This is a guest post by Charles, who blogs at Big Idea Blogger. You can connect with him via his blog or follow him on twitter @ BigIdeaBlogger.

You have heard the advice by now. Many big-time bloggers have said,

“Get more RSS subscribers. You’ll get more repeat traffic.”

But I’m unconvinced. What about internet marketers like Frank Kern who doesn’t get an iota of RSS subscribers? He still gets tons of readers to his Mass Control blog. Look at his Alexa ranking, it’s 10,591. By comparison, Copyblogger ranks at 10,500.

Yet nowhere on Frank’s blog do you see our familiar bright orange button. (Oh my, he is too lazy to even get RSS subscribers!)

But he still gets hordes of raving fans, and his blog averages 80-100 comments per post. And while the top bloggers earn six figures, Frank’s business earnings is in the millions. How the heck does he get so many followers who are not just regular readers, but regular buyers of his products?

Here’s my answer:

He gets people to join his LIST. His email list.

Is there a difference between RSS and email subscriptions, you ask?

There is. Let me explain.

1. Feed Updates vs Unread Emails

When you see a list of unread emails in your inbox, what do you do? If they are not in the spam folder, chances are you’ll open it. Something has been wired in us since our old days of traditional mail – that we need to at least check out what’s inside the mail before we decide to either continue or skip it. But when you see a new article in your list of subscribed RSS feeds, you say “That’s interesting. I’ll check it out later.” Then you forget about it, and before you know it, the update gets buried below newer updates.

2. RSS tool vs Email

Let’s face it, most people who subscribe to RSS feeds are already bloggers themselves. We bloggers are familiar with the tool. But people outside of blogging don’t know squat about RSS. Before I was introduced to blogging, I didn’t know what RSS is (and I didn’t care). But I knew email before I knew blogs. If you want to reach out to readers beyond the blogging circle, email should be your primary means of contact. Besides, more people read emails than read blogs. Even if all your readers are bloggers, you should consider email because of point #1.

3. Pull vs Push marketing

Blogs are a great medium for “pull marketing”, which are things like building trust and forming relationship with readers, etc. But it must be complemented with the “push marketing” of email. If you have a retail business, when you do a promotion, you don’t just sit there in your “shop” and expect your regular customers to know about it. You got to notify them. Likewise, when you are promoting a product on your blog, you don’t just write a promotion and expect your regular readers to show up. What if they miss your RSS update?

Even if they do show up, are they expecting it? Will they be in the right frame of mind to buy? You got to push the promotion to them. You got to notify them via email. And preferably tell them a little about what you are promoting before directing them to your blog.

4. Bloggers vs Marketers mentality

Here is where it’s not really just about RSS or emails. The difference originates from the thinking behind bloggers and that of marketers. Bloggers treat their blog as their baby. They have spent their lives raising it up.So their blog is the only thing on their minds. All their traffic-building efforts are designed to build up their blog. RSS included.

But marketers have a bigger picture in their minds. They know that their blog is just a piece of their business puzzle. They know that “the money is in the list”. All their traffic-building efforts are designed to build up their list. They know that once they have their reader’s emails, they can both send them great content AND promote to them as often as they like, so long as they don’t abuse the privilege. When they need feedback, they just send their readers to their blog to comment.

That’s where Frank Kern gets his 80-100 comments on every post, despite doing absolutely nothing to get RSS subscribers. He builds his email list instead. As a result, he works less hard, but gets more followers and makes more money than most bloggers.

You should read The Blogging Wealth Gap by David Risley, as recommended by Tom. David does a great job explaining why the difference in results between bloggers and marketers.

Having said all that…

I’m not against RSS, and I’m not against the advice to get more RSS subscribers. Displaying a huge number of readers in your feedburner chicklet does add lots of credibility to your blog, so I’m all for it. But you need to start thinking bigger like a marketer and start building up your email list.

As the saying goes, “the money is in the list”.

This has been a fantastic guest post by Charles, who blogs at Big Idea Blogger. You can connect with him via his blog or follow him on twitter @ BigIdeaBlogger. Please comment below with your thoughts!

It is just 3 days until I marry the most amazing girl and we head off to Canada for 2 1/2 months! So right now I am thinking of the best way to take StandOutBlogger to the next level when I get back. So today I want to look at Podcasting.

Do you subscribe to Podcasts through your iTunes account?

I subscribe to about 10 or more different Podcasts through iTunes because sometimes I really don’t feel like listening to music while I am driving and would rather something entertaining or education.

This got me thinking about SOB, as Podcasting is something that I have become really interested in lately and see it as a great way to find new readers/listeners/viewers, as well as also making sure I am constantly keeping this blog fresh. read this entry »

This is a guest post by Simon Rogers, a fifteen year old from the UK who blogs at Teenius.com. You can connect with him via his blog or follow him on Twitter @teenius

The majority of new bloggers are in it for the money. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that – I’m sure most of the experienced bloggers are in it for the money, too. The thing you have to balance is when you actually start earning from your blog, and this article will discuss your options.

Why is early monetisation so bad?

I know a few of you reading this article will be pondering on the above question. Well, basically, if you try to earn from your blog right at the start, one of two things is going to happen:

1. You cram your site full of adverts and make a reasonable amount
2. You use an “acceptable” amount of adverts and earn very little.

The truth is that in the early stages of a blog’s life, it has neither the traffic nor the authority to start earning, and those two are probably the two most important things.

OK, but WHY is it actually so bad to try and earn from your blog early on? The thing is, if you go with option one (listed above), you’ll find that due to the vast quantity of adverts on your site, people will leave a lot quicker. This won’t help your traffic one bit, and will probably slow down the growth of your blog. If you opt to go with the second option, there isn’t really much point as you’ll hardly earn anything. read this entry »

If you don’t know who Michael Dunlop is, then I am sure you will be starting to  hear about him a lot! For the last couple of years Michael (only 20) has been running RetireAt21.com and has turned it into an extremely influential and profitable website, but in recent months he has turned his attention to a domain that he actually purchased from me for $100, IncomeDiary.com and turned it into a $5,000 a month blog in just 3 short months!

This effort is incredible in itself, but the thing is, that he has done all this, while showing you exactly how to do it yourself. A bit confused? Let’s take a look inside IncomeDiary and highlight a few of the things that Michael has implemented in the process of building this blog so quickly into the profitable blog it is today.

First a quick disclaimer: Michael is a personal friend of mine, and has been a fantastic mentor to me. So this may or may not affect the bias of this post :D

What Is Income Diary?

Income Diary is basically a blog with two main focuses, inspiration and action. Michael constantly inspires you with a mixture of interviews with successful Internet entrepreneurs and lists of big money makers online.

Then calls you to action with his free 7 day course that takes you through the exact steps you need to follow to create your first successful blog! As well as that, there also happens to be a fantastic forum that already has over 2,000 members. read this entry »

I just received an email from a good blogging friend of mine, David Risley. If you haven’t heard of David, He runs a $10,000 a month blog over at PCMech.com and also has a blog about blogging at DavidRisley.com.

This guy doesn’t just talk the talk, he has been blogging for over 10 years now! That is a long time, but who wouldn’t want to be making $10,000 a month – just from blogging?

The reason I am telling you about this, is becuase in the email that he sent me, David let me know about a free ebook that he has  just written called ‘The Blogging Wealth Gap‘ (Click To Visit).

Not Another Ebook About Blogging!

Now I know what you are thinking, ‘Another Ebook About Blogging’, but this one really  surprised me. ‘The Blogging Wealth Gap‘ is all about monetizing your blog (and David obviously knows his stuff there).

David notes that a lot of bloggers do not make good internet marketers – which is why they never make any money! (Are you in that  category?)

Download The Blogging Wealth Gap

In fact the equation he puts across is this:

SOLID BLOGGING + COMPETENT MARKETING = LOTSA MONEY!

This ebook is definately a ‘mindset changing’ ebook, and has made me consider how I run StandOutBlogger.com.

If you are serious about making money from your blog and not Charity Blogging (another concept David discusses in his ebook) then head over and grab this fantastic free resource.

David has even more resources on they way and I am really excited, because David is one of the most ‘no-fluff’ type of bloggers I know. And  what he has got to share is definately worth learning (because I want to be a $10,000 a month blogger).

If you are serious about montizing your blog, I definately recommend that you download The Blogging Wealth Gap.