Nobody gets excited about RSS. It has no likes, no follower count to brag about, no dopamine. And yet it might be the single most useful thing in my whole marketing setup right now.
Let me explain, because I think a lot of people are sleeping on this.
How it keeps me smart
I read a lot to keep up, and I cannot visit thirty websites a day to check if they posted something new. So I put all of them into Google Reader. Every morning, everything new from every blog I follow is sitting in one place, waiting. Marketing blogs, SEO people, design sites, competitors. I skim it with my coffee and I am done in twenty minutes.
That habit alone is why I hear about things like Panda or a new Facebook feature before most people around me do. It is an unfair advantage and it is free.
How it grows my own blog
The other half is Feedburner. When someone subscribes to my blog through their reader, I do not have to hope an algorithm shows them my next post. It just lands. No middleman, no pay to reach my own audience. That direct line feels rare and valuable, especially now that Facebook is starting to squeeze how many of your fans actually see your posts.
What I am doing about it
I moved my subscribe link somewhere obvious and I stopped hiding it at the bottom of the page. I want people who like what I write to have the easiest possible way to never miss the next one, on their terms, in their reader.
Social media is where I go to be found. RSS is where I go to be remembered. I need both, but I have a feeling the boring one is going to outlast a lot of the shiny ones.
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