Recently, I launched an experiment to discover how many new RSS subscribers I could attract in only 24 hours. While conducting the experiment, I set aside some much needed time to conduct an in-depth study of BlogaPro’s FeedBurner stats.

One interesting statistic was the number of individuals who had subscribed to the RSS feed through an email subscription.  In fact, less than 5% of the individuals who regularly read the RSS feed subscribe via email.  An interesting question crossed my mind…

How many subscribers had chosen to subscribe to the feed but had not verified themselves by clicking on the verification link in the email FeedBurner sent them? After conducting a search in Google, I stumbled upon “Notify Unconfirmed Subscribers” (or NUS), a WordPress plugin written in 2007 which is still supported in the latest version of WordPress.

The author, Keith Dsouza, writes that,

“Many users simply do not verify and thus leaving a lot of readers who do want to read your feeds cannot due to the verification email going unnoticed or landing in the spam folder.”

According to Dsouza, “NUS asks you for your FeedBurner username and password and fetches all those unconfirmed subscribers allowing you to send a personalized email to them asking them to verify their subscriptions.”

If you’re not too confident about handing over your FeedBurner username/password combination, worry not. I have been through the code (which is made available on the website) and username/passwords are being used for legitimate purposes as described on his website.

I decided to give Dsouza’s plugin a try.  The plugin revealed that BlogaPro had 41 individuals who had attempted to subscribe to the RSS feed but had not verified their email address.  Using the plugin, I wrote a customized message encouraging these 41 individuals to join. Since sending the friendly email, I now have 8 new subscribers - 8 more subscribers than I had previously.

Before we start I have to share the fact that I absolutely love the ‘plugins’ feature that is built in to the WordPress platform.

My second favorite plugin (situated behind Askimet, of course) at the moment is HeadSpace2, a plugin developed by John Godley of Urban Giraffe.

John describes his plugin as,

…a powerful all-in-one plugin to manage meta-data and handle a wide range of SEO tasks. With it you can tag your posts, create custom titles and descriptions that improve your page ranking, change the theme or run disabled plugins on specific pages, and a whole lot more.

Yet, the most powerful feature? HeadSpace2 allows authors to publish unique/general title and meta tags for each page, post, category, and archive page. Yes, think “unique content’.

That’s not all.  HeadSpace2 integrates well with existing WordPress installations.  As is demonstrated in the image above, new fields are added to the ‘Write Post’ section of the WordPress platform providing authors with the opportunity to publish title and meta tags in their posts.

For details on how to utilize the plugin, check out the video tutorial below.  Information related to the plugin or a link to download the plugin can be found through Urban Giraffe.  If you do decide to use the plugin, consider supporting John and his valiant efforts.  Keep up the good work, John!

There are two key tips you ought to follow if you anticipate being a successful blogger.

1. Separate yourself (along with your blog, of course) from the rest of the pack.
2. Publish quality content that is unique and well-written.

Addressing recommendation number one is often difficult - it’s not always that clear on just how far you should try and “separate” your blog.  Nonetheless, it’s always best to be yourself and let your blog reflect your personality.

Here is a suggestion.  Have you ever thought about including a short video in the “About” section of your blog?  There is only so much you can learn about a person sitting behind a blog.

Benefits of including video

Videos tend to more effective in conveying your personality.  Sure you might publish terrific blog posts, but there’s something engaging about a video that even a well-written blog post can’t rival. Videos provide the opportunity for your readers to bond/relate with the you on another level.

What are some other benefits of including video?

1. A good value often portrays a feeling of interactivity.
2. It’s eye catching not to mention stimulating.
3. You can use it with different forms of advertising.
4. You readers are more likely to return on another visit.

Don’t forget the text

While I have encouraged the use of video, I would not suggest removing any text that is already present. Why?

1. Text is easier to scan
2. It consumes less bandwidth.  Not everybody has access to DSL/Cable.
3. Text is more beneficial in terms of SEO.

You’re probably wondering what you should include in your video?  Well, I wouldn’t make it too long - one minute tops.  Introduce yourself, explain what your blog is about and leave it that.

If you’re looking to jump on the bandwagon, sign up with Viddler and get those videos rolling.  If you’re looking for inspiration, check out iJustine’s page.

Check out my own video

I recently published a video to supplement my autobiography.  All in all, the response has been rather positive.  In fact, visitors are now more willing to follow me through different social media in addition to subscribing to my RSS feed.

If any of you have included videos in your autobiography, please do share.  I am thinking about reworking the video since it lacks some quality; some inspiration is needed - I am a programmer not a video editor…

Technorati has been a popular tool ever since its inception. It ranks as the 504th most popular site in the entire world [at the time of publication] according to alexa.com. There is of course no wonder, that many bloggers use the site in an attempt to garner a reputation.

A few crafty individuals have discovered that mutually agreeing to exchange Technorati favorites can boost the publicity of your site in turn resulting in higher web traffic. An early adopter of the technique was “Maki” of doshdosh.com.

A site that was once struggling to receive web visitors suddenly became one of the leading sites on the topic of ‘Internet Marketing’. In fact, Maki exchanged so many Technorati favorites that doshdosh.com was suddenly catapulted into the ‘Top 100′ most popular blogs.

Technorati utilizes a ranking scheme called “Authority”. There are two ways that a site can increase its authority:

1. By another site linking to an article on your site.
2. By another user adding your site to their technorati favorites.

Because the algorithm behind the authority scheme is in fact so simple and easy to understand, it is easy to take advantage of.

Experiment

As a social experiment, I challenge all of you to exchange favorites with the visitors to your site. In fact, I’ll help you get the ball rolling…

1. Add BlogaPro to your technorati favorites by following the favorites link.

2. Inform me that you have participated in the technorati favorites exchange:

• You can either create a post linking to this article (which will create a trackback) OR

• Leave a comment down below providing your site’s URL and your technorati username/ID - I’ll reciprocate by adding you to my “favorites”.