rssHugger - Offering The Chance To Increase RSS Subscribers - My Review

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So I found out about this new site while visiting John Chow’s blog yesterday. I was trying to find out what was going on with the Google and their page rank teasing. Never did find up-to-date info on John Chows blog but I did find an interesting article on SEO 2.0 ( article written a month ago yesterday).

rssHugger is an interesting idea and I am curious to watch it’s growth and usefulness. When I first visited the site I was unclear on what the benefits of such a site could offer. After further investigating I found that rssHugger is does have potential but still unclear of it’s usefulness.

It is very hard to predict a websites success but there are a few things that I look for in a startup.

• Does the website really help people? In what ways is the site helping people?
• Is the site user friendly? Do you have to have tech knowledge to be able use the site effectively?
• Is the usefulness of the site only good for those that are at the top already? Do newbies have the same opportunities are the pros?
• Can the any results be manipulated?
• Is the idea for the website unique or does it at least improve an existing idea?

Since many website owners are now focusing more on subscribers rather than traffic the idea behind rssHugger is what I call “Following the changing web”. New concepts that are keeping up with the changes taking place on the internet are definitely worth tracking.

Collin LaHay is the brains behind rssHugger and offers useful information about the site on the About page.

The Idea

rssHugger is a unique website that aims to bring bloggers and readers together. rssHugger aims to provide blog owners with a unique easy-to-use way to promote their blogs by sending them traffic, building backlinks for search engine optimization, as well as attracting new rss subscribers if the content is interesting to the reader. rssHugger aims to help visitors be able to easily find blogs that write about subjects they are interested in. These subjects include: internet marketing, making money online, charity, sports, gambling, and many more. If the visitors find a blog that they had not previously heard about, they can easily add it to their RSS readers or bookmark it.

After registering and submitting your blog you are prompted to write a review about rssHugger (like I am doing right now). Or you can opt to pay $20 for two years and not have to write a review. Benefits of having a rssHugger page or being a visitor are below.

For the blog owners:

Raise awareness of your blog

Send tons of visitors to your blog

Share traffic with the community

Be part of a viral/buzz marketing campaign

Build deep-links for your blog posts to help with search engine optimization

Get new interested RSS subscribers who view your content on a regular basis.

For the visitors:

Find blogs that interest you

Easily subscribe to many blogs

Skim over hundreds of blogs to find what suits you

So to answer my own questions about the future success of a startup.

Does the website really help people? In what ways is the site helping people?

At this point it is very difficult for me to see the usefulness of this site. I do think it has potential but am not really sure how it’s making anyone’s life easier.
Is the site user friendly? Do you have to have tech knowledge to be able use the site effectively?

I found rssHugger user friendly except for when I tried to enter my domain on the Add Your Feed page. My first attempts brought error messages. I tried a few different ways to enter my domain and feed url but all came back with the same error message. Finally I tried just plain iwebis.com and low and behold it worked. Collin, you really need to include a instructions on that. I was getting ready to give up.
Is the usefulness of the site only good for those that are at the top already? Do newbies have the same opportunities are the Pros?

The more visitors you send to your page, the higher you will rank on the Top 100 page. To keep everyone on an even playing field, the Top 100 blogs page resets everyone back to zero on the 1st of every month. This will allow those that actively participate or promote their page on rssHugger to receive much more promotion in return. If you want to keep your rssHugger blog page ranking high at all times, it is recommended that you add your page to your Blogroll, or make a monthly post updating your visitors about the website.

Though the site does offer everyone the ability to be on the top list. I don’t see why someone would direct people to another site just to see what they already viewed on your site. I would much rather see rssHugger bringing traffic to my site or increased rss subscribers without having to direct people to another website.

If enough buzz is created around rssHugger than it is possible for non professionals blogger to gain some subscribers but those that already have a good following probably do need such a tool.

Can the any results be manipulated?

If all it takes to reach the top of the list is people visiting your rssHugger blog page then all it will really take is a contest or page view trading to improve your position.

Is the idea for the website unique or does it at least improve an existing idea?

I do think this rssHugger has potential but it is missing something. If rssHugger can truly increase your subscriber count then it think will quickly gain popularity but from what I have seen so far by reviewing the site, I don’t really see why bloggers would really need to use rssHugger. That being said I don’t think Collin LaHay should give up on this new venture nor is my perception necessarily correct. It’s just my opinion and I hope I am proved wrong.

I do think that rssHugger’s marketing strategy of having people write reviews before being accepted is unique and seems to be working.