Dear RSS Subscriber, Should We Really Care About You?
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So here’s something that’s always intrigued us, ever since we started blogging. You’ve been at it for a while, and during your blog’s lifespan, you’ll see that the amount of subscribers just keeps growing and growing. We’ve basically hit the 1500 mark right now for example, but seriously – what good does it do you? Sure, you get bragging rights and in a way it feels like you’ve accomplished something. Subscribers seem to appreciate or enjoy what you blog about, so they choose to be notified of anything new a blogger has to say. In terms of making money, besides inaccurate statistics like Alexa rank and Google pagerank, one of the ways a blog’s success keeps getting measured is by the amount of subscribers it has.
First off; We’ll be the first one to admit that we like having so many subscribers, even if it’s just for those bragging rights. In the past we’ve participated in several memes and contests to crank up the amount. The first thing we used to do in the morning was load up our blog, just to see at what number of subscribers we were. Having gained ten overnight made our day – losing out on one, and we’d be worried if we were doing something wrong. Now, we really don’t put as much focus on it anymore, because really – is it making us more money? No.
Are you sure you know how it works?
What most bloggers don’t seem to realize, is that the feedburner stats are purely based on how often your blog’s feed has been requested in the past 24 hours. It does not reflect the actual amount of people that are subscribed, or even the ones that actually read your last post. Some bloggers go haywire when they see that their numbers have dropped by 50% due to a technical glitch on feedburner’s end…”OMG OMG OMG, over half of the people that read my blog must have decided overnight that my blog sucks, and have canceled their subscription! What did I do wrong?”. Some of the haters even love to point out to some bloggers that they’ve ‘lost’ an X amount of subscribers when they see the feedburner chiclet is showing a lower number than yesterday, often accompanied with a “told you so” attitude. Pity the fools.
More is less.
Anyway, before we wander off – our question to you is if we all should really care that much about the number of subscribers that feedburner shows us? Its not an accurate number, it can be gamed very easily and it doesn’t make you any money. In fact, we’ve started to believe that they are costing us money. The more people check our blog via RSS, the less will actually visit our blog in their browsers. This results in a noticeable traffic loss which will reflect on your Alexa stats for example.
As good as it gets – For now.
We think you’ll need to find the right balance for yourselves and prioritize your goals for your blog. We’re considering to cutting off the full feeds we provide, and going back to the “Click here to continue reading…” model. Sure, it’ll require some effort from the subscribers, who now will have to perform that extra click to get the whole post, but in a way, this will filter out those of you who are really interested and those of you that just happen to have us in your feedreaders. Besides, the blog will most likely load up faster now and we can imagine that we won’t get scraped as much anymore if we start with partial feeds.
More bloggers have touched base on this subject. One particular interesting read we found over at Skellie’s blog.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
choose to be notified of anything new a blogger has to say. In terms of making money, besides inaccurate statistics like Alexa rank and Google pagerank, one of the ways a blog’s success keeps getting measured is by the amount of subscribers it has.(more…)Share This
If I can’t read a blog through a reader, then you don’t get read. I manage 6 blogs of my own, 3 kids, a ranch, and me. I don’t have time to go around blog surfing so reading updates through my reader is really best for me. Maybe you should think about monetizing your feed to it’s full potential.
Lori’s last blog post..VideoBloggers 80+ Resource Guide
I’m here by way of Google Reader if that tells you anything. Honestly, I stop by sometimes when I just happen to think about it, but I’m following so many blogs that my Google Reader is my gateway to most of the content I read online these days. In short, yes… you should care about your RSS subscriber numbers, IMO.
Joe Tech’s last blog post..Swiss Mini Gun is Tiny, Lethal, and Expensive
I don’t think I’ve ever visited the number of blogs I need to without using Google Reader. What I hate are blogs that don’t display the full post in their feed. I just bypass those.
Chris Jacobson’s last blog post..Help Me Raise Money for the Humane Society of Canada
I have 50+ blogs in my RSS reader. Over 90% of them offer a full-feed RSS.
I do read more blog posts than news items, with most news items getting just a look at the headline. If that doesn’t interest me, I skip it. Blogs are similar, but I tend to read the majority of blog posts in my reader. I would say that I at least skim through 90% of blog posts, and I thoroughly read maybe half of those.
If the blog does not have a full-feed RSS, I usually don’t subscribe. I have only a handful of sites in my reader that do not offer a full-feed. Of those that don’t offer a full-feed, I probably only go to the actual blog to read content 25% of the time.
While it’s frustrating to not get visits to your website–I frequently have more feed subscribers than I have daily visits to my blog–those are readers you would not otherwise have. At least if they have you in their reader, you have a shot at getting their attention. If you’re not in their reader, they are more likely to forget about you. It’s rare that I visit a blog (except for new blogs) that I am not also subscribed to in my reader. I may not visit as often, but I possibly wouldn’t visit at all if they are not in my reader and I forget about them!
dcr’s last blog post..Grrr Thursday
The first month the first what I did when I woke up was reload my blog to check how many subscribers I got, just like you said. But know my blog will be 3 months old and I really don’t care about it. I have +100 subscribers daily and I feel good when this number increase but is not a priority right now. Actually I’m focused on my SEO and get more traffic through search engines.
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I use google analytics to track how many people click on my subscribe to link. That way I know that I’m getting subscribers, rather than search engines etc etc picking up on my RSS feed.
Rhys Wynne’s last blog post..One
Very interesting thanks. I wondered why it only updated once per day. I still like seeing the number go up but I also know it is not the end of the world when it goes down.
I put a lot more stock in comments and am trying to get that beefed up these days.
good post.
cuzzy’s last blog post..Rolling a blog joint – Mar. 5
Cow, you bring up yet another great point. It’s true that subscribers stop visiting your blog because it’s all in the feed, but people like me do not stop. I love checking feed subscribers and any type of layout change, so I actually look at my feed just to open the post in a tab. I know it’s pretty pointless to subscribe to feeds, but I also want to help out
-Mike
Mike Huang’s last blog post..Blog Topics Are Unlimited
If I say truth, No.
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I will unsubscribe any blogs that doesn’t offer full feeds, it’s like a waste of time. Besides, having the right to brag for having high number of subscribers, it should somewhat determine how loud your blog’s voice is. I’m coming via FeedDemon btw
Vincent Chow’s last blog post..Bill Gates Runs Like a Girl
It’s Google reader makes easy.I somtimes read hundreds of blog in a day and it’s not suitable to check the website for each one rather than read all of those site using Google Reader.
Tech Blog’s last blog post..Google And Microsoft Are Bidding For Digg
I read a few blogs that are not a full feed. If the first paragraph is interesting, I will go to the blog. For the most part, they are.
If I want to react to a post and leave a comment , I will go to the blog.
Commentluv may also encourage people to leave comments and be discovered by others. I should look into it.
Monetize the footer too even if that don’t bring much money(cheap advert. or affiliates). You did it before.
Steve McGrath’s last blog post..Does Sex Sell? My Adult Blog Experiment
I cant read through a RSS reader either.
I have my fav RSS’s added to my toolbar in firefox. I then look at the title and if I am interested, I will visit the blog….
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hello guys,
I always love 2 go and click rss button..and subscribe its a normal practice for me.i love it no need 2 login 2 the sites…
regards
anil
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I never really considered how many readers can be just looking at your RSS feed and not your website. That is definitely a problem for monetization. But as it seems, you definitely need to be keeping pace with all of those loyal readers.
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What about the money, have you noticed a relative increase in blog income as subscribers increase? Whilst my RSS count fluctuates I’ve never noticed my number of RSS subscribers have any influence on my income.
Making The Money’s last blog post..$20 Off Any New Listing In The Aviva Directory
Ahh , there you go .. I think your blog has gone totally off topic. You blog about your RSS reader , reviews and no tips and tricks of Make Money online. But by cutting off the full feed feature, I think you havnt done anything good for your blog. Anyways, c ya sometime later.
Kanak Bhandari’s last blog post..Thank God that electricity doesnt smell !! Toilet turbine Generate electricity by flushing
I’m like Mike Huang, I use my feeds to remind me of my favorites and usually go to the post on the site. I manage about four sites now, work and have a family and it’s a great way to keep track. The ones I like best I put on my homepage – like JohnCow.
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The answer is yes and no.
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I like to experiment and I was thinking of trying the same thing. You have more subscribers to lose so YOU experiment and report back to us how it went.
I don’t want to be the Mooron that screws it up.
I only use the RSS to remind me to check out some blogs every now and then. I don’t usually read them in the feed.
Not John Chow’s last blog post..By: Not John
Perhaps you might want to try monetising RSS feeds like the Big Beef? I usually let posts store a few days before using Google Reader to pore through all the sites I subscribe to. Imagine the amount of clicking I would have to do if just John Chow went partial-feeds!
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Oops, I meant John Cow
Confusion reigns
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