Yeah, and then I look directly to the right and see, “Don’t miss out: SUBSCRIBE to our blog!”

WTF indeed. Something to consider. ;-)

Sorry, only a contributor to this blog. Not the designer. Talk to the editor/designer on that one, but I’m sure he’s watching closely to this discussion. :D

What to change it to? There are a lot of things, but this is also very personal and specific to the blog. It could be “add this site to your feed reader”, “Include this blog in your feed reader”, “Free subscriptions”, “Alternative Access”…if your readers understand what feeds are, then the icon is enough and you need no words. If they don’t, then you need to educate them if you want them to add your feed to your feed reader or get your blog content (typically through feed services) in their email inbox.

Many are treating their emailed feeds as newsletters, so “free email subscriptions” is no different than treating your blog as a newsletter. The content is pushed to the client via email rather than having them come visit your site directly.

If you want to encourage them to visit directly, to log more traffic and clickthroughs for ads and such, then you need to customize your blog email versions accordingly to encourage them to visit. The same applies to those with feed reader. You don’t get the clickthroughs and direct traffic if they only read your site through their feed reader.

So your choice of words is dependent upon your end goals and demographic needs. What words will they understand best? Or do you need to say anything?

No Rss icons and you’re still using the word subscribe. LOL.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen the advice to change your wording from subscribe to something else, but nobody tells you what that something else should be. I’ve typically used…”Get free updates”, but I’d be interested to know what others are doing.