But seriously, you really cut through the nonsense about what constitutes success in the blogsphere. I look forward to reading more of your honest, no-BS, thoughtful insights soon.

Alan – I dislike the term “fan” and wish it was “Likes” as well. One of these days I should send a blast to my friends but I just can’t send a “please become a fan of my blog” it doesn’t feel right, despite the fact I get many invites daily! :S

Kristi – Email is probably a good idea. Thanks for stopping by!

Andy – Indeed, that is how I do it. I’ve never had a reader.

I honestly don’t have a single friend (outside the search industry) that uses an RSS feed. They use Twitter to keep up with things, generally speaking.

For blogs whose audience does not cater to that demographic, your best bet if you are bent on getting subscribers is to make sure you have a clearly defined explanation of what RSS is for and how to use it. If you can convince someone why they should use RSS readers, then you will probably gain a subscriber. Or at least make sure you have an email subscription option, as that is easier to digest for people not inclined to use a feed reader.

I do register to a number of blogs by email if they make it easy to find (where the heck is your email registration ?). What do you think of that?

Just like Richard, I follow blogger twitter streams too. A lazy way to keep track of stuff that works and has other benefits.

In terms of Facebook fans … the barrier is so low for someone to become a fan that you can get 10 to 20 times more people becoming fans than registering on your website (this comes from actual experience and is actually quite conservative). The move to “like” instead of “fan” is going ramp that even higher.

Dare I say, RSS is “old hat”.