What is the secret to getting more RSS subscribers?

I’ve tried different methods, and though the number of subscribers to my blog is increasing, it’s doing it very slowly.

My traffic is increasing, quite a bit actually. So what’s the difference in getting traffic and getting subscribers?

I think the answer may be quite simple. Many people are not yet using RSS. I know my offline friends don’t really even have a clue as to what it is. Surfers that are accustomed to hearing the words are typically in the same niche that this blog is about… Internet marketing. They know what RSS is and are doing every thing they can to increase their own subscriptions.

Others? Well I think they are still using bookmarking as a way to save their favorite blogs and websites. I think this is true because I’ve talked to some of them (off line friends). They don’t know what RSS is, and frankly it’s scary to them. They have me bookmarked in a nice safe spot, where they know what to click and it’s all easy for them.

When I look at my stats, 68% of my visitors are from direct address or book marks. So it doesn’t mean that my visitors aren’t returning, it just means they aren’t using RSS to do it.

So you know what that makes me think? I’m not going to bust my ass trying to increase subscribers.

All my readers are very important to me, whether you come to Home with Heather through a bookmark, a direct link, RSS feed, or whether you just randomly found me. I’m glad you’re here. And love to see you keep coming back.

For those that do need some education on the benefits of using an RSS feed. Take a look at this great video put out by the Common Craft show back in April of this year.

RSS isn’t scary. It will save you huge amounts of time. It is addictive to add blogs and sites that you like into your reader. All you then have to do is grab your coffee in the morning, open your reader, and scroll up and down to see what new and interesting things you want to read about.Easy.I like to use Bloglines as my reader, although I’m sure any of them are just as good. To get a free account with bloglines. Go Here. Follow the simple instructions to set up your free account.Once your account has been created it is simply a matter of going to your favorites blogs and websites, and subscribing to the feed. At Home with Heather, I have a really big orange button at the top of my sidebar. Just click on that. Or, you can click on the link at the end of each and every article.

Bloglines also allows you to set up categories so that it’s easier to organize you favorites sites. It’s really cool.

Hope that helps.

As I said earlier. All of my readers are important to me. But coming to visit through and RSS reader will save you valuable time. Just a thought.

Expect the Best,

blog sites, Bloglines, feed reader, google reader, news sites, rss, RSS Reader, subscribe, time saver

Are you like me?

Some days, I can have such great intentions in the morning when I wake up as to what I’m going to get accomplished with my blog, with my kids, my house, holiday preparations or whatever. I look at the clock again, and it’s already time for the kids to be coming home from school. I haven’t gotten my ‘list’ completed and in fact some days I don’t have anything crossed off the list.

How does that happen?? I know as you get older time goes faster, but sheesh it can slow down anytime. Or maybe, I just haven’t been managing my time as well as I think, or maybe I need to set some priorities.

I do have some tricks as to things that will save me time. Both in blogging, and in life at home as a WAHM. Today, I’m going to talk about 8 blog time savers:

1. Set a list of priorities. Do your most important job first. That could be preparing posts for the week, it could be researching new articles, it could be doing some updating to your side bar. What ever it is - get it done first.
2. Set up a schedule. Be realistic. If you have 3 hours that you KNOW you can spend on blogging activities, then realize what you want to get done in those 3 hours, but be realistic in your time allotment. Things take time to do correctly.
3. A timer is your friend. When you are online minutes can turn into hours in the blink of an eye. Have an egg timer. If in your schedule, you’ve allowed an hour for commenting and networking - set the timer.
4. Don’t keep your email or messaging programs open. I find that I get way more done, when I don’t hear the bing bing of getting new emails or messages from my social network sites. It is way too tempting to be checking every 5 minutes to see who sent what and that can waste and entire day.
5. Group like tasks together. Try to do things like replying to emails and commenting at the same time. I find my brain is in a different mind set when I’m researching for example as opposed to when I’m adding smilie faces in my comment section.
6. Do track your blog progress through stats, but don’t become a stats junkie. Use checking them as a reward for a job well done.
7. Keep a notebook with you always. Write down ideas for blog posts as they come to you. One of my biggest struggles is figuring out what I want to write about.
8. Save the funnest activity (for me it’s commenting and being social) to the last thing on your list. That way it’s a reward and something to look forward to.

Having a plan and knowing what needs to be accomplished is half the battle. If I have a day where I’m just wondering aimlessly around the net, trying to get an idea, I don’t get much of anything done.

What great time saving secrets do you use to blog with?

Expect the Best,

blog schedule, blog to do list, blogging time savers, organizing your blogging, Tips and Tools

I’ve noticed something the last few weeks. I’ve been posting less. But guess what? I’ve been getting more visitors to my blog.

Interesting.

Could it be that the information I’ve been sharing is just that good? Well, it could be but let’s look at other possibilities.

I’ve been blogging less, but have been spending much more time with my social networking, and commenting of other blogs. I mean really trying to spend time visiting blogs I haven’t been to before. I am spending more time stumbling, zooming, sphinning and plugging than I have in the past.

I haven’t even really had the goal of getting traffic in mind. Truth be told, I’ve been having fun doing it. Also I’ve been so busy with my offline life that I haven’t had time to do the research and prep work to bring as many quality posts.

I won’t lie. I do promote my own posts on these networks, but I’ve also been promoting others.

So what do I do?

1. I don’t submit every article of my own. Only the favorites, or the ones that I feel will really be of benefit to others.
2. I submit them to Blogging Zoom, Sphinn, PlugIM, and Stumble, once in awhile to Digg and Netscape but not very often.
3. I try to spend time daily commenting on blogs that I’ve not visited before. I only comment if I have something relevant to add.
4. I find the new blogs by spending time on Blogging zoom, and Sphinn. If I like an article title, I click and check out the blog.
5. If I really like the blog, it gets added to Bloglines, and submitted to the networks named above. I’ve submitted many more of other peoples articles than that of my own.

Seems pretty simple right?

And honestly I thought I was doing this in the past, but realized that I was promoting myself more than I was others. This last week, it’s been more of a curiosity and procrastination than anything else.

But… Guess what happens when you do it the other way around? More people will do the same back for your articles. I’ve had many more zooms, sphinns, and stumbles in the past 2 - 3 weeks than I have at other times.

So maybe blogging everyday isn’t the secret after all. Very interesting, and I certainly will be keeping an eye where I can spend my “blogging” time most productively.

Expect the Best,

blogging zoom, Commenting, community, plugim, spinn, stumble upon, su, Web 2.0, web promotion

It’s just one month from today that all the presents will get open. The turkey will be stuffed and put into the oven. Family and friends will come over to share in the wonder of Christmas, or get in a fist fight depending on how much your family drinks

Be that as it may, I found this cute little video. On my blog it’s still called Christmas, and I wish you a very Merry one

Expect the Best,

christmas, Holiday, Merry Christmas, santa, Twas the night before Christmas

First I just have to say that you Americans sure mean business on Black Friday. Wow, no matter where I went online yesterday it was just dead(unless it was a place trying to sell stuff ).

I would not have wanted to get in your way… and as a terrible shopper I’d have to say there would be NO WAY you’d have seen me out on Black Friday, even if I lived in the there.

We have our Canadian equivalent to Black Friday the day after Christmas, called Boxing Day. Crazy shoppers get out and brave the crowds very early in the morning searching for the best deal. NOT ME - I never enjoyed shopping, and no way do I go to a store when it’s crazy busy… hell I even do my to avoid Saturday shopping, as a stay at home mom, I have that option.

Anyway, I hope you all found amazing deals and are that much closer to having your Christmas shopping done.

Now for the chit chat and updates…

I’m taking off in the morning for a weeks vacation. We did the exact same holiday last year, and the kids had a blast. By this time of year, my kids are certainly ready for a break from school. My oldest is so excited to go, and my youngest even gets a sparkle in his eye when I tell him we’re going swimming again.

I wasn’t really wanting to go this year and would have much rather canceled the vacation. I’m feeling a huge rush with just getting back home after the renovation, Christmas Eve being only one month from today and my youngest going in for some surgery yet before Christmas.

No way I need a week of relaxation right now, right? Well that’s what I was thinking until this morning. I’ll get everything done, I always do. And hey, if I don’t it won’t be the worst thing in the world. I’ve kind of been in a funk lately, and maybe a week away will be the rest I need to get my head on straight again.

I’m trying to prepare some posts for you while I’m gone, so you don’t forget to visit Home with Heather, and leave me some comment love Today I’m packing and blogging. Last day of working for a week, might be a nice change.

We will get back next Saturday, or Sunday and then my youngest goes in for some surgery on December 4th. I’ll make sure I stop in and say hey before then.

I hope you Americans are enjoying the rest of your holiday weekend, and having lots of great family time to boot.

Expect the Best,

black friday, boxing day, family fun, family vacation, Taking a Break!, updates

O.K., so I’m tired.

It’s been a long week and I just can’t get into posting you something of substance tonight. Besides I’m sure by now most of my American friends are full to the brim of turkey and all the trimmings just trying to find a comfy position to relax and digest.

I hope you all had a wonderful turkey day…

So I decided to get on showing you some pictures of my renovation. I’ve been asked several times to post some. I’m finally to a place where I’m organized and ready to do that. Though I do still have some work to do.

My reno started for a few reasons. Firstly, last year I was intending on moving to an acreage. Well, that wasn’t in the cards and the offer I had put in fell through. I am very grateful for that and because I’ve always loved the home that we are in, I decided to renovate it and make it my ‘forever’ home (I’m not moving again… way to much work ). Secondly, my youngest has some special physical requirements (he’s in a wheelchair) that required me to re-model parts of this house to make things work better. Third, I was just tired of the way things were looking and ready for an update.

Unfortunately, I don’t have digital pictures of what the kitchen looked like prior to the reno, but here are a few pics of the finished product.

My kitchen prior to the reno had cabinets that the doors were falling off of. I had tried to perk them up a few years back with some paint and stenciling. It looked OK, but man these new oak cabinets are fabulous.

Also having them custom built, I was able to have the design that I chose.

This dining room suite is very special to me and I’m proud to have it in my kitchen. It is an honor, and a responsibility. You see, it belonged to my grandparents, and is now a very special family treasure.

The living room got some much needed color, and a new set of window coverings. I just love the way it turned out.

I had to rip some walls out of the bathroom and raise the tub. It needed to be wheelchair accessible for my youngest son. Turned out very well, and looks huge compared to what it was.









My new home office is done with the custom cabinets in the kitchen. I love it. It’s in the most central place in my house. The place where I will spend the majority of my time. And now, I can see everything that’s going on in the house. It will be good.

So there you have it - a brief tour. I also finished painting the bedrooms and changing the flooring through out the main level. The changes were so significant that when I first moved back home, it didn’t even feel like my house. I’m feeling pretty comfy now though;)

If you’re interested in seeing more of the before, during and after photos, you can check them out in a myspace album that I’ve made up.

Hope that turkey is starting to digest and that you are all rested up if you choose to brave the mall tomorrow to get your Christmas shopping done.

Expect the Best,

home & family, Home & Family, home renovation, renovating, Taking a Break!

Blogging Zoom is the newest social networking site. It is aimed specifically at blogs and gives bloggers a chance to showcase their original material. BZ does not penalize you for submitting your own material, but it does need to be your original content. It is community based so that the more you participate in blogging zoom by taking time to read the other posts, commenting them and zooming them, the more you’ll get noticed yourself.

Blog Rush has been around since mid-September. It was the great new idea from John Reese to bring more traffic to your blog. By displaying the Blog Rush Widget proudly (and in a top position) on your own blog, you are able to participate in this traffic method. Blog Rush works on a credit basis, and so each time your page is loaded (or someone in your networks) that entitles you a credit. Your work is shown in the blog rush widget of other blogs, and the more credits you have, the more often it is shown. This method requires very little to no work.

As long as you display the widget above the fold and in a good position on your blog, you are suppose to receive traffic from it. The “Phase 2″ update of BlogRush promised to get rid of the spammers and bring even more traffic for the little guy.

I have been involved with Blog Rush from day one, and started using Blogging zoom when it was only a few days old.

What have I found?

So far my vote has to go with Blogging Zoom. I’ve been using it for approximately one week and have received more traffic to Home with Heather from it than I have from Blog Rush, in half the time this month.

Blogging Zoom is going to take some time for you to use. Just like with any other social network… you have to network. That means to take time to meet other bloggers, make friends, zoom posts and the whole bit. So far it seems to be a great community. Maybe because it’s new, but I’m seeing more traffic from it than Blog Rush, Plugim, Sphinn or Digg.

As for Blog Rush? I think it was a great idea. But what I see happening is that the A-list bloggers are being displayed in the widget waaayy more than the little guy. It was suppose to be for the little guy. It takes up a huge amount of prime real estate on my blog. John says you need to show the widget above the fold for best results, or at least in the highest position you can manage. I’ve done that from day one as well.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do get some traffic from the widget and I guess that it is good exposure for Home with Heather. I’m just not sure it’s worth the price of that placement on my blog. I plan to leave it up through the end of the year and monitor the results from both traffic methods before I make a decision.

Who gets your vote for bringing traffic? Is it Blog Rush, Blogging Zoom or someone else. And I’m not talking about SU, they are in a class of their own and deserve a post of their own,

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Expect the Best,

blog promotion, Blog Rush, blog traffic, blogging zoom, social media, Social Networking, traffic, web promotion