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What Makes Me Subscribe To a Blog?
In the never-ending struggle to increase your blog readership, generating traffic to your blog is only half the battle. The other half involves retention of traffic, or better yet, to get these visitors to subscribe to your blog. I was inspired after reading Moshin’s article to write a post on what makes me, as a reader, subscribe to a particular blog. In the style of Work n Play, I have given this topic a personal spin by providing five requirements that would make ME subscribe to YOUR blog.
1. Eye Candy
Everyone (males and females) like eye candy. Whether it’s Jessica Alba’s beautiful smile, Brad Pitt’s handsome mug, or a well designed webpage, we all enjoy looking at nice things. Simplicity, well coordinated color schemes, innovative designs, elegant font types . . . they all come together to present a powerful first impression to a new visitor. If your site has great content, but doesn’t appeal to the eye, you have already lost the battle! Here are two examples of nicely designed sites (besides the one that you are currently looking at) 
For you new bloggers, I know it can be difficult to find an excellent Wordpress theme for free, but there are certainly some decent themes out there. The only problem is that those themes are probably being used by other bloggers as well. But you always have the ability to customize your theme and fiddle with the CSS to differentiate yourself. And if you become somewhat successful, you can ask John to help design your Wordpress theme.
2. Advertisements
The bane of all blogs and websites (if not done in good taste). I refuse to subscribe to any blog that does an egregious job incorporating their ads. If you have ads, it’s a good idea to place them onto your blog strategically so as to not interfere with the visitor’s viewing experience. Contrary to popular advertising opinion, I think a good ad is one that is NOT noticed by the reader. Let’s face it, no one really likes to look at ads, but it’s a necessary evil. So if you’re going to have them on your blog, at least put them in tastefully. Here are some good examples of websites incorporating ads into their website smartly,
Pixel2life
Freelance Switch (bears a striking resemblance to a certain blog)
3. Content
Eye candy is great, but most readers are sophisticated enough to look underneath the glamour. When I visit a blog for the first time, I like to explore the recent posts and the popular posts to see if I’m interested in what the blog has to offer. If these posts are located on the sidebar, that just makes my job as a reader that much easier. Catchy titles, informative posts, and up to date news are three things I look for. But most importantly, regular updates are essential! [Read more →]
but not every blog has this feature and not every blogger realizes that they can add this feature.
