Comments on: RSS Feed Counters – Should You Reveal Your Numbers?

By: Best of ProBlogger - 2007

Best of ProBlogger - 2007 — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 13:53:08 +0000

[...] RSS Feed Counters – Should You Reveal Your Numbers [...]

By: Martin Vereecken

Martin Vereecken — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:25:38 +0000

My blog is new (it’s only a month or so that I’m really dived into it) and I’m not planning to show any numbers yet, because, as others already said, it might give the impression your site is not interesting and they could leave it before actually looking at the articles.
I believe my site is interesting for those who do lotus notes, and I have 10 years of experience that I started to share just now. It would give the wrong impression.

By: ym

ym — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:33:11 +0000

sorry, I’m just a few days old blogger. How do I get the feed burner counter.

And how do I make the recent viewed blogger show on my blog.

http://dreamerbigmoney.blogspot.com

By: Ponn Sabra

Ponn Sabra — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:14:25 +0000

Update: 9 days later, I put my feed counters on a Links, etc. page. After much discussion with my blogging colleagues, RSS feed subscribers are not my top priority, so I’m not displaying it (though 3 in my challenge asked for me to display the #s for the sake of the challenge).

My top priorities are my goals in networking online for my areas of expertise, building powerful partnerships, creating content pertinent to those goals, and increasing traffic. Ironically, my ezine subscribers grow substantially every day but my RSS feed #s remain the same. Since ezine and RSS subscribers are 2 different populations and different purposes my internet marketing products/services caters to my ezine subscribers, so I’m all around much happier with this decision.

I’ve increased the size of my RSS icon, as Wendy recommends, and changed the color to match my theme…this has not done anything dramatic to my #s yet…7 days is not long enough to judge though…

Lesson learned: Test and Track results!

By: Jonathan Franzone

Jonathan Franzone — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 06:41:24 +0000

I’m hovering in the mid 30s right now and I proudly display my reader stats. I guess it is more of a motivation for me to keep blogging and to make sure my content is good. When the content is good and I am keeping that handful of readers happy then the number steadily inches higher. That’s what drives me to keep going and work even harder. If the counter wasn’t there I think I would be able to take a day of or even two and not worry about it. Who cares if my numbers fall a little? But the numbers are there and they won’t let me rest!

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 14:09:35 +0000

I just added my feed readers a few minutes before reading this post and I am quite impressed about people opinions, I don’t have very much subscribers but I think that is a good idea to share how many readers you have even if the number is not big. It makes your readers gain credibility and on the second view the content is more important than the number of readers.

By: Ponn Sabra

Ponn Sabra — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:55:50 +0000

Darren Strome,

- Go to “Publicize” Tab.
- On the Left-hand side under “Services” there’s a choice ” Feedcount”.

You can customize colors, then get the html code to embed in your template.

Good luck!

By: Ponn Sabra

Ponn Sabra — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:49:36 +0000

Well, I’m going to “test” the waters today…I just put up my widgets, I’m highly interested what kind of affect it has, because I have 225 email subscribers, but only 31 Feed readers.

I’m at least give it a month, because I’m running a 4-week challenge to attempt to increase 500+ new subscribers in one-month…high expectations, but a colleague achieved it, so it’s worth the challenge.

Honestly, reading this post and everyone’s comments convinced me to put up my counters, even though the challenge started 6-days ago. Sp thanks for creating a great dialogue on this interesting subject.

All my research shows that you should at least wait until you have over 50 subscribers, or 3-digits to share.

For those to post #s before then, I think “Good for them, congrats for their courage and pride”; but I personally subscribe to someone’s feed not because of the #s, but because of the content.

Nonetheless, when I see a blog with 5000+ and I’m somewhat interested in their blog, I definitely subscribe. If I see one with 10,000+ subscribers, I definitely subscribe on the spot. In the 100s, I go with my solely on my interest in the content generated.

By: Sean Hackbarth

Sean Hackbarth — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 03:09:32 +0000

I’m rather lazy (too busy writing content) so I keep my RSS number on my weblog so I can quickly see how many subscribers I have.

By: Friedbeef

Friedbeef — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:36:40 +0000

I revealed mine when it crossed the 100 mark…. I do agree with momentum. Mine’s at 2000 now and I suspect many of them judge my site based on the number too… like Jon mentioned in comment 2

By: 60 in 3

60 in 3 — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 21:29:38 +0000

You’re on Q. First one to 50 subscribers has to publicly admit his biggest and most embarassing mistake made while blogging. Deal? :)

Gal

By: Siddharth Thakkar

Siddharth Thakkar — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 21:09:09 +0000

Interesting post Darren.

I personally would like to visit a blog and see the number of subscribers it has on the feedburner count. I associate credibility with it. I guess it comes very naturally to me. But that does not mean I would disregard reading any post only because the blog has a handful of subscribers. I would rather subscribe if I feel the content on the blog is worth it.

By: Q at $1 Million to My Name

Q at $1 Million to My Name — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:32:41 +0000

60in3,

I have 31 readers now. I’ll race ya!

By: Cindy Sue Causey

Cindy Sue Causey — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:36:44 +0000

Ask me STNY..? :wink:

Actually, mine’s a conscious choice in that “busy” pages bother me.. Besides which, that type of associated number is the least of the message I’m hoping comes off these fingertips.. :)

STNY :: Same Time Next Year.. (Thus opening a whole ‘nother can of worms in the form of in which calendar program do we store the related reminder..)

By: Dy (www.dyphan.com)

Dy (www.dyphan.com) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:40:33 +0000

small or large… I will show my rss reader numbers… It’s just a number. It’s not the size, but the motion in the ocean.

By: Stephen Hopson

Stephen Hopson — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:22:57 +0000

Darren:

Well, when I first started blogging, I had a Feedblitz counter up on there but then I started to catch advice from other bloggers, many of whom recommended that you wait until you have a nice number before you do it for “creditability” purposes. So I took it down.

But one neat trick if you’re keen on showing establishing yourself as an authority without showing actual subscriber count is to install Clustermaps on your blog. It’s a neat little HTML code that tracks where your visitors came from. It shows a bunch of red dots on a global map. The neat thing is you could a bunch of red dots on this map but only have a handful of subscribers.

Obviously if you have a lot of red dots on Clustermaps, it better than your low number of subscribers. That’s my opinion.

Clustermaps can be found at: http://clustrmaps.com/getone.php

Stephen Hopson

By: hanneng

hanneng — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:58:11 +0000

there is no right or wrong.
If like it to see number, just put it in, otherwise don’t.

By: Dar

Dar — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 13:25:54 +0000

Thanks for a great post, Darren. My blog is still fairly new, and I was curious as to whether one should show numbers. Sounds like it can go either way. Appreciate your thoughtful post!

By: Rian

Rian — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:14:19 +0000

My subscriber numbers fluctuated so much every day that I took it down to see if something was wrong. There was a hiccup over at Feedburner, but nothing major. Personally though, I’ve left the count off for a while as having about 30 myself isn’t too impressive. But after reading this post, I may put it back. Perhaps a little tweaking and the counter itself will encourage more subscribers? Yes, a tutorial on how to increase our counts would be awesome! Thanks Darren.

By: 60 in 3

60 in 3 — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:24:48 +0000

After reading this post, I finally took a look at my feedburner page and saw that I have 30 subscribers. Instead of being depressed, I felt elated. I have 30 people who enjoy my writing enough to actually subscribe. This is great!

Why be ashamed of something like this? I suppose if you’re a big time writer trying to launch a commercial website then 30 sounds bad, but I’m one guy trying to help people learn a bit more about fitness. I have no intention of making this a business. For me, 30 regular readers after less than two months is a cause for celebration and pride.

So yes, I added the little widget to my site. 30 readers!!! WOOHOO!!! :)

Gal