A Brief Introduction To The Subscription Model Of Content Delivery

Unless your content gets to your reader, you’re at the mercy of a fickle search engine.

I like to talk about producing great content that gets people to become clients.  Some of those folks will find your site by searching online or through social media channels, but the real gold is in reaching those who have already come to your site.

Your former visitors are those who have self-identified as having a need that matches your site’s content.  They have questions and issues that need to be solved, and your content makes things better.

Luckily, reaching those folks is a lot easier than you think.

The Subscription Model

You’re in line at the supermarket, waiting patiently for your turn to pay for that quart of milk.  Your eyes wander to that magazine and, being bored, you pick it up to kill some time.

Shockingly, it’s great stuff.  So much so that you tear out the business-reply card, fill it out, and subscribe for home delivery.  And each month thereafter, your issue of Weekly World News appears at your doorstep.

So, too, with online content.  You can have content delivered to your readers without them needing to take any action beyond signing up.

It’s called RSS, and it stands for “really simple syndication.”  The name stinks, but you can think of it as nothing more than a delivery mechanism for your content. Though the name is awful, it really is simple.

How It Really Works

A reader comes to your site and sees one of those spaces to enter his or her email address for automatic updates.

Alternatively, someone enters the special address for your RSS feed into a program or application called a feed reader. That’s like a big virtual mailbox.

From that point forward, updates come automatically either by email or to that feed reader.

Why The Subscription Model Is Important (And Not Dead)

Lots of people think this means of getting your content into someone’s email is old, boring and dead. They think everyone goes to social media platforms to get their information, and that email delivery is dead.

Those people are morons. They don’t realize how real people live and work.

I’ll admit that feed readers aren’t used that widely by the general public, but email is alive and well. Understanding how to get subscribers to your content means you can easily get past the spam filters, deliver information to those who want it, and stop worrying about your site’s traffic.

The more often someone is exposed to your content, the more likely they are to hire you rather than the lawyer down the block. And because it’s automatic, you don’t need to do anything beyond what you’re already doing.

Does Your Site Have An Subscription Mechanism?

If you’ve got a blog or your website is built on a platform like WordPress, then you’ve got an RSS feed built in already.  All you need to know is your RSS feed’s special address.

For WordPress Blogs And Sites:  Your RSS feed address is http://www.domain.com/feed/

For TypePad Blogs:  At Settings > Feeds, you can configure your feed settings for Posts and Comments.  Select Blog Posts to enable the feed for your blog’s posts.  Your RSS feed address will be: http://example.typepad.com/blog_folder_name/rss.xml

For Blogger Blogs: Your RSS feed URL will be http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

If you don’t know which platform you use – or if you use a different one – get in touch with your web developer to find out whether you’ve got an RSS feed on your site.

Arranging Delivery

You can use a service such as Feedburner or Feedblitz to allow people to get your content by email; they’re both simple to set up, and I’ve used both services successfully.

There are also various email marketing programs that will allow you to set up things the same way. I use AWeber for my blog-to-email work, though iContact, MailChimp and a bunch of other services do the same job.

On the feed reader side, I’m a huge fan of Google Reader. I also use NetNewsWire on my Mac, but usually just for offline access.

Beat Traffic

The subscription model of content delivery is the easiest way for your readers to see you over and over again. Giving them the opportunity to read your work and get to know you over time allows you to keep your message and name in front of them until they’re ready to make a hiring decision.