I'd like to invite you to help me with a not-so-hypothetical situation. Let's say I have a new blog and I think it is essential that people can subscribe via RSS and/or email so that in either case, the person is notified when new entries are posted.
I’m looking for the simplest way to handle these subscriptions. Here’s one thing to consider:
I could have a link at the top of the blog (and with permalinks) that says “Subscribe�?. When clicked, the next page (via pop-up or javascript? Ajax?) displays these two options:
Updated: I should also mention that the email subscriptions will only be for members who have previously registered on the site.
An important part for me is context and clarity. As opposed to there being a random and persistent RSS button in the sidebar, the “subscribe�? link would be at the heading of the blog and make clear for the reader what exactly they are subscribing to.
In the case that I have a number of subscriptions to offer, I might have a "View All Subscription Options" page that offers the choices above for other types of feeds, even Flickr, Del.icio.us, etc. This might be similar to the way Corante or 43Things does it. This page might also include a “superfeed�? that is a feed of all feeds.
So, dear reader, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Would this work for you? How else might I provide email and RSS subscriptions in an integrated and understandable format? What am I not considering?