I have a confession to make. Last week I opened my RSS feed reader for the first time in ages, as I knew I needed to catch up with reading some blogs (see crafty new year’s resolution #6) and I had well over 300 unread posts! I don’t really know how it happened. Perhaps I just forgot to open my feed reader on one occasion, then I got out of the habit of doing it… Oops! Thankfully, I am now back in the habit and I should start making progress on new year’s resolution #6 very soon, not least because I have allocated some time in my diary every week for reading and commenting on other people’s blogs. Must do better!
This got me thinking, yet again, about how people consume online content. In particular, I started thinking about how I deliver my blog and podcast content to people. My main channels for the blog are my RSS feed, email updates and social networks. The same applies to the podcast, but of course there are also podcast directories through which people can subscribe.
For a while I’d been thinking that it might be and idea to set up an e-mailing list as an additional option but I thought it could be overkill. So I asked my followers on Facebook and Twitter if they’d be interested in receiving a monthly email summarising the blog posts and podcast episodes from that month, as well as occasional news emails. The response was very positive. It seems that an additional way to keep up-to-date isn’t overkill. Having a variety of subscription options just increases accessibility; in a sense it makes things easier for consumers. So… I have set up an iMake e-mailing list using Mail Chimp.
Setting everything up was really easy. Mail Chimp is definitely worth a look if this is something you think you might do on your own blog. I have used Tiny Letter before for simple e-mailing lists – it’s also very good (check out my screencast about Tiny Letter here: Tiny Letter Tutorial). However, Mail Chimp allows you to make your e-newsletters look a little more jazzy, and as I had not used it before, I thought I’d have a go.
The upshot is this… if you fancy receiving a monthly summary of iMake blog posts, as well as (very) occasional news announcements by email, then please sign up to the mailing list by clicking the link below.
I am not sure quite how this service will develop but watch this space! I might create some exclusive content just for mailing list subscribers if the uptake is good. Mail Chimp makes it easy for people to unsubscribe so why not sign up to try it out?
I never go to my RSS feed, that’s why I loved the idea from you to be able to subscribe by email. I also friend on Ravelry the knitting bloggers that I like to follow, then I can just look up friends’ activity on Ravelry and read all of their blogs.
I do Constant Contact for a local organization, very similar to Mail Chimp and it can be very useful, but it does become another expense even though in the beginning it is free.
Hi Sarah
Thanks for your comment – I have not heard of constant contact – thanks for mentioning it. Mail Chimp is free at first but as the mailing list grows, costs could creep in. This is just something I am going to try out really and if there is big enough demand then that is great. Whatever happens, you will always be able to subscribe to email updates on the blog. This is just an alternative/addition – a sort of monthly ‘digest’. I have had a great sign up rate so far so it’s looking positive.
Martine
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