POLL: Subscribing to Blogs with RSS vs. Email

It's time to revisit this question. Today I was told by a blog developer that most people use RSS to read blogs. Hmmm. That's not my experience. In my experience most people still don't know what the heck RSS is and prefer to get their blog updates by email. But that got me wondering. Maybe times have changed dramatically. Maybe regular folk (not techy people) do prefer RSS. So I decided to put it out to you.

How do you prefer to subscribe to and read your favorite blogs? Please take the poll and let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Please help me get the word out so I can get a good sample of responses. Click the retweet button to share the poll with your twitter followers. Thanks!

Comments

[Denise]

I'm on the tech side, but I use RSS for most blog reading, seldom clicking through to visit the blog itself--unless I feel compelled to comment. I do subscribe to a few blogs by e-mail, though, ones that I will likely forward to colleagues, so that I have full editing capabilities in forwarding.

[Bea]

I've known RSS for years now, but still prefer to use my email box to read and see what's going on. I have had no clients that knew what RSS was and how it worked. Of course, the Blog Squad taught me about all these tools a few years back. Thanks!

[Melanie Kissell]

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to subscribe to my favorite blogs by email. If I don't see a new blog post right under my nose (in my inbox!) there's a good chance I'll never read it.

[Barry Deutsch]

I'm shocked! I would have thought most use RSS. I probably need to do a better job on displaying/encouraging email sign-ups. I'm wondering if too much emphasis on registering for the feed might be turning some potential subscribers off.

[Marion Ryan]

I do use RSS myself and never email subscriptions. I already have so much email that I don't want new blog posts clogging up my inbox any further.

On the other hand, to see all new posts in my reader means I can quickly open up all the ones that look interesting and click through to the blog for any that I know will have more info there.

Marion

[Dana @ Frugal in VA]

I use RSS, but a large percentage of my blog subscribers use email over RSS. I think my audience tends to read fewer blogs than I do making email subscription manageable for them.

[Gladys]

I use RSS for the same reason others mentioned - I subscribe to a lot and don't want that clogging up my inbox. I have Google Reader on my iGoogle page, and it is easy for me to see what is there, take a quick look at some headlines/short articles, and save the longer ones for later. This is the system that seems to work best for me.

I am quite surprised, however, that there are still a majority of people who read through email. I don't even have an email sign-up on my blog, and that looks to be a mistake. I'm off to correct it now.

Thanks for revisiting this issue - I look forward to the poll results and other comments.

[Stephen, the-freelance-editor]

Most of my blogging clients have no working knowledge of RSS and are not particularly interested in using it on their blogs and running the risk of losing followers-- still, I generally suggest they use it in combination with an e-mail subscription form.

Like others, I am surprised that the majority of blog readers still use e-mail subscriptions over RSS, but then, that's my personal preference, too. With blogs that do not have subscription forms, I usually find myself signing up for updates through an RSS-to-eMail service.

Glad you've asked; the results will be interesting.

[jon]

I did some usability testing for a school and we found that 16 year olds didn't even recognize the RSS icon. Over 50 % of them admitted they had never seen it!

I personally prefer RSS but for teens, it appears they don't even know what it is.

[Hali]

There are still some people who haven't a clue what RSS is and appreciate receiving the posts via email.