RSS feed counter tells lies
I put my feedburner counter up a couple of weeks ago. Before that, i didn’t even have 100 subscribers so i didn’t want to display it on my front page. I put the counter up after i reached 100. It was a mini accomplishment but i know deep down inside, these counters mean nothing.
Most ranking stats are used to prove to your readers how popular you are. One of the first things a visitor looks for on a blog is the RSS count. It gives them a quick judgment of the blog the moment then click thru. People usually want to to go where other people go. People are like cows, they just follow the herd. They only want to go where other people go.
RSS subscriber count can be useful when accessing a blog only if it’s used in combination with other ranking systems. Of course content is king, but people won’t read your blog unless you can show them some flash. It’s sad but true. You probably want to look at technorati, alexa, google PR, and search engine index to get a better picture. Make sure you have a toolbar that shows all relevant stats for every blog you visit. This will give you more of a complete picture. Don’t just base the blog on how many RSS subscribers it has cause the counter usually tells lies. It’s very inaccurate and can be hacked fairly easily. There are sites where you can pay for subscribers. You can pay people on Digitalpoint to mass subscribe to your feed. Most bloggers hold contests to lure people into subscribing. These subscribers were bribed into subscribing so the feed count was compromised. All of this contributes to the inflation of value placed on the RSS count. If you’re having trouble with your RSS subscriptions, don’t fret, it’s not the most important thing. RSS feeds are like a girls with fake boobs, you know it’s not real, but you can’t help but look.
Bloggernoob likes to be honest, but i know some of you don’t mind bending the rules. Here are some dirty tricks to increase the size of your penis(RSS count). Use at your own discretion.
1. Subscribe to your own feed. Duh! Everybody has done this. It’s probably as common as stumbling yourself. If you want, you can do this on multiple browsers/readers/emails. If you spend time on it, you could probably increase your feed count to the 4 digit mark.
2. Trade feeds. It’s like link trading but with feeds. Hence the feed part. You’ll be surprised how popular this activity is.
3. Syndicate your feed to every possible site.
4. Comment and leave your feed url. I’ve seen a lot of noobs doing this. It’s kinda annoying but i guess it works. It worked for Garyconn.
5. Good old fashioned prostitution. Buy feeds. Pay for it. If you can’t get it for free, pay for it. A lot of idiots pay so called A-list bloggers temporary traffic, why not feeds?
These blackhat tactics are frowned upon but it’s out there and you’d be surprised at how many high profile bloggers implement these strategies.
Popularity: 10% [?]
BloggerNoob is all about
January 11th, 2008 at 9:33 am
You think the contests are black hat, too? Well I just try to target people in the niche. Good luck with your penis, noob. I hope I get a boost in penis size from my blog post today (its hugggggeeeeee)
Justin Dupre
and what the hell just happened to your site?
January 11th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Old fashion prostitution!! hahhaha! thats a good way of putting it! awesome work man…as usual your post are very insightful! Lovin em!
January 11th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
of those you mention i only did one. Guess what was it? lol
January 11th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Good post, +1 rss count for you
THE PEN IS BLUE!!!!
January 11th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I never used those tricks and my feedburner stats are quite low. (which would be why I don’t display them) I do get a decent amount of comments, and I think that says something about the quality of my readers and my content.
Or not.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Regarding #1, I don’t think that subscribing to your own feed is a dirty tactic. It only adds 1 to the stats, and it is important to keep tabs on your feed`s heal.
January 11th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I’m not sure any of em are dirty tactics. I just decided to get in the cowboy chute after not employing any of em and not getting very far. Oh well. I’ll probably be selling all anyways since I just was offered and accepted (with great hesitation) a new job as a director of a County Juvenile Department…Back in the ring again….yippee yiaaaaaaayyyyyy…or something like that.
PEACE………T
January 12th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
I wouldn’t consider trading RSS feeds “black hat.” Just like some ppl may see Entrecard as a blackhat way of getting traffic… Maybe a lot of so so traffic comes from there, but a lot of good traffic comes too with people commenting and loving and such. Trading feeds can do the same thing, maybe 50% of ppl will just add your feed, but the other 50% glance at it from time to time checking out your good works and loving you. Feel the smell.
January 13th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
justin dupre- not black hat…but it is a form of bribing.
abi- thanks abi. speaking of prostitution. i think they should legalize it. it would make the world safer. gov would make money from the tax. and it would protect the working girls and customers.
hugosantos- hmmm prostitution? did u turn tricks?
tim- haha. nice quote. you a movie buff tim? “karate yes karate no, karate maybe so…quish squish like grape” what’s that from?
witchypoo- yeah comments are more important then rss. i’m starting to see my rss dropping slowly. might be the contest subscribers. oh wells. i’ll just build up slowly.
adrian corscadden- good point about that. but i was talking about the guys who subscribe multiple times. not just once.
tommy- congrats on the new job. keep the peace and turn those juveniles into law abiding citizens. good luck tommy
davidrader- hard to define black hat. i guess it all depends on where you draw the line. it’s a good point that you make. i guess if you’re just doing it to showoff your rss. it’s blackhat.