Do You Have a Subscribe via Email Option?

Whenever I come across a blog that DOESN’T have a “Subscribe via Email” option for following, I’m floored. Why don’t they? They’re cutting off a huge chunk of would-be followers!

If someone doesn’t have their RSS feed link in their sidebar or a Bloglovin’ link or a Feedly link, that can be annoying but it’s ultimately not a problem. You can just manually put their blog URL into Feedly and follow that way. Or, you can figure out what platform they’re on and get their RSS feed that way because the URLs are always the same:

  • Blogger: http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
  • WordPress: http://YOURWEBSITE.com/feed

So my point is: If the RSS/Bloglovin/Feedly links aren’t included, it doesn’t stop you from following the person that way because you can find or add them yourself.

But, if the blogger doesn’t have a subscribe via email option (set up via Feedburner, Mailchimp, or another method) then there’s nothing you can really do about it to get email notifications. And if email is the main method you use for subscribing to a blog and they don’t offer it, well you basically can’t follow the blog.

Sadly, this is the problem I’ve run into a few times now.

I always sit there and wonder: why don’t they have this option in their sidebar? Feedburner may suck a bit, but it’s completely free and not much effort to set up. By adding an option to subscribe via email, you open up the door to potentially hundreds of new followers! Don’t push them away. πŸ™‚

Do you have a ‘subscribe via email’ option on your blog?

Have you ever come across a blog that didn’t have this option?

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58 comments

    1. Hi Priscilla πŸ™‚ I cannot find a way to subscribe to your blog by e-mail, only Twitter, FB, RSS, Goodreads, Instagram and Google +. Maybe it’s because of my browser?

      I have the e-mail subscription both with feedburner, and using the WP jetpack one. I haven’t been able to figure out how mailchimp works – and I really want to do that so I can format my e-mails the way I want to.

      Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews recently posted: Review: Resisting the Musician – Ally Blake
        1. Ohh yeah that’s kind of hard to find. Usually I assume the form is going to be wherever the social media icons are.

    1. Luckily those two people do have Feedburner’s subscribe by email enabled so you can subscribe that way.

      Perpetual Page Turner: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/CVAGi (Click “Get The Perpetual Page-Turner delivered by email”)
      A Reader of Fictions: http://feeds.feedburner.com/readeroffictions (Click “Get A Reader of Fictions delivered by email”)

      But it goes to show how important it is to have the signup form directly on the site! Most people won’t think to click on an RSS icon to subscribe via email.

      1. Thank you Ashley, I completely forgot to check Feedburner’s page for email subscription option.
        As you said, it’s much easier/handier subscribing directly from website. For me, email subscription form is a must have for a website.

    1. I think the problem is not everyone will follow via another method. For example, I only follow blogs via email. I could subscribe via RSS, but I never check it. So even if I follow that way I’m not really getting updates, you know?

    1. Yeah I have a lot of email subscribers too. I’d hate to think of losing any one of them!

  1. I do, because there are some blogs that I love following by email because I want to know what is going on with their blogs because they are my favorites. So I want to provide that same way of following in case someone might think I’m a favorite and want to follow that same way. πŸ™‚

    Stormi recently posted: Review of A Bouquet of Love
  2. I actually had to check if I did or not, but I do lol I just couldn’t remember. It’s one of the basic widgets that WordPress offers thankfully. I’ve seen a few blogs that don’t have it, and although I subscribe via Bloglovin I think it should always be an option.

    Kelsey recently posted: Cat Thursday-Helping with laundry
  3. I definitely do. It annoys me to no end when a blog doesn’t have an email subscription option. BUT I was just informed on twitter that there is something you can do about it! I was just told about blogtrottr.com where you can enter their RSS feed link and your email, and you get their feeds by email. It takes a little more work than a subscription box, but at least it is something.

  4. I just recently added the subscribe by email option. And I even have the number of “subscribers” underneath where they sign up… but my # of subscribers is always up and down (mostly down). So to me, it seems like people don’t use the email subscriber option often… or if they do, they unsubscribe. I don’t know what’s up with that :p

    Rosie // Rosie Reads recently posted: Operation: Get My Netgalleys Under Control!
    1. It is natural for the numbers to go up and down—mine do too. But I think it’s worth having even if only a few people use it. Those people may not want to follow any other way and I’d rather not lose/alienate any of them!

      (But maybe I’m biased because I tend to only follow via email. πŸ˜› )

  5. I’ve actually found a few blogs that have NO following options at all-kind of odd lol.

    I have two following options on my blog-bloglovin and then email subscription through feedburner. I only have 9 followers through the email option, but it’s still nice to offer an alternative to bloglovin πŸ™‚

    Finley Jayne recently posted: Bout of Books 11 {Wednesday’s Updates}
    1. Yeah I always thought an email subscription option was a standard, so it always surprises me when someone doesn’t have it!

  6. This is great! I’m so glad you brought up this topic. I ONLY read blogs that I subscribe to via email, so it’s so disappointing to run across a cool blog that doesn’t have that option. I’ve actually thought about emailing them and asking if they can add it. And yes, my subscribe via email option is at the top of my follow options.

    Tammy @ Books Bones & Buffy recently posted: Are You Ready for BONES Season 10? How About CASTLE Season 7?
    1. Same! I do have some blogs on Feedly but I don’t check it very often. When I want regular updates from a blog I always subscribe via email.

  7. Thankfully I do have a subscribe via email option on the blog πŸ™‚

    I’m mostly a Bloglovin follower though but I know that everyone has their own preference for how they follow blogs so I try to have several different options. Although, I’ve came across blogs before that I was interested in following and couldn’t find ANY way to follow, that annoyed me that I had to actually search for a follow button so I just said screw it and closed out.

    Christy recently posted: My Favorite Books of 2014...SO FAR
    1. Yeah if people have to spend too much time searching for what they want, they’re going to give up (I do that too!). The best way to not alienate your readers/followers is to make everything as clear and easy to find as possible!!

  8. I took mine off. I had feedburner and I kept losing my subscribers. The first time I hot 700 email subscribers, I lost them all and had to start over. Brought it again to almost 900 and lost them all again. I think now I have 464 and I noticed that the number never changed. I deleted it when I tried Jetpack (which sucks) and I just never added the option again.

    I hate following blogs by email. It drives me crazy to have too many emails and I already get enough as it is. I use blogloving or a feed. Most of my blogger friends use those options too.

    If I want to follow a blog. I’ll find a way. Some don’t have blogloving but I bookmark them to my desktop and check that way πŸ™‚

    Nereyda @Mostly YA Book Obsessed recently posted: Mood Board (3): Forbidden!
    1. It is important to consider that Feedburner’s numbering system isn’t accurate whatsoever. Even if it says you have 10 subscribers, you could actually have 30 people getting your emails (as an example). Their numbering system isn’t to be trusted!

        1. Well, to be fair, Google actually bought Feedburner—they didn’t create it. I don’t think they did much work to it, they mostly just left it as-is.

    1. Yeah everyone has something different that works for them. πŸ™‚

      Feedburner’s numbering system is definitely wonky.

  9. Yes! And I definitely think that email followers are the best – the blogs I follow via email (which includes yours!) are the ones I interact with the most because I always get updates from them. Next is Bloglovin’ – I check my Bloglovin’ feed relatively often, but I definitely don’t go through ALL of the posts in my feed. Now my challenge is to get more email followers. I have over 2000 Bloglovin’ followers, but only a couple hundred email followers. I’ve been wanting to improve that number.

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction recently posted: Review - Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb
    1. Thanks Nicole! I definitely think email subscribers are some of the most loyal and frequent visitors. πŸ™‚ A lot of people seem to love Bloglovin’!

  10. The only way I subscribe to anything is through email, so when that’s not an option, I feel like, “Welp – you lost my vote!” Once, I saw that very thing on a site I really wanted to follow, so I emailed them mentioning it and they added the feature.

    To me, it seems like it’d be the FIRST option to allow subscribers via email!

    Sierra recently posted: Caps Lock Thinks: Moving!
  11. I didn’t have one for a long time because I don’t follow anyone by email and didn’t understand why anyone would want to. I eventually added one because I ran across some blogs I wanted to follow that didn’t use Bloglovin. I have tried RSS and can’t be bothered with it. I don’t want any more email than I already get. So I didn’t follow them. Then I got it: options are good. There are a lot of food blogs I would follow more closely if they offered Bloglovin following. Instead, I have to bookmark them and I check them when I remember, which might be once every couple of months instead of daily when I’m on Bloglovin.

    But I can’t say it’s been a huge success on my blog. I have held steady at 8 subscribers (and one of them is me) for months.

    1. You’re right—options are good. πŸ™‚ Everyone has a different method that they use to follow blogs.

  12. I don’t have one… but I’m gonna get one now. I didn’t realize how important it was because I have links for bloglovin’ and rss etc, but after reading this I see it’s quite important for people who isn’t linked to bloglovin’ etc.

    That’s why I love your posts so much. I learn something new just about on a daily basis.

    Carrie recently posted: Giveaway: OWN, Katie Porter
  13. Feedburner sucks!!! I had to move to mailchimp which is waaaay better. Feedburner sent my followers a bunch of codes I can’t decipher. UGH. it happened like 3 times already…*sigh*

    Some blogs don’t have the subscribe option? That’s weird…it’s very convenient for both the blogger and reader.

    Chyna @ Lite-Rate-Ture recently posted: Review: Now & Forever by Susane Colasanti
    1. Yeah MailChimp is a lot better. It’s not free after a certain point though, so I understand why not everyone wants to use it.

    1. I think I still have a grudge against Bloglovin’ from when my blog didn’t update on their site for like 2-3 weeks >:(

  14. Yes, I do! And I’m surprised at how many people have actually chosen to subscribe via email. I don’t usually subscribe via email since all my emails come to my phone. I generally use Bloglovin’, which works just fine for me. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a blog that hasn’t had Bloglovin’ or email though, I must say.

    Great post πŸ™‚

    Tori @ Bookish Affairs

    Tori @ Bookish Affairs recently posted: Discussion: Rating Based on Genre
  15. This is a big thing for me because this is pretty much exclusively how I follow blogs. I see tweets that interest me, or links from other bloggers, or even comment luv, but to really follow a blog, I need there to be an email subscription. When I’ve found a blog I really like and they don’t have an email subscription option I actually ask them where it is – thinking maybe I’ve missed it or prodding them to get one. In at least two instances they added it just for me πŸ™‚ I think it’s something people just don’t realize they don’t have… I guess?

    Berls recently posted: Book Blog Walkers Check-in 34
  16. I don’t follow via email myself, but have had a follow via email option since the birth of my blog. I actually have a lot of followers that way too! Especially some of the older generation that don’t like or know how to use Feedly or Bloglovin. It takes no effort at all, so I’m all for it πŸ™‚

  17. Hmmm…guess I’ll add an email sub link…don’t really want to, but you make a valid point and I guess I should do it. lol I don’t subscribe to anyone by email, because most times you cant read it all and have to link up to it anyways, and so then I end up deleting the emails and not go back later and read all the posts.

    1. I think it’s important to realize that everyone has different preferences. πŸ™‚ Some people hate subscribing by email, but for other people that’s their primary method of following. For me, if someone I want to follow doesn’t have an email option then I just can’t follow them.

  18. I’m so surprised when people just leave the subscribe via email to Feedburner or WordPress, where that service owns the list instead of you. As you can tell from the commentluv link and the other articles it links to, I’m all about owning your assets. By using a Mailchimp account or another email marketing service, you have so much more control over the emails, and you can do more for your subscribers that way. In fact, I just bought a few books that I’m giving away in a subscribers-only raffle.

    Brittany Berger recently posted: The Best Email Marketing Providers for Bloggers
    1. Well if you’re using MailChimp you don’t technically own the list either since it’s hosted on MailChimp. πŸ˜‰

      But yeah, I’m all about owning your assets too. I coded my own email subscription plugin so I handle the lists and templates all on my own! I love that I don’t have to worry about a third party site shutting down since it’s all on me.

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