Recipe For a Blog: Automatic Blog Updates

Ingredient #3 in our 8 ingredient Recipe for A Good Business Blog has to do with a way for readers to get updates each time you post something new on your blog.

Have an easy way for people to subscribe to your blog. There are two services that make this easy. One uses email notifications; the other uses RSS feeds. They are free but you do have to set up an account with each, create some code, and paste the code in your blog template. Both these services make it easy for bloggers. We recommend doing both.

The first service is an email notification system provided by FeedBlitz.com. You get an account with them (free), and follow their easy instructions. You will get some HTML code that you copy and paste into your blog's sidebar. In Typepad, you create a Typelist and copy the code into the notes section. Your subscription form can say something like, “Get Blog Updates.” When you post new content, your Feedblitz subscribers will get an email once per day with links and excerpts of your new posts.

d onWithout getting too technical, we recommend you also make it easy for people to get your posts via an RSS feed. To do this, sign up for a free account with FeedBurner.com. Follow their simple instructions. Feedburner also provides email subscription so you can use it for both email and RSS delivery.

All blogging platforms are RSS feed enabled. In order for someone to get your blog updates via RSS feed, they must use a feed reader. Some common readers are Bloglines, Newsgator, and MyYahoo, MyMSN, and Google Reader. You make it easy for them to do this by providing small graphic icons called chicklets that you get with your Feedburner account.

The Blog Squad has written an ebook with step by step instructions on how to add both these subscription options to your blog readers. You can get it at www.buildabetterblogsystem.com.

Don’t blog without giving your readers a way to stay informed. They need to know each time you have posted new content, so they will come back to your blog again and again.