If you don't offer your readers the opportunity to subscribe to your feed via email, you should!
Having an actual name (well, email address anyway) for your subscriber vs. just a number (which is what you have with RSS subscribers) is a major advantage.
You can offer an email subscription option for free with FeedBurner. (There are also many paid-for services, one of which is FeedBlitz, made popular this weekend as a sponsor of the Savvy Blogging Summit in CO.)
But for this post, I'm going to talk about FeedBurner. If you use a different service, you should be able to accomplish what I explain below; just ask your provider or search Help to find out how.
(By the way, if you're new to this, here's how to get and optimize a FeedBurner feed.)
The email subscription sign up process
When someone signs up to be an email subscriber of your blog, the process goes like this:
- They enter their email address in the appropriate form (get the code or the link to your form from the Publicize tab in FeedBurner).
- They are sent a verification email in which they are asked to confirm their subscription request.
- They click on the link in the email (or copy and paste the URL provided) to confirm.
- Once they do so, they're signed up.
The problem with the sign up process
Sometimes one will enter their email address (as in Step 1 above), but then never verify their subscription. In effect, the process was never completed and they are therefore not getting your emails.
It's a bummer…but it's also an opportunity!
Who knows why someone doesn't verify their email subscription (they forgot, they overlooked it, they weren't aware, laziness??), but the fact is, they were at least interested enough in your blog to provide their email address in the first place. Therefore, there's a good chance they'll follow through with a little nudge.
Not only is this an excellent opportunity to add another subscriber, it's also a great opportunity to connect with another person in the blogging community.
First, find the email addresses of unverified subscribers:
1. Login to FeedBurner.
2. Choose your feed title.
3. Click on the Publicize tab.
4. Click Email Subscriptions
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "View Subscriber Details". You'll see the list of email addresses of your subscribers pop down.
Turn an unverified subscriber into a real subscriber
With email in hand, send them a short, friendly note telling them you noticed they hadn't completed the verification process and ask them if they have any questions you can answer personally.
You can then direct them to look for the verification email they received from FeedBurner and follow the directions. If they don't have it, they can resubscribe (delete their email address in FeedBurner before they do).
Now, I wouldn't go overboard here — a few sentences in your email would suffice — but it's worth a shot. If they don't respond, just let it go and move on; don't bug 'em! 
Update: According to Julia and Andrea, there's also a plugin for this! I didn't know that. Grab the link in the comments below! Thanks for the tip, ladies!
Have you tried it? Has it worked for you?
Here at BloggingWithAmy you'll find tips, tools & tutorials about blogging and websites. In plain English. Want to 
That has always puzzled me! I have several unverified subscribers and didn't know what to do. Unfortunately, it has been over a month or more since they first subscribed. Have you had success sending them an e-mail???
What does anyone think out there…should I send an e-mail to them, even if some go back to January????!!!! Yikes!!!
I would suggest sending an email only to the ones that are not highlighted in FeedBurner. If you notice the image in Step 5 above, there's a line in there which says:
In other words, FeedBurner already tried to contact them 5 times and they didn't respond. Therefore, I would only do the more recent ones (unhighlighted).
I checked and none of them are highlighted…is that odd? A few of them signed up in February…do you know how often Feedburner tries to contact them? Once a month?
On a side note….the more I hear about WordPress…the more I wish I had chosen them in the beginning!!!! (I use Blogger….any plug-in for Blogger??)
Thanks Amy!
Never even thought of that and I did have an unverified in mine. Thanks for the tips. I love the tips you always share with us.
i was doing this ever few months a while back but the fact of the matter was that almost all of the email addresses that weren't verified didn't actually work so i decided it wasn't worth my time to continue sending those emails.
We use a plugin for this, it's called 'Notify Unconfirmed Subscribers' here is the link…
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/notify-uncofirmed-subscribers/
Oh, thanks Julia! I didn't know about the plugin!!
Amy, also look into the Notify Unconfirmed Subscribers plugin. Erin Chase told me about it. It was much faster than copying all of those unverified addy's!
Thanks Andrea, you and Julia are in cahoots!
What about unsubscribers? Is there anything we can about that? Though very few have done so, every time I see someone do so, it breaks my heart. I just want to ask what I did wrong.
I don't do it regularly, but I have sent a friendly email telling the person I was sad to see them go and that my goal is to provide valuable information and would appreciate any feedback.
I've already installed the NUS plug-in. Thank you for this useful post.
Thanks Amy for this post! I was just looking at a few unverifieds today and wondering what was going on! I am new to blogging (1 month ago) and I have NO clue what feedburner does and what all that stuff means on it! I didn't even have a twitter account until 2 weeks ago
A new facebook page (as of yesterday) ….and my blog….omg, that is an entire other thing….html, css …I REALLY have no idea what's goin on with that 
I basically know how to make a new post and I'm pretty happy about that! You are like a genious with this stuff and I am so happy to have found you! Thank you!
You are so welcome and don't feel bad, there is a LOT to learn. It's totally overwhelming at the beginning but you'll get it! Slow and steady…
Thank for the tips. I'm using the plugin to notify the unverified feedburner email subscriber.
Well Thanks for the suggestion. I have pending unverified emails, so I am going to send them a reminder personally. is there are way of subscribing directly without an email verification?
Hmmm…I don't believe so but I wouldn't recommend that. You want to make sure people are opting in and there isn't someone just adding email addresses randomly.
Ooh That is a good point
It will make life more miserable.
Thank you Amy! Once again you've answered one of my many blogging questions! You are an invaluable source of useful information. That's why I keep coming back to you for answers.
Glad to help!