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Why I Unsubscribed

Posted on April 23, 2008 by Katy

In my process of getting it together, I made a comment about unsubscribing from some blogs. This comment brought me a few emails that made me sure I needed to elaborate why I unsubscribed and how I made up my mind.

After all, Iâ€™m not just a blogâ€™s author; Iâ€™m also a blog reader. So understanding why just one person has unsubscribed, I may be helping you to save multiple subscribers.

Boring Headlines

Iâ€™m sorry, was that post title written to grab my attention or Google’s attention? OK, so youâ€™re looking for some good ranking within the SERPs but for the love of it, try to make me interested in what youâ€™re about to say.

Really, if you must write for Google, then what do you need me for as a reader? If all youâ€™re writing for is Google then you lead me to believe youâ€™re building your blog to just be a money power house. If you want my attention, reword slightly so you have your keywords and my attention.

Introduction

If youâ€™ve gotten me past the above three issues, this is the next biggest issue.

Open your post with something that is going to grab my attention, make me feel like weâ€™re in the middle of the conversation, and engage me with what else you might have to say. Donâ€™t drop the ball; if you donâ€™t grab me within your first couple of paragraphs, Iâ€™m moving on.

We all have off posting days and I totally account for that when taking this into consideration. If this is the only thing left for me to consider if I should or should not unsubscribe, then Iâ€™ll wait it out for quite sometime and attempt to read the posts that arenâ€™t especially attention grabbing.

Useless Posts

This is very personal preference but something you may want to consider.

When Iâ€™ve subscribed to a blog, I do so to get the content I believe that personâ€™s got. All it takes is one good post from your blog to get me to subscribe. But then, once subscribed if all Iâ€™m getting is posts about what was said today on Twitter between you and your friends, Iâ€™m gone.

Seriously, why do I care? I like Twitter as much as the next guy, but I donâ€™t need a recap of your day on Twitter.

Posts about nothing waste my time. Again, I have very little time and attention to read my feeds. And when I sit down to read them, Iâ€™m committed to it. Donâ€™t misuse my time by posting things I really donâ€™t care aboutâ€¦ like what you talked about on Twitter today.

Questions for You

What keeps you engaged on a blog and what makes you unsubscribed? Do you have any key factors that become breaking deals for you?

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Discussion: 609CommentsWhy+I+Unsubscribed2008-04-23+16%3A29%3A42Katy

Comments to “Why I Unsubscribed”

Mike New

- 23rd Apr, 08 08:04am

I totally understand. I hate it when I can’t read the full post in my reader. I hardly ever click through and I’ve unsubscribed to blogs for that same reason.

Joanne

- 23rd Apr, 08 03:04pm

Ugh, the Twitter thing drives me nuts and has turned me off visiting some sites. To the regular viewer/reader you can’t nearly try to follow the conversation and when these posts consist of 90% or above of your normal posts then I stop visiting. It’s not nearly interesting and makes no sense unless you are part of the conversation.

I’m off now to check my feed settings, another great post!

Sarah

- 23rd Apr, 08 07:04pm

I have no idea if the twitter post part was directed at me, but you’re right, and I removed that ability. FFS, I have it in my sidebar. Why do I need it as posts as well :) I kept it for posting to Twitter, but removed the auto-post ability. It was my lazy way of posting everyday, and that wasn’t the point of Blog 365, which was the reason I was attempting to post every day.

I do the full feed thing, because like you, it does annoy me. One of my feeds doesn’t have any text in it but the writer cracks me up and I know I’ll get a chuckle or go “hmm” on every post she writes, so I keep her on anyways, xD

Manda

- 24th Apr, 08 01:04am

I wasn’t aware of the twitter bit – I don’t use it as often as I should.

You mention feeds that only show what I am assuming a summary of the posting – that’s something that can be adjusted within the dashboard right? Or what is you use a service such as feedburner?

Great Post Katy and very well made points. I just love your writing and topics! =0)

Dennis Edell

- 24th Apr, 08 05:04am

Awesome post Katy, I’ve been meaning to write on this for ages…now I even have personal experience reasons.

I recently went FULL FEED! :-)…you are so right, my feed count jumped about 10 or so within hours of posting about it; including a couple that told me they re-subbed after doing so. Very cool.

Headlines – correct again! Write for your READER not for Google. As stated, if you just take an extra minute or 2, you can do both nicely…and by forcing yourself to think a little more in this manner, you can also make a better post as well.

Introduction – this goes hand in hand with the headline comment whether you knew it or not lol. Why write a serp enticing subject line just to have people click through and back out again because your intro is no good?

Useless Posts – twits – err – twitters aside, we all do it from time to time. The trick is to do it as little as possible and try to make it at least somewhat informative…or at least amusing if you know it is basically a useless post.

For instance, some people call the post “I won’t be posting for a while” useless…and almost every blogger does it when they are taking a break. Is it useless? For all intents and purposes, yes I suppose it is as it really only matters to your regular daily readers, and even some of them may not care, if your blog is one of 100 that they read.

However, it is still somewhat “informative” and by personal experience, that particular “useless post” is not a bad idea…..A couple months ago, I ended up in the hospital somewhat unexpectedly for 8 days with no computer access. Two friends/readers TRACKED ME DOWN right to my hospital bed in ICU via phone…quite weird, a little creepy, but very very sweet. :-)

Wow sorry for the ramble, now I’ll answer the question you actually asked LOL…

My biggest irk – the SAME post on every blog. Now I realize quite well that the IM niche is the most incestuous of them all…..eventually everyone will be writing/blogging about the same thing. At the very least REWRITE it to match your style and readership.

I really don’t mind reading 5 posts on the same topic IF they all have a different or unique spin to it. That just give me different ways to think about something and then make up my own mind :)

I think I need a nap now…

Katy

- 24th Apr, 08 05:04am

Mike Â» Happy to hear I’m not online with full feeds. That’s been the biggest thing for me.

Joanne Â» I get it, me too. And that’s not the only thing with “Useless Posts” that I have unsubscribed for but recently, the biggest.

Sarah Â» No, nothing was specific towards you but I’m glad you’ve decided to stop with the Twitter thing. You’ll be surprised how many of the larger blogs I’ve seen doing it and it drives me insane. My feed reader is flooded with those posts and I’m sick of it.

Manda Â» I just got myself into Twitter and it’s been useful for me as a means of promotion. You may find it interesting.

With your feed, that can be adjusted in the dashboard if you’re using WordPress 2.5 or the plugin installed if you’re using a lower version of WordPress. If you’re using 2.5 login to the dashboard and go to Settings.

Katy

- 24th Apr, 08 05:04am

Dennis Â» Thanks!

I went full feed the minute I found the plugin to work with older versions of WordPress. I had wanted to do it for a long time but wasn’t able to without the plugin. I’m even more thrilled now that it’s something that’s handled without the plugin.

With headlines and introductions, I’m aware that they go hand in hand but they’re also separate. A post can grab me with the headline and then lose my attention within the first couple of paragraphs so they also can be treated differently. The key is to use a catchy headline and follow it up with equally catchy start. It’s a trick and not always something that can be done.

Useless posts are different for different people. Twitter is my biggest “useless post” pet peeve. That’s even more true for me when those blogs are coming from blogs that have a huge readership. While I realize they may want to be promoting themselves on Twitter, as Joanne said, the conversations don’t always make sense and become annoying.

Dennis Edell

- 24th Apr, 08 07:04am

I meant to add that the full feed plugin does not work with feedburner, or so I tried and was no.

When I tried it and it didn’t work, the response I got from FB’s “help group”(sigh) was “If feedburner does not receive the full feed, it cannot produce a full feed”…what I took from that is, write full posts or forget it, so that’s what I’m doing.

Sarah

- 24th Apr, 08 07:04am

Dennis, it works with Feedburner. I use Feedburner for my feeds, and Full Feed and have no problems whatsoever (I subscribe to myself, just to make sure things work, xD).

Dennis Edell

- 24th Apr, 08 07:04am

Dunno then. It didn’t work for me, then I got that response. *sigh*

Katy

- 24th Apr, 08 09:04am

Dennis Â» Did you use the same plugin that I have linked here in this post? There are different ones but the one I have linked is the only one that I’ve used and it worked for me as well with FeedBurner (like Sarah, I tested by subscribing).

Dennis Edell

- 24th Apr, 08 10:04am

yepadoodle same one lol. No clue why it didn’t work.

Katy

- 24th Apr, 08 11:04am

Sorry Dennis. :\

Damien Riley

- 24th Apr, 08 06:04pm

Consistent lack of decent content. etc. I agree with your about the “more” feeds.

Katy

- 25th Apr, 08 12:04pm

Damien Â» I completely agree. You can pick up a good feel for the content when subscribing and receiving the first 10 or so feeds. That’s always really helpful in determining if it’s going to be worth your time to stick around.

Jamie Carter

- 20th May, 08 10:05am

Great post.. you mention a few very valid points in the post highlighting the trend on the “full feed” which is so true. So many of my other blogging friends with much more successful and long term blogs always recommend getting then full feed to those subscribed. They too unsubscribe if they only get a partial feed.

The other brilliant point was advertising within your feed to earn a revenue from those just engaging through feed readers..

Great article :D

Diane

- 25th May, 08 03:05pm

Very good point about the full read versus the excerpt. We’d actually changed over a week or so ago to excerpts thinking to draw the eye down the page (reader) further for past posts that might have been missed. However, you are evidence that some like the full post.

I’m sort of partial to “if you can grab my attention yes I will follow” so I’m sure there are both sides to that issue. Definitely worth investigating!

Might be a “one way for some” and “one way for others.”

How to really know for sure?

aroengbinang

- 27th May, 08 03:05am

It’s really difficult to lure people to subscribe, either through RSS readers or email, especially if the contents and the discussions are not always that hot for the readers. Contents and quality of comments are definitely two of the most important factors in attracting people to subscribe. Still more needs to be done…

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Why I Unsubscribed

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Boring Headlines

Introduction

Useless Posts

Questions for You

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