A few months ago, I began a process of unsubscribing from so many of the newsletters I took over time. I'm overwhelmed with email, which only gets worse when I am traveling. I decided that shifting to RSS or feed-based versions of these publications was a way to save my aching inbox.

I haven't looked back. In fact, I get great joy when I see something hit my inbox via email and realize that maybe I can stay updated in other ways. I've also realized that I resent my favorite publications less because of the change.

Search Engine Guide is a good example. For years, I've regularly received the daily mailings that first Robert Clough, then Jennifer Laycock, would put out. But after a trip, I'd have a bunch of mailings piled up in my inbox, waiting for me to read each one to see if there was an item of interest. It was hard to do.

I don't get the newsletter any longer. Don't be sad, Jennifer -- I take the Search Engine Guide feed. My life is much better for it. Instead of it being a hassle to go through each email, I can quickly scan for particular items of interest. And yes -- I do click through to read on the site.

I used to take a bunch of ClickZ email newsletters. It was the same hassle as with Search Engine Guide. They'd pile up while I was traveling. Don't panic, Rebecca Lieb [who runs ClickZ]. I get the ClickZ Feeds and have a much better relationship now.

Relationship? Yes, I've had a relationship with all these publications, one that has been hurt by my email onslaught. It's not Search Engine Guide's or ClickZ's fault that I've let so many of their newsletters build up while traveling. But they've still sat there in my inbox, almost like homework I didn't want to do. I resented having to play catch-up, even though it wasn't their faults.

With feed subscriptions, I have a relationship with both publications and individual items. This is important. I get overwhelmed with the feed items I need to read, just like with email. On any given day, I will go through 400 to 1,000 items. However, I read "river of news" style. This means any resentment I have about the onslaught of items goes against my reading list overall, rather than a particular publication. In other words, I don't think that darn Jennifer, she's generated a week's worth of Search Engine Guide newsletters I've got to read. I think -- wow, busy day in news. I blame the day, not particular publications.

As a publisher, I'm not afraid of the inevitable shift to feeds. Search Engine Watch has had them now for ages, and Daggle's got one here. I'm also not giving up on email, since I know it's not dead. In fact, I recently added an option to subscribe to Daggle content via email (use the box over there on the right hand side), since Feedburner makes this so easy plus keeps you in control of the email list.

If you're running email lists but not offering feeds, I'd say get one up soon. Sure, email's not going away. Sure, email might let some people have more of a bond, as this Nielsen Norman report found. But personally? I'm having the opposite reaction to email, and I don't think I'm the only one. Do email, but do feeds also.

MediaPost covered that report in its Just An Online Minute... RSS Versus E-mail column back in June. Interestingly, MediaPost is another of the publications where I started getting resentful at so much that was hitting my inbox. Just before that article had come out, I'd actually wanted to drop a number of their emails but couldn't for the life of me figure out where the feeds were hidden. That article mentioned it as an aside, saving me.

I just unsubscribed from another MediaPost newsletter today, Online Spin. That's what prompted this post. Getting to the bottom of the newsletter, there was the usual "how to unsubscribe" option. But nothing in those instructions or in the newsletter itself suggested there was a feed alternative, for the email fed-up subscriber.

When I unsubscribed, the confirmation page also failed to suggest perhaps I might be interested in a feed alternative. The home page for the newsletter itself says zilch about getting it by feed, as far as I can see. If it weren't for me actively working to find a feed alternative, I'd be one more subscriber lost to MediaPost.

(FYI, to do what I did, you have to find the corresponding MediaPost publication on their blogs here, then go to the particular one like Online Spin here, then hope your feedreader understands autodiscovery, because the feed location isn't out in plain view. If it doesn't, view the source code of the page, look for the link rel="alternative" section at the top, and the part in quotes after href is the feed).

Personally, I can't wait until feeds go even more mainstream to the point that notification of my credit card statement or phone bill or frequent flyer newsletter or other mundane things are available to me in RSS. I know some of this stuff is already beginning to happen, and I'm certainly looking out for it more and more.

But back to the marketing-side, I think it's super important to consider the email-to-RSS shift that's happening. It's definitely something I'm re-reviewing in the sites I watch over.

Take my Search Engine Report newsletter, for example. Every edition like this one has explained for ages that there are feed options available (this got left off the most recent edition, oops!). I'm feel good about that. But perhaps it could be clearer. On the sign-up page, anyone looking at the navigation links can see we offer feeds at Search Engine Watch -- but it could be more explicitly linked to the email sign-up box. And if you unsubscribe? I'm as guilty as MediaPost of not offering you a feed alternative.

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