In the blogging world, webmasters thrive on their fan base, their RSS subscribers­. As unfair as it might be, today’s blogs are judged almost entirely through the amount of subscribers they have registered to read their content every day. Sure, website traffic is important… but if you don’t have the numbers to back things up, you probably aren’t running a successful website.

Take a look over to the side of The Net Fool dot com for a perfect example. You look at the subscriber number as a sort of “validation” for the popularity of my blog. There have been quite a few bloggers that have fudged the subscriber count in the hopes of seeming more popular, and most of the time it works. But why should you subscribe to an RSS feed? Where’s the incentive? To better explain this, I’ve put together what I feel to be the top five reasons you should subscribe to RSS feeds.

1. Learn Useful Information About Things You Like
Obviously, the reason that you read blogs is to learn something new about a topic you find interesting… unless there’s something I don’t know. Blogs have become popular essentially because of the fact that they are easier to read than long newspaper articles, and typically get right to the punch. Assuming you would like this information anyway, why wouldn’t you subscribe to an RSS feed to stay notified when your favorite websites update? For the same reasons that you would typically rather get a corporate earnings call summary through Yahoo than read through the entire conference’s transcript… you should subscribe to RSS feeds.

2. Streamlined and Organized Information
Since the development of RSS readers like Google’s RSS Reader (which I use) and BlogLines, it’s easier than ever to subscribe in one click to a blog and instantly get their information in your reader each morning. I subscribe to every blog I can because all I need to do is click subscribe, and the feed will begin to show up in my Google Reader every time I decide to read. You don’t get nagged about reading (though you could if you chose to), it’s just there for your reference, just like a bookmark. Everything is streamlined, automatically updated, and easy to understand.

3. Faster and Easier Than Visiting Websites
Although I am not going to advocate this wholeheartedly, the truth is that using RSS is a lot easier and faster than going around to all of your favorite websites and reading them that way. Some RSS readers even allow you to comment on the posts without leaving! It’s quicker and more efficient to jump around from feed to feed than having to worry about loading up each and every website each time you want to read. RSS feeds can completely undermine the practicality of websites, and make learning new things a piece of cake.

4. Support Your Favorite Blogs
Supporting your favorite blogs is one of the most important functions of RSS in my mind. As long as it is so easy to subscribe to an RSS feed (takes about 5 seconds max), why not take the simple steps to support well-run websites? Every subscriber is very important, and as I’ve mentioned, blogs are judged by how many subscribers they have. If I read even one interesting post on a blog, I’ll typically subscribe just knowing that I am boosting their own morale and making their website more attractive to other readers and advertisers. It’s a win-win, and a no-brainer.

5. RSS Subscribing is Completely FREE!
So now you’ve heard why subscribing to a blog is so effective, efficient and mutually beneficial… the most obvious pull should be that it is completely free to sign up to receive updates for your favorite blogs. Some people still don’t understand this, and think they are going to be hit with fees and solicitations along the way. This isn’t a newsletter, so you aren’t going to get hit with spam. RSS just pulls the text/images from new posts and displays it to you in an easy to read format each and every morning with your cup of coffee. So take a chance and subscribe to your favorite blogs’ RSS feeds!

You’ve heard my arguments for subscribing to an RSS feed. If you liked this post and aren’t already subscribed to my feed, why not turn your life around and subscribe to The Net Fool’s RSS?! Bloggers are giving you free information each day, so subscribe to the good ones and repay the favor… I’m sure they will appreciate it.

-The Net Fool

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!