If Your Blog Doesn’t Have an RSS Feed, Don’t Have a Blog

Note: This post has been moved to my personal website, check it out to read the most up-to-date version and keep up with my latest postings: https://liamhammett.com/if-your-blog-doesnt-have-an-rss-feed-dont-have-a-blog-edr7LzWA

It’s becoming increasingly common lately that people I want to follow are rolling out their very own blog platforms, in an effort to move away from WordPress and centralised platforms like Medium.com.

That’s perfectly commendable, and it often has some fascinating results, but there’s one thing that I come across all the time that destroys people’s chance of me reading their newer content — no RSS feeds.

I use Feedly as my daily RSS reader, and it keeps me up-to-date with hundreds of blogs so I can skim over them and pick out the titles I do want to read. I don’t read every article that comes into it, but I still get to enjoy the content that I like from a variety of writers.

If your bootstrapped personal blog platform doesn’t have an RSS feed I can subscribe to when I come across your site; your future content is pretty much dead to me. No, I’m not going to go back and check your website every week. No, I’m not going to subscribe to your weekly newsletter. No, I’m not going to follow you on Twitter on the off-chance that I see a tweet you make when you publish a new post.

RSS, Atom, and even JSON feeds are the right tools for the job, but you have to offer them if you want me to read your articles.