough for first-time users (which it really needs to address). If you decide to use Blogger and can't figure out how to add a headlines feed, I recommend signing up for a free feed service like FeedBurner to get your site feed up-and-running.
Blawgs continue to gain steam and the numbers grow daily. If you are going to the time and effort to produce good content, why not optimize your chances to grow an audience? Feeds allowing for syndication/dissemination of your content are an important component in doing this. Don't miss the boat, make sure you add a feed.