Sometimes I do stupid things… no really! For instance last May it seemed people were just completely obsessed with my feedburner count on subscribers. If it went down I got emails asking what happen if it went up I got emails congratulating me. Pretty weird.
So one day I decided just to remove it. Then I started getting emails that there was no possible way for people to sign up for my feed… I thought to myself, “whatever, people can figure it out if they really want to” (which is the lazy way out).
So yesterday I was looking at my Feedburner stats and pretty surprised to see they look to have completely plateaued at around 16,500 readers since I took the little counter off.
Meanwhile my online arch nemesis John Chow skyrockets up to 27,000+ readers.
Sure I could use a lot of excuses… but people can always come up with excuses why they fail.
So yesterday I pinged unique blog designs to make my RSS button clickable and now hopefully the trend will go back up!
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 106 comments… read them below or add one }
People only subscribe to chows rss cause his site takes 25 minutes to load
Not anymore…remember Johnchow V3 is up and running!
Some people will think 15,000 subscribers are a lot and be impressed. Some will think that is not very many. It all depends on their perception.
If people would just take a few minutes to look at thier own browser they would see that all the major browsers have a RSS button on them that does the same thing…
Never assume… Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean users can figure it out. We constantly battle that at ToolBarn… and bought a Coradiant Truesight to help battle that. Not cheap, but well worth the investment.
So, all this time nobody could subscribe to your feeds because your feed button was not clickable ? Are you serious ?
A good reminder to not forget the basics. Not everyone knows to look around for rss symbols or even subscribe buttons (if they are not well placed).
Interesting, I wouldn’t be suprised if that has some influence…
I was wondering what the effect would be. I think if you had it where you simply enter in your email and subscribe, it would work out well. I don’t use Google, Yahoo, or any of the other subscription options, so if there isn’t typically a place for me to enter my email easily, I don’t subscribe.
not everyone has a few minutes to look around for something that is should be placed in the most visible spot…that’s why bloggers are using big orange buttons so that everyone can easily see it and subscribe to it if they wish. People are lazy these days.
I think the reason is quite simple: Humans are like sheep sometimes. I guess seeing something like 15,000 subscribers is impressive for many and they’ll say: “This website must be incredibly good if 15,000 people read it everyday, let’s subscribe too!”.
The reason your feedburner stats plateaued was not because you weren’t getting new subscribers, it was because they stopped subscribing through feedburner. Feedburner only counts people who use the feedburner link to RSS. I subscribed during the time the feedburner icon was disabled through Google Reader. My RSS feed (for instance) is not coming through Feedburner, and as such is not counted.
Never fear, you probably still have more readers than John Chow – you just can’t quantify it because you split your readers into two different feeds. People would need to drop their old RSS subs and re-subcribe through your new feedburner linked icon to get counted.
Sorry if this is a double post, my first comment seemed to get eaten.
Yeah I had to manually put your feed link in to my reader just to add it, but it was worth it.
I think you’re right on the money with this one. Everyone wants to belong to something popular and be with the “in” crowd.
Hahaha it’s amazing how much that matters to your readers.
Oh we MUST get you above Chow! Absolutely essential! LOL
Ronda
How do we know that you didn’t create 16,000+ email accounts and John Chow create 27,000+ email accounts and just subscribed to boost subscriber totals? j/k
Weird, I think you are reading my mind. On my way home from work I decided to try and find your RSS feed. The day I was trying I was being lazy and didn’t work to hard. Well, you certainly made it easy for me.
Building those back links, nice.
Large numbers instills confidence.
newsletters via aweber should skyrocket your feedburner rss count nicely.
wow, that’s a lot of subs
Stats don’t lie. I think a lot of fans want to increase your number and will subscribe for that reason alone. So I think along with the subscription you should ad the counter too. Just my opinion.
You are getting so many more comments these last couple of posts. It seems that your traffic is increasing? Or is it about the same?
Nice move, it’s time to get back into RSS business.
There are some bloggers that have more subscribers tha that but 15.000 still a good score.
Yes I hate the way that JC homepage load! It’s too slow and a lot of graphics and ads make the navigation too slow + a lot of syntax errors but it works better with firefox.
So when exactly did you and Shawn Collins begin hating each other.
http://www.jaygeiger.com/index.php/2008/07/23/shoemoney-tools-beta/#comments
Personaly, I simply visit the Shoemoney blog many times a day to check out new posts, I enjoy opening the Shoemoney homepage, fast navigation and cool theme colors.
Glad to see it will be available again.
It seems Shoe and some others really judge a blog by the number of feedburner readers. I read tons of blogs, and I am not subscribed to any of them, I simply read them each day by going to their sites. I’m sure I’m not alone.
wow guys.. i thought it was 35 minutes.
so.. it’s only 25mins there?
oh sorry forgot something.
I think you can start offering free ebook too Shoe
Its amazing that you thought you could do without a feedburn. It also shows how confident you are of your success with or without one.
Thanks not the real Shawn Collins. It was me who actually posted that comment under that name. Gets to show how easily people can get manipulated into thinking one thing. Hopefully that comment will heat things up just a bit for both Shoe and Shawn.
FYI John Chow uses his Aweber list to add on as his RSS subscribers.
Actually, if Shoe is running the FeedSmith plugin, which he should, it wouldn’t matter which link they use to subscribe. FeedSmith forwards everything to feedburner so it get counted.
Three words – Usability, Usability, Usability
P.S Free bonus Smiley face if you act now!
Jeremy, I guess it seems actually displaying the reader count makes people more interested. I guess it is this same principal that made Google start actually sharing the real (sort-of) search data.
Maybe it’s time for an RSS subscription race between you and John Chow. Or, a gargantuan RSS button?
Some bloggers, but not many. I visit so many blogs, with really good, unique content too, that only have a couple of hundred feedburner subscribers.
Point well taken! People are inherently lazy, and if they can’t have instant gratification, they tend to move on. It’s a symptom of our ADD society.
The people are the sheeple! The herd mentality can be used to the clever marketers advantage though.
Anything is possible, I suppose! How would one go about creating a process such as this? It will make a very interesting blog post!
Time to make a consolidated effort to garner feedburner subscribers. Maybe run a competition around that, with your entry being subscribing to Shoemoney’s feedburner? How will existing subscribers enter?
The feedburner count is like a showing off feature to show how popular your blog is. You should have kept it there. Hopefully, it will go up again.
People love stats and love to be part of the latest ‘in thing’. Everyone wants to back the winning horse, so showing the feedburner count is a good thing.
Same here, some of the blogs I read daily are on niche topics and only have a small number of readers, but the important thing is that they are very well written and make for an informing and entertaining read.
live and learn
That would´nt work. But John Chow works with Aweber for his newsletter, so subscribers to that newsletter are automatically added to the feedcount.
Go to feedcounts.com and in the category Make Money Online Blogs you will find Shoemoney´s Feedburner chicklet as well as John Chow´s and many others.
yeah actually the feed address can be figured out so easy.. People are just real lazy…
I think this is average score. It needs to be improved.
Can we expect another readership contest between you and chow ?
Awesome. I love controversy!
dont start some crappy newsletter , keep all the good stuff in the blog
shame :p
open a thread on dp And ask for a logo
I was able to get the site to load in under 20 the other day… but good point on why all the subscribers
Anyone else notice a trend of Shoe highly optimizing his site after the TAC? Cool beans.
You don’t need feed burner at all. Why do you have to display your Feedburner count?
Tech savvy people know how to subscribe to an RSS feed and you want the others subscribed to your email list so you can sell stuff to them.
shoe you should do something quick to improve the count to beat your rival
I thought it was my connection, I guess not. It’s probably because of all the ads.;)
Does anyone know when shoe started doing the comment contest??
Just goes to show how a tiny change can increase your subscribers… anyone can find the feed if they look for it, but if it’s staring them in the face they are more likely to click on it.
Average? Get outta here! This is one of the top 100 blogs, internationally. I hesitate calling that average!
And if clicking the buitton doesn’t work you’re going to disregard it, right?
Assumption is the mother of all f*ckups…..
Apparently so…..
That’s more like it! I am in total agreement on this point!
Do what you want to do, after all it is your blog
I vote display it, though my vote doesn’t count. lol @ the comments about JC sites and loading time.
That is a really cool website you have!
Good idea to make your RSS button clickable. Finally new people can subscribe to you!
Well most Tech Savvy people know it but there are lot of new bloggers out there that might want to add it so you’re losing out on a base if you have the “I dont care” attitude.
I noticed that there was a bit of optimizing going on but just more competitive I guess
Personally, I dont like the newsletters either. I rather read it as a post and see some comments to go with it.
We’re just a creative of our environment. Its like why have a remote when the channels can be changed directly from the tv?.. just convenience.
Its merely used as a tool to get an insight into average readership. Its a good sign for interested advertisers too.
Great Link! Excellent List of Impressive Websites/Blogs.
He actually has a post mentioning Aweber today on his blog
Yeah it definitely shows that you can maintain your feedreaders without the need for the icon.
I mainly visit most of the blogs I read on a regular basis myself but I maintain an RSS Reader also.
That is true. it wouldn’t make a difference is he is using FeedSmith for Wordpress as it just redirects your rss subscribers from your base feed url to your feedburner url.
I think it started about 2 weeks ago but im not completely sure. Maybe around the 11th or so?
Yeah ill definitely go with you on that. I take quality over quantity when it comes to a good blog.
You only keep people on your site for that long and if they can’t find a way to sign up, unless their completely desperate, they just move on.
Yeah, some of the people who are new to the whole idea of RSS really dont know and if they dont see any indication of it then they assume that its probably not there.
Talking about sheeple…..I love the new default avatars! If you want to stand out from the herd you need to get a gravatar! Hahahahah.
That was a good idea to remove that feedstat since you were you having so many problems. But still displaying feedstats has a good effect on your readers.
I got the RSS in my reader. Now I don’t have visit your site every day.
I’m subscribed to both now, might get off John’s though. He’s posting shit recently.
I don’t “get” feedburner. I think you should do an article on the benefits. Don’t you actually lose readers in your analytics by having people subscribe via email? They don’t go to your site then, just read the email. Additionally, i have feedburner on my site and it fluctuates so much it’s ridiculous and seemingly inaccurate measure.
I have to agree- ideally people will be actively searching for your RSS feed button. But if they see it without looking for it they may click on it, as you’re going to have more people just browsing the site then those who arrive and right away say…OMG i need to subscribe where’s the feed button?
It’s marketing 101- give the viewers what they want before they want it.
Agreed- why would I waste my time trying to figure it out when there’s hundreds of other blogs out there that are easy to subscribe to?
Great point…as my 10th grade history teacher first taught me…when you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of U and ME!
I, too agree! Place your RSS feeds prominently where they will be noticed! Otherwise people will leave or close their browser before they remember to subscribe!
I just dont go their anymore, especially with out slow bandwidth here in South Africa.
How much is alot then. What do the big sites have. I thought 15k was a lot
Yeah I agree, I also go to great blogs with almost no subscribers.
Took me a long time before I realised the power.
very well said, If I walk past a shop and if its busy I might pop in as they must be offering something. Some sites also bury their RSS.
Hi,
really you’re doing job by doing such things. It will help you in getting more traffic on your site.
you did well by removing feed stats as it was creating problems for you. It ‘s a witty decision you made.
Hi,
really you’re doing good job by doing such things. It will help you in getting more traffic on your site.
I am always confused by the feedburner stats. They seem to go up and down in a very weird manner and still wondering how many RSS subscribers I really have.
It’s been less than two months and it looks like you’re up by about 6K readers. Not too shabby…