The other day, as I often do, I was on twitter looking to see what people were talking about. I read a tweet written by a small business asking if having an RSS feed on your site was enough to get the word out about new products. This person is an events photographer and after each event posts his photos on his website to sell.

Having an RSS feed on your site is very important but it’s purpose should not and really cannot be to sell. It’s purpose is only for informing subscribers of new articles or posts on the site. They see the title to the article or post and decide whether or not to click over to your site to read it. If the article title is not enticing to them, they will not click over. If they do not visit the site, you cannot make a sale.

There is also a limited number of RSS feeds that the average person will stay subscribed to at any given time. If they find another site that interests them more than your site, they will unsubscribe to your RSS feed to follow another. This customer is gone and you have no way of contacting them.

It is also important to understand that customers have a limited amount of spare time. If they visit your site, will they see the offer you are presenting immediately? If not, they will click over to the next site they want to look at. You literally only have seconds to get their attention.

Now, lets consider an email list. I’ve written before about the power of the list and I really cannot stress enough the importance of having a list. If you do not have an email list you ARE leaving money on the table.

An email message delivered directly to your customers inbox is far more personal than RSS. The likelihood of them opening a personal message from you is so much greater than them clicking on an article title to come to your site. You have their undivided attention and time to inform them of your offer and convince them to click over to your website. With a mailing list, you also have the ability to offer specials on what may not be today’s product. RSS is only getting the word out about today’s message.

So, no RSS is not enough to get your message out to your customers. It is of utmost importance that you start an email list and start it now. It takes time to build a list and the longer you wait, the more money you are “leaving on the table.”

If you are looking for an email list service, we recommend using AWeber. They are without question the best.

Photo credit: Osvaldo_Zoom

First, for those that do not know, a plugin in a small piece of software that can be installed on your WordPress site to add a specific feature to the site that WordPress does not have as part of the standard software package. There are literally thousands of plugins to choose from, the majority of which are free. By adding plugins, your WordPress site can be very powerful. Along with the many free plugins available, there are also specialized plugins available for a fee. If you still do not find what you need, it is also possible to hire someone to create a plugin for you. The possibilities are endless.

Anyway, the following 7 plugins are ones that we use and feel that every blog must have.

Akismet – This plugin saves you a lot of time in deleting spam comments. You set the specifications and the program learns over time which type of comments you do not want to see. Akismet blocks the spam comments so you do not have to deal with them.

All in One SEO Pack – This plugin allows you to configure each page and each post to be highly SEO friendly.

Contact Form 7 – With this you are able to add an attractive contact form to your blog which will make it easy for visitors to get in touch with you.

Google XML Sitemap – This plugin creates a sitemap of your blog. The biggest benefit of the sitemap is that it makes it easy for search engines to crawl and index new information on your site quickly.

ShareThis – This is a plugin that makes it very easy for your visitors to share information they find interesting on your site with their friends.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – This plugin will add, beneath each post, a list of posts that are related to the subject of that post. This helps keep your readers on your site longer.

StatPress – This will give you an idea of your visitor statistics each day. You will still probably want Google Analytics but this information is available on the site.

While there are other plugins that you will probably want and need depending on your blog, these are the 7 that we feel every blog needs. Hope this list helps. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in comments or through the “Contact Us” page.

FYI: We are offering a special discount of up to 50% off through August 1, 2010 for anyone that would like help setting up a WordPress site. For more information, click here.

Photo credit: Interactive Institute